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Game Maker's Toolkit Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - An Open World Adventure

How spoilery is this?

A bit. Basically it relies on info any player will become aware of after leaving the Plateau, and in particular,
Kakariko village
. It won't give away too many story points after that, but some stuff will get name dropped casually.

I do think the point regarding how the final boss battle, as it's available from the very beginning, frames the decision not to deal with it yet. It becomes less 'I'm ignoring the impending end of the world' as with say, Oblivion, but more 'I'm going to be ready so I won't fail'.
 

Smeags

Member
Fantastic video. Loved the way he compared and contrasted different open world tropes/designs and how Nintendo looked back and outward for inspiration and utmost refinement.

And hes so right about the games invisible hand. Its a sense of adventure and growth/training against the games only goal: to defeat Ganon. So much trust is given to the player because of the confidence in their own design, and it works so damn well.

Oh, and emotions swell every time I hear the Rito village theme.
 

ghostjoke

Banned
Video is exactly as I expected considering his other videos on Zelda and open worlds, but it's a really good, concise video on why Zelda succeeds as an open world. Maybe more than any other medium, less can be a lot more in gaming.
 
Love me some Game Maker's Toolkit! Just started playing BotW (on Wii U) yesterday and I've been having a lot of fun so far. As long as the video doesn't show lots of footage of the main dungeons or genuine one-of-a-kind secrets, then I'll give it a watch after work.
 

Hattori

Banned
great video, it's quite funny how everything he covered in past videos, Nintendo totally nailed i.e. Waypoints, meaningful content in an open world, quiet introspection in between quests.
 

Crayolan

Member
His points about how this game feels like more of adventure than any other Zelda are so true. Just seeing something in the distance, thinking "what's that??" or "I wanna go there!", and then having a crazy trip that gets constantly sidetracked on your way there is so satisfying.
 

Hattori

Banned
His points about how this game feels like more of adventure than any other Zelda are so true. Just seeing something in the distance, thinking "what's that??" or "I wanna go there!", and then having a crazy trip that gets constantly sidetracked on your way there is so satisfying.
yup, I was shieldboarding and before I know it I'm surrounded by guardians
in an abandoned temple.
 

Falchion

Member
I get excited every time I get the Youtube notification for an upload from him. I was honestly expecting having to wait quite a bit longer before getting a BotW video.
 

DooMAGE

Member
Very good analysis.
It's amazing the freedom you have in this game, the Horizon Zero Dawn bit was very true sadly.
 

Copper

Member
I really hope other companies are taking notes on BotW. He pretty much nails my opinion on the world view.

One of the things I appreciated the most was how the side quests are done in a way to make you think and solve on your own where you need to go or what you need to do. It feels much more rewarding that way and it is something I wish more developers would do in games.

As much as I like Witcher 3, I was not a fan of how you had to follow a dotted line or a stink trail to solve the majority of the quests.
 
Very good analysis.
It's amazing the freedom you have in this game, the Horizon Zero Dawn bit was very true sadly.

Yup I just started playing horizon yesterday after putting 100 hours into Zelda. I did exactly what he did in his video and was disappointed. It's gonna be tough playing traditional open world games after Zelda.
 

DrArchon

Member
Nails it on how BotW handles directing players on quests. I love that so many of the quests require the player to look at the map and their environment instead of just going where the marker on the map tells them to go.

I think I fully grasped this in the Leviathan Bones side quest.
You're told to get pictures of 3 unique leviathan skeletons from 3 different regions. You're told which regions they are in, but they don't put markers on your map telling you exactly where to go. So you have to look at the map and try and figure out where they are from there, except for the last one, which can't be seen from the map. But, because the game isn't unfair, the quest giver tells you to check out caves to find it. Again, no markers. Just a general hint to get you started.

Same with the Memories quest, where I found myself looking back and forth from picture to map to try and piece together where in the overworld these pictures were taken. I felt like I was doing real detective work and not just going where the game told me to go.
 

ArchAngel

Member
Damn, I'm now 65h+ in the game and still I've never seen SO MANY places you can see in the videos. Need to go back and watch closer ...
 

Formless

Member
I'm probably over 80 hrs into the game with all the shrines completed and yesterday was shown a minigame I totally missed.
 

Plum

Member
He puts why I love the game into words a lot better than I possibly could. Turning off the UI and removing map markers is probably the best thing I could have done. It led me to doing stuff such as going to
Goron City
the completely wrong way without the protection a stable before the intended path gives you and having to quickly run to the place's Shrine whilst Link slowly, but surely, burnt to death. The game managed to make stories out of the mere traversal of its open worlds, not just what you do in said open world.
 

phanphare

Banned
that was a great video and really puts on display how this world is so engaging

as many others have said this is the truest adventure game I've ever played
 
that was a great video and really puts on display how this world is so engaging

as many others have said this is the truest adventure game I've ever played

Yes. Great video indeed. It nails why this is such a masterpiece which hopefully inspires other devs.

Good work, Brown.
 
Another great video from Mark Brown. It does a great job explaining why BotW is so great. I'd expect no less from him.

If you're on the fence regarding this game, watch the video. If you're still not convinced, this game isn't for you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgBvbX1wTRA

I also recommend watching Turbo Button's Video on the extreme flexibility of BoTW's item systems.

Man, thanks for posting this. Great stuff. Heck, this is just as essential a watch as the Game Makers Toolkit video!
 

Rodin

Member
Both this and turbo button's video nailed it. Listening to people who know what they're talking about is refreshing.
 

Luigiv

Member
Yeah saw this last night when it first went up for Patreon backers. As always, a great vid from Mark. I look forward to Zelda Maker's Toolkit continuing.
 
The top comment of "I want to watch it but don't want to get spoiled" Has many replies about it not being spoilery. But Mark himself commented that he shouldn't watch it, and just experience the game totally blind. So make of that what you will.
 
Nice, succinct analysis. Really enjoyed this video. Fuckin' love this game, I think I may have made one or two posts about other games in the last couple of weeks lol
 
Finally watched it and the analysis was spot on. Great video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgBvbX1wTRA

I also recommend watching Turbo Button's Video on the extreme flexibility of BoTW's item systems.

This was great, thanks for sharing. I hated having all these cool stuff and not having anything to do with them. The worst was the spinner from TP. I was so excited when I found one track somewhere in the overworld that utilized it.
 

Chaos17

Member
His points about how this game feels like more of adventure than any other Zelda are so true. Just seeing something in the distance, thinking "what's that??" or "I wanna go there!", and then having a crazy trip that gets constantly sidetracked on your way there is so satisfying.

Agree and that's something that a lot of people seems to have lost, the feeling of an adventure and that's sad.
 

En-ou

Member
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgBvbX1wTRA

I also recommend watching Turbo Button's Video on the extreme flexibility of BoTW's item systems.
Both videos are amazing because they are logical in breaking down the ingenuity of the design principles unlike some other people (including developers) who lack very basic insight on why certain principles were used in setting the foundation for the game world.

Also a great watch is the GI developer weigh in https://youtu.be/hk-EnbS42dM
 
Love me some Game Maker's Toolkit! Just started playing BotW (on Wii U) yesterday and I've been having a lot of fun so far. As long as the video doesn't show lots of footage of the main dungeons or genuine one-of-a-kind secrets, then I'll give it a watch after work.

Hm, I'd wait a bit. It doesn't show much of dungeons but you might want to discover/figure out some stuff on your own.
 
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