Added: 02.05.2015 17:00 | 4 views | 0 comments

How would Nintendo solve that? How would they create a consistent story but still allow non-linear exploration? I have an idea, and it's pretty simple: they could decouple the narrative progression from the item and dungeon progression. Look at The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask for an example: the Zora storyline is a self-contained arc which unfolds primarily in the Great Bay. The Gorons' snowy plight is resolved by completing tasks within Snowhead itself. These "story pockets" often required certain items to resolve, and you could bookmark them and return to them if you did discover where that item lay. However, access to those pockets was still restricted by the hub and spoke approach to its world, as in Ocarina of Time. Resolving these narrative events with items is far more satisfying, and feels far less artificial, than opening a new route to travel through, or overcoming a physical barrier to exploration. When exploring an open-world Hyrule, I shouldn't run into those barriers. But if I want to progress the narrative? That's when a hero like Link should run into problems to resolve.

Added: 02.05.2015 17:00 | 2 views | 0 comments

How would Nintendo solve that? How would they create a consistent story but still allow non-linear exploration? I have an idea, and it's pretty simple: they could decouple the narrative progression from the item and dungeon progression. Look at The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask for an example: the Zora storyline is a self-contained arc which unfolds primarily in the Great Bay. The Gorons' snowy plight is resolved by completing tasks within Snowhead itself. These "story pockets" often required certain items to resolve, and you could bookmark them and return to them if you did discover where that item lay. However, access to those pockets was still restricted by the hub and spoke approach to its world, as in Ocarina of Time. Resolving these narrative events with items is far more satisfying, and feels far less artificial, than opening a new route to travel through, or overcoming a physical barrier to exploration. When exploring an open-world Hyrule, I shouldn't run into those barriers. But if I want to progress the narrative? That's when a hero like Link should run into problems to resolve.