Okay let me start with two heavy hitters right from the get go and don't forget these are only personal oppinions and I absolute understand if you like those games. Good for you!
Zelda: Breath of the Wild -
Not a bad game per se, but I don't get the hype behind it. Sure the dungeons are fun but the world is so lifeless, the story non existent, the combat pretty shallow, the tower climbing is very much like FarCry but for some reasons it's okay here while Ubisoft gets the blame...like I said I dont get why the game is so beloved. Never finished it after the 20 hour mark and probably never will.
Red Dead Redemption 2 -
Just like Zelda not a bad game, but imho highly overrated. Graphics and and atmosphere are amazing but the controls are clunky and overloaded, nearly everybody is an unlikable douchebag who I would love to shoot myself at the first opportunity (maybe except Jack and Abigail) but I have to root and care for them. The game is just so long and feels very stretched, you already know that you won't get Dutch because it's a prequel and for an open world game you often get handholded in your weapon selection or things you can do because you have to wait for them to be unlocked by the game. I'm now nearly done with the game, playing the epilogue at the moment and I would say the last chapters are more entertaining than the rest of the game, but I still can't understand why this game was on so many game of the year lists and I really wanted to put the controller down a dozen times.
So there they are, two highly controversial oppinions by me and now I'm really curios what your takes are and how highly I get downvoted into oblivion 😂
With you on BotW. Love the dungeons, but in terms of the open world I never felt the oooh, the aaah, the escapism that everyone cooed about etc. Gliding was fun!
Maybe this is because I've never played a Zelda game before so I have no nostalgia attached to it?
Definitely not it. BotW is a great game, but it’s not a Zelda game. That’s my beef with it and TotK.
BotW was a game that drew from its roots, the very first Zelda game on NES.
Yes but poorly. There are no real dungeons and the open world has maybe 5-6 enemies total, everything else is just a variation on color and strength. That’s a far cry from the original game.
I agree that the mechanics and features are a mixed bag, but the core experience of exploration and freedom is what made Zelda, Zelda.
BotW also had like 12 unique enemies, excluding bosses and variations. It wasn't a lot but 5-6 really doesn't do it justice.
So I was curious about this and looked it up and there are technically 8 regular enemy types (bokoblins, moblins, lizalfos, chuchu, keese, octoroks, wizzrobes, pebblits, lynel). There are then also the different types of guardians, 2 overworld bosses (Talus and Hinox, I don't count Molduga), and the yiga.
Depending on how you cut it there are then 8 up to 13 overworld enemy types. However, the real issue is you typically only encounter 3 maybe 5 (bokoblins, moblins, lizalfos / keese, chuchu) while running around.
I think the thing people forget when talking about variety is it matters how you use it. BOTW and TOTK basically have a few set grunt types that are what you predominantly fight, and it gets boring fast (in my opinion).
Edit/Note: I didn't count stal/cursed enemies as they're basically the same with slight modifications.