Generally:
Even as a person who only look up at strong story telling in a game, I really, REALLY enjoy playing BOTW! I would give it a perfect 10 if the story could made me restless for days.
Engaging gameplay, genius puzzles, amazing open world to travel!
Gameplay:
This game made me feel like I am playing WITH the game. The physics, weather system, enemies, puzzles are awesome.
Nintendo amazed me with their GENIUS puzzle in Mario Odyssey, and here, in BOTW, they managed to make the puzzle even better with different sets of abilities like pausing an object, bombs, megnet, etc.
Physics and weather system, I wont say it annoying. It forces us to adapt to it with different weapons, play style and travel route. When it rains, perhaps, you can stop and try to collect stuff instead of climbing. If it thunderstorm, maybe we should always keep in mind to keep non-metal weapon in inventory. Night time with skeletons wandering around, maybe its time to savage some skeleton parts or stop and make a fireplace and rest till morning.
Weapon breaks, some would say its frustrating. For me, it pushes the players to try different type of weapon, and perhaps manage it better. Like which weapon to use first, and which one worth to be used for certain level of enemy. Plus, when you're short of weapon, it forces us to fight enemies and get their weapon.
All of these made this game challenging throughout the gameplay.
For me the best part is the first 40 hours of playing. The sense of discovery keeps the excitement in this game. You'll see a giant bridge far away, a snowy mountain high above, a unique ruins from the map, pack your stuff and LETS GO! On horses we go, *BEEP. What's that, a shrine near by? Lets stop for a while and look for it. Ahhh. Good times.
I managed to maxed out all of my equipment, then the game starts to be easier as you will not need to prepare much like the first 40 hours. Cold mountains, I have an anti-freeze armor, no spicy food required like last time. Too hot, I have the right armor for that. Large damage enemies, I have armor that would make the boss fight thrill-less. It started to feel repetitive when you reach that stage in the game, unless you find da wey to keep it interesting with variety of fighting strategy.
Story:
no spoilers, unless you consider my expression is a spoiler.
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Yay, they have voice acting. But only on important cutscene.
Most of the stories is kept in the flashback in picture memories which you need to find the spot where the picture are taken.
If you dont find them all, than bad for you for not knowing the whole story.
For me the story is not the strong point in this game. It is not bad though. Very straight forward, shallow and nothing mind blowing at least for me.
Japanese voice acting is superb at least for Zelda. The English version is not bad, they managed to find voice actor that can make Zelda sounds like a classy princess. Love both of them!
Its amazing how well they managed to design this game, despite 'weak' story, I still consider it a fat solid 9 out of 10 score!