Has Zelda Changed Forever?

0:01 Hey, it's Mark.

0:03 So, back in 2013, longtime Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma promised that the next big

0:09 Zelda entry- coming soon to the Wii

0:13 U- would completely reinvent the Zelda franchise.

0:16 He said...

0:17 "Our mission...

0:18 is quite plainly to re-think the conventions of Zelda.

0:21 I'm referring to the expectation that the player

0:24 is supposed to complete dungeons in a certain order,

0:27 or that you're supposed to play by yourself.

0:29 The things we've come to take for granted recently.

0:32 We want to set aside these conventions,

0:35 get back to basics and create a newborn Zelda so that the players

0:40 can best enjoy the real essence of the franchise." And he wasn't lying.

0:46 This next game wouldn't just shake up the formula- but it

0:49 would fundamentally change how Zelda games would be designed, perhaps, forever.

0:55 Here's how it happened.

0:58 So, by 2013, Zelda had settled into a familiar and formulaic groove.

1:04 In each game, hero Link visits dungeon number one, finds some handy new item,

1:10 uses it to defeat the boss- and open up the next part of the world map.

1:15 Where he'll visit dungeon number two, find a handy new item,

1:18 defeat a boss- and, well, you get the picture.

1:22 Sure, each Zelda game might have a unique world...

1:26 tone...

1:27 cast of characters...

1:29 and clever mechanical gimmick- but this strictly linear structure

1:34 had barely changed since Ocarina of Time back in 1998.

1:39 It had become stale and a little bit stinky.

1:43 And it all culminated in the disappointing

1:45 Skyward Sword- which adhered so closely to this formula that it felt like

1:51 a pale paint-by-numbers parody of a Zelda game.

1:54 Something had to change, and Aonuma knew it- saying...

1:58 "We started to feel that fans may not continue playing this franchise

2:02 unless they can think independently and try various things freely on their own,

2:07 rather than following a set path".

2:10 So it was time to mix things up.

2:13 For the next game- which, spoiler alert,

2:15 would be Breath of the Wild- he gave his team a wildly ambitious mandate:

2:20 to rethink every aspect of the Zelda franchise.

2:24 To consider every convention that had become an essential staple

2:28 of the series and ask if it truly had to be that way.

2:31 Aonuma says "I told the staff, "This time,

2:34 let's build the game without shying away from anything.

2:38 Let's stop thinking about what Zelda has been up until now." Of course,

2:42 the first ideas were pretty out there.

2:45 Link fighting aliens in UFOs.

2:47 Or dodging missile attacks from the sky.

2:50 Or meeting Lovecraftian monsters.

2:53 Or bombing around Hyrule on a motorbike.

2:56 That was all a bit off.

2:58 Well, except for the motorbike.

3:00 But eventually the team came to look at the more fundamental,

3:04 structural bones of the Zelda formula.

3:07 That's ultimately what needed changing.

3:09 The game's director, Hidemaro Fujibayashi, said...

3:12 "We wrote down all of the stress points,

3:14 the things that make Zelda games less enjoyable,

3:17 and we replaced them with new ideas." And this led

3:21 to five key changes to the Zelda formula.

3:26 So, as stated, Zelda was a series where you must do things in a strictly linear,

3:31 and predetermined order.

3:33 But for this new game, there would be no predetermined order.

3:38 The four divine beasts...

3:40 and the 120-odd shrines could be tackled in literally any order you see fit.

3:46 Or not at all, actually.

3:48 The only mandatory bits in Breath of the Wild

3:51 are the tutorial and the fight against Ganon.

3:54 The rest is entirely optional.

3:56 This idea was trialled in A Link Between Worlds on 3DS.

4:00 And it was part of the very first Zelda game on NES.

4:04 But with Breath of the Wild,

4:07 Zelda would finally see true freedom and complete non linearity.

4:11 But it wasn't just about linearity.

4:13 Zelda was also a series made up of individual areas connected by doors,

4:18 gates, and gaps in the clouds.

4:21 But for Breath of the Wild, the world would be a single contiguous

4:25 space that can be explored in any direction.

4:28 And nothing can block your path as Link can swim across rivers,

4:32 climb up virtually any vertical surface,

4:35 and soar over the landscape with a paraglider.

