Most of the buzz surrounding the upcoming Legend of Zelda Wii U title is about its reportedly “huge, seamlessly unfolding” open world. Game Producer Eiji Aonuma seemed confused by media and fan reaction to Zelda Wii U’s open world, telling Gamereactor Magazine:
“Zelda games have always allowed you to roam and explore a huge world. What’s changed now is that the hardware has progressed to the point that you can now explore this vast world seamlessly; the underpinning of the game hasn’t changed.”
Aonuma has a point, the original Legend of Zelda overworld was huge.
And it allowed you to explore freely.
In fact, the original LoZ was arguably one of the first open world games. Many elements of modern open world games – like non-linear game play and interaction with the in-game environment – find their roots in the original LoZ.
It’s just that now, as Aonuma says, the Wii U hardware allows Nintendo to create a bigger, more immersive world to explore.
A Matter Of Perspective
The original LoZ overworld was laid out in an 8×16 grid; each square on the grid was one viewable game screen.
The game played in a top-down perspective that meant you could only see one screen – or square on the grid – at a time.
Not exactly seamless, but these were the limitations of the 8-bit NES. You could see the screen you were on, but not the adjacent ones, which forced you to tread blindly from screen to screen at times.
So how were we supposed to find our way around when we couldn’t see what was in front of or behind us?
They gave us a map.
The original LoZ came with a small portion of the map included in the game booklet, but a full scale map was necessary if you planned on making any headway. Not having an in-game map may have been another limitation of the NES hardware, but in retrospect it feels like Nintendo made a deliberate choice.
Taking the map out of the game and putting it in the player’s hands cut to the underpinning of the original LoZ: Adventure!
Instead of an interactive map that did the navigation for us we had to pull out the physical map and interpret it ourselves; figuring out where we were, where we wanted to go, plotting a course to get there, and then following it.
Aonuma addressed his views on cartography in the Gamereactor interview:
“A map isn’t something you keep tucked away in your bag, it’s by holding it in your hand and being able to constantly check it as you move forward step by step that gives you that sense of adventure.“
Adventure you say?
Maybe that’s why Aonuma led with a demonstration of the map during the Zelda Wii U First Look at the 2014 Game Awards last December.
So the Zelda Wii U overworld is big, got it, but Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword taught us that big doesn’t necessarily mean fun or interesting.
It’s big, but what are we going to do there?
Get Lost
Both Aonuma and original LoZ director Shigeru Miyamoto equate adventure with exploration.
Miyamoto has said that he drew inspiration for the original LoZ from his boyhood wanderings through the forests of Kyoto:
“I went hiking and found a lake. It was quite a surprise for me to stumble upon it. When I traveled around the country without a map, trying to find my way, stumbling on amazing things as I went, I realized how it felt to go on an adventure like this.”
When Aonuma told Gamereactor that the underpinning of the Zelda games hasn’t changed, he was referring to the sense of adventure that Miyamoto wanted in the original LoZ.
So what can we glean about Zelda Wii U from the devices Miyamoto used in the original LoZ to create a sense of adventure?
Keep your map in hand and prepare to get lost.
And honestly isn’t that what the original LoZ experience was all about? Getting lost and bombing random walls? Who knows how many 8 year olds gave up because they never found Dungeon 8?
Which bush do you burn? Just spend a few hours marking up the map and burn them all.
Adventure!
