AoC is technically deviating from BotW right from the beginning, because the starter point is the time portal from the very beginning (that originated from Zelda’s prayer in the canon Hateno wall battle).
It changes a lot right from the start. Thanks to the little guardian, the Sheika slate gets full power immediately and they get to unlock the towers and their teleport function. On the other side, Astor who is not known to have played any role after the prophecy in BotW gets a literal incarnation of his god to worship through the Malice infected guardian.
And it has a huge effect before Hateno wall, since Astor uses that to betray the great Kohga IIRC.
And it also makes Zelda’s progression arc a bit weird, because even before awakening, the powered-up slate makes her quite powerful.
Still spoiler, obviously
AoC is technically deviating from BotW right from the beginning, because the starter point is the time portal from the very beginning (that originated from Zelda’s prayer in the canon Hateno wall battle).
It changes a lot right from the start. Thanks to the little guardian, the Sheika slate gets full power immediately and they get to unlock the towers and their teleport function. On the other side, Astor who is not known to have played any role after the prophecy in BotW gets a literal incarnation of his god to worship through the Malice infected guardian.
And it has a huge effect before Hateno wall, since Astor uses that to betray the great Kohga IIRC.
And it also makes Zelda’s progression arc a bit weird, because even before awakening, the powered-up slate makes her quite powerful.