The Official Legend of Zelda Thread: Nintendo Announces TLOZ: Echoes of Wisdom

[curl-6]

HoloDust said:

curl-6 said:

The point is that you get a high vantage point from which to spot and mark out landmarks like shrines and camps and stables for future reference, instead of the Ubisoft approach where climbing a tower just fills in all the landmarks on the map for you.

The towers also give a greater sense of progression than just buying maps as they give you a goal you can see from afar to strive for and conquer.

Yeah, they are definitely better than Ubi crap - although they are directly influenced by them.
You can get vantage point from anywhere high enough, you don't really need towers for that...IMO, towers in BotW are just forcing you to go to them for map, since there's no way acquiring them any other way.

I like map buying (preferably of different qualities, thus different prices) + compass approach the most (like in some older games) - they don't even show you where you are on the map, you actually need to take in your surroundings and learn landmarks...but I guess that would be just a bit too much for mass market game in this day and age.

Yeah I suspect the mass market would balk at that somewhat. 

BOTW does push a little in that direction by making the maps show only topography and making the player fill in the landmarks manually. You don't strictly need a tower for this as you can do it from, say, a mountaintop, but I feel like having the towers still fills an important role not just in getting maps but also in that they're something you can see from a distance and pick out as a goal to work towards. 

I for one got immense satisfaction from setting my sights on a distant tower, journeying across the unmapped wilderness to reach it, fighting through whatever challenge is put in place around it, and being rewarded by lighting up a big slice of the map. So in that regard I think that they're crucial to giving the player a sense of structure and accomplishment, so that the world doesn't feel aimless.