New open-world Zelda game's rumored dimensional feature makes perfect sense

There's still a lot we don't know about the next mainline. The Legend of Zelda After the game Echo of WisdomBecause Nintendo is yet to officially confirm anything about this. However, the latest rumors surrounding the next open world are zelda The game is at least interesting enough to be fun. Especially since it's so similar to what the franchise would end up doing anyway. According to claims made by insider Nick Baker on Episode 294 of the XboxEra Podcast, the next major zelda The game will reportedly continue in the open world direction as follows: breath of the wild and Tears of the KingdomIntroducing a dimensional puzzle incorporating ‘tears of reality’.

Once again, Nintendo has yet to confirm whether this is true or even if it will come out next. zelda The installment is an open world game in the vein of: BotW and Tote K. Even so, teaHe's the legend of zelda It makes perfect sense that we're building the next generation of open world games around dimensions. After all, this is a franchise that has spent decades sending Link through alternate worlds and realms for one reason or another, so the idea of ​​basing the puzzles around dimensional travel wouldn't be a stretch at all.

Zelda has been playing with dimensions for decades.

At that time The Legend of Zelda And three-dimensional design, it is difficult not to bring link to the past Because this is where it all began. link to the past's Light and Dark Worlds is still the best example of a series that takes one world and makes players think about it in two different ways. The Light World is the default or normal world state, while the Dark World changes where players can go, what they can reach, and how certain areas are connected to each other. Moving between the two versions of the world ultimately became part of how players solved problems, and the loop inspired them to experiment with transformation in later versions.

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One rather rare interpretation of the dimension formula is: Majora's MaskRather than seeing Link travel between dimensions, the game's entire story was instead placed in the parallel world of Termina. Termina had some familiar faces and races, but its atmosphere and tone were Majora's Mask unique among zelda stratagem. In fact, the game is widely considered to be the closer horror game in the franchise due to the parallel nature of its worlds and the impact it has on the people and places within them. This is just one of the few games.

twilight princess Another great example. zelda A game that utilizes dimensional features. This introduced players to another parallel dimension to Hyrule: the Twilight Realm. For most of the game's early stages, the Twilight Realm flows into Hyrule through a region covered in Twilight, transforming Link into Wolf Link once he enters it. Instead of traveling between two active versions of the same map, players enter these corrupted areas to hunt down Tears of Light, restore local light elementals, and return that part of Hyrule to normalcy.

Then there was it. skyward swordThe world was divided into the sky, where Link began his journey, and the surface, where most of the main quest took place. Furthermore, he used the Spirit Realm as a spiritual testing ground, sending Link to altered versions of places he had already explored. He had no weapons, only Guardians ready to chase him if he made a mistake. It wasn't dimensional in the same way link to the past and twilight princessHowever, we still used separate world layers to change the way it played.

connection between worldsBut perhaps one of the clearest examples. zelda Turns dimensional travel into a core gameplay idea. It sent a link between Hyrule and its ruined counterpart kingdom, Lorule, which shared parts of Hyrule's structure. The game also gave Link the ability to merge into walls like a painting, allowing him to reach places he couldn't otherwise reach. Between the Hyrule-Lorule connection and Link's wall-merging abilities. connection between worlds In fact, dimensional travel is integrated directly into exploration and puzzle solving throughout the game.

A dimensional open world would be the natural next step after Tears of the Kingdom

The real challenge now for Nintendo is figuring out where the open world is. zelda follow behind Tears of the Kingdom. breath of the wild It's already transformed Hyrule into something no player has ever seen, regardless of age or experience with the franchise. then Tears of the Kingdom It returns to the same foundation and expands vertically, giving players the sky above Hyrule and the depths below. For the most part, this worked because it gave players a new relationship with a world they already understood.

However, this presents quite a challenge for the next open world game as well. If Nintendo had kept the same general design language, simply making the maps bigger wouldn't have been enough. At some point, adding more space may start to feel like the most obvious answer, but it's not necessarily the most interesting one. However, the dimensional mechanic would be a smart way to solve this, as it would make the world feel new without relying entirely on square mileage.

Essentially, this kind of design allows players to experience two different open worlds in the same game, assuming Nintendo isn't going to make it three in a row. breath of the wild and Tears of the KingdomNext-generation open world, Hyrule zelda Dimensions can be used to make the new Hyrule feel larger without relying entirely on map size. One version of the world can influence the other through puzzles, movement paths, enemy placement, environmental changes, or dungeon access, providing a complexity that requires exploration to remain rewarding even dozens of hours later. Players will learn how the two versions of the world interact, which could provide the next open world. zelda After two games that were already built around freedom and player-driven problem solving, it took on its own identity.

Of course, the rumor could be completely wrong. Nintendo can be unpredictable, and the company hasn't had to go down the path everyone expects. Still, this is one rumor that makes sense because it aligns with the franchise's past and near future in the open-world era. zelda Since we've already taken Hyrule outward, upward, and downward, another reality might be the most natural place left at this point.

system

released

May 12, 2023

ESRB

Rated E for everyone ages 10+ for fantasy violence and mildly suggestive themes.

developer

nintendo

publisher

nintendo