Tag: zelda

Six Years before Breath of the Wild, Dark Souls Reinvented The Legend of Zelda

Posted on by Chris in Criticism, Video Games, Writing

But the bond between Dark Souls and Ocarina of Time runs far deeper than their initial obtuseness—to a point where the first Soulborne game feels like a crystallization of the first 3D Zelda’s design ethos. Both present the player with complex, interlocking worlds; spaces that revel in a secret, paradoxical linearity that curves and bends and doubles back on itself, that focuses on shortcuts and secret paths to optimize the player’s path forward. In Ocarina, those are its dungeons; in Dark Souls, that’s the design philosophy behind the entire world.

A Reading: The Shared Trauma of Life is Strange and Ocarina of Time

Posted on by Chris in Criticism, Video Games, Writing

Each episode of Dontnod Entertainment's Life is Strange begins with a disclaimer—that you, the player, are about to make choices that will affect the characters' past, present, and future. And while the latter two seem like common sense in a branching path game, the first made me wonder. Was I about to see that storied … Continue reading A Reading: The Shared Trauma of Life is Strange and Ocarina of Time →

An Exploration of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Part V: The Heroes’ Legacy

Posted on by Chris in Reviews, Video Games, Writing

So Breath of the Wild is the apex of open-world design. It's filled with secrets, and it makes exploration itself feel rewarding. Its narrative has depth and resonance, and its characters feel three-dimensional and relatably real. It takes the tropes of post-apocalyptic fiction to a new level—depicting a world not irradiated and destroyed, but retaken by wilderness. And in … Continue reading An Exploration of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Part V: The Heroes’ Legacy →

An Exploration of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Part IV: The Post-Post-Apocalypse

Posted on by Chris in Reviews, Video Games, Writing

I've spent far too long now extolling Breath of the Wild as the best that open-world game design has to offer, but open-world games pose a huge narrative challenge for developers trying to tell a coherent story. Because the game's events can be played out in any order, it's quite difficult to build a satisfying, well-plotted narrative, especially … Continue reading An Exploration of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Part IV: The Post-Post-Apocalypse →

An Exploration of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Part III: Into the Wild

Posted on by Chris in Reviews, Video Games, Writing

So Breath of the Wild is open world in the best sense of the term; it presents you with a vast world to explore, where everything you see can be reached, every mountain climbed, every river sailed, every canyon traversed... but so what? I've extolled its world design and its exploration mechanics and rambled about its well-crafted mapmaking, … Continue reading An Exploration of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Part III: Into the Wild →

An Exploration of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Part II: “Open World”

Posted on by Chris in Reviews, Video Games, Writing

In modern game design, "open-world" has become something of a buzzword; after series like GTA and Elder Scrolls popularized the genre, developers (especially Ubisoft) embraced it and began to churn out game after game after game in that mold. Open-world games, in short, discard the notion of linear progression and instead throw the player into what is … Continue reading An Exploration of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Part II: “Open World” →

An Exploration of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Part I: A Genealogy

Posted on by Chris in Reviews, Video Games, Writing

Rarely, if ever, does a game like Breath of the Wild live up to its expectations. I still remember the first time I watched the trailer for what was then known only as "the Wii U Zelda"—a mysterious, supposedly open-world title that Nintendo had spent almost three years developing for its flagging console. It starts with a black … Continue reading An Exploration of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Part I: A Genealogy →