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  • Every open world game is different, because each game uses its gigantic map for a different

  • purpose.

  • Maybe it's to give the player options in how they approach their objectives. Perhaps it's

  • a stage for a shifting political drama, or a sandbox so the player can blow off steam

  • between missions. And, sometimes, it's just a way to dump a big checklist of content on

  • the player.

  • For The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Nintendo used an open world for a very specific

  • purpose: to let players go on an adventure.

  • And in this video, I want to look at how Nintendo used, and ignored, different bits of open

  • world design to make a fantasy kingdom that you'll want to explore, survive, and conquer.

  • For starters, Nintendo gives players an enormous amount of freedom in how they approach the game.

  • There are only two things you have to do in Breath of the Wild, after all: finish a tutorial,

  • and fight Ganon. Everything in between is up to you.

  • You can do the four major dungeons out of order, or not at all. You can finish as many

  • shrines as you like, track down as many memories as you want, and it's up to you whether you

  • take Link's famous sword into the final battle... or a wooden mop.

  • What this means is that you carve your own path through the world, which is a pretty

  • important factor in an adventure. Link's story is your story, defined by what you do - and

  • what you don't do - as you explore Hyrule.

  • This is very different to previous Zelda games - but also to most other open world

  • games, which feature a rather linear story - made up of mandatory main quests - where

  • your only choice is to either follow it - or delay following it.

  • And, aside from limiting the player's freedom, this often has the unfortunate side effect

  • of providing a disjointed story where you desperately need to track down your kidnapped

  • son - but you'll get to that just as soon as you explore the entirety of Boston.

  • But I think Zelda gets around this in a clever way.

  • You can take on Ganon at any point. But because you'll likely get killed before you can even

  • approach Hyrule Castle, you're not delaying your showdown with the big bad -

  • you're training for it.

  • Which means everything you do in the game - from collecting heart pieces to boosting

  • your equipment slots to activating the divine beasts - is in preparation for that fight.

  • Zelda shatters that barrier between following the story and doing side activities, because

  • everything you do is relevant.

  • Well, almost everything.

  • Another thing Zelda does differently to most other open world games, is in how much information

  • it gives you about the world. Which is to say: hardly any.

  • At the start, your map is completely blank and you need to climb up, and activate these

  • towers, to fill in the gaps. But unlike the towers in Assassin's Creed and Far

  • Cry games, this doesn't litter your map with icons for nearby activities, side quests,

  • and collectibles.

  • Instead, you have to find all of that stuff yourself, and this means you are lead through

  • the world, not by icons and waypoints, but by your own curiosity.

  • You might see something interesting on top of a mountain, and decide to hike up there.

  • You might choose to climb up a tower, and use your magic iPad to survey the landscape,

  • before dropping down pins and stamps to mark locations you want to check out. Or you might

  • scour the map screen for interesting place names and structures, and then go find out

  • what's there.

  • Importantly, there's probably something good. Any collectibles you might find are genuinely

  • helpful, especially after your 325th sword just broke. And any shrines you might find provide genuinely

  • unique puzzles, instead of the usual copy-and-paste side content we see in open world games.

  • Or you might find something that tells you about the world of Hyrule - because most of this game's

  • storytelling is done through the ancient ruins, giant bones, forgotten battlefields, and other

  • bits of the environment.

  • It's also important that you can always go where your curiosity leads you.

  • I was playing Horizon Zero Dawn the other day, and was intrigued by these gigantic robot bones up on the side

  • of a mountain. But when I tried to get there I was greeted by a cliff side too steep to

  • climb, and an actual invisible wall. Bummer.

  • Zelda, though, not only offers complete freedom, but a generous climbing system means you can

  • clamber up any wall - provided you have enough stamina, or can find spots to rest.

  • By the way, Zelda makes it really fun to traverse Hyrule, whether that's climbing, riding a

  • horse, paragliding down from a tall tower, or - best of all - surfing on your shield.

  • Exploration is always encouraged when it's fun to move around.

  • Anyway. Maybe that invisible wall in Horizon was to stop me from coming across a mad robot

  • dinosaur that I was not yet ready to fight. But, Breath of the Wild shows that letting

  • players get pummelled by killer enemies is no bad thing.

  • In the game's opening hours I stumbled upon this centaur chap - a Lynel - and the fight

  • didn't exactly go well.

  • Immediately, the world no longer felt like a playground to enjoy,

  • but a daunting world to survive. Much more conducive to an adventure.

  • And it's not just big enemies, but the world itself feels out to get you. You'll need to

  • contend with harsh climates, like ice-cold lakes, volcanic areas that burn up wooden

  • weapons, and deserts that flit between hot and cold. And weather affects you too, such

  • as rain that makes surfaces too slick to climb, and lighting storms that... well..

