Why Breath of the Wild's Empty Space is So Important 

Got a bunch of people asking me about the music in the video lately. I make all the music for the channel, and it's available for patrons to download: www.patreon.com/writingongames

*sees empty space* i think theres a lynel here

''WHY ZELDA'S SPACE MATTERS'' Yeah, Link. Can't you leave her alone for a second?

my favorite empty space is in the middle of hyrule field. there’s no gaurdians, no enemies (except the occasional chuchu that pops up or skeleton enemies at night). i love the sparse piano that plays in it and it’s so beautiful during the day when it’s windy and you can hear the grass rustling and you can see hyrule castle in the distant background :’)

The only thing I didn't like about the game was that Link can't dive underwater, that would add an extra layer in exploration but they just didn't make it possible and that makes no sense to me.

*the space is for setting everything on fire*

this "breath of the whale" game seems very interesting.

Great analysis! I also think that Link's amnesia helps, because it means that character and the player are both learning the story together. Even though Link was there 100 years ago, he doesn't remember any more about it that we do, and by the time he remembers something, we've also had time to find out about it, which lets us identify with the character throughout the entire game.

I love the emptiness because it gives me time to relax. My peak was when I was riding my super fast horse through grass fields when I could have just fast-traveled. Maybe I find an extra shrine or seed, maybe not. I still have loads of fun.

I've played for about 20 hours now, and there is not one place that felt empty. Fields have trees, flowers, bugs, animals, traveling merchants, enemies, and a view of what's to come. Anyone that says BotW's fields are empty, would say the same about a real field.

I love the "empty" space in the game. It makes it much more realistic when you see and NPC or enemy randomly. it also makes getting to objective feel more rewarding. One thing I have really enjoyed is when you are traveling between villages and stables is how the NPCs travel and how you can often see enemies hunting or attacking NPCs.

It's the same reason why so many modern films are disappointing and dreary experiences. The volume and action is permanently ramped-up to eleven with dizzying editing and that means that you lose all sense of contrast, because you're constantly saturated by poorly-executed spectacle. This means the overall experience is flat, like a Transformers movie. Zelda, as a game, feels like a well made film. A well made film will cut quickly when needed, slower when not, turn up the soundtrack when an incident needs emphasis, like a Lynel or Guardian (incidental music needs incidents, otherwise it's just random music!) and fade it to silence when nothing of note is happening...and in doing so, the absence of the music becomes noteworthy in itself. It's really a very cinematic experience and very absorbing.

The video is 9:59, and the uploader could've added an extra second for more ad revenue... I respect this guy

I think one of the strongest things about these empty spaces in Zelda as opposed to other open world games is that you CAN genuinely explore pretty much everything. My favorite thing about BotW is the ability to climb everything. So many times in MGSV, another favorite of mine, I was massively frustrated by Snake's inability to climb up to what looked like an excellent vantage point, or even up a small hill that was just a few degrees too steep. BotW seems to truly make the player feel empowered to feel like they have the potential to traverse any obstacle.

This zelda looks like what I wished ocarina of time was when I was 10. You can literally go anywhere. There's no "invisible walls" and other things that stop you from doing what you want that you just have to explain away like you do in other games. For example: In zoras domain you need to go up a cliff. Normally you could just climb up, but it is constantly raining because of something relating to your objective, and you can't climb well when it's raining. So now you have to find another way up. They don't want you to just climb up, so instead of just putting a wall or making the wall unable to be climbed for no reason, they used the mechanics and story of the game to do it

You used The Legend of Zelda as another example of a game that uses space. I would also like to bring up that The Wind Waker uses that same concept.

You used the right word: "pioneer". That's just how I felt going through the BOTW world. And I relished the space not so much because it made the next encounter so exciting. For me, it was more about the sense of wonder. Being able to catch wild horses, getting ingredients that would become part of recipes to give me super-human abilities, gliding over vast expanses on a whim, teleporting, being able to climb virtually any surface. It's like a lucid dream!

I can agree with this whole-heartedly. The expanse of the world is just so damn massive, when you find something whether it's an NPC, or you even find one of the points in Link's memory, it's a total shocker when you come across it because of that essence of discovery.

