[Poll] Did we overestimate the influence The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild would have in the design of open-world videogames?

[Deleted member 679]

I feel like it's been pretty influential already. It's just that Breath of the Wild is a game more definded by its structure than, say, Witcher 3. So the inspirations come more sparsely, like Ghost of Tsushima reducing UI guidance as much as possible and trying to guide players through the world itself.

People did really like Witcher 3's structure, but what defines it is the specific set of stories being told. When people call the new Assassin's Creed games "Witcher-lite" in a negative way, it's not the fact that it shares the structure that makes people think poorly of it, it's the fact that they think it's a much worse version.

But when you look at the reception to something like Genshin Impact, you'll see a lot more people bothered by it being such a blatant ripoff, regardless of the final product's quality.

Breath of the Wild is defined by its structure and overall gameplay loop of: climb, assess surroundings, set your own goal, make your way there. Witcher 3 could change its gameplay in wildly different ways and likely end up being better for it. Breath of the Wild changing its gameplay in wildly different ways would be a wildly different game, with a different reception, and possibly a different group of huge fans. Maybe better, maybe worse, but there's no guarantee it would please the same people.

 

[Ojli]

Everyone is still looking at Witcher 3

 

[Madao]

i picked "another" because i think that the whole industry doesn't care about what Nintendo does to advance the genres they make games in.

no matter how fresh or innovative designs they come up with, the industry won't copy them.

remember when people thought Metroid Prime would change FPS games? or when Splatoon would change 3rd person shooters?

it's just how this works.

 

[golguin]

The open world in BOTW takes the Disney "weenie" design used to lead visitors around in Disneyland parks.

The idea is to use landmarks in the environment to lead the viewer from one place to another through visual curiosity and not some waypoint.

Its too hard to replicate and only Nintendo has done it.

 

[Alek]

From what I've heard from casual conversations with developers, I'd say the most influential game that you're going to see for next gen titles is probably Destiny. A lot of live service, living world type stuff.

The open world in BOTW takes the Disney "weenie" design used to lead visitors around in Disneyland parks.

The idea is to use landmarks in the environment to lead the viewer from one place to another through visual curiosity and not some waypoint.

Its too hard to replicate and only Nintendo has done it.

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That disneyland park design has featured in a lot of game dev talks and articles, and you hear people cite it commonly as an influence on their design in the last 10+ years. There's a GDC talk about that disneyland style park design in games, dating back to 2009.

Everything I Learned About Level Design I Learned from Disneyland

gdcvault.com

A lot of the open world games were playing now are designed in the way that you describe.

Look at Sunset Overdrive for example, a game that chooses to use waypoints to guide the player towards current mission objectives, but also designs the city with key landmarks that draw the players attention to different directions...

https:///4Iub.png

Games like Arkham Knight do this well too...

Those games are more directly story driven than Breath of the Wild, the narrative isn't emergent, you can't just explore and stumble upon another means in which to progress. I think that's the key difference, but the open worlds themselves, they've been designed around that disneyland style, driving players forward with landmarks for a long time.

In that sense, it's more the narrative structure that differentiates these games from Breath of the Wild, than it's open world. You could arguably make Arkham City much more interesting to explore if its narrative was emergent, and the player simply discovered cool locations and unravelled the plot, but I think a good story is much harder to tell in that format. I think Breath of the Wild reflects that too - where the story isn't exactly good, but honestly doesn't really need to be either.

In the future I think we'll see more games try to strike a balance between this approach and the traditional. I expect you'll still see quest markers leading players to the next story location, but at the same time, having other points of interest being discoverable rather than marked on the map. Witcher 3 is very satisfying to play if you elect to turn points of interest off, leaving you to discover these sidequests yourself, and games like Far Cry actually do have strong visual indicators of side activities if you choose to turn its markers off too, with enemy camps and other activities clearly visible in the distance.

I think Ghost of Tsushima tried to strike a balance between this recently using the 'fog of war' element to allow the player to unveil the map and its markers yourself. Ultimately you'll still discover everything because as you get unveil the fog of war, points of interest get marked on your map. I think we'll see a lot of developers experiment with systems like that, because ultimately they don't want to produce lots of content that the player will never see. In some ways, it's brave for Nintendo to do that, but you have to reflect on certain things like the lack of voice world in Breath of the Wild. Many of those points of interest that the player misses are very low cost from a development side of view, but a single side quest in something like The Witcher 3 might have cost the studio millions when you add up the man hours.

