What's Wrong with The Legend of Zelda? Part1 - Overworld

[Mr Khan]

Dodece said:


I think I am being confusing so I will explain through an example. Let us boil down Zelda into a sort of synopsis. Your character has to travel to a dozen dungeons in chronological order. In fact even if you could go to a later dungeon. You probably could not get in, and even if you could you could not do anything. Anyway here is the point you enter the dungeon fighting creatures as you go, and first on the agenda is find the treasure which is a weapon or a tool. You may even need to find a master key. Then you use these items to get to the boss, and use your new item to kill said boss. Once you do that you get a reward, and you use your new item to access the next dungeon. Where you repeat it all over again.

This is Zelda in a nutshell it is entirely linear in design, and thus must be in presentation. A valid over world means that you could actually grow outside of dungeons, but what good would it do you, because its still going to be designed as if you hadn't done anything in the over world at all. In fact the design doesn't even allow for true leveling. Accomplishment in the game is dictated by getting items that solve puzzles to progress.

You can be linear and explorative without going full-on sandbox, though. The solution in this case is one of Metroidvania. A contiguous world you can navigate, but not fully navigate without certain items. Thus the game herds you in the right direction while still retaining at least the illusion of an open world. A contiguous design would encourage a total sense of exploration, as well. Imagine dungeons having multiple entrances, and then the whole world is all intermingled.