4:38 Zelda was also a series that told you where to go and what to do,

4:42 often with an overbearing companion character who would offer,

4:47 uh, helpful hints and advice.

4:49 Breath of the Wild would be the opposite.

4:52 Outside of quest markers that show the location of the four divine beasts,

4:57 players would be left to explore by themselves.

4:59 And the developers would stay silent- choosing to guide

5:03 the player through the design of the environment,

5:06 or the placement of harder enemies, or with a breadcrumb trail of curiosities

5:11 that lead you to the next important place.

5:14 Zelda was also a game with hand-crafted puzzles that would

5:18 require you to find the designer's single, intended solution.

5:21 But for Breath of the Wild, that would be totally reversed.

5:26 Instead, the world is constructed from a set

5:28 of interconnected physical and chemical properties like wind,

5:32 fire, electricity, and gravity.

5:34 And so players could exploit these relationships

5:37 to discover their own way to solve puzzles,

5:40 defeat enemies, and bypass obstacles.

5:42 Even if that means skipping the puzzle entirely.

5:46 Fujibayashi says "I really want players to relish those moments

5:49 where you do something and think, oh my gosh,

5:52 I'm a genius." And Zelda was a game with a pretty limited moveset,

5:57 and mostly contextual actions- down to having an automated

6:00 jump when Link runs off the edge of a platform.

6:03 But in Breath of the Wild, Link would have a surprisingly extensive moveset.

6:08 That includes a dedicated jump button, the ability to throw weapons,

6:13 climb up walls, surf on his shield, and more.

6:16 This would give players way more control over Link's actions

6:19 and let them travel through the world in a more freeform manner.

6:23 And look, there are even more ways that Breath of the Wild mixed things up.

6:27 Like how you no longer get hearts from chopping down grass,

6:31 but from hunting and cooking.

6:33 Or how Link now wears a blue tunic rather than a green one.

6:36 But, it was those five key changes to the Zelda

6:40 formula- a non-linear structure, a fully open world,

6:44 laid-back hints, systems-driven problem-solving,

6:46 and an expanded moveset- that really made Breath of the Wild feel so different.

6:51 But here's the thing.

6:53 The result wasn't just a fun game, and a Game of the Year winner.

6:57 The result was actually a fundamental shift

6:59 in how the game relates to the player.

7:02 You see, Fujibayashi refers to the previous Zelda games,

7:06 like Skyward Sword, as passive games.

7:08 Games where players go through the content in a predetermined order,

7:12 solve puzzles by finding the developer's intended solution,

7:15 and play within the tight confines of walls and obstacles.

7:19 Games where the player merely follows

7:22 the designer's lead in a docile, passive way.

7:25 But with these changes,

7:26 Breath of the Wild became the opposite of a passive game: an active game.

7:32 Here, the player is very much in the driving seat.

7:36 They choose what content to engage with and what order to do it.

7:40 They choose where to go and how to get there.

7:43 They figure out their own solutions to problems.

7:45 And they have to think, plan, explore, and experiment in a much more active way.

7:51 In a passive game, the designer's job is

7:54 to make hand crafted content for players to experience.

7:57 But in an active game, the designer's job is to make a sandbox,

8:02 give the player some toys, define a goal,

8:05 and just let the player get on with it.

8:07 And I think this is quite an interesting lens through which to look

8:11 at game design as you can plot almost every game on this spectrum.

8:15 From very passive games- you know, linear,

8:18 story-based games like Call of Duty and The Last

8:21 of Us- to super active games- playful, sandbox sims like Minecraft and Factorio.

8:28 As well as everything in between.

8:31 Now in order to get here, the developers had to rethink everything.

8:36 Art director Satoru Takizawa said "to create an appealing,

8:39 never-before-seen world filled with new surprises,

8:41 you need to break conventions.

8:44 You need to be creatively reckless."

8:47 But there were some other important factors, too.

8:49 Like having fresh eyes- Aonuma gives credit

8:52 to the contributions of younger staff members who would come

8:55 up with fresh ideas and weren't set in their ways

8:58 from decades of working on the same franchise.

