In case you haven’t heard, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a very good game. Critics and fans alike are calling it one of the greatest games of all time. It’s also being hailed as the best entry in the series. This is a series with around 17 games released throughout its 31-year lifespan, so that’s pretty impressive.

Personally, I ride or die for Ocarina of Time. It’s my favorite game of all time, and I replay it once a year.

What makes this game so special? What makes it different? The Zelda series hasn’t ever really experienced a rut, (except for those of which we no longer speak) and all entries have ranged from fantastic to phenomenal. A lot of the praise for this Zelda game surrounds it’s open world, and that is what I want to talk about.

When Shigeru Miyamoto created The Legend of Zelda on NES he drew inspiration from a childhood spent exploring caves, fields, and forests around Kyoto. That’s what Zelda’s always been about to me. Exploration, discovery, and the freedom to pick a direction, start walking, and find adventure.

Over the past few years, games have created amazingly detailed living and breathing worlds players to experience. Red Dead Redemption (or as I’ve decided to call it from now on, “Spaghetti Westworld”) immersed me in an old west setting where Clint Eastwood would feel right home. The Witcher 3 utterly engrossed me in a fantasy world so vivid and detailed that I’m basically homesick for Velen, Novigrad, and Skellige. I’ve been to Los Angeles more times than I can count, and I’m still shocked at just how perfectly Grand Theft Auto V captures the city, the people, and the overall vibe of LA.

Breath of the Wild features an open world that does something different. Instead of immersing me in a world through the eyes of the main character, it makes me feel like I did when I was a kid exploring the world around me. Growing up, I spent countless days around the woods, mountains and beaches of Lake Tahoe. We’d pick a direction and wander to find trees to climb, rivers to hop, caves to enter, and big boulders to jump across.

The first 10 hours of playing Breath of the Wild has is as close to that feeling of childlike freedom and desire to explore as I think I’ll ever get. Hell, there’s even a bow described as being made by “taking any tree branch and tying a string to either end”. I DID THAT! And I’m sure most of you (at least those who had a worthy childhood) did too.

By creating an open world that isn’t filled with quest markers, icons or NPCs shouting tasks at you as you pass by, Nintendo has brought back the childlike excitement of pure exploration. Just traveling from one part of the map to another is as satisfying as completing a side quest or clearing a dungeon.

To me, this is what makes the open world such a triumph. The Zelda series has always naturally overloaded me with nostalgic feels from countless hours spent playing as a kid, but now, in Breath of the Wild’s Hyrule, I’m getting nostalgia from time spent as a kid, and that’s something unique.