 

[Jimnymebob]

All I know is that if I can't just climb cliffs on Horizon 2 I'm not even gonna bother this time.

 

[nib95]

The thing is, the little to no guidance aspect of open world or even non open world design isn't actually a Breath of the Wild innovation, many games have used that sort of design in the past, like Tail of the Sun, Everquest, Morrowind, Planescape, Shadow of the Colossus, The Witness, Gothic 1/2, Firewatch, Bloodborne, Dark Souls, Minecraft and so on.

The comparison sort of reminds me of Arkham Knight, where a subset of gamers now attribute all combo style combat to the new Batman games, even though that style of combat has been around for a very long time. But at least Batman popularised that style of combat to a notable degree, I'm not sure it's fair to say BotW has popularised limited guidance game design, at least not based on the games that have released since, comparative to those that released prior.

 

[Lion]

It is too early to tell.

I think it has had an influence graphically already.

Gameplay wise, it will take years to build a game with any of the features of botw, so it is too early to tell.

 

[jett]

What influence do you expect BOTW to have on open world games?

Is it merely being set in a massive, diverse world that you can explore at your leisure and discover new things, settings and events in every corner? Meaning a fantastic sense of exploration? RDR2 also provided that in spades.

You want a game that also just plops you down in a world without any direction at all? Even less so than BOTW? Go play Outer Wilds (NOT The Outer Worlds). That game is all about discovery and exploration, in a way that frankly basically outdoes BOTW.

What else is there? Surely not BOTW's lame combat, non-existent difficulty curve, worst-in-franchise dungeons, or its unengaging, literally who-fucking-cares story. Most of these aspects are entirely limited by its structure, mind you. Maybe you also enjoyed how climbing towers uncovered areas from your map screen? Boy have I got a list of games for you.

I remember a thread some time ago from someone asking why games hadn't copied BOTW's climb-everywhere idea. Because that is surely going to work wonders on every game and not completely break them. Some things in BOTW work for BOTW. BOTW is a game that's more than the sum of its parts, but there's not a lot in it that's really that inventive or that could majorly influence game design.

 

[Kill3r7]

I loved Breath of the Wild but didn't think it was that revolutionary. The concept of being able to transverse whatever you can see was a really cool feature that I felt others might have taken on board.

I think Ghost of Tsushima will do more for the open world franchise than Breath of the Wild does. Previous to that game I was guilty of following lines on mini-maps in The Witcher 3, RDR2 and Days Gone and forgetting to take in the surroundings. Minimal UI and taking queues from the game world itself seems like a larger step in open world game design that allows you to appreciate the world you're in a lot more.

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The wind is a really nice trick, it is basically a yellow line. The days of being given hints/directions to a location like Morrowind are long gone. So I am fine with that compromise.

 

[Timbuktu]

Strange that there is not option where it has had influence on other games in the poll.

 

[RROCKMAN]

To early to tell, because we are NOW Starting to get games that have its influence very evident, like GoT

But there are still people with a major hate boner over this game so they will downplay it by pointing out games that attempt to do something similar that came out after claiming that those games are the influential games.

Makes your eyes roll right out your skull.

 

[donpiano]

None of the answers to the poll acknowledge that it has already happened. There's already plenty of games out there that have drawn inspiration from BotW.

 

[Nikus]

From what I've heard from casual conversations with developers, I'd say the most influential game that you're going to see for next gen titles is probably Destiny. A lot of live service, living world type stuff.

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This is hell

 

[Amir Mirzaee]

Of course not.
Designing an open-world as perfect as Breath of the Wild, is a challenge not everyone can surpass.

Take Death Stranding for example; another game that revolves around exploration and experimentation; a game that many have likened to Breath of the Wild. People couldn't grasp its open-world and systems, because the amount of freedom offered was too much for that game to handle. When you give players dozens or hundreds of equipments and mechanics, you should make sure that the player can utilize them however they want, of course in the context of the world.
Death Stranding lets players climb a 90 degree slope, and some people do that for two hours, and then complain the game isn't fun. And the mistake is on the game, not the players, because they weren't told not to go that way and nothing was preventing them.

And on the opposite side, Breath of the Wild world is so meticulously designed because they've taken into account the limitless possibilities the game world and its systems offers. The game makes sure the player is playing it the right way, by teaching them with environmental hints and telling them about the rules regarding how everything works, while letting them come up with their own ideas; and it does this in an scale much bigger than any other game.

