I’m not going to deny that they are good games, they definitely are. However, there are some design choices made with BOTW and TOTK that really make me separate them from the rest of the series.
The item degradation, the voice acting, the open worldness, all these things aren’t what I want from a Zelda, and because of that, I doubt I’ll ever replay those games again. Again, not bad games at all, and if anyone said they were their favorite games, I’d totally understand that.
But does anyone else wish that we would get a more traditional Zelda game again?
BotW was my first Zelda and a gateway drug. I didn’t really enjoy TotK as it was too much of a sandbox. I preferred the creative ways you were forced to use your limited abilities in BotW. Then I played Twilight Princess HD and was at first disappointed at how linear it was but later absolutely loved the story and characters (it took the first spot for me). I guess I did myself a disservice by playing TP so early because I’m playing other Zeldas now and I’m still searching for that type of experience knowing that it may probably not be reproduced.