It’s always a real treat to hear from Nintendo in this context, and at GDC 2024, developers of ToTK spoke about crafting an enriched Hyrule via emergent gameplay in an entirely physics-driven world, and advanced sound design. Technical Director Takuhiro Dohta, Lead Physics Programmer Takahiro Takayama, and Lead Sound Engineer Junya Osada share their design approaches and hurdles their teams overcame during development - absolute legends. In true Nintendo style, even the presentation itself is fun. Hugely insightful and wildly impressive. Watch it here.

Bafflingly, just like with BOTW, I have no idea how Nintendo pulled this off. The mechanical additions are creative and wildly impressive. Somehow though, as a sequel, it never quite hit me as hard. I was constantly amazed, but sometimes struggled to find or maintain the fun.

I played earlier Zelda games and enjoyed them, but didn’t truly appreciate them. My dad got me Wind Waker for my birthday and it was one of the first games that really changed the way I looked at the medium - thanks in no small part, strangely, to it’s cel-shaded visuals. I remember finding it confusing and challenging at first, but really falling in love with it.

I have no idea how Nintendo did this. It takes mechanics and gamedesign inspiration from all over the industry, and improves on basically all of them. Constantly impressive and gratifying - one of the best games ever made.