I am grateful for Zelda games and the many ways you can play them. When playing a game I particularly enjoy (like TP and BotW especially), I like to replay them, but also to do things differently sometimes to make the gameplay more interesting after about the, say, 17th time.
Now, while other games have considerable sequence breaks and glitches to circumvent linearity to some degree, BotW is, as we all know, especially open and free, leaving you to do things in pretty much the order you want. The Great Plateau is a small exception in the fact that you’re supposed to activate the tower and then complete the four shrines (still in whatever order you choose) before you can leave the Plateau. Even this can be played with now, though you must still complete four shrines.
In the above pictures is the evidence of some sequence breaking and glitches. First, you can see that Link doesn’t have the Sheikah slate. Second, the tower is not raised. And third, I did not complete that shrine (evidenced by it’s lack of any glow, orange or blue).
How does this change gameplay and make it more interesting for me? Well, not activating the Great Plateau tower skips powering up all the shrines. Without power I cannot activate shrines either, so I have to clip into them using any one of a few different methods. Not activating shrines also limits considerably the places I can warp to. In a completely towerless file there are only four Divine Beasts, two labs, the Shrine of Resurrection, and the Travel Medallion for your warp locations. That’s 7 fixed locations and one moveable.
(I also kinda like towerless because you can get screenshots of scenery and whatnot without the many towers sticking up and blotching up the background. I’m exaggerating to the extreme, but I really do like it. Also, when you’re in a Divine Beast and you see towers from that separate map, those towers are a lie.)
Not getting the Sheikah slate eliminates the ability to warp at all, since you cannot access the map without the slate. This obviously changes things, as you have to go everywhere on foot...or horseback...or just fly... Anyway, it changes the way I play a bit, as I usually try to do everything I can while in one area, so as not to backtrack later when I remember something I’d forgotten. Not having the slate also means not completing all the Divine Beasts. Vah Medoh is possible to complete without the slate, but to my knowledge the others still are not. A slight drawback, but one I can deal with.
Completing four shrines which not on the Plateau is accomplished by moonjump wrong warping. By doing this you can get the Paraglider, (which you must have before continuing past the Plateau) but you can skip getting the runes. Now, frankly, I don’t like to be without my runes, so I haven’t played the game very long like this, but it is interesting to wrong warp into different shrines, especially if they are ones you aren’t supposed to enter yet, like they’re locked behind certain storylines or quests being completed. Plus, with wrong warping, you can actually enter places really early, such as the Final Trial. It is possible to get the Master Cycle as the first rune and before doing any shrines or nearly anything else.
What about you? Are there some interesting ways you like to play the game? Do you like minimalist runs, or carnivore/vegetarian runs? Do you like collecting all the armor or going without (as much as possible)? Or do you like speedruns? What makes the game continue to be interesting to you?
This game is so open and there are so many directions to go! And there are that many ways to play it too.