The fact that we're talking about the game, three and a half years after its release, like all the time, says a lot about it, and obviously these kind of talks is gonna continue for a long time and probably stay in the game industry forever.

 

[jett]

To early to tell, because we are NOW Starting to get games that have its influence very evident, like GoT

But there are still people with a major hate boner over this game so they will downplay it by pointing out games that attempt to do something similar that came out after claiming that those games are the influential games.

Makes your eyes roll right out your skull.

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GoT is much more influenced by the likes of Ubisoft's open worlds than BOTW.

 

[Deleted member 16908]

It has clearly influenced several teams into making similar games (see Genshin Impact), but in terms of broad industry-wide influence on other mainstream open-world games I'm not so sure.

To some extent I think it has received undeserved levels of praise simply due to it being made by Nintendo. Fundamentally it's still a pretty standard open-world game: climb tower, reveal area, explore area, rinse and repeat until the map is complete. The free-form climbing system is what elevates that loop and makes the exploration interesting. In a game like Skyrim, if I want to reach the top of the tallest mountain, I basically have to use the developers' single designated path unless I want to spend half an hour glitching my way up in a way that's clearly unintended. In Breath of the Wild, this is never an issue.

What else is there? Surely not BOTW's lame combat, non-existent difficulty curve, worst-in-franchise dungeons, or its unengaging, literally who-fucking-cares story. Most of these aspects are entirely limited by its structure, mind you. Maybe you also enjoyed how climbing towers uncovered areas from your map screen? Boy have I got a list of games for you.

Click to shrink...

This is the thing about BotW - many of its fans like to hold it up as some sort of world-class masterpiece of a game, but if Nintendo were to release a follow-up with a proper story, proper dungeons, and combat you can't just cheese by pausing and healing whenever you want, what reason would you have to play the original?

If it really was as amazing as some people claim it to be, it couldn't be so easily invalidated by a good sequel.

 

[ItchyTasty]

It's been 3 years I think and most games take 4-5 years? But is BOTW really that revolutionary for the genre?

 

[Rndom Grenadez]

Biggest influence clearly is by fanatics on internet forums comparing (and disparaging) nearly every other open-world games to BotW.

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Only two posts in and already a hater.

 

[Deleted member 13370]

edit

 

[Glimpse_Dog]

Wait for:

- Immortals
- Elden Ring
- Horizon 2
- Proper next-gen only AC

then I think we can begin to answer that question.

 

[Deleted member 2254]

Considering most of the elements it was praised for were present in a variety of open world games already (mainly Ubisoft) and survival titles alike (all the interactivity, the crafting, the cooking, etc.), not to mention open-world-ish survival games like ARK or even Minecraft... yes. The game lifts a lot from other titles and does it exceptionally well. But it's not really gonna influence other games as what it's doing is not new. If anything it shows it's a formula that sells, but it's a hybrid of two already largely popular genres with one of the biggest IPs in the world, so that's not a surprise.

 

[Deleted member 37233]

If it really was as amazing as some people claim it to be, it couldn't be so easily invalidated by a good sequel.

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That's just a dumb take.

So Super Mario 64 wasn't as amazing and influential like everyone said because you could built a better sequel on the groundwork it laid?
Or Metroid?
Or the original Super Mario Bros.?

Only two posts in and already a hater.

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Thy can't help themselves.

 

[BitterFig]

Yes its influence will be felt shortly as this is the look of future heroes in open world games

Which was already the look of Norman Reedus in Death Stranding, which clearly takes inspiration from BOTW for making the environment traversal the main challenge

 

[Unkindled]

It wasn't anything special to begin with. It was special for a Zelda game but that's about it.

 

[Deleted member 1238]

It's been three years and these days it takes 3-5 years to make a game. Especially a big and ambitious open world game. Give it time. But given how near perfect BOTW is it's not so easy to just say "hey let's make one of those." It takes a real expertise and mastery in game design. There's a reason why BOTW is loved by so many. That being said, I still think it will have a massive influence over open world games and we'll start to see that influence in the next gen.

 

[Euler007]

I hope more worlds are built where the "see it and go there" is at the core of the design. Meh on climb anywhere, and definite pass on breakable weapons. The climb anywhere shoehorns you into a disneyland square style map, I prefer lots of interconnected maps of different shapes.

