The Legend of Zelda: Breath of Wild changed the Zelda formula forever. It truly brought the series into the open-world genre, and it made exploring Hyrule fun, engaging, and breathtaking. It was not just a revolutionary step for the franchise, but it revolutionized open-world games in general. Breath of the Wild's world was designed in a way that encouraged exploration and discovery on the player's terms, and it made the player feel like they were actually on an adventure in a massive fantasy world. Tears of the Kingdom has expanded on that design philosophy in almost every way.
The long-awaited sequel to Breath of the Wild has a much bigger world, and it gives players even more tools and options for exploring Hyrule. The world is packed full of interesting areas to explore, side-quests to tackle, and monsters to fight. Players could wander aimlessly through Hyrule, ignoring the main story, and never get bored. As open-world games have become more and more popular, Tears of the Kingdom has raised the bar of what is expected of open-world games, and it has revealed some glaring issues with their design.
Tears of the Kingdom Makes Modern Open-World Games Look Barren
As technology has progressed, it has become easier for games to be set in an open world, and that, in theory, gives players more options and control over their gameplay experience. Unfortunately, not every game uses open-world design to its fullest potential. Many modern open-world games either feel extremely empty or present all the interesting places, side-quests, and enemies on a map. This sometimes makes the process of accomplishing all of these things feel like completing a checklist rather than engaging in an open-world adventure. Tears of the Kingdom avoids this pitfall in a variety of ways, and the game and genre are better for it.
The game doesn't give players a list of interesting areas on their map. Instead, it packs the world full of interesting places that beckon players to explore them. When the player follows their interest to an area, they encounter other interesting spots, enemies, shrines, or stables. There is always something to discover in Tears of the Kingdom.
Beyond that, Tears of the Kingdom gives the player enough abilities to have fun outside exploring and completing the main story missions. Players can have a terrific time just experimenting with Links's abilities in Tears of the Kingdom as they apply to everything that can be found in Hyrule. Even the systems like the controversial weapon durability force players to get creative with how they explore and survive in the world, and that leads to other fun and exciting gameplay moments.
More Open-World Games Need Richer Worlds to Explore
It often feels like many open-world games have an open world just because it is trendy, and the technology allows it. More and more open-world games feel empty or filled with an overwhelming amount of collectibles. Neither of these makes the world fun to explore, and it creates a sense of tedium in the gameplay. While the map markers, quest logs, and map towers are meant to help a player, they can make the game feel like a chore. Many developers set games in an open world that doesn't take advantage of the design. They throw players into a massive sandbox, but they don't give them the tools to have fun in it. Just because a game can have an open world doesn't mean that it should.
Nintendo has always thought carefully about the design of its games and made sure any new mechanic or feature makes the experience better. Tears of the Kingdom and Breath of the Wild are perfect examples of Nintendo working diligently to make sure an open world betters the Zelda series. It guarantees that the world becomes key to the gameplay experience. More open-world games need to take this design philosophy to heart because not having an open world is better than adding one to a game that doesn't need it. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom should be a shining example to developers of how to create a fun open-world game.