Breath of the Wild is finally influencing open-world games

Breath of the Wild majorly innovated in open-world design, and the influence shows in new games like Halo Infinite & Horizon Forbidden West.

[notachance]

look man, I love botw too but reading the article the author didn’t provide what kind of influences it has on Halo Infinite and Horizon Forbidden West
only says that “it shows” … yeah but shows what? 🤣

[porkChop]

Huh? They did explain the influences. Did you read the article? I'm not saying I agree or disagree, but they literally did in fact cite areas or mechanics where the games were influenced. They didn't just say "it shows".

[Crows90]

But breath of the wild didnt create those mechanics. They were already in games.

[porkChop]

I think the point is more about how the mechanics and concepts are used or implemented, rather than the fact that they're there.

[notachance]

nope, they explained for fenyx rising and genshin impact, specifically the climb anywhere (which spiderman games actually did that all the way back on ps1) and glider (where it already exists also way back eg. castlevania, tomba) , but when they mentioned halo and horizon nowhere were they detailing the influences.

[porkChop]

"Halo Infinite eschewed the linear design the series was known for in favor of an open world where a grappleshot provided limitless exploration, and physics-based combat and intelligent AI led to more creative gameplay akin to that of Breath of the Wild."

Those are examples of influence. I don't know if I would say Halo was inspired by BOTW, but the author did in fact explain it.

"Meanwhile, Horizon Forbidden West has its own paraglider now, but it’s also displaying greater flexibility in scaling surfaces and underwater exploration."

Again. They explained it in regards to Horizon: Forbidden West. I don't agree with the underwater exploration part. But the first Horizon was a great traditional action adventure, with the same types of restrictions those games usually have.

Forbidden West opening up the gameplay with the paraglider in the way they have, climbing/scaling akin to BOTW, generally shedding the traditionalism of Zero Dawn, etc. It's not hard to believe that influence could have come from BOTW considering the two franchises launched a week apart and were endlessly compared. It's entirely normal to take inspiration from your competitors, which is why I wouldn't be surprised to see some Horizon influence in BOTW 2.

[Concertoine]

This. I think people are taking the idea of BOTW’s influence and turning it into “but BOTW didn’t invent those mechanics”.

No it didn’t, but it seems like a lot more games are having a lot more of those mechanics after BOTW made use of them.

[Gamer79]

Halo infinite was more influenced by crysis.

[thecodingart]

Like Far Cry, or Just Cause..... So many games have done these mechanics and it's I'd argue it's laughable to even think BoTW was the inspirational factor here. If you listen to the early dev stories and how Horizon was develop, these ideas existed far before BoTW even did. The original pitch included Aloy riding on flying creatures. It's just such a joke.

[senorfartcushion]

The Halo devs said it was

[SurgicalMenace]

Not understanding this article, BOTW was the PG13 version of the Witcher. They added climbing, gliding, and no story. What did I miss?

[CS7]

You missed the innovative game design structure that allows you to progress through the game in whatever order you choose and allows you to do missions in whatever way you figure out to achieve it.

Now sit back and watch as games over the next decade adopt and learn from this philosophy and you enjoy them for their freedom and autonomy that it gives to the players.

[SurgicalMenace]

Is that innovation when so many other games have done it before?

[RedDevils]

lol what a joke.

[Christopher]

I seriously hope not. Not having a pathline for story advancement was one of the things I hated most about it.

[Zhipp]

What a terrible take. Botw is nothing like the Witcher. It took clear inspiration from The Elder Scrolls and FromSoft's Souls games.

[AWBrawler]

Lol it’s nothing like Witcher. All they share is an open world and a horse

[Imalwaysright]

"when so many other games have done it before"

Did what? A fake sense of freedom where other "open" world games constantly tell you where you have to go and what you have to do including TW3? BOTW has given us an unprecedented level of freedom and player agency in the open world genre through its design and that is what makes it different than 99.9% of so called "open" world games but you need to play it to understand this because you sound like the countless pathetic parrots that we see in this website that make it very clear through their comments that they never touched the game but have to hate on it because it wasn't made by Sony.

