this is the real innovation of breath of the wild right here
That game was delayed so long because every inch of that map was planned and thought about. It's not just some terrain generation with towns built on it
Well I see your banned, but anyway, how bad are other open world games if BOTW comes across this way?
It's the most coldly mechanical game Nintendo's ever made. Discovery happens because the changing topography requires it to happen. Exploration happens because they meticulously placed points of interest at just the right distance between each other which are easily viewable. Emergent gameplay happens because Nintendo arranged a series of systems that the player interacts with. Unique, player driven experience happens when all systems operate together in a way Nintendo cannot control or foresee.
It's strange to see the map championed as a Nintendo achievement when Nintendo's level design chops are completely absent. Either there is literal empty space (or empty space plus enemies), or level design that's poor and unimpressive, or the solutions oriented micro 'puzzles' that dot the landscape (the classic crossing the ravine with the tree). We progress in the examples above from no thought, to poor thought, to hardly any thought. If Nintendo racked their brains to try to precisely determine which point of interest had which particular enemy, object, or structure it certainly wasn't apparent.
Obviously, a lot of thought went into the game. Just in areas that did not involve a meticulous planning of the map's content (And if they did meticulously plan it, oh boy). Same goes for the generic topography.
It's telling that a nothing section like the route to Zora's Domain got praise when this game first came out, for no other reason than it was an example of rudimentary level design. They actually put enemies in your way, on purpose! It built up to something rather than serving as an interchangeable cog in the BOTW machine.
I understand that this is not a level design game. But it's weird that the game gets credit for thoughtfulness about the map when the game's size and structure obliterates any chance at the kind of thoughtfulness we saw in the past Zeldas. And I don't think snapshot moments like the ravine crossing, or a river crossing, or moving a sphere from one location to another really should earn this game's map a thoughtfulness label.
I won't deny the effectiveness of it all. I didn't particularly like
anything in the game, and I still played for 40 hours, because the overworld basically serves as the ultimate content delivery system. Complete freedom, ability to break off anything that's not clicking, multiple enticements on the horizon. The only issue is, there is no good content. Besides a few enemy types, I can't think of anything that would not have been left on the cutting room floor of a past Zelda game.
And yet even I played for 40 hours. It's all very troubling.
Lots of people were able to be creative with this game and how they traveled through the world. Full disclosure, that wasn't me. That obviously makes a difference. I just liked it when Nintendo was creative on my behalf, and then I gave them money in exchange to experience actually planned, thought about, and well crafted level design.
