Current Events > Looks like future Zelda games will stick with BOTW's level of freedom

(+) Yeah! (+)

http://ign.com/articles/2017/12/27/zelda-breath-of-the-wild-director-producer-discuss-speedruns-shrine-skips

With so much freedom and so many potential solutions, we asked Aonuma if his experiences watching Breath of the Wild videos have impacted his thinking for future Zelda games, or if hed rather return to a more linear design.

You know, I can't speak to what other people, other companies will do in their own games, but I think for me, especially just in terms of the Zelda series, the incredible freedom that this game offers you and how well that's been receivedto me, it means that freedom, that level of freedom is something that needs to be maintained in Zelda games going forward. My eyes have been opened to how important that is, Aonuma said.

So one of the things that we definitely consider is that we always wanted to make sure the player could understand what their challenges or what their hurdle is. We always wanted to make sure the challenge could be challenged. So we always wanted to make a linear way of [overcoming] a hurdle."

"So for example, if there was like, you can't do this because you don't have the right tools' or 'you don't meet the certain requirements, players are going to not want to do that anymore. So we wanted to very much incorporate that."

"Going forward, I think we would definitely consider that way of thinking when we create something in the future," he added.

Sounds good to me. I'd like to see some longer dungeons and shrines that are themed for different areas.
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If they actually bring back real Zelda dungeons/temples that would be awesome. And an actual story too.
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I hope the next game has underground dungeons with seamless transition between overworld and dungeons
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I'm good with this. That being said, I'd love for the next game to have an expansive world with built in dungeons underneath the ground as well. Some you find as part of the main plot, others just being random discoveries.
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Sparksfanboy posted...

Sounds good to me. As long as they tone down the weapon breaking system and make the dungeons more compelling, I'm all for more botw style games salamence

Is the breaking weapon system cumbersome?
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They should follow this up using the same engine, have bigger towns, more enemies and legit dungeons.
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Smaller but more dense world
Add a huge city
Make it steampunk
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when's MM2
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chollima posted...

Sparksfanboy posted...

Sounds good to me. As long as they tone down the weapon breaking system and make the dungeons more compelling, I'm all for more botw style games salamence

Is the breaking weapon system cumbersome?

Personally the issue for me is the inventory system more than the weapon breaking. It just needs to be snappier.
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I like it to be mostly free. They can incorporate a little bit more restrictions though. Stuff like the Zora Armor, that still opens up possibilities, but the game is still pretty open before you have it.

im glad nintendo caught on 15 years after bethesda

mario masta posted...

If they actually bring back real Zelda dungeons/temples that would be awesome. And an actual story too.

BlackHorse6969 posted...

I hope the next game has underground dungeons with seamless transition between overworld and dungeons

These. Reduce the number of trial chambers, and go back to the 8/9 dungeon format that the original game had. Give each one more meat and make it feel like you're really wandering into an ancient temple or something. Maybe unlock more mobility items.
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would be awesome if the dungeons were bigger, and maybe even had some interconnectivity like Mega Man Legends 1.

AlternativeFAQS posted...

im glad nintendo caught on 15 years after bethesda

"caught on" is a weird way to say "completely revolutionized and blew out of the water"
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I don't think we'll ever see dungeons like the older games. Where you'd have to find the item within the dungeon and then use that to unlock the rest of it.

So in that sense we'll probably never have dungeons that feel as long as the older games. Because the answer to any puzzle will be available to you and you'll also be able to solve them in a few different ways.

But I'm sure there's still stuff they can do. I quite liked the feel of those huge ass mazes. Finding some massive temple in the distance and finding the entrance and how to get through could still be a great experience.
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I don't like that format honestly

Needs some sense of progression via new abilities and travel methods and shit
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Darmik posted...

I don't think we'll ever see dungeons like the older games. Where you'd have to find the item within the dungeon and then use that to unlock the rest of it.

