>>105997557how is ocarina of time linear?
most games have some story and some sidequests and you can do them in different points in time
if you mean there is no choice to have different endings and such most games don't have this
the linear game is a different thing and it would be a game where you can't backtrack, can't go "sideways" to do other stuff than the "main plot"
you start a stage after another and it's "closed world", completely separate from the rest of the game, you can't leave the current stage to get back to other areas
arcade games, shmups, platformers, fpses are such games
ocarina of time is basically "open world" with some sidequests, but not as large as more modern games
the modern large worlds are illusion, they are not more free from having one main plot progression unless it actually have a system for player's actions impacting the world
but modern game companies are too lazy to make something like that, so it's all just an illusion of choice where there is actually no choice, just sidequests