[senorfartcushion]

The Witcher isn’t a seamless open world.

[SurgicalMenace]

When the open world has nothing in it, it makes it easy to be seamless. Zelda has absolutely no population in its world. The wind and the physics have to be considered when there are no obstructions. The Witcher is a better game; to me, I just didn't see anything I hadn't seen before in Zelda. If you only play Nintendo games, I can see how Zelda is groundbreaking, but when you play on all platforms, it's basic, at best.

[Inverno]

can we please stop kissing up to BoTW? Everything it did was already done by many other games before it. All BoTW did was give Link Spidermans wall crawling for some extra way of traversing. Oblivion, and previous GTA games and FarCry did everything a decade before.

[Nebaku]

But it's the first to combine all those individual mechanics, and do them well.

Yeah, climbing buildings in ps1/2 Spiderman games was fun. Y'know what wasn't fun? The lack of anything else to make it worth it.

Same with Shadow of the Colossus. The climbing mechanics were great, but the game is routinely criticized for having nothing to but the bosses.

BOTW simply having all these mechanics gave it variety beyond anything those provided, but also made those systems integrated. Which in turn made a gameplay loop unlike ANYTHING we've seen prior.

[Knushwood Butt]

You can glide at will in Infamous once you unlock that skill.

It also has great combat, great world traversal, good progression, and a pretty cool story.

[Ryushaa]

Infamous and Just Cause with its open-world and glide mechanics. Also, Assassin's Creed with its open world climb anywhere. But sure BoTW is the pinnacle that come up and/or refined all these ideas.

[CS7]

What in the world? No it has not been done before.

Did you play BOTW?

Tell me another game that when you leave the tutorial you can go straight to the last boss?
Where you can progress through the games missions in what ever order you choose while still having an excellent polished experience?

In GTA etc the game has a progression of story missions where the game takes place -Linear progression but in a sandbox.

Zelda smashes that structure of game design and instead allows you to play the entire game in whatever order you choose. Nothing is forced. Even the individual missions you achieve it whatever way you figure out to do it.

It is a masterclass and a leap forward in game design. How anyone can’t see that baffles me.

[NecrumOddBoy]

Tell me another game that when you leave the tutorial you can go straight to the last boss?

Far Cry 4
Soul Sacrifice
Chrono Trigger (early in-game)
Morrowind

But also, these games have a story. BOTW, doesn’t. It’s a barren world of physics and a bunch short mini-games/puzzles. It’s basically the equivalent of an iPhone game.

[AmUnRa]

You cant say that, even its the truth, Nintendo fans cant take any critisism when someone proves them wrong. Nintendo is a like a God to them and they think Nintendo invented gaming, and every game on other platform used al the mecanics that Nintendo invented...

[senorfartcushion]

It’s a game believed by many.

[staticall]

So, Breath of the Wild was the reason why Halo: Infinite had terrible story (or rather, story with nothing interesting happening, every interesting thing happens either behind the scenes or after the main game), boring open world with same few types of activities and such small enemy variety? Good to know.

P. S.: According to the article, Halo Infinite took "creative gameplay" from BotW. And new Horizon will take, and i quote, «Horizon Forbidden West has its own paraglider now, but it’s also displaying greater flexibility in scaling surfaces and underwater exploration». Too bad BotW didn't have underwater sections, though.

[Atticus_finch]

BOTW has inspired all the no story games since it's release.

[badz149]

no wonder Fortnite is the most played games on the Switch too. they must love that BoTW "influences" LOL

[senorfartcushion]

The original Horizon ripped off the old Zelda games. The new one rips off BOTW.

[BrainSyphoned]

Yes yes on the 7th day BotW created video games.

[phoenixwing]

I swear I'll never understand the media and its constant attempts at licking Nintendo's boots.