9:02 Fan feedback was important too- the producer says

9:04 that Breath of the Wild's open world was made

9:07 partly in response to players wanting to explore

9:10 the areas in between the disconnected chunks of Skyward Sword.

9:15 And there were also outside influences- the team played games like Minecraft,

9:20 Terraria, and Skyrim to get ideas.

9:23 Historically it's rare for Nintendo to name check

9:26 other games- especially ones made outside of Japan.

9:30 But, whatever the case, the result was a truly incredible game.

9:34 And for the Zelda team- it would prove impossible to ever

9:38 go back to that more passive style of game design.

9:41 Like, seriously- Aonuma was practically radicalised by what

9:45 he saw in Breath of the Wild.

9:47 It fundamentally changed his mind about how Zelda games should be designed.

9:52 For instance, he's said that he once thought

9:54 it was a "sin" to let players get lost

9:57 in a game- hence the overbearing helper characters

10:00 and the linear level design of the older Zelda entries.

10:04 But with Breath of the Wild, he saw how it could be fun to let players

10:09 wander off the beaten track and find their own adventure.

10:12 He says...

10:13 "I wanted to basically have the players experience

10:16 this 'getting lost' while getting to the next destination,

10:19 because this journey leads to something

10:21 they’ve created with a path they’ve chosen.

10:23 I myself learned that getting lost wasn’t so bad after all,

10:27 so I was able to reflect this idea to this game." So for Aonuma,

10:31 Breath of the Wild showed a new, and- to him- much better way to design games.

10:36 In fact, when he replayed the Wind Waker, he thought it felt outdated.

10:41 He's described set puzzles with single solutions as being an "old design".

10:46 And as for future Zelda titles?

10:49 Well, he says...

10:51 "I think for me...

10:51 the incredible freedom that this game offers

10:53 you and how well that's been received…to me,

10:56 it means that level of freedom is something

10:58 that needs to be maintained in Zelda games going forward.

11:01 My eyes have been opened to how important that is".

11:05 And so Breath of the Wild has

11:07 continued to influence future games in the franchise.

11:10 And the sequel, Tears of the Kingdom,

11:11 doubled down on this active, player-led, problem-solving gameplay.

11:16 In fact, Nintendo was so inspired by how players used

11:19 the Breath of the Wild sandbox to pull off wild and unexpected

11:22 things that the sequel gives you even more radical toys- including

11:27 the ability to glue physics objects together to build vehicles and machines.

11:31 And players are given even more opportunities

11:34 to exploit the game and find their own solution.

11:37 Take the ability "ascend",

11:38 which lets you dig through the ceiling and pop out on the other side.

11:43 It started as a debug option during development,

11:46 to let the creators quickly skip past content,

11:48 but it later became a defacto power in game.

11:52 Technical director Takuhiro Dohta said...

11:54 "We've placed more importance on creating a game that enables

11:57 players to do exactly what they think they can do,

12:00 rather than how we want them to play the game".

12:02 And then there's the spin-off title, Echoes of Wisdom,

12:06 which was made by outside studio Grezzo.

12:08 The team pitched a clever copy-and-paste

12:10 game mechanic and Aonuma was like "yeah,

12:13 cool, whatever, great- just make sure the player has tonnes of freedom".

12:17 So the game lets players be mischievous and exploit

12:21 all sorts of cheesy tricks to solve problems.

12:23 And players are allowed to tackle challenges out of order,

12:26 and are encouraged to find their own path through the story.

12:29 Co-director Tomomi Sano says...

12:31 "We put effort into maintaining player freedom.

12:34 Limiting mechanics makes development easier,

12:37 but it frustrates players when things don’t work as expected.

12:40 We wanted to avoid that." So if you ask Aonuma-

12:44 this is how every Zelda game will be, going forward.

12:48 He says...

12:49 "Games where you need to follow a specific set of steps or complete

12:52 tasks in a very set order are kind of the games of the past.

12:57 The games of today are ones in which that can accept a player's

13:01 own decisions and give them the freedom to flexibly proceed through the game,

13:05 and the game will allow for that".

13:07 In fact, he went so far as to question why anyone

13:10 would want a game that felt like the older Zelda titles.

13:14 He said...

13:15 "Why do you want to go back to a type of game where you're more

13:18 limited or more restricted in the types of things or ways you can play?" Well...

