The prototype, Fujibayashi hoped, would help the team translate this new Zelda experience from a passive one - you can only take one route forward, and each dungeon can only be solved with its matching item - to more self-directed, active play. He asked the game’s technical director to design a simple 2D version that mirrored the original The Legend of Zelda for NES. Breath of the Wild’s director, Hidemaro Fujibayashi, revealed during a 2017 GDC talk how he’d tried to design for more open, “active” play. Nintendo’s deliberate design choices bolster this freedom. For me, playing Breath of the Wild became more about true exploration, about following my gut whenever something on the horizon outweighed Link’s to-do list. But, by designing around player curiosity and offering rewards with every detour - tangible or intangible sometimes a stunning view is all the reward I need - Nintendo liberated the journey itself from the traditional game cycle. There are still the “best” routes or play styles that will be rewarded in-game, either by earning experience points or another drip of narrative. ![]() And that new standard is changing how games are made.ĭevelopers love to promise that you can “play your own way,” but that often isn’t the case. ![]() Its world is so reactive and expansive that it set a new standard for players. My map is never littered with quest objectives.īreath of the Wild bucks many of the trends from recently released Zelda games, but also subverts all the open-world hallmarks that came before it. It doesn’t rely on waypoints (unless the player sets one themselves). No NPCs are in your ear, telling you which direction to go in to get to the next town or the next objective. Instead, they simply reward the player’s curiosity.īreath of the Wild set a new standard for exploration-heavy open-world games. They don’t fill up a completionist checklist in a quest log. Many things in Breath of the Wild don’t serve a purpose beyond making Hyrule feel rich and lived-in. Which is what makes its inclusion all the more fascinating, when you step back and consider it. It’s just a picturesque place tucked away into one corner of Hyrule’s vast reaches. There isn’t a special set of armor hidden there, or a rare item I couldn’t get in other spots. The best comics of the decade Just over the next hillįinding Lurelin isn’t essential to completing Breath of the Wild. The best movies of the decade, according to us And we’re reevaluating the all the ways in which the face of entertainment changed from 2010 through 2019. ![]() Graphic: James Bareham/Polygon | Source images: Various The best of the decade, 2010-2019Īs the 2010s draw to a close, we’re taking stock of the best pop culture of the decade. ![]() “How did I miss all this?” I wondered as I puttered around, chasing crabs and attempting to retrieve treasure from the depths of the calm, crystal-clear water. That’s when I stumbled onto Lurelin Village, tucked back in a cove, a beachfront community inspired by tropical fishing villages. But just an hour or so after I started, my aimless wandering led me to the southeast corner of the map, following the line of a coast I maybe had ignored before. I thought I’d already wrung everything from Breath of the Wild during my 120-odd hours with the game, or at least everything I wanted to get out of it. In my mind, the brilliant foliage and varied landscapes available to Link would be an acceptable substitute to an actual park. I was feeling anxious, which I’d normally cure with a walk outdoors, but New York City’s swampy August humidity kept me inside. It was mostly on a whim, to ride around Hyrule’s verdant fields uninterrupted. I turned The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on for the first time in two years this summer.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |