Don’t call The Legend of Zelda Wii U “open world”, says Miyamoto

By Brenna Hillier

The Legend of Zelda creator Shigeru Myamoto doesn’t like having the next entry in the series described as “open world”.

Although it was described as “open world” at E3 2014, The Legend of Zelda Wii U might not precisely fit the paradigm you’re expecting.

In a Q&A with shareholders at an investor meeting last month, Miyamoto seemed cagey on applying the term too freely to the new project.

“I prefer not to use the generally used term ‘open world’ when developing software,” he said.

“This term means that there is a large world in which players can do numerous things daily.

“In the traditional Legend of Zelda series, the player would play one dungeon at a time. For example, if there are eight dungeons, at the fourth dungeon, some players may think, ‘I’m already halfway through the game,’ while other players may think, ‘I still have half of the game to play.’

“We are trying to gradually break down such mechanism and develop a game style in which you can enjoy The Legend of Zelda freely in a vast world, whenever you find the time to do so.”

Goodness knows what that means or why Miyamoto doesn’t like the description “open world”.

Thanks, MCV.