Back on the “other site” it was THE most frequently asked question: “I just defeated Ganon but the game didn’t save, did I do something wrong?” and the like.

No you didn’t do anything wrong. It’s just that the game ends after it ends, which is completely normal for a lot of videogames and especially the Zelda franchise. There is no postgame of any kind, and the DLC doesn’t add one, either.

The only things that change after you have killed Ganon at least once:

• You have a star icon on your save file now. This little icon is “inherited” by all consecutive save files on that profile, but only if you continue FROM the save file with the star icon. If you load a non-star file and continue playing there, none of the other changes listed here will apply until you fight Ganon again.

• You have a quest tracker (x out of y completed) for shrine-, side- and main quests each. Sadly the “defeat Ganon” quest will forever remain unfinished, but all other quests can be permanently completed. Please note that questgivers listed as “???” are the disembodied voices Link hears in his head (like for the 3 Labyrinths, Typhlo Ruins etc.) and will never have a proper name. They “four question marks” thing IS basically their name.

• Symin will sell additional “Elite” pictures in the Hateno Tech Lab. In order to be able to buy pictures in the first place, you need to upgrade the Sheikah Sensor to the “plus” variant and clear the Sunshroom Sensing Sidequest. The “elite” pictures are mostly boss pics (Blights, Kohga) and in case of Master Mode, the golden-tier enemies.

• You have a MAP completion counter now, located in the lower left corner of your in-game map. People (kinda rightfully) automatically assume that this is a “GAME completion tracker”, but BotW does not have such a feature. The map completion tracker is also totally bonkers^[1], as everything that makes an icon or a name appear on your map has the same “value”, so discovering four Divine Beasts is worth the same as solving four Korok Puzzles or discovering for shrines. It is not unusual to finish the game with 20% “completion”.

• Kilton will have an extra challenge for you but this challenge won’t count as a proper quest and therefore not appear in your quest log. You have to talk to him “about monsters” (that’s what the dialogue option is called) and he’ll ask you to find and defeat every Hinox, Stalnox, Molduga and Talus in Hyrule at least once.^[2] It’s easier to keep track if you use map markers. The reward for this quest are 3 “Medals of Honor” that will sit in your key items section and do nothing else.

• To make that easier, Minibosses will now have a mark if you defeated them at least once - it appears to the right next to their health bar. These marks do not reset, so you do NOT have to defeat them all within a single Blood Moon cycle or something similar.

Nothing else changes. Ganon is still alive and always will be, NPCs will still urge you to go defeat him and save the world already, the story, gameplay, all of the quests etc. are all still the same as before and the “Defeat Ganon” quest will forever remain unfinished. Your most recent autosave will always be in front of the Sactum as if the final fight never happened.

On the flip side, you will still have ALL items you used up during the last fight because technically you never shot those arrows, broke those swords and ate those meals yet - you don’t lose anything.

You can now turn around and continue playing the rest of the game - nothing becomes “unsolvable” or unavailiable after you killed Ganon, so you don’t miss out on anything by defeating him early.

There might not be an extra reward, but there is no penalty either. ;)