
Thinking about Breath of the Wild got me thinking about my first experiences playing the classic NES titles as a little kid back in the late 80s. Although I didn’t know it back then, I was actually playing one of the very first “sandbox” games. It’s true: The Legend of Zelda on the NES was very much an open-ended game that let the player explore the overworld in near-entirety right from the get-go, visiting whatever dungeon they chose first and ultimately experiencing the game however they wanted to. While at first it’s tempting to pick up the wooden sword from the eponymous Old Man in the very first cave and then slog right off to Level 1 (you know, that dungeon inside an old dead tree), there are actually several other good options to consider. For example, I’ve personally found the more efficient way to begin the game is to be gathering two heart containers hidden in the overworld, getting the White Sword (Level 2) from the waterfall cave, and then visiting some of the secret money caves to get enough rupees to purchase the Blue Ring from the hidden merchant. Some would say this makes the game a bit too easy, but it basically means starting the dungeon crawling with twice the attack and defensive power at your disposal!

When Zelda: The Wind Waker first hit the Game Cube back in the early-2000s, I was really intrigued by the open sea aspect of the game. At the time, this was certainly a novel setting for any game, let alone a Zelda one, and once you got the King of Red Lions (your trusty sailboat!), you could freely explore the Great Sea at your own pace. Sometimes there would be areas you would be unable to fully explore without a certain tool at your disposal, but overall the game did a great job of making you feel like you had a lot of freedom to go where you wished.
Nintendo must have shared some of my thoughts on the truly open experience of the first title because Breath of the Wild’s story and setting seem to be a throwback to that classic adventure. From what we can tell about the game’s story so far, this seems to be in the “Era of Decline” for Hyrule, set perhaps a century or more after the events of the two classic NES titles. The land from the original adventure (and where the Kingdom of Hyrule is centered in a majority of the other games) here is a somewhat wild and desolate region now known as the Great Plateau, with the run-down ruins of Hyrule Castle and iconic locales like Lake Hylia and the Temple of Time dotting the landscape. The Kingdom itself seems to have relocated north of the Death Mountain region (as evidenced by the towns and locations in Zelda II), and the Old Man in this game’s story even comments that this was once the birthplace of the Kingdom of Hyrule. Yet, according to Nintendo, the areas seen in the demo at E3 2016 only account for 2% of the overall game, so many people believe we will later explore North Hyrule and many other regions that we’ve never seen before.
Whether the open-world setting will be the best move or not will remain to be seen, but I am extremely hopeful that this will be a grand, fantastic adventure that will breathe new life into a series that has a tendency to fall into formulaic patterns. Call me nostalgic, but I’m really looking forward to diving into these classic lands again, enjoying both the new content and the throwbacks to my early childhood.
Thinking about the original Zelda title really brings about some good retro-gaming vibes with me, so I’d like to do some pieces on some of my favorite classic video game series, some hidden gems that you may never have played, and some long-overlooked game consoles that I think you guys would enjoy reading about. I’m someone that enjoys the classics just as much as the latest, greatest tech and gaming experiences, so hopefully we can get some retro goodness out there really soon!
ENTERING THE ZELDA SANDBOX
Reviewed by David Andrews
on
August 03, 2016
Rating:

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