6:42 I recently encountered an example of this in my second playthrough of BotW, I was going through one of the lebrynths when a found a sorta hidden passage with an extinguished campfire and a pile of rubble. I got sorta sad and just looked at it for a moment thinking, "someone got lost in here before me"

This is exactly why Minecraft was so successful, you always had an objective but you were never forced to do it. You could play for the longest time roaming around, building, and doing other things the world had to offer without completing one single objective. I used to play Minecraft back in 2013, I stopped playing because (like all open world games) it became stale and boring because I did almost everything. Botw is an amazing game and I will hate the day the game will become stale and boring because of how much the game has to offer, but I play it so much and can't put my switch down its started to get boring, I started playing less and less... Maybe sometime soon I might stop. lol jk I can't stop playing and there still plenty I have to do ;)

recently got the game, best game i've ever played.

This is the kind of Open World design I've been begging for, unfortunately I don't own a platform to play this on.

I absolutely LOVE space design done right. I really can't understand why people complain about this so often. 5 words, 1 game: SHADOW OF THE FUCKING COLOSSUS!!

Breath of the waile

I absolutely agree with you. Open world games have lost their way by getting bigger and bigger and then starting to compensate for the difficulties that come from it. What is an open world more than a glorified level selection screen when exploration has no role?

Couldn't agree more. Breath of the Wild may seem "empty" at first compared to other open world games, but it does such an incredible job of making your journeys interesting by inviting exploration. I told myself I was going to just ride to the next dungeon at one point, and what could've been a 15 minute ride took probably 6 hours. I haven't been so invested in a game world in a very long time

Breath of the WHAJLD

I don't mind the vast open world. I just wish my horse would come to me wherever I am and not just when it's close enough to hear a whistle.

Can't just run up to Ganon? Guess what speedrunners are doing right now... :D

I understand where you're coming from and I went into Breath of the Wild thinking that I'd have a similar experience. However, I'm not the same type of gamer and the more I look into others' BOTW experiences, I come away with the conclusion that there are two main types of gamers on this topic. There's the type of gamer that experience open world games in the manner that you describe, where curiosity and the desire for exploration is the meat of their enjoyment and other aspects like the "why am I doing this?" or "How did this world get this way?" are left to their own imagination. Then there's the other type of gamer, where I and many others fall, where the meat of their enjoyment is understanding what exactly happened, who was involved, and all the precise details of how things happened. After which gaining that understanding, they're far more enthusiastic to explore the world and they want to learn precisely how certain things fit. Their enjoyment is that they are in this fictional world trying to help it after learning so much about it.These players are sort of at odds with one another. The first type of player, fueled more by curiosity and the desire for exploration, have their enjoyment hindered when the game tells them more about the world because it's interfering with their own desire to fill in the blanks. For the second type of player, there's no real point to explore a world they know very little about. Sure, they can find out that there's this structure here and that structure there, but so what? From this perspective, without much knowledge of the world, there's a literal endless spree of possibilities as to how exactly this world got the way it is. Players may be one way in BOTW and different in other games, but nonetheless, where they fall on this spectrum for BOTW determines if that empty space was a good thing for them. Sorry for the wall of text. Just wanted to add my thoughts and why I feel that I and other players disagree with your reading.

Often times it's about the player making their own objectives within this open world... I see a shrine or some sort of anomoly at the end of a mountain range or atop a large cliff or in the middle of a lake or ocean, I mark it and decide to make my way over there...along the way I find stuff of use or obstacles such ores, chests, enemy camps, etc...It's like making a game within the game...Once I reached my objective (which doesn't always happen because there are a ton of distractions in this game that make you go 'ooh, what's that?') you then fill accomplished...Sometimes you encounter nothing save for a Korok or two but you still have you're objective in mind as you crossing this seemingly empty mountainside or grassland... I just love how dynamic this game is...you never know what you'll encounter as you're making your way through this world...

I feel like there is no true emptiness to this game. There might be a lack of enemies but it's replaced by hidden chests or items, a shrine, kurok, or something to note for a later quest .

