#I definitely didnt need this many words to make a fairly bare bones point. Why am I like this

[marinsawakening]

BOTW's story is kinda weak because it sucks at information distribution, but I think it did a great job incorporating the gameplay into the narrative. Breath of the Wild is an open world game, meaning the onus is naturally on exploration and freedom. By contrasting this main gameplay loop with the memory flashbacks and given information of the past, it manages very naturally create a narrative of past vs present and restriction vs freedom.

Almost everything we see of the past in BOTW creates this stifling feeling of repression. It is a past filled with restriction, where everyone is given a very narrow role to play and punished when they do not play it well enough. Everyone is always prim and proper, anchored by tradition and the 'right' way to do this.

By contrast, in the present, if you want to spend a whole day trying to make your way through Hebra in your underwear, you can just do that. Sure, you can also just beeline for the Divine Beasts and then the castle, but few people (speedrunners not withstanding) will do that, and moreover, people aren't supposed to do that. Breath of the Wild wants you to spend your time fucking around rather than completing your divinely ordained world-saving quest.

This creates a contrast between past and present, where Link and Zelda are pushed into restrictive roles by precisely this destiny. Link is still mostly a vehicle of projection for the player, but is nevertheless established as a character in his own right in the game, and what limited notes of characterization we get indicates that he was absolutely miserable in the past. In memory cutscenes he's stoic and unemotive (probably part deliberate characterization, part effort to preserve his status as a blank slate), and Zelda's diary establishes him as not talking because he's afraid of saying the wrong thing. Whichever way you read his character, he's clearly very repressed.

And in the present he's spending a whole day seeing if he can get a picture of a bug, or eating dubious food, or chasing ducks or whatever. Because that's what you're doing. And since you're probably having a great time, you're gonna project that on the character designed to be projected upon. While I do still think past!Link could have done with a little more emoting, the game overall does a good job utilizing Link's status as a player insert to create/add to the story and its themes.

BOTW's chosen story is one set in the past, mostly about Zelda and her failure to fit into the role she's given. It's a story of restriction and repression. It is a deliberate contrast between the freedom the gameplay gives you. With this, it does a great job incorporating the gameplay into the story; rather than a game where every second you spend screwing around and exploring feels at odds with the urgency of your quest, the fact that Link, the repressed and miserable knight of the past, is screwing around freely feels like character development. Now having the freedom to screw around rather than single-mindedly pursue destiny is the point of the story.

In addition, it adds to the game's overarching theme of past vs present. In the flashbacks, we see an overreliance on Sheikah tech and ancient plans, hailed blindly as a savior when we know exactly this will be everyone's doom. Breath of the Wild never posits that we should ignore or scorn the past; on the contrary, it encourages exploration of it, both in the past with Zelda's character via her fascination with Sheikah tech, and in the present, with encouragement to uncover Link's past and the gameplay's incorporation of Sheikah tech. However, it cautions against worshipping it. The past is something to uncover and honor, but not a thing to live in; ultimately, you must forge your own path in the present. This is reinforced through the freedom of the gameplay and the aforementioned contrast it creates between the past and present. Following the past brought doom upon Hyrule a hundred years ago; doing so again would surely repeat this. You are encouraged to ignore the blueprint of the past and forge your own path. Even and especially if it involves riding your horse everywhere but the plot points.

By the very nature of the game's design, you are creating a story where Link wakes up in a wild future filled with endless possibilities and obtains a freedom that was inherently restricted in the past, letting go of the past and celebrating the future.

It's not groundbreaking or revolutionary or anything, but I think it's a very solid example of incorporating gameplay into the narrative.