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Wyrdness said:
irstupid said:

Anytime someone tries to downplay Zelda as something now new, or revolutionary, I always like the comparison video between BotW and Horizon. (this happens due to them being both released at same time, but can be replaced with 90% of other open world games)

The video showcases many of the same things happening in both worlds and how it's much more immersive in the Zelda world.

1. Link and Aloy swimming in a lake. In Zelda, the water ripples realistically, and fish move away, ect. It Horizon, the water does nothing and you clip through fish.

2. Walking through grass. Same thing basically. Most of the grass in horizon is static and doesn't realistically move away.

3. Shooting arrows. There is arc and physics involved in Zelda arrows, in Horizon it shoots like a bullet and will go in a perfect line forever.

4. Throw stuff in BotW, physics makes it roll down to where it should. Throw a rock in horizon and it sticks ot say a cliff wall like it has glue on it.

4. Link can climb anything, Aloy can be stumped by a 1 foot rock ledge at times.

Ect.

All may be small minor things, but each little thing can slowly take a person out of the world being 'real' I mean especially the last one I listed. How many times playing an open world game do you find yourself swearing when you can't cross some minor ledge that is total bullshit. Or where you try and get to an area by cheating the games mechanics by jumping backwards or at angles, ect ot try and get over that little hill that you should be able to.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEGWtyJAkO0

Then you have the biggest, yet smallest change imo. The shiekah towers vs other open world games towers. Same logic, climb big tower, get view, know world map. The smallest difference, yet biggest difference is in most open world games when you do said thing it then immediately clutters your map with points of interests and tasks to do. Even the most recent spiderman does this. Grab a police tower thing and bam, your map just gave you a list of a dozen missions you can do, backpacks, poi, ect.

Zelda on the other hand, just fills in map with a classic map look. Elevation, rivers, ect. That's it. It's still 100% up to you to go and explore what you see on the screen versus chasing an icon on a map. The map only adds icon to the map if you add them yourself, or after you discover something like a shrine. It brings you more into the game, cause you are exploring yourself versus chasing then next icon.

That's one layer of BOTW another layer is shown in the video Curl posted in the Nindomination thread (embedded below) where even a year and a half after the game's release people are still creating new tricks to use in the game and they are practical as well, most open world games you don't really see this. The game doesn't tell about these tricks they're just there in the game as a result of the open free mechanics so the result is a bit like Melee where all these mechanics can be played off each other to create tricks for open play, it's not just an open world sandbox it's oddly enough a sandbox for game mechanics as well.

                   

It's kind of funny how we are so amazed by things that are just normal common things in BotW. For years, we kept looking at games and going "omg, it looks just like real life" but with BotW we are going "omg it acts just like real life"

People praise the no tutorial mode in BotW and how it makes you learn things and figure out things on your own. I say there is no need cuase the world just works. If you think like the world is real and ask a question "I wonder if I can do this" the answer is usually always yes as long as it is bound in the laws of physics that we all know. You know an object in motion tends ot stay in motion unless acted upon by another force, ect. Those classic laws and gravity we all just instinctually know.