The game is focused around providing the player freedom. From the moment you finish the tutorial you can go anywhere on the map, including straight to the final boss. But it’s not just about where you can go. They also spent a lot of time creating a highly robust physics system that would allow players to solve problems in creative ways. They also wanted it to feel intuitive so players would naturally experiment once they had an idea. Eg. Setting grass on fire to create an updraft and allowing a player to quickly gain height in combat or to solve a puzzle. This was incorporated into every aspect of the game and it creates a unique mix of simplicity and depth. Its tied to basically all the objects in the game, even in combat. You can actually swing a weapon to deflect a small rock thrown by a bokoblin, rather than it just being an attack that hits or misses. They also combined this with a robust cooking system that also encourages experimentation. They wanted you feel like a genius when the crazy idea you had actually worked.