Sorry, I was unclear. Specifically I was referring to traversal options and maneuvering from place to place. What I like best about botw is its sense of three dimensional movement. You can climb and fly, and so the Z axis matters quite a bit. In Elden Ring you move along the x and y axis and up the z axis, but really movement along the Z axis is still two dimensional in nature and oftentimes serves the same purpose as a wall.
To be fair, BoTW didnt have that much going on in the world, lol. I do like the fact that there were towns, Elden Ring has that isolated end of the world vibe of of the souls games but it didnt make as much sense thematically, in that your character is fighting to more or less rule the world. Roundtable hold is more or less disconnected from the primary world.
What BoTW did have was some sort of weird feedback loop where I wanted to see what was on the other side of the hill/mountain all the time. It was literally climbing and seeing what was on the other side that did it for me. In Elden Ring, I was mostly just searching for dungeons or caves rather than being excited for the landscape itself. It was definitely better to find a new weapon with a new moveset that is an entirely new way to play the game instead of Korok Seed #385
Elden Ring actually does rewards MUCH better than BoTW imho.
Basically, BOTW had this awesome intrinsic feedback loop where I wanted to see the world and I attribute that to Z axis movement. Elden Ring had unparalleled extrinsic motivators and rewards for proper exploration that I didnt even come close to properly using while I played the game. Botw was my fav game I beat last year and ER was my fav game I beat this year.
Thank you for asking, because the way I phrased things previously was basically saying nothing and you pried some more clear thought out of me with your question.
