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How much freedom do you want in Zelda Switch?

Wind Waker gave us a seemless ocean, A Link Between Worlds gave us the freedom to do dungeons in any order and Breath of the Wild pretty much gave us total freedom (even down to the story).

So how much freedom would you like in Zelda Switch?

Would you like more of the same that BotW gave us?

Slight structural freedom like ALBW?

Or gameplay freedom like WW, where the path was set but you're able to venture from the path?
 
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Dio

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Like in WW. Gameplay freedom to explore when you like but a set path path for the story. It helps things stay coherent that way.

Alternatively story sections could be set in blocks allowing certain parts or dungeons to be done in any order. For instance in OOT, the player could have had the choice of helping the Gorons or the Zora's first and still once the final of the child dungeons was complete the story would remain unchanged. Ganondorf would still attack Hyrule and the next section of the game could begin. Also during the adult sections it wouldn't really matter which dungeons were done in which order since it didn't affect the story which order you did them in. Only Ganondorfs Castle needed to be the final dungeon.

What I really don't want is the final dungeon accessable from the beginning. It just devalues everything else if you can do it right away.
 

Azure Sage

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I absolutely loved the freedom BotW gave us. I want more of that. I wouldn’t mind a structure for the story, such as certain events don’t trigger until you’ve done certain things even if you go to where they happen. I liked that ALBW allowed us to do the dungeons in any order after a certain point, so that would also be cool. I do want the same freedom of the overworld that BotW has, and applied to the insides of the dungeons as well. That would mean bigger and bigger dungeons, which would be great. But freedom is part of what made BotW so amazing, and if it didn’t have that kind of freedom again it’d feel like a huge loss to me. Even if the story has a kind of general structure to it, not having a free and open world from the get go again would be kind of disappointing to me.
 

SinkingBadges

The Quiet Man
Wind Waker is probably the worst example of how to do exploration from all the ones listed here. Sure, you can venture off the obvious path, but since you don't have the items you'll need to open the "locks" in many of the islands until later, all useful items are behind caves you can't enter and switches you can't press. If you still don't think that's bad, consider that the first time you can freely start traversing the sea is still quite a while before you can fast travel, which would at least let players get back on track relatively fast without having to sail for too long. I can understand that the "tease" aspect of realizing that this lock may hint an item you'll get later is probably attractive to people on some level, but from a quality of life standpoint you can definitely do better than WW. At least have some slightly useful unique trinket per island that you don't need late-game items to access, even if you still need them to get everything else in that particular island.

Besides that, I don't have a particular preference. My main deal with Breath of the Wild is more how the game more or less stays at the same difficulty level since any questline could be any player's first. ALBW/ALttP model of tiering the dungeons sounds like a fair compromise. Maybe have some scaling like BotW too, have harder/different enemies show up depending on how many plot items the player has. Maybe just apply it to dungeons this time, which for some reason BotW forgot to.
 

Nicolai

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Keep most of the freedom. Let me decide where to go, which order to do stuff, which stats to upgrade, how to improvise solutions to problems... just put some unclimbable walls here and there. Make navigating the overworld a little more of a challenge.

And, like @SinkingBadges said, don't be afraid to up the difficulty of some areas like they did in the first Legend of Zelda. I don't think it would a total disaster if you stumbled into a death trap of Lynels too early; the player would just have to understand that they just have to turn back. They actually did this with Hyrule Castle, but they warned you about it ahead of time. I don't think it would be out of place if the King of Hyrule added "Oh, and also stay out of the Valley of Death. That place will f*** you up if you're not ready" in his early-game monologue.
 
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Wind Waker gave us a seemless ocean, A Link Between Worlds gave us the freedom to do dungeons in any order and Breath of the Wild pretty much gave us total freedom (even down to the story).

So how much freedom would you like in Zelda Switch?

Would you like more of the same that BotW gave us?

Slight structural freedom like ALBW?

