I love BotW and TotK. Definitely two of my favorite games, and two of the best games. And agreed that much of the exploration aspects are chill.

But both games definitely have some frustrating elements, especially if you’re not going out of your way to avoid them. The constantly breaking weapons, to name one. Some of the battles are definitely intense, too. Some of the temples have some bizarre puzzles, particularly some of the dexterity puzzles — and even more so in BotW, which almost felt buggy (TotK seemed to “fix” this).

Again, loved both games, and also spent probably around that much time playing each of them.

But they’re not the first games that came to my mind when I see “cozy video games that can quell stress and anxiety”.

100%. The blood moon's appearance and the scary piano music when you encounter a guardian, always gives me anxiety. I wish I could skip the blood moon's cutscene reliably.

> But they’re not the first games that came to my mind when I see “cozy video games that can quell stress and anxiety”.

I think what quells stress is the lighting, a game which is mostly outdoor sunny is relaxing in my experience compared to mostly dark games. I had that experience with rocket league of all games

Haven't played BotW though, so this was my impression from gameplay videos

That's why I am playing TotK without durability, it was such an annoyance that ruined everything else for me. Might make some things easier but I am not there for the challenge.