Open Overworld: “Do It Themselves”

January 29th, 2010 by Mases

The folks over at Zelda Universe have posted up an article discussing their desire for Nintendo to open up a bit, and offer more exploration to the overworld, much like the games during the pre-Ocarina of Time era. Here is an excerpt from the article.

Aonuma has even said he wants Zelda Wii to make the gamer feel like “they’ve really been on an adventure.” If that’s true, allow the player more freedom to explore Hyrule (or as rumor has it, somewhere other than Hyrule) wand make their own discoveries. Allow the player to make their own decisions based off what they discover and what little information they are given. Don’t tell the player that the next dungeon is in Death Mountain; let the player discover it for his or her self.

Response: I cannot agree more and I think the linearity of Zelda has really been a problem. I think Ocarina of Time did a good job in terms of having somewhat of an open overworld. While the story was linear, at the very least, you were able to explore different parts of the overworld at different times. In games like Twilight Princess, Phantom Hourglass, and Spirit Tracks, this exploration seems to have been erased. The game is very linear and you only are allowed to go to certain areas of the game after defeating previous portions.

I also think that the open overworld exploration has never quite been perfect on the 3d games. I think the overworld for a game such as the Oracle of Ages was still fun to navigate. Going between the two time periods and noticing the differences in the landscape was interesting. Especially how past events effects the future. I think that type of overworld exploration and interaction is what we need to see more from the future Zelda games, and hopefully we see that with the upcoming Legend of Zelda title for the Nintendo Wii.

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http://twitter.com/HiroshiMishima @HiroshiMishima

I wanna say that I agree with this, because exploring a vast world had always been a highlight of the Zelda games, and some of the more recent ones felt like there was little to truly explore (although I think PH had more exploration than ST, it just didn't allow you to access a lot of the places you saw). The only real problem I see with giving us more freedom to explore is the storyline. I can't press how important a storyline is to the Zelda games because it's just something I craze and feel would take away from the enjoyment if it wasn't as prevalent as it should be. If we allow players to wander around at their leisure, I'd be afraid of losing story elements. Especially since I always found it annoying to spend an hour or two finding a place I couldn't do anything with, only to be told later on I need to go back there for something. But if the game's fun and the story keeps me wanting more, it wouldn't be a big deal. That's my only real thought on it at the moment.
Jay

I have to agree and disagree here. I agree that there needs to be more player involvement with the exploration without a doubt. But I can't say that there hasn't been any in some of the titles. With PH and ST there was no way to have a free open overworld with the design of the game to get the maps or rails for the next quadrant. But in TP there was a few incidents that could be considered exploring. Granted on my first play through I missed them entirely because the story kept pushing me forward and they were hidden in a way I figured why even bother.

Like you have said here previously there needs to be more to do in such a vast open world like in TP. I would also like it if the story didn't push me to keep going when I want to see more of Hyrule or a particular area such as Death Mountain or Lake Hylia.
GREAT

cool
Tomppa

Huge world like The Legend of Zelda (yes, the original one), Shadow of Colossus or even The Elder Scroll: Morrowind and packed full with secrets to discover. oh man, that would be sick.

..And it would be awsome if you could beat dungeons any order you wish.
..And they better not guide you by the hand where to go next.
..And they better have many secrets to find after completing storyline.
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thombre

personally… i would love to have a jump button… just once… please!
Jupiter

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes! This is exactly how I feel. I agree with every word 100%

THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE FOR ME FOR NEW ZELDA GAMES

Non-linearity, that is what we want. In the most recent game it is the worst: you are on rials. I've said it before: a rail Zelda is an abomination.
Aultimaespada

I agree, I wouyld love to explore the hold hyrule to find out where is the next temple. But I don't think it should be exactly like the first zelda, for exemple. I would like to go to different towns and places to find hints about the location of temples, not just go exploding random walls to find them.
Aultimaespada

I agree.
Most times, the story is so linear that we feel like we have to go straight ahead to a location or the next temple, making us not even noticing the sidequests of the game. TP is one of the biggest examples of this.
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