[Crows90]

Breath of the Wild is the worst zelda game I ever played and by far the worst open world game as well. Except for ubsifot open worlds.
So I dont think so.

[Cytorakk]

In all honesty, I love breath of the wild and it is my favorite Zelda game because of their open world approach and freedom to do whatever. Articles like this make me disgusted because it’s giving way too much praise for a game that has several flaws and shortcomings. The most obvious is a bare bones world and very few enemies. It’s not the best Zelda game (OoT still has that title) but it is a huge leap in the right direction for the franchise. I don’t think it’s fair or reasonable to say it had an effect on all games before it though, it’s just a stupid fanboy opinion that is far from fact, but some games it did have some inspiration for them such as Genshin Impact. But yeah, Witcher 3 was a much deeper world than BotW. Can’t wait for the sequel; here’s to more enemy variety and a more populated world to explore 🍷

[VerminSC]

I swear some of the shit I hear people say on this site about BOTW make it super apparent they’ve never even played it.

There is a reason many consider it GOAT, it’s very VERY good.

[SurgicalMenace]

It's only okay, but it definitely functions.

[Imalwaysright]

"make it super apparent they’ve never even played it."

100%.

[thecodingart]

People who uptalk BoTW makes me question if they played it... and if they did maybe it's the only game they've ever played...

[senorfartcushion]

Are you 8 years old or something?

[SolidDuck]

I have played it, first game I bought when I got a switch. Realized I was forcing myself to play it after 10 hours or so. It was Zelda and getting great reviews, so I had to like it right. It's so overrated because of the Zelda name. BOTW is truly an boring awful game.

[GoodGuy09]

N4G users hate this game so thisll be a fun comment section lol.
It already had with quite a few. Free climb, exploration, wonder, and a glider and all of it explorable right out the gate after just a few main story missions without much worry about being underleveled is such a great thing for open worlds. Being able to challenge the final dungeon as an option early or go and explore the map and tackle quests to toughen up is a great feeling. Most open worlds are just generic go from point a to point b non stop talking and story. This game heavily emphasised on gameplay, exploration, and discovery. Even story cutscenes were optional. Even the master sword which is a staple of zelda games was optional.
However the game does take a hit in story and the classic zelda main dungeons weren't there which were my disappointments.
The gameplay and open world were great. Its a good thing botw has inspired many. Genshin Impact is a great example. I wish all open worlds have free climb, a glider, and tools to explore imo.
Other open worlds Ive only really enjoyed JUST exploring without getting tired of quick were probably assassins creed 2 and infamous 1+2.

[philm87]

I enjoyed BotW but it's definitely overrated in my opinion. Same as Ghost of Tsushima really.

[Silly gameAr]

I'm not even going to entertain this.

[Elda]

Opinions Opinions everyone has one.

[Lionsguard]

BoTW is the Apple of open world games. Whatever it did, it did it first, no ifs, ands or buts and any game that had it before it, is just merely a figment of your imagination.

[ChubbyBlade]

I’m willing to bet you didn’t even read the article or even play the game.

[Lionsguard]

1. I was just making a joke. 2. I actually do have the game, I never finished it though. It's pretty boring to me tbh..

[EvertonFC]

BOTW wasn't the first to use a glider in a game ffs lol.

[Stanjara]

Good!

[TheColbertinator]

Uh huh

[Atticus_finch]

I highly recommend the Joseph Anderson break down on breath of the wild. It is incredible detailed and a great watch.

[Bluecrimson]

They forgot Ghost Of Sashimi and Genshin. Both are inspired by BOTW. Genshin straight up shamelessly ripped off the art and UI from BOTW lol.

[plmkoh]

Open world is a cancer to gaming. And now you see games are needlessly going open world.

Be careful what you praise.

[Sirk7x]

Alot of gamers here might not like BotW (I think it was amazing), but that doesn't mean that game designers and developers don't adore it and look to it to draw inspiration.