I get the impression a lot of people in the comments either haven't played the game, or didn't even watch the video the whole way through

Whenever I’m in a really large empty space and there’s no enemies or anything it makes me SO anxious because I’m constantly thinking I’m gonna get sneak attacked 😅 love the exploring tho

What's ironic is that both korok seeds and shrines are practically checklists. Also after getting the first divine beast the enemy encounters get way too easy.

Even the empty space is full of awesomeness. I haven't been bored yet.

I wouldn;t say world is empty at all. I mean yea, Hyrule Field is pretty much a grassy plain empty area with fallen Guardians and buildings, but i think it works well because it's a big battle arena with lots of guardians walking around. Overall when I define myself a new goal to go to, I always get distracted by a lot of things on the way, so I really wouldn't say that world is empty.

Wiald

Now, with the sequel coming, we could also have certain spaces occupied now. That makes me compelled to explore it, because I want to see what’s changed.

So glad you made the Shadow of the Colossus comparison. Exactly where my mind went to.

in a way it feels like older games from the 90's or early 00's. they didn't hold our hands from point A to B, they allowed you to explore in order to proceed. 90% of video games since recently follow the same route. they give you a small area that only allows you to go from A to B and saves every 2 minutes. I'm glad BoTW has thrown that formula out the window and given us a retro style game.

One thing I feel that helps keep the game so open is even though the areas are not leveled to matched the player, you can go freely anywhere and challenge these "high-level" areas without the need for massive grind by simply defeating the monsters and taking their weapon, and finding high leveled weapons without them being blocked by an annoying level cap. This to me gives me the confidence that I can go anywhere even in areas of increased difficulty.

Still to this day one of my favourite games of all time, I only wish i could play it for the first time again!

never felt empty to me there is always stuff to look for or fight.

reading through all the comments and all the negative reviews of other gamers one thing has become clear to me that we have been conditioned into thinking what open games should be like. We all think that all these types of open world games need to be like another GTA clone. Now don't get me wrong GTA games are amazing achievement and set alot industry standard. But that's not the only way to make open world games. Games like zelda are a breath of fresh air. It's shows the industry and gamers that open world games can be alive without holding your hand via guide points or destination points and the environment is just a scenery you pass on your way to the next objective. I feel with this game Nintendo have shown the industry that's it's ok to trust the player to make their own path through the game and it's ok to let the environment and the world it self tell the story. Work of genius.

this is the biggest reason i love breath of the wild so much. there's a starting point, and an end point. that's pretty much all though. you get to decide what you do in between. you CAN head straight to Hyrule Castle. you probably shouldn't, but you COULD. and that's what's important.

Gamers in the 90s and 2000s: "BIGGER! Make maps BIGGEEER!!" Gamers now: "...This map is too big!"

With blank areas, it's relaxing for me.

I also agree that the enemies also act as a way to surprise you. If they were on every segment of the world they would just become either an annoyance when trying to achieve a goal you have or eventually feel disappointing. Sometimes the element of monster behavior, power and the element of surprise makes them feel fresh even if you are familiar with fighting them.

i love Breath of the Wild open world. All I would change is add a bigger city and more ocean, but that's all. I don't feel there's too much empty space, there are just a lot of different things. I don't want anything smaller.

"When you first pick up Wreath of the Why-old"

Today i played Zelda and found a freaking HUGE flying dragon that went left and right in a Hylia bridge. Aside the fucking scare to get eaten but that shit, once i discovered he ignored u, i could admire it well...it was magnificent and i preferred to let him be because of it. Best thing is, i found it from chilometers when i saw it's tail disappearing near some mountains. Any open world game so far couldn't give me the same. This was a HUGE +100 to the beauty of this game and i never played a Zelda game since so i can imagine how fans with better knowledge of the little things connected to Link previous adventures may feel about this game.

This would make more sense if what you eventually ran into was something other than a shrine or a korok seed. You run for 10 minutes then find a korok seed.... then run another 10 minutes and find a shrine..... then run some more and.... another korok seed. Repeat forever. Also LOL @ the bit about experiencing "panic" from running into enemies. More like "oh boy more (insert one of the three types of enemies)."

Breath of the Wild has the most satisfying navigation I’ve ever come across, including the mechanics

I get exited every time I see a lonely tree

Simple answer: it's not Call of Duty where you need to kill something every 3 seconds. And it takes place in a freaking wide-open fantasy setting.

