The Future of The Legend of Zelda
It looks like it’ll be open-world. /BlogPostEnd
Okay, what this short-ish blog post is really about is whether I like the direction The Legend of Zelda is going and why. I’ve let my thoughts on Tears of the Kingdom simmer for a bit after completing it earlier this summer and reviewing it. My thoughts are pretty much the same: both BotW and TotK are great and fun games, but they aren’t great Legend of Zelda games. If its developers find more passion in the franchise committing to open-world and sandbox elements, I guess that’s good for them even though I wouldn’t be pleased. If they find a way to fix some of my complaints and add more compelling stories and exploration alongside their open-world vision for the future of the franchise, I’d be more pleased. But if I were asked whether or not I’d buy the next Zelda game given the BotW/TotK format would be its prototype, I’d say… probably not.
If it wasn’t obvious before, I prefer linear games to open-world ones. They are simply superior in the way of storytelling. In my opinion linearity also enhances exploration thanks to ‘unlocked’ areas as opposed to the open-world style of being able to go anywhere and do anything. Additionally, a linear game is more guaranteed to have quality in its areas of exploration rather than a quantity of areas to explore. And it’s more immersive—hear me out. I understand it’s special to be able to explore an entire world in an open-world game; but, with how vast the world is (by necessity of the open-world format), being able to go from one coast to another coast will become tedious after the first time traveling between them (if not before). Open-world games address this tedium with the possibility of fast travel or teleportation, but then that sort of counters the point of the open world doesn’t it? They’re not meant to have time sitting with a loading screen, they’re meant to put you in a seamless experience. At that point loading screens aren’t immersive. But in a linear game, where such loading time is expected, it can remain immersive thanks to the way the game flows (that is, in its story, gameplay, and general pacing). For example, in Wind Waker when sailing up to Greatfish Isle for the first time the weather steadily becomes stormier and before you arrive there’s a brief cut to black—it’s minor, but has an interesting effect in the way of serving as a transition, signaling a new story beat. Loading screens can also be cleverly integrated into the goings on of the game while still being fairly blatant about being a loading screen; for example, in Paper Mario the beginning of every chapter has an in-your-face chapter title that fits with the overall game being a story (reminder: the Japanese version of the game is called Mario Story).
The final thing I want to comment on is the sandbox elements—it just isn’t Zelda. Being able to do anything as creatively as you want is fun, but it lacks the sense of puzzle-solving that makes Zelda… Zelda. Finding the solution rather than 1 of 30 solutions is a lot more special, at least to me. It makes overworld and dungeon progression much more satisfying. Now, if the developers find a way to get the best of both worlds, that’d be very cool. Something between the extremes of an aimless open world like Minecraft where you can go, do, and build nearly anything and a dreadfully fixed linear game like Super Mario Bros where you follow one path and the solution to every problem is jumping on something. Speaking of, it’s kind of ironic that I want Mario games to have more open-world elements and Zelda games to return to their linear elements…
To sum up, I don’t want Zelda to be open-world from here on out. I don’t like it as a direction for the franchise. For now, I guess I’ll have to wait and see and sit with my qualms.
