Sunday, June 11, 2017

World of Hylia - Zelda RPG Concept


This is an idea, which I had early on while playing through Breath of the Wild... Essentially all Nintendo would have to do is take the world of Breath of the Wild and use it for more of a RPG-like gaming experience. The key aspect here is that you would create your own character in one of the following races:

  • Hylian
  • Sheikah
  • Zora
  • Goron
  • Rito
  • Gerudo

While Link is the all-rounder, who can do it all, here each race has specific traits. Sheikah would be good at stealth, but they are weaker in general. Zora can swim fast and swim up waterfalls, but they are weak to electricity. Gorons can roll around using stamina and swim through lava, but they can't swim through normal waters. They can also swing two-handed weapons at ease, while they can't use bows or smaller weapons. Rito can fly around using their stamina and they are good archers. Gerudo are good fighters in general and show better heat resistance, but are weak to the cold. And the Hylians are simply the default characters with no specific perks or disadvantages.

The player would go through a typical character creator in the beginning of the game, where he can also define the gender and the looks of the character to his liking. And depending on the tribe, he or she will start in a different location of the world map. Then you take on quests, try to improve your character or do whatever you do in a RPG like this.

The world would be the same as in Breath of the Wild, but the RPG would take place either ~100 years before or after the game. This way Nintendo could recycle the game world of Breath of the Wild, where the players would already be familiar with the environments, while at the same time it could explore new things. Hyrule Castle and Hyrule Castle Town could be there in full glory with a real population, instead of being some decayed ruins full of Guardians. Nintendo could also extend the world at some of the borders, where you currently just run into invisible walls.


Multiplayer?

Now, there's the question, whether this should become a singleplayer experience or a multiplayer (MMORPG) experience, where you play together with other people all over the internet. This could be even a potential direction, where multiplayer Zelda is headed.

Minidungeons could appear all over the world similar to the Sheikah Shrines, where for each a certain number of people is required or at least recommended. This could work similar to the pedestals in Tri Force Heroes, where everyone has to step into the "Triforce" to enter the next area.

Only problem with multiplayer would be the new fighting mechanic of Breath of the Wild with its slow motion parts. This would be really hard to get right in multiplayer. Hyrule Warriors partially has the same issue with Special Attacks during coop, where the other player can essentially walk around the frozen enemies and look at the attack at different angles. It could work similarly in a multiplayer game based on Breath of the Wild, at least for melee combat and flurry rushes. The mid-air archery is what makes things complicated. You can't just freeze the game for everyone in your proximity, while you do this.

Another issue would be inventory management, where you can spent quite some time within Breath of the Wild's menus. Even switching weaponry over the D-Pad shortcuts can take its time. Here the game normally pauses, which also wouldn't be possible in a multiplayer experience. So, if Nintendo ever wanted to try this, there are certainly some technical hurdles to take.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

They would just need to pull a Skyward sword, and take out the slow motion combos. Other than that, they could do perfect guards and such easily. This would also be a great dnd campaign. Thanks very much.