As soon as this video was over I turned on my wii u to play this beautiful game

When I first started this game I knew nothing about it going in and went so long without seeing non hostile npc in the vast expanse because I spent 4 real days just exploring I absolutely panicked when I saw one in the distance. I thought link was alone for the most part so I snuck around the npc and crept closer incase they weren't friendly

While I still think the game could benefit from having more interesting stuff in the overworld, more settlements and whatnot and some areas not being entirely empty, I also do think that the game is not only completely empty, but trying to fill up every empty spaces isn't the way to go. Just more interesting settlements and some areas filled but the rest still staying "empty" to make finding those new interesting things (that I hope show in the sequel) more rewarding. Either that or maybe just more variety in enemies, bosses, races and maybe biomes to keep things fresh after already having reached the point where you've seen it all

Nintendo nailed Breath of the Wild, but after wondering what this version of Hyrule was like before the calamity, I'd like to see Nintendo create a Zelda game with the scope of Breath of the Wild where Hylian society and the others races societies are very prosperous. I'm not saying the world has to be full of things to do or crowded together, just containing large cities(of every race) and the occasional stop on the road, in a non post-apocalyptic setting.

homeboy said "Bräth oaf the Wäüld"

You nailed! This is part of the exact reason I think that this game great for lovers of the outdoors. Between this and the way they manage to capture the essence of outdoor environments with thier sound effects and wind mechanics and lighting. It's amazing.

One of the key factors about BotW and it's open world is that you are ALWAYS rewarded for exploring. You will always find weapons, enemies, shrines, or korok seeds. This actively encourages you to climb that big mountain because at the very least there is a seed up there.

Everybody's getting all hype about Horizon: Zero Dawn and Breath of the Wild... Whilst here I am only playing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt for the first time.

I get what he's saying, but it's all a pretty big exaggeration. He's pretty much describing how I expected the game to be before playing it. I've never felt like I'm just traveling through hours of endless space. There's tons of stuff to do all over and the design of the world makes it all seem like it all belongs there, not just a huge empty field. Plus, having your horse and paraglider makes traveling never seem like a chore or pointless.

4:32 You’re wrong; the towers also upgrade your maps. The maps are purely topographical, though; it’s up to you to analyze the map and mark places of interest.

This video is great, and interested me just by the title and thumbnail while not being clickbait, you just earned a sub!

WOG: "Here's what breath of the wild does different from other games and why that matters." Commenters: "So you're saying that zelda does everything exactly the same things as other games but is better just because? Also i'm not going to justify my argument."

Man, that accent is thick

I got the Switch recently and this game is great. It's like I always have something to do, I sunk several hours into it already and I haven't even opened up my quest thing. When I did the tutorial I just turned right to check out some ruins and before I knew it, I was half way across the map doing shrines, climbing towers, clearing out enemy camps, finding secrets, collecting everything I could etc. This is my first Zelda game I ever played and it's already one of my favorite open world games and the best thing about it is, I'm just barely starting out, there's so much left for me to explore!

1000+ hours in this game (over several play-throughs) and just tonight, I was running through the field at night for a while and I was jolted in surprise by stalmoblin popping up from the ground. My heart skipped a beat. This game still surprises me in this and many other ways, 3 years later.

I encourage everyone that wants to play BoTW to do a no fast-travel run. Even if your first playthrough you used fast-travel, doing a no fast-travel, especially in Master Mode, has been one of my most enjoyable gaming experiences

I completely agree with this video, this is by far the greatest open world game I have ever played!

The emptiness of the open world really bothered me throughout my play through of the game. The entirety of the bottom left area is just a giant formation of canyons with little to nothing in them to do. My biggest gripe I have with the amount of space in the game is that trekking from one divine beast to the next one felt like I was playing a cell shaded Death Stranding. It was extremely tedious and even on horseback it was long and sometimes my horse would be too restrictive for me. I think the games world is just too big. Bigger than it necessarily needed to be for the type of game it is.

This is an excellently articulated video on that breathless feeling I get when I climbed the top of the dueling peaks, and saw the two shrines along with the massive landscape. Thank you!