Or gameplay freedom like WW, where the path was set but you're able to venture from the path?
There are more different ways to open up and close down the game than the ones you listed, and I would also argue that The Wind Waker is an extremely closed-off game since the vast majority of the side content isn't available at all until almost halfway in (after the Forest Haven) and even then a lot of it can be REACHED but not actually completed. I think Majora's Mask is actually a much better example of the same concept, where the dungeons come in strict orders and there are things you can only do in each region after completing their dungeon, but where there is tons of stuff to do in Clock Town and Termina Field that you can mostly do any time.



Between Majora's Mask and A Link to the Past's approaches, I don't really care to be honest. I think the "total freedom" thing Breath of the Wild had going on was cute, but tends to get in the way of truly meaningful decision-making on the part of the player. It didn't have to, necessarily, but I think it wound up that way. I don't actually have much interest in being able to do "anything", but simply being able to make meaningful decisions as I play. A certain amount of structure to what you can do actually encourages this; if I have to go get a certain item or complete a certain quest in order to open up some specific areas (while others remain open from the start), isn't that inherently a more interesting decision than simply being able to go anywhere you want without much real preparation or consideration?

I will never buy into the idea that total freedom encourages compelling gameplay. It can, but more important than being able to make lots of decisions yourself is being able to make interesting decisions, ones that matter, and judiciously-placed limitations are very effective for that.

A lot of openness is fine, great even, but I hope the next game learns how to funnel some content behind prerequisites, so that instead of being able to go just anywhere and having highly similar content that play off the same items and abilities, I can make real decisions about what I want to complete and where I want to go, so I can have content that's unique and plays off the unique items, powers, events, storylines, etc., that I've done to be able to get there. It can be CLOSE to Breath of the Wild, but to be exactly like it I think would be a mistake.
 

Castle

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Freedom? Oh freedom... that's just some people talking.

What good is freedom if you don't got anything to do with it? I disagree that WW had freedom. WW was ultra ham fistedly linear for a sheer 2/5ths of the game at least. And the latter portion is forced arbitrary collectathon b*tchwork (triforce shards). And by the time it does ordain to open up and let you set sail anywhere, all you have by then are dozens of small identical barren rocks in a vast sea of nothingness with little on them but fights with the same enemies you've been encountering the whole time, some familiar puzzles, and the usual collectables (most of which are useless).

I want my Zelda adventure to be as free and open as the next, but all the open exploration in the world means nothing if there isn't anything to discover or anything to play. Give me sub-bosses, give me trial runs, give me equipment upgrades or enhancements. No, we don't need 101 subtle variations on the same basic shrine. Nor do we need a planet's worth of junk to fill our pockets with like in every other modern OPIN WHARRLD!!! game ever (especially junk that's going to break after six uses anyway). At the very least give me something interesting to look at.

The original LoZ's open level structure worked well because everything you could find in the overworld was conducive to your objective. If it wasn't a tool you needed to advance, it was an item or upgrade that made your adventure easier or allowed you to approach challenges differently. ALttP was really the last time we saw essential upgrades and items locked in the overworld that players were free to discover on their own. From then on, overworld discovery was almost completely optional with nothing more than ammo upgrades, hearts, and collectables scattered around and the contents of the overworld only got lazier and more haphazard as the games went on. From Ocarina onward, all of the game's essential path content was found in dungeons or in scripted sequences that only took place in the overworld at specific times.

The next Zelda should have more interconnectivity between dungeons and the overworld. The design should stop treating dungeons as core main game content and the overworld as optional side content (or worse: simply a means of transit! :ananger:). Clearing dungeons should not simply be a means to unlock more of the overworld and progress the game. Make players explore the overworld to unlock dungeons. Have players return to dungeons with new items or abilities acquired in the over world in order to delve further. Have parts of the over world open up new parts of the overworld! Don't just give players new abilities in dungeons. Give players entirely optional new abilities from the overworld that are fun and/or useful, like the Fire Rod in ALttP or extensions or variations on their existing ones.

And above all don't lead players by the hand towards whatever it is they need to progress. Just give players one of any given direction and let us choose where to go and what to do! Let us drive our adventure and have it unfold naturally. HEAVEN FORBID someone gets lost for a moment or two!!! We might actually end up in danger of having fun!!!
 

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