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Now here's the thing: The world of Breath of the Wild is one of the most spectacular in a Zelda game yet. Its Hyrule is a recognisable, organic one. All majestic vistas and the just-so undulations of hills and so-true sparkles on running streams and so on. To video game fans, who've grown up bearing witness to the medium's alternate genesis story (Let there be Polygons! Let there be Light Sources and Physics!) digital recreation itself is a celebration. And Breath of the Wild celebrates a lot. But for all the talk of scale and beauty in Breath of the Wild (and there's lots of both), when played in the hands I think some major changes lie elsewhere, hinted at by Takuhiro Dohta in the first of Nintendo's making-of featurettes.
He mentions the challenge the team had in programming seamless transitions when entering houses, and there've been all sorts of small, granular changes made in the game's commitment to continuous and open exploration. And like a video-cut or line break, I think these little differences completely change the rhythms and feel of its world.
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