Action & Adventure · 2010s
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
A Hyrule rebuilt as a chemistry-and-physics sandbox where the rules — climb anything, combine anything, burn grass that carries fire — do the design work. The game opens by handing you nearly everything and trusting you to make your own goals.
| First released | 2017 |
|---|---|
| Developer | Nintendo EPD |
| Original platform | Nintendo Switch, Wii U |
Why it matters
It reset expectations for open-world design by making curiosity, not map icons, the reason to explore. Its systems-first approach influenced a decade of open-world games across every platform.
Play it today
Still sold on Switch; a Wii U edition remains from its original release. A direct sequel, Tears of the Kingdom, followed in 2023.
Start here
Ignore the main quest marker for a while: pick a visible landmark and walk to it. The game teaches through experimentation, so cook wrong meals, fight uphill battles, and let failures be information.
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legend_of_Zelda:_Breath_of_the_Wild — release date, developer, open-world design reception
Sources for this page were checked 2026-09-21.