Above: Breath of the Wild image courtesy of Nintendo.When we read the box quote that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was an "open-air adventure" here at Waypoint, we rolled our eyes a little. Then, as we had time with the game, it started to make sense. Breath of the Wild doesn't feel like most open-world games—it affords an unheard-of freedom compared to previous Zelda titles and above and beyond what we see in most open-world games, as cleverly gated as they can sometimes be.In a series of videos released this week, creators at Nintendo—including Producer Eiji Aonuma—go deep on the inspirations and design process behind the game.During the video on the open-air concept, Aonuma reveals that sense of freedom is something he wanted to explore in the previous main-series game, Skyward Sword, where Link could fly the skies above Hyrule (and dive into specific areas), but each land was discrete."You drop down to your destination within a limited area. I actually really wanted to explore the space that connected those areas, and I think it's really unfortunate that we weren't able to do that," he says in the video. "After all, people who play the Legend of Zelda games are often driven by their desire to explore."There's plenty of Wind Waker DNA in Breath of the Wild as well, but with a much vaster scope and scale. Director Hidemaro Fujibayashi notes right away that "breaking the conventions of the Zelda series was a goal right from the very start."I'm a huge fan of the approach—offering real freedom to the player and supporting it by ensuring that all directions offer fun, interesting things to see and do—and am still playing the game at every chance I get. It soundly solved many of the previous games' issues.You can watch all of the videos on Nintendo's YouTube channel. In addition to the "Open-Air" explainer, there are presentations on the story and characters and the genesis of the project.
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