So in that sense we'll probably never have dungeons that feel as long as the older games. Because the answer to any puzzle will be available to you and you'll also be able to solve them in a few different ways.

But I'm sure there's still stuff they can do. I quite liked the feel of those huge ass mazes. Finding some massive temple in the distance and finding the entrance and how to get through could still be a great experience.

Honestly the freedom of solving puzzles your way was extremely refreshing. It was great to solve a puzzle one way and then see someone else solve it differently it makes you think, "Wow, I never thought of that before."

So in a sense they should keep that sense of freedom, but they can also keep the more traditional dungeons. They did it with ALBW in a lot of places, where puzzles could be solved in different ways depending on which items you took with you. It'll be pretty difficult to think up elaborate puzzles with multiple solutions, but I think it's possible.
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Freedom is great, but I do think that a little bit of structure can go a long way. Along the lines of LoZ and LttP, they could bring back the traditional items and add a few obstacles that require those items (e.g. gaps that require the hookshot or Pegassus boots, switches that require the boomerang, etc.).

The issue is that if all the dungeons are open from the start, then to make things easy to design, you probably have to base each of them around a specific item (which leads to simpler dungeons). If you try to be too clever and require multiple items, then there are probably going to be situations which are impossible to get through. Given how quickly the combinations can mount up, it can be very difficult to prevent this.

mario masta posted...

If they actually bring back real Zelda dungeons/temples that would be awesome. And an actual story too.

Literally would have made BotW a perfect game.

@mario_masta
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Dungeons could be themed around specific elements.

Like the Fire Dungeon could revolve solely around fire to solve puzzles. Shooting fire arrows, burning the right stuff, fire rods etc.

The dungeon can always spawn specific items that you need like elemental rods or the boomerangs. If you bring in the right objects from the overworld you can skip these parts maybe.

I don't want items to impact puzzles and exploring the overworld though. I don't ever want to feel like I don't have the right equipment when exploring.
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Link HT posted...

AlternativeFAQS posted...

im glad nintendo caught on 15 years after bethesda

"caught on" is a weird way to say "completely revolutionized and blew out of the water"

lol revolutionised is a bit far fetched.
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Sparksfanboy posted...

Sounds good to me. As long as they tone down the weapon breaking system and make the dungeons more compelling, I'm all for more botw style games salamence

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Should've stuck with the Ocarina of Time approach, tbqh.

Jiggy101011 posted...

Link HT posted...

AlternativeFAQS posted...

im glad nintendo caught on 15 years after bethesda

"caught on" is a weird way to say "completely revolutionized and blew out of the water"

lol revolutionised is a bit far fetched.

We'll see. I think a lot more open world games will have a similar structure in the next few years.

Skye Reynolds posted...

Should've stuck with the Ocarina of Time approach, tbqh.

They already did that with Twilight Princess. Hell pretty much every Zelda game since Ocarina of Time until BOTW had that approach.
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Freedom to do whatever you want in the vast nothing of a world?
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Did you play the game? BotW Hyrule was one of the least nothing open world games out there.
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Im ok with this. I liked BotW very much, except for the breakable weapons.

Im hoping they stick with shorter dungeons too. They were getting way too long in TP and SS
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K181 posted...

Did you play the game? BotW Hyrule was one of the least nothing open world games out there.

Yeah, OoT's Hyrule field was more densely packed.
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SlashmanSG posted...

K181 posted...

Did you play the game? BotW Hyrule was one of the least nothing open world games out there.

Yeah, OoT's Hyrule field was more densely packed.

I'm trying not to laugh when everybody's asleep here, come on.
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K181 posted...

Did you play the game? BotW Hyrule was one of the least nothing open world games out there.

Don't bother. When most people think of density, they think of NPCs and quest markers. BotW is a vibrant world, but because you're not wading through an endless fog of "kill X boars for my sick mother, oh world-saver" it feels superficially empty when it isn't.
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Jiggy101011 posted...

Link HT posted...

