The Legend of Zelda and it's sense of exploration through breaking of established space

E3 is next week and we are all eager to hear about the new Legend of
Zelda title. Miyamoto has said he struck inspiration for the Legend of
Zelda from a childhood experience of exploring a cave he shouldn't
have. That deep sense of discovery came from the establishment of
a boundary and then the breaking of it. Zelda games have used the
technology of their time to establish a world in a space and then
broke it’s own boundaries to deliver discovery. Here I talk about how
some Zelda titles did so in their time, and how the new upcoming Zelda game can begin to deliver discovery as we remember it from our favorite Zelda titles.


The Legend of Zelda series uses our expectations of technology to give
us a sense of vastness. In games from the 1980‘s, moving from left to
right was common. The original Legend of Zelda game gave us 4
directions to explore with very little guidance. We had to discover
the journey of Link, and as we progressed, the sense of accomplishment was huge. Exploration was created by using current technology to like we have never seen before. Combined with a rich world, the Legend of Zelda series was born.

The original Zelda Immediately gave us a choice in which way we can go

In the mid 90’s, gaming was turning to a new world of gaming, 3D
space. While we saw plenty of 3D games before 1998, the game broke our expectations of what kind of space a game could deliver. A sense of deep exploration was created off our expectations of the technology of the time. Combined again with a rich universe and story, Ocarina of Time went on to be considered one of the best games ever created.

Link reaches Hyrule field. We are directed to the castle but it's so tempting to simply explore

People asked for a sequel to Ocarina of Time for years, and we finally
got one called Twilight Princess. Twilight Princess delivered a strong
story in the same universe as Ocarina of Time, but is often considered
inferior to its prequel. Elements of nostalgia or fanboyism? I think
not; rather, Twilight Princess came out with a smaller space for us to
explore over other titles we have already seen. Already accustomed to
the space sandbox style games could deliver, Twilight Princess fell
into a sense of linearity when compared to its predecessors.

Outside of the Vault we are directed to Megaton but it's so tempting to simply explore.

The new Legend of Zelda title needs to reestablish its sense of space
and exploration by using stronger technology to break the world we are used too. A Legend of Zelda game set in a huge world the size of
Fallout 3’s could be the ultimate 3D translation to what the original
Legend of Zelda gave us. Loose guidance with a story we could choose
to follow when we are ready. I want to get lost in the world. The
world I got lost in the original Zelda and in Ocarina of Time.