-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
[Poll] Did we overestimate the influence The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild would have in the design of open-world videogames?
- Thread starter lunanto
- Start date
- Status
Out of curiosity, what open world games are you comparing it to? I can't think of any open world games that are anything like BotW
To answer the OP I think it's both too soon and that BotW won't be particularly influential compared to other open world games.
The hoarding weapon complaint actually works against the requests for creativity too since fire weapons are both rare and have a ton of utility so it's in the player's best interest to not use them for combat at all.
Was there a game that did the whole "NPCs have schedules" thing before it? I'm sure there's something but I'm guessing it's on the PC side and I'm not too familiar with 90's RPGs.
My main issue with the game is that there's no real incentive for the player to engage with the combat systems at all. Why spent time fighting an encampment and waste your weapon durability just to get another weapon to waste etc, when you can just run around them most of the time?
The hoarding weapon complaint actually works against the requests for creativity too since fire weapons are both rare and have a ton of utility so it's in the player's best interest to not use them for combat at all.
- go anywhere you like, 4 real
- sandbox style gameplay with a great physics engine (not common in open-world game)
- not cluttering the map/mini-map/HUD with a ton of markers and instead guiding you using the actual design of the world
those three are the three big differentiating factors from most other open-world games, imo
of course, i don't think these are necessarily things other devs would be eager to copy as a, it's not very easy to design an open-world game like that and b, the current template most devs use for their open-world games works very well and people enjoy it so there's not anything broken to be fixed using the innovations of botw. devs will take some bits here and there to be inspired by but i don't think open-world games are all gonna become like botw.
also, an open-world designed like botw is particularly bad if you want to tell a so called cinematic story, which is why you won't see it a lot in blockbuster AAA games as those are pretty much always looking to have a heavy narrative focus.
Last edited:
I think it's a difficult game to take influence from, because the main takeaway would basically be "design an open world that people actually want to explore, on their own terms." Breath of the Wild achieved this, imo, primarily through its meticulous level design that subtly guided the player in every which direction with intriguing sights and landmarks to explore and allowed the player to mark up the map for themselves with the things they wanted to check out. It eschewed a lot of the standard things that guide player agency in other games in the genre, and I think these are things that streamline the design of open world games for other developers.
I'd personally say it's too early to write off the influence, anyway. I think we've seen a number of Breath of the Wild-esque games revealed, especially from indies. I don't really expect it to ever be the norm for the genre, though, even with Breath of the Wild's incredible acclaim and commercial success, and it has absolutely nothing to do with the game's quality. I just think it's hard to make an open world engaging in the way Breath of the Wild's is.
I'd personally say it's too early to write off the influence, anyway. I think we've seen a number of Breath of the Wild-esque games revealed, especially from indies. I don't really expect it to ever be the norm for the genre, though, even with Breath of the Wild's incredible acclaim and commercial success, and it has absolutely nothing to do with the game's quality. I just think it's hard to make an open world engaging in the way Breath of the Wild's is.
I dunno. Assassin's creed and horizon i guess would be the things i was playing around that time. And don't starve.
I loved the game but then I don't think of it as doing anything new or unheard of. To me it's not revolutionary as much as it is very well implemented.
Is the revolutionary part that they combined old ideas? When i think of the game i never thinking how they did some thing i never saw before, but I'm usually going wow i loved that game for some reason i really can't identify.
You can't make a game like BOTW without neutering the storytelling aspect of the game, which is exactly what happened with BOTW and its directionless minimal narrative. If you remove the story from a game to adopt BOTW game mechanics, you may as well just play BOTW.
And BOTW itself ripped off the tower vantage point mechanic from Ubisoft games, and games have been using that mechanic for more than a decade now.
And BOTW itself ripped off the tower vantage point mechanic from Ubisoft games, and games have been using that mechanic for more than a decade now.
We've already seen some take inspiration. as others have said, it's still a little early to see exactly what else others may take.
I felt like I saw a bit of BotW influence in ghost of tsushima.
Opting to hide all the POIs until you encounter them made exploration feel more organic rather than checklisty.
Opting to hide all the POIs until you encounter them made exploration feel more organic rather than checklisty.
that's not surprising since the devs called botw an influence
BoTW's whole thing was that the entire game-world felt hand-designed and engaging to move through. Obviously it gets easier the more stamina you acquire and with the glider, but a huge part of the game is "how do I get there?" and it being fun and challenging to figure that out. Think of how many random cliff-sides are designed just perfectly so you can reach a resting spot just before you run out of stamina.
The whole thing is meticulously designed at a crazy scale for actual moment-to-moment gameplay and that's a ton of work and that's why we haven't seen others copy it much. Most open-world games have little to no (or just extremely repetitive "random events") actual gameplay in between missions and BoTW is the opposite. It just requires your own fuel for exploring which some people just don't have.
