[Artículo] The open world of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and the concept of adventure – iGamesNews

Taking advantage of the small break of launches that we have right now and the shadow of its sequel on the horizon, I have started to play The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the (so far) last installment of the saga created by Shigeru Miyamoto Y Takashi Tezuka More than 30 years ago.

But today I don't come to give you any kind of history of the saga, nor to give you a lot of data about it. Today we are going to talk about his open world, his concept and the execution of this. For this task, like Link in the game, we must start at the beginning, at the root of the matter, and it is not possible to start running without first starting to walk.

We have to get in position, the title that precedes Breath of the Wild within the main line of releases of the series is The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, video game that went on sale at the end of 2011 for Nintendo Wii. The problem is that A lot of things happened between the launch of Skyward Sword and Breath of the Wild both in Nintendo and in the world of video games. Problems? Mainly two:

• Nintendo Wii U sales issues they made Nintendo delay the launch of a new game in the Zelda saga for almost two years, in order to make it coincide with the departure of Nintendo Switch to maximize sales of both the title itself and those of the new machine of the great N. Factor which makes Wii U the only console in the entire history of Nintendo that does not have a main game of the saga in the form of exclusive.
• The last generation of consoles (X360 and PS3) allowed video game developers to enter into a new game concept, the open world or "sandbox" in English. This phenomenon only made it spread and popularize with the arrival of Xbox One and PlayStation 4, machines with much more capacity than its predecessors.

The delay of the title due to the low sales of Wii U and the rise of open worlds they made the developers of this eighteenth installment of the saga rethink numerous concepts until then strongly rooted within the essence of Zelda games.

After reviewing the situation that led to this change, we have to talk about those who made it possible, in fact, Who developed Breath of the Wild? Those responsible for carrying out this task were Nintendo EPD (a subdivision within Nintendo itself formed by Nintendo EAD and Nintendo Software Planning & Development) and Monolith Soft, creators of the Xeno saga (Xenogears, Xenosaga and the most recent Xenoblade).

But who is behind all those names and nomenclatures? We must highlight four people within this megaproject: Hidemaro Fujibayashi (Director), Eiji Aonuma (Producer), Satoru Takizawa (Art Director) and Hajime Wakai (Composer). These 4 people were the thinking heads in charge of developing the first Zelda video game in HD resolution (if we do not count the ports for Wii U of Wind Waker and Twilight Princess) and the first completely focused on the open world.

Sorry for this long introduction, but I think it is necessary to understand the context that led Nintendo to develop Breath of the Wild in this way, since nothing is a coincidence. Let's focus on the Central Plateau of the game, the initial area where Link starts walking for the first time after being plunged into a 100-year lethargy. Within this first location we can already see the key points that will define the whole adventure within Zelda Breath of the Wild. Key points that will make (in my view) the open world of this title, the best I've played to date.

Since we left the Sanctuary of Life, the first thing we find is a long precipice, and if we look up we can see in the distance a small sample of the extent of the mapping, which immediately makes us feel small in the face of such magnificence. As I mentioned before, before us we have a long fall, which will make the player take the path on the right, until he meets a curious NPC.

Sitting next to his bonfire we have a quiet grandfather, enjoying some roasted apples. The player's reaction will be to talk to him, and he will quickly give us clues and signals about what we have to do, without ever telling us explicitly. This generates a quick curiosity and motivation within the user to start exploring the entire area before him. After saying goodbye to the grandfather, if we continue along the marked path we will find some tools or utensils such as branches thrown on the ground, which will introduce us to weapons. Immediately in front will appear the first enemies of the game, with weapons already in our possession, it is time to experience for the first time the combat of Zelda BOTW. This article is not about combat itself, although it should be noted that it is based on physics, anticipation and knowing how to take advantage of the moment to inflict the greatest amount of damage, in exchange for the least wear on our weapons.

After defeating these enemies, a great cathedral-shaped structure stands before usIf we explore a little, we will find the first chest of the game, which will give us a piece of armor that will improve our statistics slightly. In this way the game has already explained to us that there are armor and chests, and all without using words.

Having palliated the exploration craving a bit, we will go to the point indicated on the map, to activate the first tower of the game and thus unlock a small portion within the map. Already at the top, the old man will make his appearance again, will arrive planning on a mysterious and practical paravela, and will ask us about some strange monuments that have been erected on the ground after having activated the great tower. After another conversation with the old man, we will already have our second objective within the title, to activate four sanctuaries that are distributed throughout the central plateau, if we do, the grandfather will give us his paravela

. The player, immediately moved by the reward will launch to explore the different sanctuaries of the area one by one. Each will have different obstacles: one will be surrounded by enemies, another will be separated by a small pond, another will be isolated by a cold blizzard and another one will require a high effort to reach it. The way to face the sanctuaries is free, each player can find their own way to them, and this, this little detail is the essence of Breath of the Wild. The important thing is the way, adventure, is a game of living our own adventure, of getting lost, of exploring. Destiny, be it a sanctuary, a tower, a small point on the map or Ganon himself, is secondary in this game. Miyamoto created the Zelda saga more than 30 years ago with the idea of ​​recreating the adventures he lived as a child in his native Japan, well, we can say that this delivery has succeeded and by far.

It is to be admired how the developers have raised an open world like this, full of details, of well thought out and raised areas, nothing is put at random within this title, everything has a meaning, make us explore, encourage us to try things and get lost in Your vast world And he gets it, he certainly gets it, and all of it without filling out the map of brands or nonsense things like other developers do.

For all this, Zelda Breath of the Wild is a masterpiece of video game design, its music, its art, its direction, everything is outstanding.

It's been 3 long years since many of us saved Hyrule from the grip of Ganon, others will be beginning their journey and many others will do so in a while, to all of you, I ask that in the comments you tell me your experiences within the game, that you tell us your own adventure. I can't think of a better way to celebrate these 3 years of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.