Part the Third
I recognize that my posts on this topic have, to this point, largely taken a wide view; while this might serve to lay a foundation, it seems pertinent to more tightly fasten these previous points to the more specific topic at hand:
The Sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
That Which Came Before
A large element of these posts has been the general framing of difficulty and the hidden need behind that: engagement.
Difficulty is often used as shorthand for engagement.
Though there is often an association, making something difficult doesn't inherently increase the level of engagement, nor does decreased difficulty necessarily provide less.
it is also good to consider that different people will find different things difficult, and at differing levels.
Even if difficulty is increased, that demands a thoughtful exploration as to the reasons and methods employed. It's not so simple as "make it more difficult."
With these points in mind, possibilities for this particular game might be explored.
The Methodical Dance
From Software's games, particularly those under the
Souls umbrella, are often used as examples of what
Zelda could be like, and a common takeaway is that it could be difficult, hard,
grueling, but, as suggested previously, the difficulty level likely isn't the point, even for those who think it is. More likely, the core draw comes from the combat mechanics themselves, specifically the way in which they provide and demand engagement to and from the player.
Again, this engagement comes in the involvement required of the player, using one's given abilities to their best potential in a given scenario, making decisions in a give-and-take, risk-and-reward situation, a methodical dance.
To some, such a combat system represents what an evolution of
Zelda's own could have become. After all, 3D
Zelda has historically provided these elements to varying degrees, but not to the same extent. Regardless, the tools exist -- different sword movements, blocks, dodges, and so forth -- but remain unrefined by these standards.
In this way, it doesn't seem unreasonable to make the connection, considering the potential growth of combat following what the series has already displayed. It seems a refinement of this system, the give-and-take, the risk-and-reward, the unchoreographed yet methodical dance, would provide the increase in engagement while still harking to the series' history.
But combat isn't strictly what
Breath of the Wild is known for; rather, all the various interconnecting systems set this game apart. With that aspect expanded and an interplay between it and the combat, a dance once methodical can now become a
dance chaotic. And a refinement of the general combat system, in accordance with the basic concepts outlined previously, should provide more flexibility and opportunity for integrating the myriad systems into an unpredictable dance.
The Chaotic Dance
These systems, after all, are made for experimentation. Playing around with all these features, trying new ideas, running mad experiments, should be encouraged. This is to the game's benefit.
To facilitate such, the world should provide playgrounds, numerous and sundry permutations of low-risk environments in which to test the most ludicrous of ideas.
Note that the provision of such testing laboratories throughout the world does not preclude the existence of areas which carry higher risk. Rather, they allow one to goof off but also to discover and train on possible tactics for these less laid-back areas and encounters.
This allows the unadulterated joy of playing around with all the tools at one's disposal, allowing this experience for its own sake, but also allows a further purpose, that of testing, with the idea that there are higher-risk areas where being to seamlessly combine use of the different systems to create various effects would be most helpful.
After all, a living world is unlikely to be static in difficulty, and these less laid back encounters provide a different experience in engagement. Of course, difficulty progression and pockets of increased difficulty runs the risk of individuals being unable to complete the content; however, this chaotic dance, the interplay of combat and physics and magic and items and all the other systems, can allow some alleviation of this.
Consider, if you will, the setup of an encounter -- whether combat or otherwise -- in a pen and paper tabletop RPG. The encounter is constructed with a number of variables, potential abilities and tactics, in mind, and meant to reside at a particular level of difficulty. However, the player has the ability to discover a path through the encounter which is not intended, which could even break the encounter. Even something intended to be a challenge can theoretically be trivialized, even if that ability is not intended.
This is the chaotic dance, the unpredictable give-and-take, risk-and-reward as different systems interweave and create endless possibilities.
About Difficulty
Having covered some about engagement and how that might come into play, now seems a reasonable time to wrap back around to difficulty.
Different people will experience difficulty in disparate ways and will have varying preferences on the matter; hence, one cannot always please every person, which leads to arguments in circles when based entirely on preference.
However, as noted previously, the idea of the chaotic dance can open up possibilities for individuals to get around even encounters designed to be difficult. And, given individuals finding different things easier or harder, opening multiple planned avenues for success makes it likely someone will find one of those easier than the others.
That said, it cannot be guaranteed someone out there won't find an encounter or puzzle prohibitively challenging -- consider the disparate opinions on
Breath of the Wild itself, from easy to hard and everything in between.
I find a planned difficulty progression overall to be beneficial (and consider the myriad systems providing unending opportunities to break encounters), with numerous playgrounds of low-risk environments strewn throughout, but also some areas -- likely clearly indicated through environmental cues -- more challenging.
The key, however, remains levels of engagement. Without that, it makes little difference whether something is easy or hard; it would drag on in monotony either way.