The whole thing is meticulously designed at a crazy scale for actual moment-to-moment gameplay and that's a ton of work and that's why we haven't seen others copy it much. Most open-world games have little to no (or just extremely repetitive "random events") actual gameplay in between missions and BoTW is the opposite. It just requires your own fuel for exploring which some people just don't have.
Yup.
This game has definitely made its mark, even in just design discussions around the industry.
Because, at time, you feel like having a fight and clearing out the encampment. Or you fancy seeing if you can stealth them all, or attack them in a weird and silly way, or you have a new weapon or a buff on and want to unload. It's the option basically... you can wade in and do something, or simply carry on to whatever else your motivation is taking you to instead.
Open world games already take huge development times and something like BotW's meticulously crafted world I'd imagine would be even longer to make. It's why we won't see BotW 2 any time soon.
Forget BotW, I want to see more games like this, but I can see why it took the devs nearly a decade to perfect it.
Forget BotW, I want to see more games like this, but I can see why it took the devs nearly a decade to perfect it.
I am far from the biggest fan of Death Stranding, but there was similitude in the OW. Problem is, if you find something too soon, it is closed...
Depends of people, like in real life.
Well, isn't Ubisoft's Gods and Monsters supposedly copying a lot from BotW? Then you've got a fair number of indie games taking inspiration from it. We might see more influence in the open world games early next gen, like maybe Horizon 2 or Fable.
Because Horizon 1 came out the same time BoTW did so Horizon 2 is for sure the first full open-world game to be developed after BotW.
Climb virtually any wall or cliff in the open world to get anywhere within the bounds of the map. In other open world games a wall or cliff is a barrier and you have to find a way around or through.
"Physics and chemistry" engine for interacting with the landscape. Cut down trees, set things on fire and let the wind spread the fire, string metal objects together to conduct electricity, protect yourself from the elements by staying in shade or carrying a torch to warm yourself, lift metal objects using magnetism and then drop them on enemies, send items overhead using balloons, build up force applied to objects to send them flying. Other open world games usually focus on storylines and combat rather than letting you creatively apply tools to do unexpected things.
The entire landscape is purposely designed to create viewpoints for various points of interest. The hill you just climbed was strategically placed to block your view from the main path. But when you climb it it gives you line of sight for a shrine, a Korok seed hiding place, a bombable rock, and a couple towers in the distance. And the art style is designed not to obscure these POIs--compare to AC Odyssey where the realism and the visual density make it hard to spot landmarks at a distance and especially from atop a mountain.
Minimal map markers by default. The game doesn't want you to follow a map or compass from objective to objective. It wants you to use your eyes and ears to figure out where you want to/should go next.
Why isn't there a poll choice to select that says BotW has already influenced games?
It has influenced Ghost of Tsushima, AC Odyssey, some new indie games, etc. And I predict we will see more in the future try to implement aspects of its ingenious gameplay loop/vision.
The "Open Air" concept Nintendo came up with was truly wonderful and its nice seeing developers/players respond to it so well.
BotW discussion on era is always ripe with bad takes and hate unfortunately, judging by some of these comments.
It has influenced Ghost of Tsushima, AC Odyssey, some new indie games, etc. And I predict we will see more in the future try to implement aspects of its ingenious gameplay loop/vision.
The "Open Air" concept Nintendo came up with was truly wonderful and its nice seeing developers/players respond to it so well.
BotW discussion on era is always ripe with bad takes and hate unfortunately, judging by some of these comments.
Sure, but in the larger context of the objectives the game provides for you (Divine Beasts, shrines, seeds), they are just impedements to your goals that can easily be sidestepped. You've only provided examples of motivation provided by the player themselves rather than an incentive provided by the game itself.
All this is to say that I think that BotW has fantastic world design as a sanbox, but is sorely lacking in game design most of the time in the overworld.
Seriously. Holy shit. Every game with a "cartoony" art style and open fields is "BOTW like."
It's hard to get through a single presentation with several games and not hear "BOTW vibes"
The first game came out around the same time as BotW, so Horizon 2 would be the best metric for how BotW may influence other open world games.
Visually perhaps, but I played a beta a couple months back and it just wasn't as engaging as BotW. Ironically, I believe it is because it had a more involved story despite having a world that felt very much like BotW. It's a weird incompatibility as the story tends to push you in one direction while BotW just said, "Eh, here's 4-5 places you can go when/if you want" and those places were spread across the entire world. Genshin Impact just ends up more like a Ubisoft game of waypoint chasing.
you forget the copy paste enemies camps,glass weapons,terrible inventory,stupid stamina bar,fucking slow and junk climb animation.
lol so true
Why all BOTW OP has this misleading picture?Anyway,it is too soon to tell,but BOTW except for environment interactiveness(here deserves all the praise and I hope inspire others open worlds),didn't really bring nothing new to the open world genre,it is the oppose,has a lot of Ubisoft playbook guide and for some reason gets a pass ,while others open worlds is criticized,even the meme you can climb "everything" and every open world game without that sucks for some BOTW's fanatics has been done for almost a decade with AC.
