First of all, you're trying to force a narrative that doesn't objectively exist and is completely subjective.
Stories are not cheap just like game structure and game structure can be as flexible as stories. Some game developers start with story concepts and go from there, some start with gameplay concepts and both are completely valid approaches.
Stories are just words on a page until finalized and implemented. A games structure and world in comparison is hundreds of man hours resulting in an actual product that is much harder and more costly to change than clicking on a document and writing or revising a paragraph.
I'm stating the exact process the word of god has given. I'm not being secretive about it either.
Second, Takahashi only presented the world itself and not much else to Nintendo with XC1 because he thought that was the best way to convince Nintendo to greenlight the game. The point of that anecdote was never an agenda of that the world has to be always thought of first. That was only the best way in his mind to convince Nintendo. Additionally, what you are missing is the world of XC1 is part of the game's story.
I never stated the presentation was anything otherwise, so don't try to imply it. That wasn't an anecdote, it wasn't some out of context blurb in a contextless vacuum, it was the first in a series of times I provided where Takahashi has outright stated where his game making process begins, and what's the most important part, and it is always world world world world.
Do you think the game structure at that meeting was set in stone? Of course not, the story of the world and the lore were created in tandem. The game structure of XC1 could have been way less open, less exploratory or in the other direction completely seamless as well. That wasn't decided at that meeting.
I literally stated it was even before pre production.
That's not the story, that's the premise. You can tell a million stories within a premise.
No, it could not have been completely seamless, the game was on the Wii.
Lots of Nintendo studios don't even start with any 3D space whatsoever. They start with a single gameplay mechanic and go from there to see what fits best in their view.
We aren't talking about lots of Nintendo studios. I have been very very specific about what studio this is about.
To get back to what I originally said, stories you want to tell can and often do impact how the game is structured and that is a completely valid approach. Sometimes it even isn't just one or another.
Takahashi calls this getting lost in addition and subtraction.
It's a perfectly valid approach if you are making a platformer, or action game, when the scope, manpower and budget starts elevating towards these kind of large scale games like XcX and BotW, it's really not. It's just not practical.
And you know what's amusing? XC3 completely contradicts your absolute viewpoint. That game is completely built upon story, lore and world building done in the previous two games. Like lore and history is the only reason why it even exists and everything in XC3 is built upon stories and events that happend beforehand. Everything that exists in XC3 is informed by a set lore and story how the world came to be.
The game that is literally built from entire chunks and setpeices of pre established game worlds? After reading everything Takahashi said, you really think this time, where he has two premade worlds at his disposal to use as Lego blocks for a new one, is where he contradicted everything he's consistantly said for years?
Lastly, stop bringing up BotW - seems you have a personal vendeta there.
BotW is a game world literally made by monolithsoft, literally their biggest budget and most logistically complex gameworld, where they worked in tandem with more individuals than any other project they have ever done, and a work of design that has been seen as trailblazing across the industry by literal professional game world designers who say their mind was blown. It's also a product where monolithsoft and it's world builders had zero to do with the story, as it was not their game, or story.
Not bringing it up in a discussion regarding monolithsoft game world design would be vulgarly remiss.
