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Aonuma on BotW: "it's OK if there's pocket of emptiness" "Getting lost is fun."

B

BY2K

Membero Americo
I really want to bring attention to this Hands-on preview by IGN because there's quite a few nice quotes by Aonuma in there about the game. http://ca.ign.com/articles/2016/06/...-of-zelda-breath-of-the-wild-hands-on-preview

On filling the world with things:

“We talked a little bit about the idea of density, how dense to make this big world,” Aonuma explained. The team realized that filling the vast landscape with things to do and explore would be a lot of work. As the team experienced moving around on horseback or climbing up to a high place to paraglide down, they realized that their desire to see what's ahead of the next horizon grew. At the same time, the team realized some moments should be subtle as you explore. “We realized that it's OK if there's pocket of emptiness,” he said.
Click to expand...

Dungeons having only one entrance:

Aonuma told us that, despite the non-linear format of the overall game, dungeons will still have only one entrance. “If there were multiple entrances it would be very confusing,” Aonuma said, “but how you get to that entrance is very different this time around.”
Click to expand...

On getting lost:

While developing Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Aonuma said he noticed something that never occurred to him before: Getting lost is fun. “In previous 3D titles, I thought that getting lost is a bad thing,” Aonuma admitted. Due to hardware restrictions, most 3D Zelda games stitched together a bunch of smaller made worlds with an entrance and exit. “Getting lost in those small worlds, it's not a loss of what to do but it's more of a directional loss,” he said. “I see the exit, you're going to end up at the same exit, but I can't figure out how to get there.”

“It's actually fun. It's a sense of discovery and as we're developing this, I thought to myself, "Maybe this is what it means to create a big world, to find out that getting lost is OK.”
Click to expand...


On Rupees:

“Rupees do exist,” he said, ”but the reason for their existence is a little different this time around. As you saw it's not about going to cutting down grass and collect rupees or find them in treasure chests but it's about collecting things and going to sell them and then using the rupees you get to buy new things.”
Click to expand...

Choosing the subtitle for the game:

Nintendo isn’t afraid to emphasize how different this adventure is from its predecessors, even in the game’s name. “Even the subtitle itself is different from previous Zelda titles,” Aonuma said. In past games of the series, he explained, Nintendo would use item names like Skyward Sword or character names Twilight Princess as the subtitle for a new game. For this project, Aonuma worked closely with Nate Bihldorff from Nintendo’s Treehouse over the span of many months before they landed on the name, Breath of the Wild. ”It took a while,” Bihldorff said, “We talked a lot about plot points and items and characters, but what we kept coming back to was that the world itself is really the soul of this game.”
Click to expand...

About towns and NPCs... and the Green Tunic:

He also wouldn’t talk about towns. “I can't share too much about villages because to tell you how the villages work, they're interconnected to the story and overall world.” Thankfully, Aonuma did tell us the upgrade path for equipment is “very Zelda-like” but that’s it. And what happened to Link’s green tunic? “I don't know... I wonder,” Aonuma said with a laugh.
Click to expand...
 
E

Exterminieren

Banned
That's so refreshing, considering that the last few 3D Zeldas have seemed terrified to let players not know where to go for so much as a second.
 
T

The Boat

Member
Reading some posts, some people seem to want every square inch of the ground to be covered with things and enemies.
 
G

GhostTrick

Banned
I agree. It's okay if there's pocket of emptiness. It doesnt make sense to have the whole map filled. But it's not okay to have pocket of content. I don't want a barren world.
 
C

Crayolan

Member
"Getting lost is fun" is something I never thought I'd hear from a Nintendo dev.

“We talked a lot about plot points and items and characters, but what we kept coming back to was that the world itself is really the soul of this game.”
Click to expand...
This is also great to hear.
 
B

BY2K

Membero Americo
Broken Joystick said:
Would love for Rupees to be given by trading in items you collect, instead of just finding them everywhere.
Click to expand...

As you saw it's not about going to cutting down grass and collect rupees or find them in treasure chests but it's about collecting things and going to sell them and then using the rupees you get to buy new things.”
Click to expand...

