Perhaps no two titles have done more to advance the state of open-world game design thanElden Ringand the recently releasedThe Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. While the former showcased how the density of open-world spaces was more valuable than sheer size,Zelda: Tears of the Kingdomhas now established that open-world games can embrace verticality and start considering traversal in a much more interpretive way. It’s now hard to imagine a future where open-world games don’t borrow heavily from each of these titles in terms of the design and scope of their game spaces.
Between games likeGenshin ImpactandSonic Frontiers,it’s clear thatZelda: Breath of the Wild’s lush green spacesinfluenced other open-world games that came after it, and now it follows thatZelda:Tears of the Kingdomwill do the same in the wake of its release and stellar critical reception.Elden Ringwill certainly influence a whole host of other open-world and role-playing games that seek to imitate its immersion and depth, but FromSoftware’s open-world masterpiece has also arguably left an indelible mark on the latestZeldatitle. Both games have pushed the envelope, setting a high bar for future open-world experiences.
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Elden Ring and Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Trust the Player’s Instincts
Despite having an original novelty that grew on players, open-world games have become somewhat formulaic and predictable in their design. What was originally presented as freedom for the player to explore an unrestricted game space gradually became a series of collect-a-thons and waypoint pursuits across ever-expanding maps.Ubisoft’sAssassin’s CreedandFar Cryserieseach have been accused of unnecessary bloat in their attempts at following the publisher’s particular vision of open-world game design, which ironically restricts player freedom by shuttling them from map marker to map marker.
Part of the revelatory aspect ofElden RingandZelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s worldsis that they trust the player’s instincts to chart their own course without anything more than subtle nudges in the right direction. Further, each game’s worlds are so densely packed and alive with opportunities that they invite repeated detours from the main quest in hopes that the player will simply explore the world the developers have created. In this way, both games actually call to mind the initial sense of adventure gamers felt in 1987’sThe Legend of Zelda, where players are dropped into a map with no incentive or direction other than exploring the surroundings and stumbling upon the critical path.
FromSoftware and Nintendo Created Worlds as Dense as They Are Spacious
Instead of being preoccupied with creating worlds that are simply larger than other open-world games,Elden Ringfocused more on making sure that nearly every square inch of the Lands Between is densely packed with secrets to uncover, buildings or dungeons to explore, and enemies to encounter.Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s open worldtakes a similar approach in that each traversal challenge becomes similar to a mini-puzzle from a previousZeldatitle’s dungeon. Only now, they’re scattered all over each of the game’s maps and are punctuated by engaging combat encounters that have the cumulative effect of making the moment-to-moment gameplay consistently rewarding.
Zelda: Tears of the Kingdomappears to also have taken some cues fromElden Ringin its use of above-ground and underground spaces that operate differently and change the way the player needs to navigate spaces. Considering that each game could now be considered the gold standard of open-world game design, maybe other developers will take note of bothElden RingandZelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s commercial and critical successes. The impetus of open worlds in games is the twin sense of freedom and pure potential, and FromSoftware and Nintendo have just rewritten the playbook to show how it could (and should) be done.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdomis available now on Switch.