13:24 sir, if you're asking, then, I have some thoughts.

13:29 Because here's the thing: as much as I love these three new

13:32 games- and all of the advantages that this "active"

13:35 design philosophy brings- I have to admit

13:38 that these games don't always feel like Zelda titles.

13:42 And that's because the changes necessary to make an active

13:46 game ended up removing some of the stuff that makes Zelda...

13:50 well, Zelda.

13:52 For example, consider that old formula where you get a new item in each dungeon.

13:57 This might be linear and restrictive but it

14:00 does mean that each Zelda game has a wonderful

14:03 sense of mechanical progression- where you get brand

14:06 new toys at fairly even points throughout the adventure.

14:10 As the game goes on, Link becomes more powerful and adept- and the player

14:14 is always left wondering what cool new ability is just around the corner.

14:18 But for Breath of the Wild- well, the team never wants you to reach a shrine

14:22 or a dungeon that requires some ability that you don't have.

14:26 And so the solution is to just dump all of the games mechanics on you,

14:31 during the tutorial.

14:32 Which means you'll see pretty much everything the game

14:35 has to offer in the first couple hours.

14:38 And then only one of the dungeon rewards- Revali's

14:41 Gale- adds a fun new wrinkle to Link's moveset.

14:45 Then there are the dungeons themselves.

14:47 Zelda's old temples are beautiful puzzle box playgrounds.

14:52 Clever spatial reasoning conundrums that you

14:55 slowly unpick by finding keys and items.

14:58 Or by changing the water level...

15:01 moving back and forth in time...

15:03 or flipping the entire temple on its head.

15:07 But that sort of level design requires heavy restrictions,

15:10 a narrow lock and key structure, and hand-crafted puzzle solutions.

15:16 That doesn't gel with Breath of the Wild's

15:19 freewheeling movement system and puzzle design.

15:22 But that leads to lax dungeon layouts that can be cheated and cheesed.

15:26 And so, the new dungeons often end up feeling messy and frankly unsatisfying.

15:32 I didn't even bother doing a Boss Keys

15:34 episode on Tears of the Kingdom's dungeons because

15:37 what's the point if you can just phase

15:39 through the floor and skip half the puzzles?

15:42 And more broadly, Nintendo's focus on player-driven

15:45 solutions can sometimes lead to moments

15:48 of surprise and delight- but just as often it can lead to repetitive solutions,

15:54 cheesy exploits, and outright cheats.

15:56 There's also the storyline.

15:58 I've never been too fussed by the narratives in Zelda

16:01 games- but they do at least have a structure.

16:05 Breath of the Wild's plot, meanwhile, is essentially,

16:07 a bunch of disparate memories told in a jumbled up order.

16:11 There's no emotional escalation, no dramatic timing,

16:15 no pace, no structure, no arcs.

16:19 And finally- the older Zelda games were full of beautiful,

16:23 curated, and hand-crafted spaces that have resonated for decades.

16:27 But the new Zelda worlds- by dint

16:29 of needing to be utterly massive- can feel empty, soulless, and repetitive.

16:36 These worlds even veer into the realm

16:38 of feeling like they were generated by an algorithm.

16:41 So when Aonuma asks why anyone would want to return

16:44 to the older style of Zelda- well this is why.

16:48 There are hugely important aspects of those older

16:51 titles that have simply been lost in the shuffle.

16:54 And ultimately, I'd argue that the active

16:57 design philosophy of Breath of the Wild

16:59 isn't inherently better than the passive design

17:02 philosophy of Ocarina of Time- it's just different.

17:05 In fact, both styles have their own pros and their own cons.

17:10 They offer different experiences that suit different players,

17:13 or just different moods.

17:15 Sometimes I want to go on my own adventure across an uncharted landscape.

17:19 But sometimes I just want to be

17:22 delighted by a developer's carefully curated experience.

17:25 But here's the question- does it have to be one way or the other?

17:30 Because in the last year, I've played two games that had me thinking

17:35 about how Zelda might reconcile its different eras.

17:38 The first is Resident Evil: Requiem.

17:40 No spoilers, don't worry.

17:42 So this game cleverly mashes up two

17:44 very different parts of the franchise's history.

