Thoughts on The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s User Experience
As a long time fan of Zelda games, I was excited to dive into Breath of the Wild. It is both the largest game in the series as well as the one that most successfully provides a sense of adventure. It has ushered in a new era of gameplay mechanics focused on making every moment of play engaging and meaningful.
Controls
Early Zelda games lacked a third dimension as well as complex controls but still managed to deliver a rich gaming experience. As technology of the Nintendo gaming platforms advanced, so did the complexity of controllers. Instead of embracing that complexity, the series traditionally tried to restrain its controls to the bare minimum set of inputs as to help make the game accessible to more players.
BotW abandons this methodology of simple controls and presents a larger set of input options. It addresses the added complexity by starting the player with the simplest set of controls. Incrementally introducing advanced controls as they become necessary during the game.
The controls require more learning than previous games. Even deep into the game you might occasionally…