 

[Alek]

This is hell

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I agree but you can see that influence already.

Marvel Avengers, Gotham Knights, Suicide Squad, all releasing in the same period, all with their own monetisation model. I know that the monetisation model for Gotham Knights and Suicide Squad hasn't been announced, and I know that the studio has said that Gotham Knights isn't a 'service model game', but it's not especially clear what they mean by that, and I bet they will be packing it full of DLC and extra things to do that keep the player engaged, even if they don't end up featuring things like a battle pass.

You're also getting Outriders, Godfall, Borderlands 3 DLC, Destiny 2 New Light, Warframe updates and so forth, all within the same year. Ghost Recon recently turned full GaaS with breakpoint, and the Assassins Creed games are more and more focused on selling XP boosts and cosmetic DLC than ever before.

In the racing space, you have games like The Crew and Need for Speed doing the exact same thing to their own franchises. Obviously it's in the sports franchises too, like FIFA. We're seeing it happen to action games in the aforementioned super hero games, it makes sense that we will see this style of design spread further and further.

Destiny is in my opinion, by far the most influential game of the last year. They transitioned from Halo into something that was infinitely more monetisable, and for a lot of developers that's very appealing.

They'll come a point where we'll be debating between gaas lite style games, like Assassins Creed which have heavy monetisation but no FOMO or seasonal passes, and full gaas orientated games like Avengers which are packed with events and battle passes. We're almost there to be honest. I expect next gen launch to be packed with gaas titles, probably even a majority when you start counting the free to plays.

 

[Bessy67]

I never understood people saying BotW somehow did something new and different in terms of open world games. It's pretty much the same formula Ubisoft has been using for decades. Climb a tower to reveal the map, clear out enemy outposts and explore ruins/temples. It really only felt different to me because of the Zelda aesthetics.

 

[bigbaldwolf86]

What influence would it have?

Open world isn't new
Weapons breaking isnt new
Quests aren't new
Dungeons aren't new
Towers/Outposts aren't new

I'm genuinely curious as to what people think BotW will have a huge influence over. There's nothing revolutionary mechanically. It's just an open world, very pretty Zelda game.

 

[CesareNorrez]

This is the thing about BotW - many of its fans like to hold it up as some sort of world-class masterpiece of a game, but if Nintendo were to release a follow-up with a proper story, proper dungeons, and combat you can't just cheese by pausing and healing whenever you want, what reason would you have to play the original?

If it really was as amazing as some people claim it to be, it couldn't be so easily invalidated by a good sequel.

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No, not at all. That's not how art really works. It isn't a competition to invalidate other works. It's created to give the audience an experience. No sequel that improves mechanically will take away from how much BotW connected with people. Whatever BotW2 does, it's still following the first game. It's already going to be missing the novelties of BotW (even if someone plays BotW2 first, the game will be designed as a followup, so there will be certain elements always different because of how Nintendo approaches the sequel. So it's not a guarantee that "proper" elements created for the sequel will make BotW irrelevant. There's a good chance that a part of the audience that plays BotW after they played the sequel, will enjoy the first game. It's magic, not mathematics). BotW2 hopefully creates its own novelties.

The fact that you think there is such thing as a "proper" story, dungeons, and combat shows that you want specific things out of the game. That's not why people loved the game. They loved it because it gave them something they didn't expect or know they wanted. There was a sense of discovery that was unique to that game, not just in the world but in the gameplay, too. And it's not something that's easy to put into a mathematic formula. We can criticize the combat for not being "proper" but it fit for that game. You "improve" on it and you risk an imbalance. If the player spends more time getting used to combat it could reduce engagement with the rest of the world. And that's only one part of the gameplay. So no matter how "proper" a sequel is to BotW there will be players that do not like it as much as the original.

Not everyone is going to like a piece of art. No one is making art expecting universal acclaim. It's simply impossible. There are always going to be people that simply don't connect with it. But the reaction by so many developers is that they were impressed by BotW. So whether that game did anything first is not the point. The game will be influential in big and small ways in the industry. People have already brought up examples with Indie games, and I think you will start to really see it in AAA games soon. And don't be surprised when developers namecheck it.

 

[Deleted member 2752]

BotW development was more than five years if I remember correctly. It'll take time.

What influence would it have?