AlternativeFAQS posted...

im glad nintendo caught on 15 years after bethesda

"caught on" is a weird way to say "completely revolutionized and blew out of the water"

lol revolutionised is a bit far fetched.

It did though. It evokes a completely different feeling when exploring compared to other open world games. You pick your destinations based on what looks interesting instead of quest markers. Nobody ever tells you where to go and a significant part of the game is hidden away like this. It's incredibly liberating and rewarding.
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While the freedom in BotW is great. I still want to see some of the classic Zelda features come back.

I want hookshots and boomerangs and the like. They provided variety in combat and were cool tangible rewards that impacted gameplay. Now, I know that locking things behind them or requiring them to beat puzzles is limiting the freedom, but maybe they could allow for exploration shortcuts. Like if you wanted to get to point A, you could still climb there or take a long path there. Or you could just hook shot up there once you had it. That said, I personally don't mind having areas on the overworld locked behind items. It gives some incentive to double back and re-explore areas.

I want quest with rewards that feel like they mean something. A good chunk of quests in BotW either gave you rupees which you probably already have a boat load of or a weapon that was just going to break and was probably worse than what you already had. There came a point where you only completed quests for the sake of seeing it completed in your log book. You can get away with that if your quests are really fun or have strong narratives, but that really wasn't the case for most of BotW's sidequest. I want better quests or better rewards, hopefully both.

Dungeons. Proper length dungeons with a specific theme, puzzles, combat, mini-bosses, door keys, and bosses. They don't necessarily need to require a specific item to complete, but I want them to be something I can sink a couple of hours into and leave with a real sense of accomplishment upon completion. I want a story behind them. You can keep Shrines (or some equivalent to shrines), but dungeons need to make a return.

Overhaul of Shrines. Like I said, I like shrines. They are mostly fun. Finding them is fun. Completing them is fun. But at the same time, they all have the same aesthetics, with the same kind of enemies which means even though they might have different puzzles, they still feel repetitive. That said, shrines are probably going to get an overhaul unless Nintendo is going to go with the Shiekah tech theme again. Hopefully this means they'll be a little less similar. With enemies, puzzles, and looks that incorporate their environment. Oh and if we are going to have so many combat shrines, they should have way more variety of enemies. Speaking of which...

Enemy variety. We need way more of it. Zelda has a pretty extensive bestiary so you don't even need to make new enemies, just use ones that already exists. Lynels were awesome, but I'd love to see more enemies get overhauled. Because as it stands it's mostly just bokos, moblins, and Lizardfos for 99% of encounters. Give me Darknuts and Iron Knuckles. Give me Armos and Stalfos. There are dozens of options.

A more populated world. I feel like this is inevitable, because I doubt they use post-apocalypse Hyrule twice. But a world with just more going on would be great.

Weapon durability, I can take it or leave it. I felt that it's point of keeping people from reusing weapons was rendered moot pretty quickly as after the first couple of hours you always had plenty of weapons. I will say, I enjoyed having a variety of weapon types that diversified combat and I feel like durability hurt that a bit, because while you rarely lacked having weapons, you might not have the weapons you wanted to actually use. Really like spear style fighting. Well hopefully you've been fighting spear using enemies. That was my biggest issue with durability, for a game that touted freedom, it kind of restricted what kind of weapons you wanted to use.
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SlashmanSG posted...

K181 posted...

Did you play the game? BotW Hyrule was one of the least nothing open world games out there.

Yeah, OoT's Hyrule field was more densely packed.

There's literally nothing in OoT's hyrule field except grottos, you have to go to one of the connected areas to actually do anything. It was nothing more than a hub.
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Yeah enemy variety was pretty abysmal honestly
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Good. I was getting tired of every new dungeon being locked behind a fetch quest or some other bullshit. I prefer going things at my own pace.

I want a new top down game.
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BOTW would have been a lot more impressive if it came out 5-7 years ago.

It's a solid 6-7/10. Fun, but I don't feel compelled to ever pick it up again.
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