Breath of the Wild Zelda Wii U's Gigantic Overworld

[Fig]

Near the end of The Game Awards, Nintendo decided to reveal more information about the newest installment in the Zelda franchise. We already knew that the overworld was going to be huge as portrayed back in this year's E3, but now we have a clearer view of just how large this world is. Special thanks to Likovacs for uploading the pictures. The world just looks flat out gorgeous and I wouldn't be surprised if I spent several hours just gazing around the environment.

As we can we see in the second picture, we can see where Link's current position (green arrow) is and where Miyamoto and Aonuma wanted him to go (red x or cross). The fact that it takes roughly 4-5 minutes (maybe more since they did stated that just only mid-way of the route so about 8-10 minutes total), we can tell that this world is immense. This leads me to beg the question: What can we expect throughout this title in the Zelda franchise? And the fact that Aonuma is pushing this to be released in 2015, makes me want to say that this is quite an ambitious for a Zelda. What are your thoughts about the overworld in the newest Zelda game?

 

[A Link In Time]

I'm actually worried the game will suffer from the same barren overworld Twilight Princess did. Assuming it takes place in Hyrule, Hyrule Field seems devoid of activity. It reminds me of OoT's in style and content with the scope of TP's.

 

[Kylo Ken]

I'm actually worried the game will suffer from the same barren overworld Twilight Princess did. Assuming it takes place in Hyrule, Hyrule Field seems devoid of activity. It reminds me of OoT's in style and content with the scope of TP's.

I feel the same way. They just need to throw in a few NPC's to make it more likely.

 

[Azure Sage]

I SCREAMED EVERY TIME HE ZOOMED OUT THE MAP OH MY GOD IT'S BEAUTIFUL

I'm worried it'll be barren link A Link In Time said but WHO CARES RIGHT NOW DID YOU SEE THE SIZE OF IT AND HOW PRETTY IT IS This is everything I have ever wanted I can die happy now

 

[27ジョーカーソン]

It's daggerfall all over again. A map the size of Great Britain.

 

[Locke]

So far all we've seen up-close is grassy fields. Hopefully the large area in the center of the map isn't as boring. It does look like there's a desert and obviously Death Mountain. Bottom line is, in addition to not being "barren", it also needs a lot of variety. Unique places like the Sand Sea.

 

[Rockman82]

I'm not really worried about the empty world just yet. They might not have had anything in the world to avoid some spoilers. If you remember, there were towns people in the E3 trailer as well, so I don't think the world will be barren by any means. They just don't want to reveal their entire deck just yet.

 

[Justac00lguy]

Wow oh wow.

Not sure if I could say anything else...

 

[Ugea]

i noticed as they are ridding their were wild Horses running beside you. maby thats one of the ways their going to fill the world up. in an open world like this it would be tricky to make the world more full and busy, im shure their will be barren areas out side of towns. we will just have to see what they will do to make it less barren.

 

[Djinn]

Yea at first I was pretty sure that was not Epona but some random horse, one of many, that you just randomly start riding. That there might be some gimmick where you have to go find a horse and ride it when you need speedier travel.


Now one thing I am wondering when looking at the huge map is what will be the late game quick travel method? You usually have something like a warp song, flute summon something, tornadoes, or huge bird of some kind. When it takes 5 minutes to make it from the green arrow to the X in that minimap in the demo then fast travel will definitely be a must later on in the game.

We're gonna need a bigger horse

What I would love to see is a return of the loftwings as the speedy travel. Like rediscovering some lost form of travel that the ancient Hylians knew, which fits nicely into the lore of the series. And that can be the fast method of getting around.

 

[Locke]

Loftwings would be a good idea. The idea I had was something like the Lost Woods, where there are [physically impossible] 'shortcuts'.

I just wouldn't want discontinuous travel (i.e. warping). Please don't ruin the "space of place" you're creating...

 

[Djinn]

It could actually give the player the freedom of flight that they were mostly denied in SS because of that total separation of the sly map from the ground. And just about every other Zelda before it for that matter.

 

[The Omni Triforcer]

It could actually give the player the freedom of flight that they were mostly denied in SS because of that total separation of the sly map from the ground. And just about every other Zelda before it for that matter.

It would look absolutly beautiful flying around a vast world like this so I am down with that.

 

[Sheik]

The idea I had was something like the Lost Woods, where there are [physically impossible] 'shortcuts'.

I like this idea. Another example would be in Twilight Princess, where there's an underwater hole in the graveyard at Kakariko Village that takes you straight to Lake Hylia, all the way across the map. If only Skyward Sword had these shortcuts, then I could have traveled from one section of the overworld to another without having to go up to the sky and back... but I digress. The Loftwing idea sounds pretty good, too.

Anyways, looking at Zelda U's overworld and its size on the map totally makes me hnnng.

 

[Farore's Chosen]

It looks so incredible. almost like I could explore forever (even though I know there's limits) but wow! its soo huge, I could imagine myself getting easily lost and I love that there are actual animals that are just going about their business not trying to actively kill you. I definitely need to save up for a wiiu so I can get this