Level Design Analysis - Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
/Recently I have gotten the chance to play Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (will be shortened to BotW), and so far I’m enjoying the game. As I was playing through the first couple of hours, I took notice of the subtle design choices that were being made to teach the player about BotW’s mechanics without the need of a step-by-step tutorial. After playing through all the Temples on the Great Plateau, I thought I would be be best to start another play through to analyze BotW’s open world design - so I took some notes and screenshots that I thought would be useful in explaining Nintendo’s design choices.
This post will specifically address my observations from the start of the game up until the Temple of Time. I will try to keep this as plot spoiler-free as possible and only talk about design choices.
Shrine of Resurrection
At the start, Link wakes up in the Shrine of Resurrection. After a short cutscene, the player gains control of Link and can move around. The general flow of exiting the shrine is as follows:
The starting room is barren, with the only interaction available being the pedestal next to the door, gating the player. Once Link interacts with the pedestal, he gains the Sheikah Plate and the door opens.
The next room contains two chests, some boxes, barrels, and an orange pedestal. Interacting with the objects are optional.
Link can open the chest and obtain some old clothes that he can equip.
Link can also interact with the boxes by pushing them, and with barrels by picking them up and throwing them.
Interacting with the orange pedestal gives a small cutscene that shows Link placing his Sheikah Plate in the center. This action then opens up the door, finally illuminating the foggy shrine.
Beyond the newly opened door is a staircase leading to a short hallway. At the end is a small rock wall that Link must scale in order to reach the exit.
Within the Shrine, the player can learn almost all of the basic movement controls with minimal tutorial prompts (and without Navi shouting “HEY, LISTEN!” every 30 seconds). The UI on the bottom of the screen also provides clues to the player on how Link can interact with the world.
The best thing about this small area is that the only mandatory interactions are the ones requiring the Sheikah Slate. Link could completely bypass opening the chests altogether and exit the Shrine naked if the player chooses (in the above shots, however, I decided to open the chests). Providing the player with the bare minimum information allows the player to craft their own experiences and discover the mechanics on their own, making BotW an open-ended experience. On top of that, the small space of the Shrine of Resurrection allows veteran players to get out and roam the world quickly, by passing information they already know. If you compare this to another open world game like Skyrim, BotW will get players out and about as quickly as possible while Skyrim has players go through the entire opening sequence on top of a mandatory escape quest.
The Great Plateau
Once the Link exits the Shrine of Resurrection, a cutscene plays and pans the camera around the horizon. The cutscene shows off distant landmarks, teasing the player of all the locations they would eventually reach. It also serves as the game’s title reveal. Once the title fades, the camera pans to the right, revealing a familiar temple (if players have played previous Legend of Zelda games) and a mysterious old man. When the camera pulls back and is in the player’s control, the camera stays facing the direction of the building. From this angle specifically, there’s a four strategies Nintendo uses here to draw the player’s eye:
The first is the use of a weenie to draw the player’s attention towards the right. A weenie is an architectural term coined by Disney Imagineers to describe a type of visual landmark that was used in their theme parks [more information can be found here]. In this instance, the weenie would be the temple seen from the cutscene.
The second is the appearance of an NPC. In a world where the player sees no other sign of human life, the Mysterious Old Man serves a purpose to give the player some answers about the world. He can also provide the player with advice on where to go/what to do to start their journey.
The third is the sparkling on the ground, also along the path to the right.
Lastly, the use of overgrown stairs that creates a path for Link down the slope.
These four things alone heavily draws the player to run down the path to the right of the cliff.
The first thing the player encounters on this list is the sparkling on the ground. Approaching it reveals a button prompt that Link can pick up the item, which happens to be a Tree Branch. Picking this up then provides a brief UI prompt showing the player how to equip weapons. This also teaches the player that glowing objects found on the ground can be picked up and used. Of course, like the clothes in the Shrine of Resurrection, picking up this Tree Branch is optional and can be bypassed.
The second thing Link comes across are the overgrown stairs along the path. This provides a nice break up of the negative space along path, making it easier to draw the player’s eyes down the slope. It also gives some environmental storytelling on what kind of place this once was, and now has become.
The third thing Link encounters is the Mysterious Old Man sitting next to a campfire. Upon reaching him, there are a few new mechanics that the player can discover on their own.
Approaching the campfire, Link will come across a Baked Apple that he can pick up. Picking it up, will prompt a response from the Mysterious Old Man for taking his food, but later says he’s joking. He then mentions about cooking food, which should indicate that cooking will be something the player can do later on (coincidentally, there is a nearby apple tree that Link can climb to gather apples.). He will also provide you with some world lore if the player wishes to hear about it.
If Link picked up the Tree Branch from earlier, approaching the campfire will set the Tree Branch on fire. Stay in the campfire for too long, and Link will start taking damage over time. If the Tree Branch is still on fire, players will eventually want to figure out a way to put it out. In my play through, I had no clue how to put out the fire, so I started swinging the Tree Branch around hoping that the wind would put it out. I quickly realized that swinging around a branch aimlessly had set the nearby tall grass on fire, so I immediately stopped and swapped weapons/unequipped Link to extinguish the branch. It was later I learned that the B button was the quickest way to extinguish the fire.
If Link did NOT pick up the Tree Branch from earlier (or any others along the path), there is a Torch that Link can pick up here. The Torch is similar with the Tree Branch in that it’s a crap weapon, but Link can light it on fire. The main difference is that the Torch will NOT set tall grass on fire.