That's exactly the case. In the demo not a single one was found by cutting grass or breaking pots or opening chests.
 
B

Bots are better than you

Banned
I'd agree on the emptiness. Of course, there are regions that should have a certain amount of life in them, woods etc., but a desert region or some dead-frozen peaks should be barren.

Really like everything i see / read about the game. First time that OoT might fear for it's best 3D Zelda title. ^^
 
J

Jobbs

Banned
it's so weird. I was expecting tiny baby steps in the right direction but they took a giant leap. completely unexpected
 
Simbabbad

Simbabbad

Member
Jobbs said:
it's so weird. I was expecting tiny baby steps in the right direction but they took a giant leap. completely unexpected
Click to expand...
I have the exact same feeling. This game is exactly what I hoped Zelda would be one day, but here it happens all at once right after the dead end disaster that (IMO) Skyward Sword was.
 
B

Bulbasaur

Banned
I don't mind if it's not dense. After playing Xenoblade X, which had enemies absolutely everywhere, I actually welcome it.
 
E

EDarkness

Member
Having things to do in the world is one of the things I've had to think about in my own game. Granted it's nowhere near as big as this game, but we finally came to the same conclusion he had. Getting lost can be fun, because that's part of the whole exploring experience, and not every inch of the map needs to be filled with something. The world should feel natural and fairly organic. Looking for things is also what keeps things fresh. The key is providing interesting activities that drive the exploration. It seems like they've took that into consideration as well.
 
S

spliced

Member
I don't know about emptiness, I still remember one of the early complaints about OoT was that Hyrule Field was too big and empty.

Being lost is good because it means there is a sense of accomplishment when you discover the right way to go, you aren't just going through the motions going where you're told.
 
R

ramparter

Banned
spliced said:
I don't know about emptiness, I still remember one of the early complaints about OoT was that Hyrule Field was too big and empty.

Being lost is good because it means there is a sense of accomplishment when you discover the right way to go, you aren't just going through the motions going where you're told.
Click to expand...
OoT fields was really empty though, just some hidden holes scattered. This didnt seem to be the case here.
 
G

Galang

Banned
I like that enemies aren't popping up at every turn, but I feel like the actual design of said overworld still looks a tad barren. Everything else sounds great
 
F

Firemind

Member
spliced said:
I don't know about emptiness, I still remember one of the early complaints about OoT was that Hyrule Field was too big and empty.
Click to expand...
If Hyrule Fied is too big and empty, then Twilight Princess must be a wasteland. Let's hope they don't make the same mistake again.
 
O

orioto

Good Art™
I generally don't like playing Zelda, or at least i don't finish them cause my brain is kinda not compatible with the logic in them. I get frustrated with the freedom, the way you have to find where to go and what object to use (like that thing with the bottle of water in Ocarina). There has always been some kind of "just deal with it by yourself!" spirit in Zelda that is reminiscent of old pc games.

But strangely, if it could get a looot worse in this one, i'm really excited to play it cause it's also more flexible in a way. You can do a lot of things and in a lot of ways.

What i hope about the size of the world is that it's varied. When i see the demo, and the size of the actual world, i wonder how will they vary those natural environments. it should be amazing.
 
H

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
From the way the map works it doesn't look like it will be that hard to get "lost" at least how I'm thinking of the term. Also empty spaces can work in open world, Shadow of the Colossus relied upon this idea.
 
Coreda

Coreda

Member
The Boat said:
Reading some posts, some people seem to want every square inch of the ground to be covered with things and enemies.
Click to expand...

There's a difference between keeping the landscape visually interesting with foliage, land design, mountains, distant interest points, etc and merely filling it with things/enemies.

From the trailer they showcased several interesting places though others look a bit more barren. I guess it's to be seen how well the entire world has been designed, considering its scope.
 
D

Devilgunman

Member
I'm still remain optimistic about this game but also curious how this game will be reviewed. Nintendo finally bring their franchise into a genre that has been so matured from other developers for decades. It can't be helped that BotW will be directly compared to a masterpiece of the genre like the Witcher 3.
 
