You seem to have no idea what BOTW is doing. Which is fine. Wastes my life having to explain it to you though. It's massively different from other Zelda games.
-It's significantly more 'open world' focused with large amounts of exploration. No Zelda has been like this. Most Zelda's have *a* open world. But not anywhere in the style of BOTW. There is significantly more to explore and find in BOTW. Including significantly more FREEDOM to explore compared to previous Zelda games. This game lets you CLIMB as well as having a dedicated jump button, and a GLIDER. To name one example, there are 100 puzzle shrines scattered around the world. That alone is massive compared to older games.
Every game has it's boundaries. There IS an edge to the world in BOTW, unless they've built it like WW where it continuously loops, but we have no hard evidence of this.
-Significantly more items because there are tons of different types, and they function very differently from normal Zelda items (mostly temporary because of durability). This includes weapons, armor and various resources
Every zelda game has had it's share of different weapons and armor. They even had "durability" in OOT with the Bigoron sword, and even the deku stick if you count that.
-A pretty massive cooking system, and you can craft potions/elixirs
Cooking is new, but you could still craft elixirs in SS, just not on the fly.
-environmental effects (link can be too cold and freeze to death, or too hot and overheat, etc). Some Zeldas kinda sorta had this but it was typically just a timer and a time out. Weather can also affect things realistically like rain putting out fire.
As you said, present in other Zelda's on smaller scale.
-physics. It has an actual physics engine that is a huge part of puzzles and other stuff
The other 3D titles had physics on a smaller scale (throwing pots, enemies flying backward, wind controlling where you go on the ocean).
-a smaller note but they seem to actually tried to include a story people might give a shit about, and added voice acting.
Yeah, this is new if you don't count Ganondorfs freaky laugh or Zelda's *gasps*
There's probably more but I just can't be bothered. Look up videos if you're still clueless why BOTW is significantly more work than previous Zelda games. Even a half retarded monkey lizard can plainly see how massive BOTW is compared to a traditional Zelda.
I'm not saying BotW did not have a lot of work put into it. I'm just saying a lot of what they are doing has been done (and in most area's vastly improved) in previous titles in some form with some innovation mixed in. I've played every title at least two times, so please, spare me your criticism. This game is not a massive departure from the Zelda formula, they've just improved every aspect of past games with some innovation and new features packed in.