5:15 amazing, this pretty much sums up why Breath Of The Wild is a masterpiece

Imagining Pokémon takes on a model like this.😩

This is the best video I've seen discussing the open world of Breath of the Wild. Well done!

This is really well put! Honestly I've gotten used to games hand-holding me so much that when I got to BOTW I was overwhelmed and even put-off at first. I was annoyed that they didn't give me the waypoints for the shrines off the bat, and that I had to figure out what to do with the main quest-lines just by running into them by chance while exploring. I kept at it, though, and felt a sense of accomplishment I hadn't felt in a long time from a game- I felt like it provided me the map but, and as you said, the game trusted my own intelligence to find my own way around it- which I hadn't found in a game for quite a long time. The more I played, the more satisfying my own choices and exploration became, and now I'm full-on obsessed with it, haha.

sometimes when i play breath of the wild i almost feel lonely, wandering around on an open meadow in the rain with barely any sense of where i'm meant to be. i think that in a way that probably represents link's emotions; this strange sadness that comes from not remembering who he is or who he used to be. it's just another way that the game really gets you hooked, and i think it shows how much of a masterpiece botw really is

And don't forget: Every minute you just run along the road without exploring is atleast another 3 korok seeds missed. Seriously, there are SO FREAKING MANY of them.

I just got Zelda a couple months ago. Been a fan since I was a kid in the 90's. This video was fantastic. You explained so well what makes the game special and why. Very well versed too. Definitely subscribed.

At the beginning of the game, I would talk to literally every person I could find traveling, in a stable, or in a village.

Such a beautiful game and video. You're exceptionally well-spoken.

If every single little space in the game had something to do, there would be little to know exploring involved. Then again, once you do a lot of things to clear out the map, that might change, but, even then, still, maybe not.

I use as motivation as many other videos but i find yours one of the best.

i love all of the space and the exploration and your point about being in good company with link as being clueless about the environment is an interesting thought. now of only there werent SO MANY one shot mechanics in the game

This guy's accent is awesome!

I've been saying something similar for a long time. Exploration feeling rewarding is key. WoW for example never had much mystery. You always knew what you were going to do because the quest tells you exactly what you're going to do, and it wasn't going to take much more than a few braincells to accomplish. I feel like Nintendo has broken the mold and reinvented the wheel with this game. I hope to see more from many other companies as well.

I love how poetic you talk about the game. And your voice really aids the experience. Great video!

There is a lot of empty space between major landmarks, but also enough hidden gems (Koroks, underwater treasure chests, monster encampments) to reward players who take their time to wander from the beaten path. The Lanayru Promenade was my favorite location, evoking much of what you described in this video. I felt completely dwarfed by the architecture. Great analysis.

there is a NPC that will give you hints on the photos, but generally he will just tell you what the landmark is and in what direction the photo was taken from

I love this game but dang there's so much to do lol I don't see the ending happening anytime in the near future.

I was trying to figure out why I love exploring this game. Your video helped put it all into words. Thank you my dude.

This is exactly why I love open world, single player, serene experiences in gaming, with emphasis on storytelling and lore elements. I like your style and taste, you got yourself a new subscriber 😉

Damn, that actually sounds like an open world game I would enjoy, though the constantly pulsating marker on the minimap leaves much to be desired.

"When you have been traversing desert for upwards of 20 minutes" - sorry mate I have basically 3 hours of free time per day, and I don't wanna spend 20 minutes of that time traversing empty desert. Elden Ring, and Dark Souls had this feeling of exploration without feeling empty, so you can definitely do it without having giant 20 minute empty areas

Fantastic writing. You did an excellent job on the script and delivery! 10/10 :)

Really great video man, great analysis of open world games in general, I really enjoyed it

When this game first came out, the only thing I really wanted to do was get a horse and ride through this fucking beautiful landscape! Now I still didn't buy a Switch but I want to play this game. Damn I want to explore the world. I'm not a player who likes action games too much. I love exploring. I like that in Botw you can simple enjoy the world without having to be alert all the time. It's like going for a walk in a really beautiful world and from time to time you stumble across something funny, dangerous etc. I'm so curious but don't have money. God I hate it.