Minecraft has always put player-freedom and creativity at the very forefront of its design, but that creativity is still limited by a few big factors. One of the biggest limitations Minecraft puts on its players is the environments in which they can forge their creations. When Minecraft first released, players were limited to just a handful of biomes, with the main one being its iconic woodland area. While more have been added over the years, there are still places that players simply can't go.
While Minecraft has been a trendsetter in countless different ways, it might be time for it to actually start taking inspiration from other popular games, and The Legend of Zelda franchise may be the perfect place to look. Throughout Zelda's history, players have been able to explore tropical islands, shadowy forests, majestic castles, and underwater temples, to name just a few, and while Minecraft offers a lot of similar biomes, there's one location it doesn't, and that's The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom's sky islands.
Minecraft Should Borrow Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom's Sky Islands
When Minecraft first released back in 2011, its survival mechanics played a pivotal role in the gameplay loop. When players first hopped into Minecraft a decade ago, they were more focused on finding quick shelter, weapons, and food in order to survive their first night as opposed to building some impressive architectural creations. A big emphasis of Minecraft's original core gameplay loop was, as the name implies, mining. Players were encouraged to dig down, find materials, and craft better gear, and repeat the process, getting a little better each time.
As time has gone on, and its player-base has become more accustomed to the game's difficulty, Minecraft has focused more on letting players create whatever they can think of, as opposed to forcing them to simply survive. And over the last decade, Minecraft's updates have continued to reinforce this more creative approach, with new blocks, items, vehicles, and mobs being added to aid the player in their building. Some of Minecraft's biggest updates have also added brand-new biomes to the game and fleshed out those already there, again giving players more choice in how they approach building on specific terrain. But through all of Minecraft's updates, a sky biome has never been added.
While players can build tall towers that reach into the sky, and can technically create floating structures by exploiting some of the game's mechanics, Minecraft offers no official way to create anything in its skybox, at least not in Survival mode. With Minecraft already exploring the underground through a plethora of updates, more surface land biomes being added, and even the sea getting its own content refresh, it's about time that Minecraft took players to new territory, and there's nowhere better than the sky.
For inspiration, Minecraft may want to look to The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. One of the biggest selling points of Nintendo's long-awaited sequel is the ability to not only travel across the entirety of Hyrule once again, but explore a kingdom above it. Along with Hyrule Castle itself, a number of islands have been lifted into the sky, and it's up to Link to travel between them all and see what they have to offer. Minecraft should take a similar approach and introduce a series of islands set high in the sky. To reach them, a set of vehicles and blocks should be introduced, maybe imitating Tears of the Kingdom's Fuse mechanic. Minecraft should also add a few new mobs to go with this hypothetical sky update, including friendly animal mobs like birds that players can use to reach the sky, and additional enemy types to battle once they're up there.
Minecraft is available on Mobile, PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One, and legacy platforms.
