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Miyamoto explains how The Legend of Zelda: BotW relates to the original Legend of Zelda
Coming from Shigeru Miyamoto...
"As the series progressed,there were more - added features," Miyamoto relayed via translator. "As we started doing that, we realized that the game was becoming more and more sequential. We really wanted to go back to the original spirit of Zelda, which is freedom."
The exposition-heavy approach of more recent Zelda games is also going away. "In past Zelda titles, there was a tendency for NPCs to explain everything about the world," Miyamoto said. "We went back to the origins of Zelda, where [starting the game] you don't know who you are, what you are supposed to do. In this new game, as you interact with nature and the world around you, you learn who you are."
Breath of the Wild is being touted as something of an open world Zelda title, with the freedom to play in any style, tackle obstacles in different orders, and explore a vast world, one that Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime called "easily one of the biggest games ever made by Nintendo," in his own statement this morning.
"In the old Zelda, there was an image, an illustration that we started with, and you kind of had to put that in your imagination," said Miyamoto. "Now, you don't need that. This vast world surpasses the illustration, and you can walk and do things in this world that's come to life."