Directly behind the Mysterious Old Man is an unlit campfire, and an axe. Here, the player can test the Torch or Tree Branch and light the campfire for themselves. Players will want to take the axe since it’s the closest thing to a weapon so far. BUT IF YOU LOOK A LITTLE FURTHERRR… There is a sword lodged in a stone on an island surrounded by water. At the distance of the axe, the sword is easy to miss, but if you approach the cliff near the water it’s much easier to see.
Diving into the water reveals a nice surprise to the player and introduces the first collectible. Swimming towards the sword’s rock shows that swimming drains Link’s stamina bar. If you look at the sword’s little land form, there’s two tiers of land. This was most likely to provide a spot for Link to catch his breath from swimming before uses up all his stamina trying to climb this rock. Once Link grabs the sword and swims back to the main land, he ends up next to some ruins, which happen to be right next to the weenie we saw from the distance before.
The pick-ups here are optional as well - I think you can see a pattern here. However, the placements for each of these items and events are cleverly planned so that the player can come to learn about BotW’s mechanics on their own. I emphasize on their own because there’s two meanings behind this.
The first meaning is that the player can discover these mechanics at their own pace and through their own experiences. There’s nothing specifically driving them except for their own curiosity, not an annoying fairy that yells at Link to look at something every time he approaches something. “What would happen if I did this? What would happen if I interacted with that?” This was my exact thinking as I was exploring how fire works in this game, and I got to learn more than I thought I would within the span of seconds. If a level/world gets players curious about the game’s mechanics naturally without any hand-holding, I think that constitutes as a well-designed level.
The second meaning is more along the lines of the designer’s hand in the level. The level designers in BotW had to think of a way that makes the player believe they are the ones discovering all of these items and events on their own, rather than being told to go in a specific direction. It’s like having an invisible hand suggesting a direction to take, but that’s all that is - a suggestion. Yes, the Sheikah Slate will eventually mark a location to head towards, but the interactions along the way feel like you, the player, discovered these interactions by yourself.
The Temple of Time
The player can reach the ruins of the Temple of Time either if they continue down the path from the campfires, or if they swim out from the small pond of water around the sword in the stone. It’s at these starting ruins that Link will come across the first enemy: the Bokoblins. At this point, hopefully Link is well equipped with some weapons to take down these enemies. If not, Link can sneak around while crouching behind walls or at a distance.
If players look at the bottom right of the screen left of the minimap, there are two smaller gauges: the thermometer, and the sound detector (for the lack of a better name at the moment). These two meters play an important part in having a deeper understanding of BotW’s mechanics. The thermometer monitors Link’s body temperature, it’s use can be demonstrated when Link was on fire from before. Meanwhile, the sound detector… well, detects sound levels. Whenever Link runs, the sound waves are extremely high to show he’s making a lot of sound. On the other hand, if Link walks or crouches, the sound waves will be much lower. If Link is still, then the sound detector flatlines. This makes it much more conducive for sneaking around enemies, as they won’t hear Link as easily compared to when he’s bumbling around. This tool is useful to keep in mind if players decide to take a sneakier approach towards enemies.
It’s here where the player can start deciding how they want to handle their combat, with plenty of freedom an ease to do so. Link can go all out full force, try for sneak attacks, or even just try to avoid conflict as much as possible. In one of the ruins, a chest is guarded by a Bokoblin. If Link waits a little bit outside of the ruins, the Bokoblin will turn his back towards Link, giving him the perfect opportunity to execute a sneak attack. Link is also rewarded with some better pants once the enemy is dispatched.
Continuing up the stairs, Link will reach the entrance to the Temple of Time. It’s here that there’s a small tease of a new weapon that Link can use. At the main entrance of the Temple of Time, there’s a single pot that’s within the line of sight, slightly off to the right as soon as Link enters. If players know about Link’s obsess— I mean ability to throw and shatter pots, then they will most likely want to break this pot. Upon turning to face the single pot, chances are the player will see the rest of the pots in the corner as well as a chest. One of three things could happen:
The player will want to smash all the pots first.
The player will want to open the chest first.
The player will not interact with either.
If the player decides to smash all the pots, Link will obtain a stack of 5 arrows. If the player decides to open the chest first, Link will obtain a Traveler’s Bow. Doing either of these alone will tease the player of a new type of weapon that Link could use, but do not provide everything you need to use it. It’s only when the player does both (break all the pots and open the chest) that Link will obtain a new functional long ranged weapon..
Smashing the pots first is probably the ideal way to tease the weapon because Link will be provided with arrows and no bow. This would most likely clue the player that the chest has a bow of some kind. Several pots are lying on the ground, leading up to the chest. This specific placement can also be another clue that this chest might be related to these arrows from the pots.
The same could be said about opening the chest first before smashing the pots, but the only flaw I could see happening is if the player does not realize they can smash the pots. While this scenario might be rare (as players will try to see what objects they can break early on), it’s still a possibility to consider. Even if the player does not realize this, there are Bokoblin archers nearby that will drop arrows that Link can pick up and use for his bow. This provides a great alternative if the player does happen to miss the pot arrows.
Of course, this too can be miss-able if the player just high-tails it to the Sheikah Slate marker.
So this ends my first BotW analysis from the start of the game, up until the player first reaches the Temple of Time. I understand that not everyone will have the same experiences as me when playing BotW, and that’s perfectly fine. Like I said before, BotW is an open-ended experience, so some people may have similar experiences to me or maybe not. Regardless, I will be analyzing the game based on how I’ve played it and through my own observations.
Next post I will talk about the areas surrounding four Temples scattered throughout the Great Plateau, and I will try to include maps for each one. Please look forward to it!