Once Zelda goes open world, will it ever go back? *EDITED*

[Nuvendil]

HylianYoshi said:

Nuvendil said:
Just played Wind Waker HD and it was quite open world IMO. It had side messions and optional stuff you could do. Linear main story progression doesn't mean the game isn't open world. Elder Scrolls games have linear main story progression.

And after Wind Waker you had Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword. So sure, it could go back.

I don't really even consider Wind Waker a true open world game. It technically is, I know, but the oceans are just one big loading screen, getting you from place to place. It doesn't seamlessly blend what an overworld is and just what the game as a whole is.

I've played almost every open world game form there is, from your infamous and Arkham sandboxes to your Elder Scrolls and I personally feel Wind Waker qualifies for the open world classification.  The ocean is big but not entirely empty, with treasures, enemies, platforms, etc breaking things up, serving as objectives for certain missions etc.  The only difference between Wind Waker's ocean and, say, Oblivion's Cyrodiil is the density of stuff and enemy encounters.