[lellkay]

LOL ffs

[H9]

The comment section is already hilarious, please keep it going, whenever Breath Of The Wild is praised, there's equal amount of hate getting thrown at it, if you don't like it just forget about it

[SDuck]

If you openly admit BOTW was inspired by other games, how can you name it a trailblazing game in open world genre? Paragliders and stamina system? Yeah SotC did that. Tower system? Assassin's Creed surprisingly still has those after all these years. Random events in the open world? That's just good ol' Rockstar games way of doing open worlds!

I never played BOTW and probably never will because I'm not interested in buying a Switch but I don't doubt it's a great game. I love playing Genshin Impact for the reasons I admit look like a copy of BOTW but that doesn't mean it paved the way for games like Halo, Sonic or Horizon because those would happen with or without the latest Zelda game

[Imalwaysright]

Because when every so called open world game tells you to go to point A to start mission, do this and that to finish mission, play cutscene to progress story.... rinse and repeat until credits start rolling, BoTW did the exact opposite. BoTW is designed to offer freedom, not the fake sense of freedom that we see in 99.9% of so called "open" world games that we see on the market. BoTW didn't invent new mechanics. It's innovation is its design and in doing so also offered an unprecedented level of player agency that we just don't see in other open world games.

[SDuck]

"Zelda did something great so other games suck". I'm not having a discussion with you

[ChubbyBlade]

Halo CE didn’t invent twin stick shooter controls. It popularized it and every game following used the same controls and borrowed other mechanics from it that were not original to it.

Now look at your statement and re evaluate what inspiration means. It doesn’t mean it was the first.

[Imalwaysright]

Gears didn't invent cover shooting mechanics and it's without any doubt one of the most influential games of all time.

[Imalwaysright]

Who said that other games sucked? Are you stupid in the head or are you just pretending?

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

What do you mean finally? It wasn't long after Breath of the Wild came out that it's mechanics and game design influenced alot of games almost immediately, Genshin Impact comes to mind as a good example (the paragliding and climbing are good examples).

[esherwood]

Man I don’t understand the hype for botw, I made myself play 20 hours before finally calling it quits, the game was boring as hell. I really wonder if it didn’t have the zelda name would it been as successful. I’m a zelda fan btw but man that game seemed like such a miss to me

[gamer9]

Exact same experience here. It was one of the most basic games i've played in a decade. If that's the 'charm' then i just don't get it. Perhaps Switch fans are just that hard up for a good open world game

[ikarodemon]

Nintendo has influenced the game industry in all aspects since the start.

[Magog]

Total crap. Just Cause utilized the grapple and parachute combo long before Zelda.

[bradleejones]

BotW is an excellent game but it's a reach to say it influenced Horizon. Horizon came out before it did and the new Horizon having a glider is inspired by BotW when it isn't the first game to have such a mechanic. Infamous had the same mechanic in 2009. (sans glider but same gameplay/physics)
No knock on BotW as I love basically all the Zelda games but the article is really reaching.
Also with the new Sonic reference as I don't think we have even seen any game play unless I missed it somehow.

[Germaximus]

LOL New to gaming I take it.

[Shinox]

Bruh! Sotc is the originator of this .. BotW completely ripped off shadow of the colossus and Sotc is the one who influenced that , are you going to give Sotc credit or does it sting a bit not being a Nintendo property, go play Sotc and look at your game again, these Nintendo fanboys i swear

[WillyC009]

Never understood the over hype, over crediting of this Zelda game. As an OG Zelda fan, I found this Zelda game underwhelming. The dungeons are basic, the open world is largely empty with the same few enemy types, the weapon breaking mechanic was simply a pain. I’m happy for others that loved it, but I’ll stick to replaying some of the older gems in the series.

[gamer9]

Thank you. I was also extremely underwhelmed. I bought a switch mainly for the hype of this game, and it just wasn't the best thing ever. I wouldn't put it in my top 10 open world games.

[Junkrad2022]

rockstar influences open world games not botw

[Vizigoth04]

Yeah, there has never been an open world RPG before Breath of the Wild came around. Also surpasses anything graphically that has ever came out.