L

lewisgone

Member
The overworld wouldn't look nearly as beautiful as it does (or be nearly as large) if it wasn't a tad "barren". I like the pockets of emptiness. In a game about exploration, I much prefer the idea of looking and travelling across a relatively empty area for points of interest in the distance. The alternative is getting sidetracked every 5 seconds.

Personally I find the alternative a little overwhelming. It's why the recent Assassin's Creed games tire me out - I feel like I have to stop for all the collectables and side missions which makes traversing from one area to another can take hours the first time. I'm sure Zelda BotW will have both those things but they seem to be more spaced out, and personally I find the breathing room a good thing.
 
T

TrueBlue

Member
If they can strike a good balance between dense and "barren" areas in the world, that would go a long way to ensuring a consistently fun world to explore.

Based on the footage, I'm optimistic they can achieve this.
 
R

rhandino

Banned
Since you dont find rupees or heaets in the grass I wonder if they are going to tie it with the story and solething happened to the Minish (if I remember correctly they were the ones putting items on grass, boxes, rocks, etc...).
 
H

HandsomeCharles

Member
“Rupees do exist,” he said, ”but the reason for their existence is a little different this time around. As you saw it's not about going to cutting down grass and collect rupees or find them in treasure chests but it's about collecting things and going to sell them and then using the rupees you get to buy new things.”
Click to expand...


Deal-breaker. This is a sadistic approach. Adding in all that cuttable grass and putting nothing in it? What are they doing to me?!
 
B

Benzychenz

Member
I agree with him.

I like taking it slow as I explore game worlds like this, and having peaceful 'empty' areas helps with that.

Scatter out the enemies a bit please.
 
Glass Rebel

Glass Rebel

Member
The difference to Twilight Princess or Wind Waker is that BotW actually gives you enough tools to play with a world that is more interactive to boot. An open world doesn't have to be super dense with content, it just has to be engaging. Whether they manage to hook us for entire duration of the game is a different question though.

When I look at other open world games, FarCry 3 and MGSV come to mind instantly. In the beginning I was enjoying both about the same. I ended up putting over 71h into MGSV, FC3 however ran out of steam after the first island. It's all in how the moment-to-moment gameplay works.
 
Z

zoukka

Member
Devilgunman said:
I'm still remain optimistic about this game but also curious how this game will be reviewed. Nintendo finally bring their franchise into a genre that has been so matured from other developers for decades. It can't be helped that BotW will be directly compared to a masterpiece of the genre like the Witcher 3.
Click to expand...

Even these "masterpieces" have their flaws. Witcher has clunky combat, Fallout has too much filler/half assed game mechanics and balance, Elder Scrolls games have bad stories and balance issues.

There isn't a holy grail for open world games yet that pulls everything together (not saying Zelda is the one).
 
A

Ansatz

Member
The game contains more than enough substantial content to satisfy me, the only issue I have is the sheer size of the world.

I just hope there is some kind of system that keeps track of your progress, like how in OoT 3D a skulltula icon appears on the map when you find all skulltulas in an area so you don't continue exploring in vein. They could split the world into smaller regions, similar to Xenoblade X's hexagons. That and giving us effective methods of fast travel would help mitigate the fact that the world is massive.
 
W

Wolfgunblood Garopa

Member
Every new scene in the Treehouse reveal trailer had beautiful landscapes and the scale was great, but it jumped out at me how empty it looked. They're trying, and I'm sure it will still be a good game, but the competition in the open world space is a generation or more ahead. I'm not sure how Nintendo is going to meet players' expectations. For example, getting lost in an open world is not a novel concept for players anymore.
 
N

Nibel

Member
I just hope that this is like Red Dead Redemption where you have a good balance between memorable spaces that you can ride through and random quests or other content. I dislike how in some open-world games you have to jump off your mount every minute because there is something under every rock
 
D

Dagobert Duck

Member
HandsomeCharles said:
Deal-breaker. This is a sadistic approach. Adding in all that cuttable grass and putting nothing in it? What are they doing to me?!
Click to expand...

Will there be Rupees in pots though? :p

maybe there will be Hyrule police (just like GTA) and you will be chased by them when destroying pots... Hyrule Police Department...
 
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