By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
psychicscubadiver on 08 November 2018
Edit Thread
curl-6 said:

Part 2 of Arlo's series on BOTW, focussing on presentation. He really nails a lot of what makes the game so special.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gfQCeX3p50&t=4s

Great to see a fellow Arlo fan. He makes quality content.

HoloDust said:
curl-6 said:

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.

Hm, I don't know, honestly, I really went to towers mostly just for the map - I tend not to like any handholding, but I do need some sort of map...at least in bigger worlds such as BotW. However, I don't find BotW maps particularly good, IMO they show too much for my liking.

While we're at maps, ability to put custom marker would be nice, along with text as reminder (that you can read when you hover over it) - something that some old games did as well.

I actually really loved the towers. Filling in a blank map just satisfies me so the first thing I did once I was done with the Great Plateau was to run directly to every single tower and complete it without deviation. Only once I had all those did I start to adventure like normal. Of course, that's a personal quirk as I did something similar with all of the map squares of the Great Sea back in Wind Walker.