I mean for people who are not against Ubi-style open world, its great. However there is this on going hate train of that style for years now.
IMO its just preference, some people likes Elden Ring style of "cool I found a place" type of experience, some likes "I just wanna relax and follow the guide" type of experience.
I'm ok with both, I mean if one day every game start to clone the former type of design, people will start to miss the latter.
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Edit: A side note, HFW is a perfection in terms of DDE framework, the design framework which focuses on user experience and storytelling (storytelling does not equals to plot, it focus on many things include Camera, Visual Language, Audio Language, etc. You could dislike its plot as much as you like, but its Storytelling technique is great) instead of just mechanic. And I believe this is where the salt came from, from that game dev drama last year, in their mind "We did everything to polish the user experience, while Elden Ring did nothing" is actually a valid point, it just shows game critics doesn't understand game design to appreciate diversity.