  • But the thing about adversity, is how good it feels when you overcome it. I returned

  • to that coliseum 50 hours later - now with better equipment, more hearts, and a stronger

  • understanding of the combat system - and destroyed that Lynel. Zelda games have often explored

  • the themes of growing up and becoming a hero - but never quite like this.

  • Breath of the Wild also uses those tough enemies, as well as steep walls and harsh climates,

  • to discourage you from exploring the map in one go and immediately seeing everything the

  • game has to offer. By withholding bits of the world, in this fashion, - you'll still

  • be discovering surprises, including entire towns and different biomes, well past the

  • point where other open world games would start to feel plain and predictable.

  • Let me just go back to the map marker thing for a second.

  • Breath of the Wild does actually use some typical, open world-style wayfinding. The

  • main dungeon quests, for example, are marked on your map with yellow dots - though, thankfully,

  • the game avoids the little dotted line, instead asking you to find your own route to one of

  • the four dots, and no doubt getting lost and distracted along the way.

  • You can also turn them off, which I'd recommend. Unlike some games, Zelda is perfectly playable

  • without this help, as characters give directions, the map features place names, and most forks

  • in the road feature signposts.

  • But that's just the main quest, and with all of the side missions, Nintendo decided to

  • ditch these navigational aids altogether, and instead, the secrets, side quests, and shrine

  • quests can only be found by following scraps of information.

  • Here's an example. These two lads are talking about a treasure, and they give me a clue to find

  • it. "The little twin steps over the the little river. My cave rests above that river's source".

  • So I wander around, find a sign pointing towards the little brother bridge - that sounds about

  • right -, follow the river to its source, climb up beside the waterfall, and then uncover

  • the hidden stash. Get in.

  • By following these rumours, as well as song lyrics, paintings, and riddles, you're asked

  • to really explore the world, and take in environmental details that, in a different game, you might

  • blow straight past. Plus, finding these solutions is always more rewarding, if you ask me, than

  • simply following waypoints and stink trails.

  • If all of this sounds a bit familiar, it's because I talked about almost all of this stuff last

  • month in my video about the very first Zelda game. Breath of the Wild features more than

  • just old men, Spectacle Rock, and centaurs - but also the freedom, mystery, and general

  • standoffish design of Zelda 1. Though, you are going to have to turn off the HUD and

  • objective markers to really get that experience.

  • But Nintendo didn't just look backwards to make this game - it also looked outwards,

  • with the game's creators saying they researched games like The Witcher and Minecraft.

  • And you can see elements from loads of open world games in Breath of the Wild. The Korok

  • puzzles feel like the Riddler trophies in the Arkham games. Cooking, to prepare for a big

  • battle, brings to mind the Witcher's alchemy. Smashing ore is totally Minecraft. And Breath

  • of the Wild capture Skyrim's wanderlust, and horse bugs.

  • But you can tell that Nintendo used these ideas with careful consideration - deciding

  • which bits of design to use, and which bits to forgo - because an open world isn't just

  • an excuse to chuck in loads of random features and hope they all stick together. Like any

  • good game, everything should work together to contribute to a specific experience.

  • And in the new Zelda - the level of freedom you're provided, the focus on exploration,

  • the use of cryptic clues, the daunting enemies, and the consistent surprises - all add up

  • to give Breath of the Wild a truly adventurous spark.

  • Hey everyone! Thanks for watching. GMTK is funded by everyone on my Patreon - including

  • these top tier supporters.

  • If you're a long time viewer of my channel, you might be surprised to hear me praise a

  • gigantic open world game, after making videos about the joy of exploring much smaller, more

  • compact worlds, like Batman: Arkham Asylum and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.

  • But in that Batman video, what I said was "game environments should be measured by how

  • much meaningful content is inside, rather than in square metres", and Nintendo is one

  • of the few companies, alongside Rockstar and (sometimes) Bethesda, who are capable of actually

  • filling a massive world with unique and interesting stuff.

  • Plus, the game uses its space to make your adventurous treks more epic, and provide those

  • all-important moments of quiet and introspection during travel. So, like everything in game

  • design, the size of a world comes down to what sort of experience the creators are going for.

  • Anyway - at the risk of turning this channel into Zelda Maker's Toolkit, my next video

  • will be a Boss Keys episode on Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks. And yes, I will finish

  • that series by talking about the dungeons in Breath of the Wild. And then I will never

  • talk about Zelda ever again. Until the next one.

Every open world game is different, because each game uses its gigantic map for a different

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