Discussion In your opinion which style is classic Zelda? Zelda 1 or A Link to the Past?

[Nintendianajones64]

Breath of the Wild plays nothing like Zelda 1 at all (despite the superficial similarities on the surface).

Zelda 1 actually has handcrafted level design with an actual intended difficulty curve; and progression mechanics with an ever expanding set of items that allow for enhanced traversal and ever expanding combat mechanics and puzzle solving gameplay (however basic it may be in Zelda 1). BOTW is an Ubisoft Open World game with half of its mechanics stolen from Minecraft; there is no mechanical progression past the Great Plateau, there are no dungeons and there is no semblance of handcrafted level design outside of the factory produced shrines (all of which are completely disconnected from the rest of the game and have a completely flat difficulty curve applied to all of them).

Zelda 1 and ALTTP have a hell of a lot more in common than Zelda 1 and BOTW do; hell, even if we consider the notion of "player freedom", ALTTP's dungeons can be completed in almost any order you want once you reach the Dark World! (despite having an intended order).

I disagree wholeheartedly with every single thing you wrote. The first 4 dungeons in a Link to the Past have to be completed in order for example. BOTW's entire world is meticulously hand crafted. To suggest it's not is a complete fabrication. And please tell me specifically what Breath of the Wild "stole" from Minecraft lol

But I will agree BOTW has even more freedom than Zelda 1. Nintendo obviously used Zelda 1 as a springboard and then expanded on it. Anyone that watches the GDC for Breath of the Wild can clearly see Zelda 1's influence on Breath of the Wild. The director of Breath of the Wild talks repeatedly about "rediscovering Zelda's essence" and in thinking about it returned to Zelda 1's map as his primary inspiration.


For anyone that thinks Breath of the Wild's world is in any way auto generated please watch that video. Nintendo spent years hand crafting Hyrule in Breath of the Wild down to the last korok. To believe otherwise does a great disservice to Nintendo's design team.

 

[jnWake]

I hope at some point you realize saying "first 4 dungeons are linear" is not a counterargument to "final dungeons are non-linear". It'd be like someone saying BotW is linear because you have to clear the Great Plateau first.

 

[Nintendianajones64]

I hope at some point you realize saying "first 4 dungeons are linear" is not a counterargument to "final dungeons are non-linear". It'd be like someone saying BotW is linear because you have to clear the Great Plateau first.

False equivalence. 4/12 dungeons in A Link to the Past have to be completed in order, that's at least 1/3 of the entire game. Even more if you don't count 12 dungeons.

Whereas BOTW has 120 Shrines and at least 4 dungeons (Devine Beasts), not counting all the other locations like Hyrule Castle, the 3 mazes, etc. only 4 shrines out of 120 are locked to the Great Plateau.