I'm mostly talking about getting to the one point of interest in each quadrant but even those points of interest aren't all that interesting. Most have something going on but even then they are either behind story events or inaccessible until you have the appropriate item. Which would be fine, if traversal to those points didn't take so long and wasn't boring.
But pretty much every Zelda with an overworld does this (LTTP being the exception I suppose). You either walk around or ride Epona and see stuff in the distance. Either it's something you can access right away and it gives you a heart container or rupees, or it's locked behind an item and it gives you a heart container or rupees (or in very few cases, a new item or something more interesting than heart/rupees). The only difference is the act of sailing vs the act of riding a horse or rolling everywhere. Just like sailing in Wind Waker doesn't seem to be that interesting or engaging to you, the same happens with the points of interest. I liked them. Sometimes I'd run into a sea monster, sometimes I'd find a small island or something else that I could interact with. It kept me entertained. I would play with the camera while sailing, looking around in the distance until some landmark appeared just as a silhouette in the horizon. I'd stop, get my spyglass out and decide whether I wanted to go there or not (most often that not I would go there). Only once the game was nearing its end I would zip from one destination to the other because by then I had pretty much explored everything. It seems to be a matter of preferences, really. I'm super interested in BotW, but I would take sailing over Epona. I just love the ocean.
And to be honest, the one thing I wish Wind Waker had (besides more/better dungeons) is the ability to dive underwater at specific points. Like a sunken ship, or a coral reef. It would have been magic.
By fine control, I mean more like a car or Epona but I guess the bigger issue is that sailing doesn't offer much interactivity. In WW, it's pretty much just go in the direction of the wind.
Ah, thanks for clearing that up. I know it's not quite what you had in mind, but you can make the boat jump. I used that for quick turns and avoiding enemies (sharks, etc).
Also it's a video game, so real world comparisons in and of itself are moot. Ignoring that the game doesn't need to have a sailboat for traversal, that doesn't mean it needs to be so slow and boring. We're talking about a game where you can control the direction of the wind with a baton. It's not a sim, they have the ability to not conform to the real world.
I'm not sure how to respond to this, honestly. The base mechanic for traversal borrows the most basic elements from it's real world counterpart: it moves on water, it uses wind. That's it. Of course it's not a sim. You're right that the game doesn't need a sail boat for traversal. It could have used a steam boat, or a glider or something similar. Again, I just happen to like the sailing. I'm not trying to convince anybody to love it.
In Metroid Prime, getting point to point around involves more than pointing in a direction and letting the game play out. There are obstacles, platforming, enemies, multiple paths, and the world itself is way more interesting than a flat featureless ocean.
You're right, it was a bad comparison on my end. I was thinking more of some corridors where there's really not much to do but push forward, but that's really not the majority of the areas in Metroid Prime.
You could in AC4. Checkmate atheists.
Nintendo always one step behind.
The Triforce Hunt says "See this open world we've been ignoring up to this point? Explore it! Find and conquer mini dungeons, sail to your heart's content, find secrets of the ocean, don't get bogged down by obtuse and infuriating dungeons!"
The bolded is mind blowing to me, really. Ignoring? Why? Do you buy games just to get to the end? Like, why wouldn't you start exploring that vast open world
the second you get the ability to change the wind's direction? What's wrong with you people. It's not like the game gave you a countdown timer to get to the next dungeon and beat the boss. So weird.