>>1038107
This. Grand Theft Auto III blew my mind with the open world when it first came out, and it was fun to just drive around and run people over, but once I got tired of that and actually played the story, it definitely drove me forward. I was very invested in that, and the stories of the sequels. Even when I did every goddamn side mission, I had the story in the back of my mind. Becoming the best taxi driver in Liberty City would help me get revenge on that bitch, Catalina.
But maybe OP doesn't like how you can wander off and do whatever, and forget about the story, and NPCs won't really acknowledge that time passed. They'll ask you to go kill a guy, and you can run off and become the best firefighter ever for a while, and then eventually come back and be a hitman again. I suppose you could change this by adding more time sensitivity to the games. You could have a ticking clock, so missions will change or lock you out if you don't address them fast enough. But that sucks. Nobody likes time limits in games. And they fundamentally discourage you from exploring, which you fundamentally want to do in open world games.
>>1047024
Yeah but Zelda is hardly a "story-driven" game. Some are more than others, but the first one isn't. I wouldn't say Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom are, either, even though I do think they do a pretty good job with their stories.