17:47 When you play as Grace Ashcroft,

17:49 the game is a first-person, haunted house spook 'em up,

17:53 ala Resident Evil 7 and 8 But when you play as Leon Kennedy,

17:58 the game turns into a campy, third-person, action-packed romp,

18:01 calling back to Resident Evil 4, 5, and 6.

18:06 This two-hander not only satisfies fans of both styles

18:09 of game- but it works as a nifty little palette cleanser.

18:13 Just when your anxiety is amped up to breaking point,

18:16 the perspective shifts to Leon and you get to blow off some steam.

18:21 Could you do something similar for Zelda?

18:24 A game that incorporates aspects of both eras?

18:28 Maybe!

18:28 I could imagine some future game more

18:31 clearly delineate between the overworld- which would play

18:34 like Breath of the Wild- and the dungeons-

18:37 which would feel more like classic Zelda.

18:39 And, as for the other game?

18:42 Well, it's no secret that Breath

18:43 of the Wild has inspired other Nintendo franchises, beyond just Zelda itself.

18:49 Fans and critics have noticed its influence on games like Mario Odyssey,

18:54 Bowser's Fury, Mario Kart World, and Pokemon Legends.

19:00 Plus, Metroid producer Kensuke Tanabe has

19:02 specifically said that Breath of the Wild's

19:05 open world design led to the inclusion of the desert hub in Prime 4.

19:10 But then there's the most Breath-pilled game of the bunch.

19:14 Donkey Kong Bananza.

19:16 Like- these are totally just shrines, right?

19:21 Now this is a very active game.

19:23 This is a game where you don't just climb up

19:25 and over any surface- but can actively smash right through it.

19:29 It's a game with an ultra expansive move set.

19:32 It's got heaps of optional content- did you know you can

19:36 complete this whole game without ever picking up a single Banandium Gem?

19:39 And there's a lot of freedom in how you go through the game.

19:43 Co-director Kazuya Takahashi says "There’s a lot

19:46 of leeway in terms of progression in this game.

19:49 For example, locations or parts of the story

19:52 you can skip without suffering any consequences.

19:55 Typically, in game development,

19:56 restrictions are put in place to prevent [sequence breaks] from happening,

19:59 but since this game is all about destruction,

20:02 we wanted people to play freely." But it's not total freedom.

20:06 The animal transformations are doled out across the entire adventure,

20:10 just like classic Zelda's items.

20:13 And there's a storyline with an actual plot and, like, stuff that happens.

20:18 I know, crazy right?

20:20 Now I don't think Zelda needs to copy Bananza's structure entirely.

20:23 But it just goes to show that it's

20:25 possible to balance player-driven freedom with designer-set progression.

20:30 A mix of active and passive elements.

20:34 So, look- we don't know much about what

20:37 Nintendo has planned for the next Zelda game.

20:40 We've got some clues.

20:41 We know it won't be a direct sequel to Tears

20:43 of the Kingdom- "that would be a sequel to a sequel,

20:47 which is getting a bit wild", says Aonuma.

20:49 And it won't feature Ultrahand- that's a one-off mechanic,

20:53 exclusively for Tears.

20:54 Oh, and it may take some inspiration from the new Hyrule Warriors game.

20:59 But it's very vague what that might mean.

21:01 And also I haven't played that game.

21:02 Is it any good?

21:03 I dunno.

21:03 Lemme know.

21:04 But- here's what we do know:

21:06 just like how the previous games worked off the formula set by Ocarina of Time,

21:11 this next game will build upon the template set by Breath of the Wild.

21:16 But I don't think we've seen the final form of this new style yet.

21:20 And I'm confident that we'll see Aonuma and his team tweak

21:24 and experiment with this new design philosophy- inspired by both fan feedback,

21:30 and competing games.

21:31 And, if we're lucky,

21:32 they'll find a some mythical middle ground- halfway between the imaginative,

21:37 freeform experimental fun of Breath of the Wild-

21:41 and the beautifully handcrafted majesty of Ocarina of Time.

21:45 To be honest, I just don't know.

21:47 But I'm looking forward to seeing what they come up with.

21:50 Happy 40th anniversary, Zelda.

21:53 I can't wait to see where you go next.