Open world fatigue

Adapted from a Cohost post made on 2023 June 2.

I wrote this after beating Tears of the Kingdom (TOTK)

Like Breath of the Wild (BOTW) before it, this game could be played for hundreds of hours (if I had the energy). Maybe it’s too much too soon. Maybe my tastes have changed. I can see how Nintendo has really analyzed “flow state” and optimized BOTW and TOTK to keep you in them as long as possible. You’re constantly fluttering between hundreds of small objectives in this game, checking off yet another thing from your task list. This is both a good things and a bad thing, in my opinion.

I miss 2D Zelda

I wish this wasn’t at the cost of what I used to love about Zelda. Having more rigid puzzle rooms and the intricacies of dungeons. Boss fights that were tough and rewarding. Constantly earning new abilities. Both BOTW and TOTK give you basically everything right out of the gate, and the only thing you could really add later on is knowledge about how to wield your existing tools. This is cool but I don’t prefer it. I love collecting the new loot from every dungeon in older Zelda games, and I love how the rigid order of dungeons meant that each dungeon could build upon the previous one in terms of difficulty or puzzle mechanics.

Fear of linearity

Modern game design seems to be so scared of linearity, but i think a linear level structure connected to a larger world that can be explored is a fantastic structure. It pains me to see Zelda throw out its fantastic formula for another one that doesn’t please me as much. I’m happy for all the people that love BOTW and TOTK, but I just keep wishing they were different kinds of games (in particular, 2D Zelda games like Link to the Past, Oracle of Ages, Oracle of Seasons, and Link’s Awakening).

Where are the indie Zelda-likes?

We’ve seen the “Metroidvania” genre explode in the indie scene, but I’m not sure there’s that many Zelda-likes? I liked Ittle Dew, but not enough to buy the sequel. And I had pretty much the same experience with Blossom Tales.