General Zelda Linear Limited or Open Free Rome

[Johnny Sooshi]

The other day I was playing a few games and found myself changing from game to game about every couple hours or so. Among two that I went through, I kept coming back to Skyward Sword and Metroid Prime 2. Playing them both, I noticed there was a difference in the games (besides the obvious genre difference) in terms of world exploration. Skyward Sword is somewhat open, but ultimately has itself down to a limited linear setup. The sky is your most open space where your many basic sidequests are. Furthermore these sidequests don't make much of an impact in the total outcome of the game, and don't become true moments of exploration. Metroid Prime 2 on the other hand, along with the other Metroid Prime games, has a much more open setup. You need certain equipment to access other areas in the game, some that are part of the story and progressing story-wise, others there to offer items, lore, and upgrades. Despite the fact that the game has a defined ending when you beat it, I find that the ability to go looking for items in various areas a great luxury. It affords the player time to power up before pressing on to harder areas in the game. In addition, it may unlock shortcuts that get you from area to area faster than you could before.

Now here is my question: Which of the play styles would you rather see in Zelda? Would you like the tried and true method of linearity, that may take the game and close of exploration, but helps deliver a coherent story, or would you like to see a more open world design, the likes of which are in Metroid Prime games?

 

[Mercedes]

Well, I would rather it not be set in Rome.

But, ahh, it's a tricky one. I'd have to say open and free roaming, honestly. Usually games are made more linear so they can provide a better storyline, and offer more exciting set-pieces and stuff. A lot of linear games instead offer non-linear storylines, like Witcher pre-3 and Deus Ex. Free roam, more sandbox titles, usually have less story and narrative, it's trickier to balance, etc. I do like all types of games, linear and non-linear, they work better for different games. But, Zelda doesn't really have this amazing story or set-pieces that they really have to offer us, but they do have an amazing, fantasy world full of great, vast, and varied scenery that it seems a shame not to let us go around and explore it. So I'd rather Zelda be free roam in that regard.

 

[Big Octo]

As mentioned in the OP, Skyward Sword, along some previous titles, have been fairly linear. A benefit of this linearity is being able to develop deeper stories that can be streamlined with cutscenes. A negative aspect of this design choice is exploration that is dumbed down or nonexistent altogether. This choice would cater more to those who want a stronger narrative in future titles at the cost of some gameplay.

Now, in an open-world game, the story can be a bit difficult to tell at times, but there's much more room for gameplay. The OP used Metroid Prime as an example and mentioned how searching for equipment to proceed could work for a future Zelda game. With the story in Prime, however, it is mainly told through scanned log entries. This makes learning the backstory almost completely optional to learn. Zelda could follow the style of this fairly free-roam game, or learn from another one.

While Metroid Prime is a good free-roam, somewhat open world game, there might be better examples to use for Zelda. I am going to use Fallout 3 here. In this game, the player is given complete freedom after they complete the initial "tutorial" section of the game. Here, the game's story is told through dialog by other characters in the main quest-line. It is simple, but it works, and it can work for Zelda. However, the game goes beyond that. In order to learn the backstory of the world they are in, the player must explore it. Personally, I think this would work very well (and I'm sort of underplaying it here).

So what do I think would work for a future title? Well, if you could not already tell from my comments above, it's that I want an open world, free-roam game for the next Zelda title. While linearity may be good for plot, Zelda has always been gameplay driven with plot taking a back seat. Let the player explore the world and learn the plot told from the world itself.

 

[Ventus]

Open world design was, is, and will always be the way to go with Zelda. The heart of the series is the whole "transport player into other world" shtick. Now, that hasn't been every game's heart, but that is what I believe we're supposed to be getting. I got it with LoZ. I got it with OoT. I definitely got it with MM. Time itself is linear, but life isn't. There's nothing that says that I - as whatever future career I may hold - must adhere to that career and that career only. There's nothing that says I have to take these classes in this and that order; I can read the books on those classes in whichever order I may like, with the only real class requiring a linear order being Mathematics in most cases.

