21st July 2005, 2:45 AM
Scale can be less of a problem with the introduction of meaningful horse-riding, by which I mean that you're actually using the horse to get somewhere, not just riding around the Hyrule middle area going HOLY CRAP I'M RIDING A HORSE... IN A GAME!! which, let's be honest, was the gist of OoT riding. Getting somewhere in 5 minutes by horse where it would take 20 minutes by foot (or whatever, I don't know horse-to-human speed ratios) is already more realistic than the smaller-scale alternative.
You can also play around with the actual composition of the gameplay. Instead of having a shitty "overworld" with generic enemies that acts solely as a mid-way point between dungeons/events/whathaveyou, just focus more of the gameplay on the traveling. Making it so Link has to journey for several "days" (hours) through Octorok Valley before reaching the sacred Temple of the Octorok Cult is, again, already more epic and realistic than having an owl show up and go "ya the dungeon is behind that rock over there". Even if it stretches the game so much you can't afford to have a million dungeons anymore, it'll work. So long as there's interesting shit in Octorok Valley, the player won't feel screwed over. Put towns with NPCs related to subplots, shady alleys where you get attacked by thieves with a weird recurring tattoo and where you can buy unreliable magical items, strongholds with petty warlords fighting each other, whatever. Just like in books or movies. 3D games can afford that kind of realism and attention to detail, so do it do it do it.
You can also play around with the actual composition of the gameplay. Instead of having a shitty "overworld" with generic enemies that acts solely as a mid-way point between dungeons/events/whathaveyou, just focus more of the gameplay on the traveling. Making it so Link has to journey for several "days" (hours) through Octorok Valley before reaching the sacred Temple of the Octorok Cult is, again, already more epic and realistic than having an owl show up and go "ya the dungeon is behind that rock over there". Even if it stretches the game so much you can't afford to have a million dungeons anymore, it'll work. So long as there's interesting shit in Octorok Valley, the player won't feel screwed over. Put towns with NPCs related to subplots, shady alleys where you get attacked by thieves with a weird recurring tattoo and where you can buy unreliable magical items, strongholds with petty warlords fighting each other, whatever. Just like in books or movies. 3D games can afford that kind of realism and attention to detail, so do it do it do it.