Groundbreaking video games don't come around often, so when they do, they tend to stay relevant long after their initial release. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is the perfect example of this. Released all the way back in 2017, Breath of the Wild is still often a point of discussion in the video game landscape, and is frequently used as a comparison point for modern open-world adventures. Taking a more player-centric approach to the open-world genre, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild lets players truly go wherever they'd like to, and it's all thanks to the game's innovative climbing mechanics that could be used in a plethora of other open-world franchises.
Back when The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim was in development, Todd Howard stated the infamous quote, "see that mountain? You can climb that." When players finally got Skyrim, that turned out to be a little untrue, as the only mountain-climbing in the game is spamming the jump button while pushing forward, hoping that the game bugs out long enough for the player to make their ascension. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild finally fulfilled this prophecy and let players climb anything and everything, changing the open-world genre for good.
Zelda: Breath of the Wild's Climbing Mechanics Should Be Used By Other Games
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild's climbing mechanics are incredibly simple on the surface, but deceptively complex behind the scenes. To start climbing, all players need to do is just jump at a vertical surface, and Link will do the rest. However, as the player begins to climb, their stamina gauge will start to deplete. At the start of Breath of the Wild, Link has just one circle of the stamina wheel unlocked, which essentially means that the player is limited to climbing just small structures, or they'll become exhausted and fall to their death. Throughout Breath of the Wild, players upgrade their stamina wheel and unlock various items and gear that can assist in climbing, opening up the whole map.
The system may be simple, but by letting players climb any building or cliff from the get-go, Breath of the Wild redefined the open-world adventure genre. By letting players go absolutely anywhere, Breath of the Wild encourages a great deal of player-freedom and creativity. Rather than limit players to areas that reflect their level, Breath of the Wild puts that responsibility on the player themselves. If the player can't make it up a cliff with the stamina they have, but somehow finds a way to the top via other means, then Breath of the Wild doesn't condemn them for that. It simply lets them do it and allows the player to decide if that's the smartest way to proceed.
Despite Zelda: Breath of the Wild releasing five years ago, this approach to open-world exploration, and specifically the game's climbing mechanics, hasn't really been used by any other AAA open-world games, some of which could greatly benefit from that approach. For example, Guerilla Games' Horizon series could make great use of Breath of the Wild's climbing mechanics. While Horizon Forbidden West's traversal options were a distinct improvement over its predecessor's, the game's climbing mechanics can still feel a little stiff and unnatural, with Aloy only being able to climb up certain highlighted objects. The same can be said for Sucker Punch's Ghost of Tsushima, which used a similar system.
For any open-world game with tall mountains and a great deal of verticality, Breath of the Wild's climbing mechanics should be implemented. Nothing makes an open-world adventure game feel less like an adventure than when a player comes face-to-face with a mountain, only to realize that they're not in the specific spot to climb it. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was seen as a revolutionary game for a reason, and it's about time other big franchises started to take note.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is available on Nintendo Switch and Wii U.