Now, what DH said in his OP about "powering up" before entering a new area...that is EXACTLY what I want to see in Zelda. Believe it or not, but in Skyward Sword the main method of dispatching foes - including many bosses - was to use the sword. That's great. I'd love another game where the sword is the focus. However, what if items gave us an advantage in addition to the sword? Where it made things bearable rather than just easier? This is what nonlinearity brings. It gives you (mostly) optional extras that can be very helpful in combat, but aren't totally necessary. The story can always be linear, but I'll have you know that if it is, I'd still prefer it to be "sectioned off" in the sense that it happens in chunks, not a continuous flow. ^^

Open world nonlinearity woot woot!

EDIT:
Shortcuts, we need 'em. They're good for speedrunners, and they're good for newer players as well. :yes:

 

[DarkestLink]

Linearityx9001

 

[snakeoiltanker]

As much as i would like too see how a Story heavy, Voice acted, plot driven Zelda game would be like, i would rather they stick to a more Free Roam type of game. Maybe just one Story heavy game with set-piece moments, and shiz, but it would have to be a story that is extremely important to the WHOLE timeline if they were to do that to us! Just sayin!

 

[Johnny Sooshi]

Shortcuts, we need 'em. They're good for speedrunners, and they're good for newer players as well. :yes:

This is actually one of my favorite things about Metroid Prime games. The shortcuts allow me to speed run when I don't really want to travel a huge distance. Or when sequence breaking XD

 

[Salem]

I prefer open free roaming Zelda, but I want to be more than just reshuffling dungeon orders and shortcut, we need to be able to pick and chose which dungeons we want to play and which to leave behind to beat the game.

 

[DarkestLink]

I prefer open free roaming Zelda, but I want to be more than just reshuffling dungeon orders and shortcut, we need to be able to pick and chose which dungeons we want to play and which to leave behind to beat the game.

So basically turn it into a Mario game but replace stars with dungeons.

 

[Salem]

So basically turn it into a Mario game but replace stars with dungeons.

YES, that's what I was saying in the other thread that I started.

 

[ihateghirahim]

Can't a good team make either option work?

 

[Sydney]

Why can't we have a balance? Seriously, why can't we have a bit of both while also incorporating new elements into the game? I feel that if the player was given the ability to roam freely, while still being given the option of following a linear path, would prove to be an enjoyable experience. It's not impossible, and I don't see why the Zelda series shouldn't do it.

 

[Salem]

Can't a good team make either option work?

Why can't we have a balance? Seriously, why can't we have a bit of both while also incorporating new elements into the game? I feel that if the player was given the ability to roam freely, while still being given the option of following a linear path, would prove to be an enjoyable experience. It's not impossible, and I don't see why the Zelda series shouldn't do it.

That's basically how the original Loz and alttp were.

 

[snakeoiltanker]

Why can't we have a balance? Seriously, why can't we have a bit of both while also incorporating new elements into the game? I feel that if the player was given the ability to roam freely, while still being given the option of following a linear path, would prove to be an enjoyable experience. It's not impossible, and I don't see why the Zelda series shouldn't do it.

Elder Scroll does this VERY well, when only playing the main quest line i can beat that game in 25 hours at the most, but all that room to Roam OMG, and you actually get cool stuff for it.... yeah Zelda could learn a thing or two about it, cuz Elder Scroll is Very Linear if you stick to the main quest line.....which is really hard to do

 

[Link-of-Lylat]

I'd prefer an open world, but something like MM, not Metroid Prime. Metroid has it's own style of being in the same world (not counting prime 3) with many hidden areas for getting health/ammo expansions and abilities. Zelda should be non-linear, but not like that. It should be more in the style of going through sidequests to get things like heart pieces and going through dungeons to get abilities/items, while exploring the overworld's nooks and crannys for things like rupees. which I believe is best exampled in MM and TP.