You're seeing bits and pieces of it find purchase all around the industry, but it's only been 3 years; I would say it's going to be a little bit longer before AAA games that were looking at BotW as a blueprint or a reference start coming out. The majority of the innovations that BotW are structural, so they would probably need to be factored into the design of the game earlier rather than later (hence why I think it's still too soon; I would assume a 4 or 5 year time frame from preproduction to release)
Definitely agree with the folks saying that Horizon 2 might be a good place to look for this in the future I have to imagine all the direct comparisons folks made between Zero Dawn and BotW had some level of impact on the design of Horizon 2, but we'll have to see!
Definitely agree with the folks saying that Horizon 2 might be a good place to look for this in the future I have to imagine all the direct comparisons folks made between Zero Dawn and BotW had some level of impact on the design of Horizon 2, but we'll have to see!
Yeah, it's probably more the combination of all those systems we've seen before. Physics based, nothing gated off on the map, open ended exploration, map not littered with a thousand points of interest (a la assassin's creed and probably hzd), etc.
It put everything together in a perfect way. No other open world game has been able to achieve that.
I agree wholeheartedly. The only thing I hope devs borrow from BoTW is traversal, everything else in that game just doesn't work for me.
Ghost of Tsushima is just 3 years after BOTW and already has some inspirations. Assassin's Creed seems to be in the same direction also.
New IP and established ones.
New IP and established ones.
I can see a restriction on influence for the sheer amount of effort and time it would take to craft a world like BotW's. If the Zelda team struggled with finishing by the deadlines they had, what is the hope for all the teams/companies geared towards (relative) mass production? Maybe if someone figures a way to quickly or even auto-generate something that feels carefully designed.
The Zelda team has mentioned looking to 're-visit' the BotW map for the sequel for a reason. It took so much to make it that it only makes sense to try and get the most out of that work. I suspect one of the reasons we haven't heard anything else yet is they still found themselves in a boatload of work just to re-jig it in some way.
Even so, there are some influences that have been noticed in some games, to even outright clones. I don't think any wildly praised game wouldn't see some impact.
The Zelda team has mentioned looking to 're-visit' the BotW map for the sequel for a reason. It took so much to make it that it only makes sense to try and get the most out of that work. I suspect one of the reasons we haven't heard anything else yet is they still found themselves in a boatload of work just to re-jig it in some way.
Even so, there are some influences that have been noticed in some games, to even outright clones. I don't think any wildly praised game wouldn't see some impact.
Most AAA open worlds are pushing some kind of involved narrative which doesn't suit the freeform exploration approach to design. As a result, you still see many open worlds implementing the classic Ubisoft map marker based navigation. We've seen some half measures against this like Assassin Creed Odyssey's Exploration Mode but they ultimately fall short when the world isn't designed to be played with that in mind first and foremost. It's like, sure you can technically turn off markers in most modern open worlds, but 99% of the time it's at the detriment of the experience when you end up wandering around aimlessly to find an NPC that continues your next story quest.
The topography of Breath of the Wild was done by Monolith Soft, so the real question is whether Monolith Soft's open-world game design has influenced the industry? To which I say no, not really.
I think it's too early to properly tell, and that a lot of its influence is gonna be more nebulous and less cut-and-dry obviously copied.
Outside of its art direction--which AAA games obviously aren't gonna mimic, what truly marks BotW as unique is how incredibly fine tuned, harmonious, and cleverly/meticulously designed and implemented its world and mechanics are. I do think a lot of developers are gonna try to chase after BotW's lightning in a bottle success, but outside of surface-level similarities it's gonna be hard to nail and that's thus gonna make the influences a bit harder to see. But also, big games take a lot longer to make and BotW only came out three years ago, plus we're right at the end of the console generation. We're obviously already seeing a lot of indie and smaller games pull inspiration from it, but I think it's gonna take another year or two before we start really seeing how far its reach is in the AAA cricles.
Outside of its art direction--which AAA games obviously aren't gonna mimic, what truly marks BotW as unique is how incredibly fine tuned, harmonious, and cleverly/meticulously designed and implemented its world and mechanics are. I do think a lot of developers are gonna try to chase after BotW's lightning in a bottle success, but outside of surface-level similarities it's gonna be hard to nail and that's thus gonna make the influences a bit harder to see. But also, big games take a lot longer to make and BotW only came out three years ago, plus we're right at the end of the console generation. We're obviously already seeing a lot of indie and smaller games pull inspiration from it, but I think it's gonna take another year or two before we start really seeing how far its reach is in the AAA cricles.
- Status