I feel like people’s perception of what “open world” means has drifted. I see people claim that GTA isn’t open world because it has linear progression, or games where the world isn’t particularly big aren’t open world. Like, they think BOTW defines what “open world” means.

Do you have a seamless, interconnected world that is the primary place the game takes place? Open world.

I would bluntly state that Metroidvanias are open world, and also aren’t the only open world games that have been around since the NES.