It’s been a full five years since Breath of the Wild was released on March 3, 2017, and we’re still entranced. Nintendo packed so many innovative ideas and small details into its open-world opus that new discoveries continue to be made almost every day. But how did the development team decide what Breath of the Wild should be like as an experience? Where did they draw their inspiration from? And how different could it have been? To find out, let’s go all the way back to the game’s development to revisit 19 fascinating facts that helped shaped this landmark game. Be sure to let us know in the comments how many of these you already knew, and also don’t miss out on the video version of this feature above!
1) Breadth of the Wild Ideas
The goal of Breath of the Wild was to "break the conventions of the Zelda series," and that was really taken to heart by the development team, who pitched all sorts of wild ideas early on in planning, from a Hyrule with invading UFOs that could abduct cattle, through to a guitar-wielding Link and motorbike-riding Link.
The team clearly had fun imagining new possibilities for the series, and for Link alone almost a hundred different designs were presented within the team. And hey, as goofy as he may look, the concepts for Biker Link weren't too far off the mark in the end… at least, mechanically.
2) Who’s The Boss?
And that’s thanks, incidentally, to series producer Eiji Aonuma, who was the driving force behind the inclusion of the Master Cycle Zero in the game. In the must-read Creating a Champion book, he says he pitched the idea early on but was rebuffed, only to bring it up again later as the ideal reward for players who complete The Champions’ Ballad DLC. The staff were “pretty unenthusiastic,” according to Aonuma, but eventually “got into the idea”. I mean, it is a fun concept. And not without some precedent, either.
3) A Link to the Past
Early on in development, the team wanted an easy way to test - and illustrate - the interactions that they saw as the foundation of Breath of the Wild’s gameplay. To do this, they created a prototype that looks for all the world like a classic 2D Zelda game (albeit with a Link in blue instead of green), and used this to show how Link would be able to do things like shoot an arrow through a fire to set a bush on fire, or to use a Korok leaf to blow an enemy back. It was a hugely important step in assuring the team they were on the right path.
4) Multiplicative Magic
In fact, the interconnectivity between different systems became the core technological focus for Breath of the Wild. The philosophy was that by building connections between everything in the world, the gameplay possibilities would multiply. To realise this multiplicative gameplay concept, the team implemented a robust physics and chemistry engine, and really focused on making the interactions as intuitive as possible.
This gave players the opportunity to test things that made logical sense. Like, if Link gets struck by lightning during a thunderstorm because he has metal weapons equipped, does that mean that you can get enemies struck by lightning if you take their wooden one and drop a metal one for them? The answer in this specific instance is yes, but what makes Breath of the Wild so special is just how often the answer is yes across the board. The game offers unprecedented opportunities for player agency and creative thinking.
5) It’s Elemental, My Dear
It’s worth diving a little deeper into something I mentioned in the last point - the game’s chemistry engine. After all, in gaming we hear a lot about physics engines - which are concerned with movement, but Breath of the Wild’s team also formalised the idea of a chemistry engine - which is concerned with states. And this really is one of the game’s key underlying components. It’s called a chemistry engine, but it’s actually less about chemistry and more about elements - fire, water, ice, wind, electricity - and how they interact with both objects and one another. The idea of calling it a chemistry engine actually makes a lot of sense, however, when you consider that the development team described the multiplicative gameplay they were trying to create as ‘chemical reaction play’.
6) Stylised Realism
Breath of the Wild’s gameplay design drastically increased the possibilities for players and ensured they could approach challenges in countless different ways, but how to make it work visually? It was the art team’s job to come up with an art style that would allow the game to deftly balance realism and playability. And their starting point was actually quite surprising - it was Wind Waker and specifically, how elegantly that game was able to transition to higher resolutions - as seen in Wind Waker HD - without losing the originality of its presentation and the fun of its gameplay.
Wind Waker HD’s visual design was thus the starting point for Breath of the Wild, but it soon became clear that those visuals were too stylised for a game that relied on believable physics and chemistry; for people to make connections based on things they could do in the real world. They needed information-dense art and a certain level of realism, and thus the art style shifted to incorporate that. The end result is detailed and realistic in general, but with stylised - and often comical - elements that help keep things punchy and easy to understand everywhere else.
7) What’s Yours is Minecraft
No game is made in a vacuum, and Nintendo's designers found inspiration in a number of other games when setting out to create Breath of the Wild. Game director Hidemaro Fujibayashi, for instance, told Edge magazine that he was inspired by both Minecraft and Terraria, citing "the sense of adventure, exploration and how it inspired curiosity."
Producer Eiji Aonuma, meanwhile, mentioned in interviews that he had played a number of open-world titles - The Witcher, Far Cry and Skyrim, but insisted it was to more broadly understand the development task they were facing. Many of the goals for Breath of the Wild, he said, were actually born out of Skyward Sword - specifically, expanding on that game’s stamina gauge and restricted climbing mechanic, as well as giving players the chance to explore between the different areas.