Open world isn't new
Weapons breaking isnt new
Quests aren't new
Dungeons aren't new
Towers/Outposts aren't new

I'm genuinely curious as to what people think BotW will have a huge influence over. There's nothing revolutionary mechanically. It's just an open world, very pretty Zelda game.

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The systems driven open world. It's a giant sandbox combined with all the things you mentioned.

 

[StallionDan]

If you play non Nintendo consoles the last 12 years then it didn't do much new.

 

[TheMoon]

If you answer yes then you're completely underestimating how long game dev takes and how fundamental this stuff needs to be do your game's design also this isn't just copy paste magic.

edit: lol some of those edgy hot takes I see here

 

[Deleted member 51789]

What influence would it have?

Open world isn't new
Weapons breaking isnt new
Quests aren't new
Dungeons aren't new
Towers/Outposts aren't new

I'm genuinely curious as to what people think BotW will have a huge influence over. There's nothing revolutionary mechanically. It's just an open world, very pretty Zelda game.

Click to shrink...

The parts where BotW shine are its traversal mechanics and associated freedom, dynamic physics system interactivity and open world level design - these are the things that I expect to influence other developers

 

[Mercury_Sagit]

While my chosen option in the poll is "other games can't copy it", my opinion actually is a mix between all options. I will use the GDC video abt BotW as a main point of reference:


My main takeaway from the video is that BotW was very, very tightly designed around the "open air" vision set by EPD. Thus I don't think it is straightforward for other developers to just lift an element from BotW without breaking the coherence in design in their own games (the recently released Windbound unfortunately serves as a poignant example).
Edit: after reading the response of some posters here, arguing that each element of BotW isn't new, I would say that it is a reductive approach when analyzing game design. Sure even EPD admitted (implicitly) that they take inspiration from Skyrim, from Ubisoft's open world games, even from Spiderman, but what makes BotW great is EPD's thought process which ensured every component of the game always harmonizes with each other, making the sum greater than its parts.

 

[Terranigma]

If you play non Nintendo consoles the last 12 years then it didn't do much new.

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All those journalists and outlet giving it near perfect scores clamoring its innovations for sure never played any other consoles outside the Nintendo ecosystem.

 

[Neiteio]

I don't think you can simply copy what makes BotW special, which is how thoughtfully designed every aspect of it is. Not many devs seem to have the intuition for design that Nintendo does. You can try and copy surface-level stuff like the glider and ability to climb anything and the persistent physics/material logic/chemistry and how you can do anything in any order. But it's the moment-to-moment design that makes it all come together and become something so much more.

 

[Kouriozan]

I did notice a lof of indie games taking inspiration from it, the most obvious ones are those with the gliders.
On the top of my head, there is Windbound, and of course Genshin Impact.

 

[CesareNorrez]

Influence isn't about doing something wholly knew. My god, guys, we have millenia of art creation. It's not about being the first do something. Stop getting stuck on the idea of "new". Influence is iterative and always has been.

 

[DrDeckard]

It will take years for anyone to implement that kind of stuff imo.

 

[Toumari]

Thankfully not.

The only real things this game seems to do a bit different than other open world games is have a harsh stamina/climb meter and weapon durability... the stuff I wouldn't want in other games.

 

[StallionDan]

All those journalists and outlet giving it near perfect scores clamoring its innovations for sure never played any other consoles outside the Nintendo ecosystem.

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Innovations for Zelda games, which were still copying OoT in design.

 

[NeoBob688]

Overestimated but not for the reasons you think. Other open worlds just have elected to stick to their shitty cookie cutter format. Not BOTWs fault.

 

[Deleted member 16908]

That's just a dumb take.

So Super Mario 64 wasn't as amazing and influential like everyone said because you could built a better sequel on the groundwork it laid?
Or Metroid?
Or the original Super Mario Bros.?

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Ideally every sequel will be better than the original. What I said was that BotW could be invalidated by a good sequel, as in, there would be very little reason to revisit it since the sequel is better in almost every way. There are still lots of reasons to revisit Mario 64 and the original SMB - their tight controls, fantastic level design, iconic music and colorful visuals hold up well to this day. If BotW 2 leaves everything but the art direction and climbing system behind, very little of value will be lost.

