Ashley the Witch
ZD Champion
- Joined
- Oct 9, 2023
If I dare say, Wind Waker has more of a Breath of the Wild feel in terms of a seamless open world, at least for what the GameCube could handle, as well as the limited items for crafting potions and side quest items, and even picking up enemies weapons.That’s the thing though. All games inherently “focus” on exploration. Zelda 1, BotW, OoT, SS, even the multiplayer games. It’s the methods they use to give that sense of exploration that sets games apart, and BotW goes out of its way to change the main method the series had used since Zelda 1.
I’ll give you the Zora outfit, but outside of the times it’s required to progress through the Vah Rutoh quest line it’s usefulness is pretty limited to the Lanayru region and select parts of the Faron region.
The Gerudo outfit almost counts but it’s really only used for one thing. It would be like equating Zelda’s letter in OoT to a full item. It really doesn’t accomplish the same task as a full item.
The Goron and Rito outfits… kinda? They serve a similar purpose as the Goron and Zora Tunics in OoT (or the Varia suit in Metroid). They’re a technically optional item that can be skipped if you know what you’re doing. The problem is that while skipping the tunics in OoT or suits in Metroid is treated as an extra challenge meant for experienced players, skipping the outfits in BotW is just treated as a thing you can do and nothing more. It’s not particularly difficult just because of how easy it is to fill up on healing items.
So overall theres basically only one time that the game even starts to resemble the classic item structure Zelda 1 had.