I wonder if you can get off the plateau without the paraglider. Even if you can’t the plateau area is more than big enough for most people to dip their toes into.
One way that the game limits the play that I don’t like is that you have to have a decent amount of heart pieces to get the Master Sword even though you can travel there as soon as you get the paraglider.
I think this is just good game design in an open-world format. Open-world games let you go anywhere you want, but guide you through the story by varying the difficulty for quests/items, making them impossible to perform without leveling up. If you could walk right in at the beginning and get the Master Sword without improving yourself, there wouldn’t be any challenge. Skyrim lets you march up mountainsides to dragons’ nests on day one, but you’re going to get your ass handed to you.
I suppose you’re right. I find it pretty dope that it’s not directly tied to the story (as far as I’m concerned) and you don’t have to free any Divine Beasts to get it.
I managed to get a Guardian Spear right after leaving the plateau, but it wasn’t easy. I went through several potions, a broken weapon or two, and a fair amount of arrows to do it.
Hyrule is pretty damn treacherous this time around. I think this is the only game in the series where enemies can insta kill you and it has happened to me…quite a few times.