Would emulating Wind Waker be an option?
Besides that I would say Genshin is probably your best bet.
this post was submitted on 10 Jun 2026
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The Black Grimoire: Cursebreaker?
I’d imagine The Witcher 3 falls into this camp? Maybe Kingdom Come Deliverance 1 & 2 as well? I can’t be incredibly sure, as I haven’t actually played them.
You mentioned Elden Ring, but it’s much more combat focused and less mini-dungeon puzzles. Though fighting a boss can feel like a puzzle sometimes.
Wuthering Waves might fit your bill, but it’s a free to play gacha game so that comes with its own can of worms. It’s also a bit more combat focused that BOTW and ranged combat + gadgets don’t really exist.
You may like some of the Assassin’s Creed franchise if you never played that. AC2 was my favorite of those, but it’s been a long time since I touched that franchise.
Much smaller scale, but Smushi Come Home kinda gave me BOTW vibes
Elder scrolls games (Morrowind, oblivion, Skyrim) are classic examples and games that came after they inspired like cyberpunk.
The thing about Elder Scrolls games is that they tend to be mostly RPG while BotW is mainly a sandbox game with some RPG elements. Most people I've seen trying to get the "BotW feeling" from an RPG ended up dissapointed.
You can mod ES games extensively to make them feel more sandbox-ish, or simply ignore quest lines and freeroam but it's not quite the same.
Aer: Memories of Old was pretty excellent. I think the scale might be not quite what you're looking for, but the inspiration from Zelda is very apparent.
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Switch emulator with eden and play the other two newer zelda games. I stopped playing them cuz they seemed like the same exact game as botw. They even have mods for zelda games on emulators.
Elden Ring really gave me botw vibes.
All that exploration, shrines, random story lines and gigantic map and biome variety.
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