Breath of the Wild True open world really necessary?

[Dio]

I have been playing Dragon age Inquisition recently. It has a huge world with many areas and lots of things to do and find. It is not an open world however even though one of the segments of it is comparable to the size of skyrim.

The benefits of this type of world is that you can have a bigger game by not having everything loaded at once and also make the areas look better as you can have more polygons. I know Xenoblade X is also taking this approach and is going to have a world that has a total size bigger than even the Witcher 3.

I would have thought that style of world would be better for Zelda. For instance you could have Hyrule as a separate area from Gerudo desert for instance making these areas bigger than they could have been if they were both loaded at once. Personally I don't think having a loading screen when transferring between areas is very annoying and would be a small price to pay for a bigger and better game.

What do you think. Would you rather have a seamless open world or have large separate areas which make the game bigger than it would have been if done in the open world style?

 

[Spiritual Mask Salesman]

I'm not sure, it's a difficult decision. This concept doesn't sound bad at all, in fact it might benefit the game. Yet we were promised an openworld... so it really comes down to whether you want Nintendo to atleast try the open world approach with Zelda, or go big, but seperated areas. The only problem I see with dividing areas is that it'd help to put linearity in place which is something they said they'd try avoiding. I can see seperating areas as a way to bar them like has been done in the past. (Can't go to the lake until you get Epona so you can jump a fence. Can't access the west until you find a key which forces you west).

 

[Dio]

I'm not sure, it's a difficult decision. This concept doesn't sound bad at all, in fact it might benefit the game. Yet we were promised an openworld... so it really comes down to whether you want Nintendo to atleast try the open world approach with Zelda, or go big, but seperated areas. The only problem I see with dividing areas is that it'd help to put linearity in place which is something they said they'd try avoiding. I can see seperating areas as a way to bar them like has been done in the past. (Can't go to the lake until you get Epona so you can jump a fence. Can't access the west until you find a key which forces you west).

I dont know if you've played inquisition but you can visit all the areas after a certain point but at first there are still sections within them with enemies that you really dont want to be fighting untill you are more powerful.

So lets just say Gerudo desert was a seperate area from main Hyrule field. You could go there at any time yet a late game temple would be surrounded by enemies you dont have a means to kill, so you could probably go in there but you wouldn't last long.

 

[Soul]

I really really like that idea. It sounds like what they did in ALBW, where you can go east of the Tower of Hera anytime you want to, but nearly unkillable Linels and unforgiving platforming over a lava pit will make your life hard if you do. Makes that bottle so much more satisfying when you get it early against the odds.

 

[N30n_K1ll3r]

I like the huge but seperate areas idea, i won't go ape**** over the occasional loading screen if the payoff is good that is, if i have to wait a few seconds to then have a ****ing huge Gerudo Desert to **** around in i'd say it would be worth it! Would also be nice with Lake Hylia, that you could maybe get a small boat to sail around the gaint lake, but that might just seem cool to me, i have a thing with boats for some reason.

 

[Djinn]

I like the idea of open world, but at your own risk. Yea you can wander way off to the corners of the map but things are really dangerous over there until you get some better gear and more health to make things a lot easier. Or more easily accessed when you get better ability to get through obstacles or past them faster.

The first game covered that concept pretty well, ALTTP and WW for the most part too.

 

[Terminus]

Take inspiration from FO4, ALBW, and tLoZ. Explore wherever you want but be prepared to get destroyed if you're unprepared.

 

[Spirit]

After skyrim, xeno x, witcher 3 and fallout 4 plus whatever comes before zeldaU next year to further usurp its ambition to revolutionise, I wonder if we wont have open world burn out. I know for a fact I'll still be trying to finish the witcher 3 and I wont have scratched xeno x by the time zeldaU comes out, so is another massive open world really what we need?

I'm happy with Zelda as it is, id rather a well put together game than a game that's big for the sake of being big. Being big isn't that clever anymore, sure its impressive if you loom at the likes of xeno x but having the world so huge comes with a price; big patches to help load times, pop ins and slow loads (having a horde of enemies surround you put of thin air isn't a good thing) plus the game cant look as good as it could if it were smaller.

Ironically I've always played Zelda for story and the freedom to roam a world, but I think after all this time of wanting an open world Zelda, I think I may just prefer a memorable and enjoyable well designed adventure rather than a space filler. Still we might get the best of all worlds...


Tl;dr
We dont need an open world Zelda, bit it'll be nice to have one.

 

[Snow Queen]

Of course true open world isn't necessary, at least on Skyrim levels, but I feel it would really help to expand and diversify the world of Hyrule a lot more. We could get new insight and lore about Hyule itself through various landmarks and geographical features. Also, when creating a game with a large open world, it is necessary to have content to fill the world with, meaning that you get to put a lot more time into playing the game.

 

[Derek Francis]

I'd want a Fallout 4 style overworld - like said above - where you're actually free to explore and play the game in any order you want. I don't want an Ubisoft overworld where you are constantly directed to move from one area to the next and the world is just a hub for linear tasks.