[Good-Smurf]

Don't make me laugh.
You can rave the game but this is too much as BOTW didn't do anything innovative other than it being a Zelda game and it own spin on other open world genre.

[gamer9]

I went into BOTW seeing it's 97 metacritic expecting to be blown away. I thought the game was overly simple, easy, boring, and terrible graphics. I would've given it like a 7

[kneon]

But you forgot to add the magic bonus points that all Nintendo games automatically get, that would bring your 7 in line with other scores

[thecodingart]

🙄 what idiot wrote this...

[Christopher]

This is like World of Worldcraft claiming they influence MMOs. They took what everyone else did, made a good game around it, then people claim BotW developers are the makers of everything they did. Essentially this: https://i.kym-cdn.com/photo...

[Imalwaysright]

You should use a dictionary to see what the words "innovation" and "influence" mean. Gears didn't invent cover shooter mechanic and is one of the most influential games of all time and I can give examples of its influence. Chris Esaki, the man that was responsible for Gears cover system was specifically hired by Bioware to work on Mass Effect's cover system. ND came out and said that Uncharted was inspired by Gears. That's 2 of the most acclaimed IPs of the 7th generation heavily influenced by a game that didn't innovate and for you to imply that World of Warcraft didn't influence other MMORPGs the only thing that comes mind is wow.

As for BoTW it was indeed innovative in its design and nothing can take that from its developers and who's to say that GG didn't implement a paraglider as a means of traversal after someone in the team played BoTW? I remember seeing N4g users denying that Uncharted had been influenced by Gears and ND themselves proved them wrong.

EDIT: I just remembered that the original Splinter Cell had an aiming system with an over the shoulder perspective. Cliffy B. said that RE4 was the game that inspired Gears over the shoulder perspective and RE4 was released 2 or 3 years after Splinter Cell. RE4 is another reminder that a game doesn't have to innovate to be influential.

[Christopher]

"You should use a dictionary to see what the words "innovation" and "influence" mean."

I don't need to. You can't influence other games with a feature that you took from somewhere else. That's the previous game influencing the industry as a whole. The only thing you can do is show how you do a better job at utilizing that feature. It doesn't mean that others who use gliders, a prime example of what people are saying about HZD for example, are influenced by BotW nor that they will make gliding like or as good as what was BotW. Gliding is a pretty common form of travel in games now and they could still suck at it. But, its influence isn't just because BotW did it.

"As for BoTW it was indeed innovative in its design and nothing can take that from its developers..."

I'll grant you that's your opinion, I just don't agree with it.

[Imalwaysright]

"can't influence other games with a feature that you took from somewhere else"

I should have provided links to back up what I said...

https://screenrant.com/unch...

Cover shooter mechanics have existed at the very least since the 16bit consoles wich is when I started gaming an that didn't stop ND from being influenced by Gears when they were making Uncharted.

https://gamingbolt.com/clif...

"Of course, this hasn’t escaped Bleszinski, who at one point cited Resident Evil 4 as a strong influence for the development of Gears of War."

I guess that developers can indeed be influenced by games that weren't innovative or are you going to claim that these guys were being dishonest?

[lucian229]

What? BOTW was empty as hell and laggy with nothing to do and almost no story. I enjoyed it but it didn't innovate anything. Elderscrolls is a better open world.

[DefaultComment]

Now then lets not lie to ourselves, every game it's different but nonetheless it doesn't mean ithat it cannot pick stuff from other games. that's pretty much the point of innovation as it is, it's what new can come out from something that is build from the ground up or something that is already exists.

I agree that BOTW didn't innovate most of the mechanics, that being said, BOTW is the first to innovate with an interactive openworld and used these previous mechanics into the game.

- For instance, gliding, yes other games had made gliding for sure but BOTW was the first to implement it in an open world, aside from the fact that you can climb anywhere at any height so you can glide.
- Yes we know weather in games have been around but once again BOTW implemented as a continious hazard if you do not have the right equipment.
- The Climbing mecahninc, I dont think there is any game that innovated it in an open world game, I could be wrong but so far I haven't seen open world where you can climb anywhere.
- Interaction with the world, same as the climbing mechaning, enough said.

