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curl-6 on 09 May 2023
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HoloDust said:
curl-6 said:

I don't really see how classic gated progression could be implemented without compromising the open-ended "go anywhere, do anything" nature of BOTW though. The two run counter to one another.

Well, Zelda 1 is that type of game - it's open-ended exploration, it's just that you won't be able to progress after certain point if you don't get what you need. This gives players more structure and sense of progression and developers a way to control how challenges scale. Yes, it is a bit more restricted than "go anywhere, do anything from the start", but you can't actually go anywhere and do anything in BotW from the start either - there are still some steps you need to complete, even after you get down from plateau, if you want to actually go anywhere.

Zelda is not Minecraft, which is epitome of free-roam open world sandbox - and even Minecraft has prerequisites before you go off to "finish" it (AKA kill the Ender Dragon).

A huge part of BOTW's design though was that you didn't have to progress in a certain order or a particular way.

After the great plateau you could wander off in any direction to explore and progress freely without the game stopping you and saying "sorry, come back later." For example, you could do the 4 divine beasts in any order you wanted, or even go straight to Ganon. This freedom was central to BOTW, and messing with it would risk turning off the crowd that elevated it from a 3-8 million selling series to a 30 million selling series.