I'm definitely not cautiously optmistic about future Zelda games, and I can't quite say I'm all that concerned. If
BotW is the direction they're moving (which they have stated it is and would be the smart thing to do, given
BotW's success) then I have no interest in playing any more of them. Lately, I've been weighing up the idea of selling my Switch and I'm almost certainly going to do so.
BotW could well be the last Zelda game I ever play, and I don't feel at all sad about that thought.
For me, an open world game lives or dies on the strength of its lore and the stories found within it, areas Nintendo have never been strong in, have openly stated they don't much care for, and which they are unlikely to put any considerable effort into in future.
BotW's world was gorgeous, but it was uninhabited. There was no one interesting in it, nothing interesting to find. The fact it was post-apocalyptic (mostly) meant the stories you found in the world were the same everywhere: Ganon destroyed everything a hundred years ago. Oh. Cool. Has
nothing happened since then? I have no reason to believe Nintendo will ever deliver the kind of open world game I can spend time with, and so I have no hopes for anything they show in future. Whatever it is, chances are it simply won't be my type of game.
As it's still 1-3 years off
Considering the last three home console Zelda's have all taken at least four years this sounds not cautiously optimistic, but hopelessly so.
In fourteen years we've had three console Zelda games. Three. In fourteen years.
This next game if on the Switch will not be a huge sprawling game.
False. Nintendo has said going forward that open world will be the standard.
Your statement does not invalidate my statement.
Sounds like it entirely invalidates your statement. Open world games are, by their nature, huge and sprawling. If it's not huge and sprawling it's not an open world. So when Nintendo say the next game will be open world like
BotW, that means the next game will be huge and sprawling. It might have some sort of hook to it like older Zelda games, but saying it won't be huge and sprawling sounds pretty invalid to me.