How far Zelda: Breath of the Wild's influence goes

Nintendo Everything pinpoints the new things that Zelda: Breath of the Wild brought to the table and how it inspired other developers.

[H9]

N4G will be mad at this, how dare you praise Breath of the wild

[stupidusername]

To all future comments:
No one is saying Zelda invented anything. BoTW used existing ideas and took inspiration from a lot of games and streamlined it. The game sold 25 million copies, received massive praise and many game developers follow suit. Just like how Apple didn’t invent smartphones, but still made the phone that other companies were inspired by later on.

[GhostofHorizon]

I can only speak for myself but I have nothing against the game, it's the same article being written every 3 months that's getting a bit old. There are pleanty of other great games out there that have inspired genres that get barely any recognition.

I think the game did a good job about streamlining some aspects but if it didn't have Zelda in it's name some of the weaker parts of the game would not have been forgiven as easily.

[H9]

This, you know it feels like if people don't say that the game invested everything then they are not praising it enough, the best praise that can be given to it is that it did open world right, that's it, it doesn't have to be the first to be the best!

[Vanfernal]

It's also about to turn 5 years old... We get it... Botw is great. How about more articles saying RE4 revolutionized 3rd person shooters with the over the shoulder cam. Or how Mario 64 redifined 3D platforming... Or how Street Fighter 2 pushed fighting games into the mainstream... At this point these articles are just redundant.

[LordoftheCritics]

BOTW became a copyable form. Thats what makes it special.

[ZeekQuattro]

If BOTW is public enemy number one on here Game Pass is a close second. That service is hated with a passion on here. Don't dare praise it either. Only Sony branded content deserve such praise.

[H9]

I haven't owned anything Xbox related since 360 because I just don't like their direction anymore yet I can't but be jealous about game pass it's a brilliant offer

[MadLad]

This place is a giant bubble.
I can have a level headed, reasonable discussion on almost any reasonable YouTube video. Even with people of differing opinions.

Here? It's almost always vitriol and dog piling if you're not siding with the majority.

[MadLad]

Yeah. It feels like one of the most needlessly hated games here on N4G, honestly.

[CS7]

It is such a strange phenomenon? What caused it?

BOTW is known as a masterpiece every where else. But on N4G it is a “Ubisoft game with a Zelda Skin”.

[H9]

Yes and yet Ghost of Tsushima, the game that they call Samurai Creed is not a Ubisoft copy

[DarkZane]

I love Breath of the Wild, but stop saying it invented the wheel. Open world games existed before that so I am pretty sure none of those game were influenced by it. Hell Pokemon Legends Arceus is technically more similar to Monster Hunter than an open world game.

[EvertonFC]

This

[Shuckylad]

Let’s be honest for a wii u game botw is great. If inspiration is taken from it then great.

[AuraAbjure]

It's why I bought a Wii U. There were no other games worth playing cuz I also had an Xbone.

[Terry_B]

Hey..another opinion piece from a website with the word Nintendo in its name about how Zelda Botw influenced other games ..lel.

[Flawlessmic]

Look i love breath of the wild as much as the next guy but honestly ur acting like it changed the game or something.

It didnt it was an amazingly crafted open world game, that its.

Tgat fact tgatva few games steal certain things from it doesnt make it more special. Devs steal things from other games literally the time.

So are we gonna have posts about how a crummy game with nice feature influenced all gamers after it just vecause a few things were taken from it by another dev.

Its weird to say this about such an amazing game but its literally overrated at this point.

Something like gta deserves these articles gta and red dead are exemplary examples on how to do open world and the added bonus of them basically starting the trend and perfecting it

[Concertoine]

There were also articles discussing the influence of GTA 3 and Shenmue when they came out 20 years ago.

[CS7]

GTA’s open world is flawed in that the missions can be carried out only a specific and precise way.

BOTW actually fixes that and allows you to do the missions in whatever way you figure out.

GTA is amazing and way more revolutionary but BOTW does push the needle forward.

[Flawlessmic]

@cs7

Thats because the game barely has a story so it can do that, it gave u 4 major objectives which were all effectively the same. It was the envirments tgat made it different and that i could do it any order but thats all because the minimalist story allowed it.

How would a game with a full on story like gta, red dead, horizon work if it was just done in any order?

Zelda did push the need cause it was an brillant game but people overrate it for 2 simple things, not having a map full of icons and the fact u can complete those same 4 objectives in any order.

[CBaoth]

So then it copied the gameplay mechanic from Crackdown? That's all you reference. Did you NOT know BOTW copied it from another game? That's pushing the envelope?

[SimpleSlave]

"Executed to perfection." Far from it and believing this is doing the game a massive disservice. I love BotW, but the game has a huge problem. Half the game is amazing and the other half is just garbage. Sometimes it feels like two teams worked on it. One that was very progressive and willing to take risks and knew what they were doing, and another that didn't have a clue how to do things that have been done and done well previously.

Still, if developers want to steal from the amazing half, then please do. It fixes a lot of problems that plagues open worlds and adds a lot of wonderful ideas and details that makes the gameplay a joy. Then there's the other half...fuck that half.

Hopefully the sequel and the other games that follow in BOTW footsteps learn to take the best bits and make them their own while elevating it and adding new gameplay mechanics to their vision.

One last thing, I guarantee you that once Elden Ring comes out, the rest of the blue print will be revealed. The studio that manages to copy Elden Ring and bolster the gameplay with the wonderful details of BotW, will have an absolute monster of a game franchise in their hands.