So your see, it's not about being a copycat but what good things you can create with stuff that is already available. Inmortal Phoenix Rising clearly took inspiration in BOTW and that's fine, since BOTW took inspiration in the Witcher 3 & Skyrim. Same goes for forbbiden west when they decided to use the glider as well. same goes with Halo Infinite to use a some sort of Grapple hook that already been in games like Ocarina of Time, so things at the end of the day go full circle.

[staticall]

No offence, but:
«- For instance, gliding, yes other games had made gliding for sure but BOTW was the first to implement it in an open world, aside from the fact that you can climb anywhere at any height so you can glide.»
That's false. Infamous, Prototype, Just Cause 1-3, Saints Row 4, Sly Cooper games, Batman Arkham games, Spider-Man games from PS2 era all had climbing anywhere + sliding/gliding. You can argue about climb everywhere in a fantasy setting and you might be right. There are games like Might & Magic 6-8 with fly spell, Morrowind/Oblivion, Dragon's Dogma, The Alliance Alive or Divinity 2 (NOT Divinity: Original Sin 2), probably others, but that's a stretch, in my opinion.

I'm not debating about weather system (i can only think about Ninja Gaiden on NES with weather affecting the player, but there might be other games) or how Breath of the Wild allows creative mind to invent clever uses for it's systems. But climbing/gliding is the last thing that BotW innovated. You can say that BotW was the first game to have stamina + climbing + gliding in a fantasy setting, but you know, that's a very specific thing, IMO.

[gammaray13]

hahahahahahaha

[AKS]

Seems like everyone liked BotW except me. My younger brother is playing through it and loving it. Couldn't stand everything breaking nonstop. I felt like someone was spraying Acid Cloud from Demon's Souls on me or poking me with the Scraping Spear and constantly ruining all my gear.

[Binarycode]

The Thing is, Many on this site are young.

BOTW is a good game, no doubt and it does many things in an open world type affair correct.

But Many things it does have been done many time in many different games.

Climbing towers. They are called ubisoft towers for a reason. Heck shadow of mordor does it.

Hand Glider - Farcry, Just cause. many others.

What about this 1999 game I played and loved. Villain's looks familiar.

https://youtu.be/9b8aqZOmtS...

You could ride a dragon, shoot flames with it, walk along. Call it and it would land. in 1999.

Most games these days have you calling a horse or something to come and get you. See how old that idea is.

Games are best when they use old and new idea's that fit perfectly into the game world.

As long as the game is solid and worth the money its great.

All games use idea's from other games. As do films, music etc.

[ziggurcat]

Are you sure it wasn't other open world games influencing BotW?

[SolidDuck]

If BOTW didn't have Zelda in it's name. Like it was called The wild journey, but was the same game. It would of gotten 5 out of 10's and be completely forgotten about.

[frostypants]

"Breath of the Wild majorly innovated in open-world design"

LOL. No.

[brewin]

As much as I love BotW, I thought Horizon Zero Dawn outclassed it in every meaningful way. Zelda had it's Hyrule lore, but HZD just did so many things better, except environmental traversal, which seems to be a big upgrade in Forbidden West. I think HFW will become the new standard in open world games.

Regardless of anything, the more we all argue about this stuff the more we're going to realize that everything is a copy of a copy of a copy. Aka, no idea is original. It's all just an amalgamation of ideas done slightly differently, like a food recipe.

[mastershredder]

Nintendo Enthusiast no , Nintendo Zealot yes.
I think you have your influences and flow muddled into some kind of alternate reality.

[cerpintaxt44]

finally? its been influencing open world since its release

[Lord_Sloth]

Open World FPS with a Grapple Hook? Let's ignore Dying Light for the sake of giving Nintendo another Blow Job.