No, not at all. That's not how art really works. It isn't a competition to invalidate other works. It's created to give the audience an experience. No sequel that improves mechanically will take away from how much BotW connected with people. Whatever BotW2 does, it's still following the first game. It's already going to be missing the novelties of BotW (even if someone plays BotW2 first, the game will be designed as a followup, so there will be certain elements always different because of how Nintendo approaches the sequel. So it's not a guarantee that "proper" elements created for the sequel will make BotW irrelevant. There's a good chance that a part of the audience that plays BotW after they played the sequel, will enjoy the first game. It's magic, not mathematics). BotW2 hopefully creates its own novelties.

The fact that you think there is such thing as a "proper" story, dungeons, and combat shows that you want specific things out of the game. That's not why people loved the game. They loved it because it gave them something they didn't expect or know they wanted. There was a sense of discovery that was unique to that game, not just in the world but in the gameplay, too. And it's not something that's easy to put into a mathematic formula. We can criticize the combat for not being "proper" but it fit for that game. You "improve" on it and you risk an imbalance. If the player spends more time getting used to combat it could reduce engagement with the rest of the world. And that's only one part of the gameplay. So no matter how "proper" a sequel is to BotW there will be players that do not like it as much as the original.

Not everyone is going to like a piece of art. No one is making art expecting universal acclaim. It's simply impossible. There are always going to be people that simply don't connect with it. But the reaction by so many developers is that they were impressed by BotW. So whether that game did anything first is not the point. The game will be influential in big and small ways in the industry. People have already brought up examples with Indie games, and I think you will start to really see it in AAA games soon. And don't be surprised when developers namecheck it.

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Thanks for such a well-written reply. I may disagree but I can at least respect your perspective on this.

 

[melodiousmowl]

An empty open world with Assassins Creed towers and physics based puzzle rooms?

God I hope not

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I mean, this is a hot take from someone who probably hasn't played it, but I will use it as a jumping off point.

The world is PACKED with shit to do. Theres very few open spaces that are just nothing forever. But those things are not marked with objectives and often there is no quest driving finding these things. If you dont like to explore, or see whats over that hill or whats up at the top of that weird rock just for the sake of exploring and the satisfaction of that, dunno what to tell you other than this will never be your game.

A sequel will take this formula and I imagine find ways to add systems for more interesting story (for those who care - I like the story you build yourself with the beginning and ending being the only points that are static). But maybe systems to have an evolving story based on actions?

The combat is, accessible. But it runs into the same problem the story has - its almost too flexible because of all the physics stuff. I have watched videos that are unreal creative uses of the game to do fights. If you came at everything with just sword and shield and got bored, that's your own problem. I understand weapon degradation - it's a driver to keep you exploring and keep you being creative. I think it could be improved upon but I think without something like Diablo style weapons (ie really random rolls) there was sadly no real impetus to find chests.

No game has EVER given me the sense of excitement and anticipation for exploration like botw.Dark Souls might come close, but then its a long way down to the next game.

Dungeons - I hope dungeons are a mix of styles if they keep the same physics of the "overworld". But maybe stripping you of some of those facilities as you enter and giving you the items you need in the dungeon might work... dunno. Hyrule Castle is the best dungeon in the game, it feels very Dark souls, naturally limits your use of some traversal tools in the right places, and is huge and sprawling.


IMO, BOTW is the first step in an evolution of the game, but doing that evolution takes an ungodly amount of resources - from anyone attempting it. BOTW2 will I am sure improve the systems in place, add new ones, and be a great game.



Other companies can try to mimic it, and should, and the game is chock full of fresh gameplay and great game design. Mimicing the art style or some of the mechnics wont cut it -they will have to 100% ape the ways botw made open world interesting, but nintendo has proved over the years that it's very VERY hard to do better than them at what they do.

 

[Deleted member 51789]

Innovations for Zelda games, which were still copying OoT in design.

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Might want to read those reviews again if you think that was what they meant by innovation...

 

[Neiteio]

Innovations for Zelda games, which were still copying OoT in design.

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No, nearly the entire industry gave it perfect scores (including nearly every multiplat journalist) because it innovated relative to industry standards (including non-Nintendo) and executed everything spectacularly well. You should read the reviews before we turn this into a review thread, lol.

 

[jett]

So Super Mario 64 wasn't as amazing and influential like everyone said because you could built a better sequel on the groundwork it laid?

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Amusingly, Nintendo never did.

 

[VAD]

I don't know, I found Death Stranding somewhat inspired by BOTW with all the emphasis placed with traversing the open world and planning your routes.