Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

This essay explores how historical landscape design principles, particularly from Romantic gardens, intersect with the design of open-world video games. Through a close reading of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, it compares design strategies in virtual and physical environments, drawing...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Matteo Uguzzoni
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Bologna University press 2025-07-01
Series:DIID
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.diid.it/diid/index.php/diid/article/view/514
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Summary:This essay explores how historical landscape design principles, particularly from Romantic gardens, intersect with the design of open-world video games. Through a close reading of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, it compares design strategies in virtual and physical environments, drawing from Kevin Lynch’s environmental psychology and the CEDEC 2017 design keynote. It reflects on how level design can benefit from urban planning frameworks and proposes exercises to support this hybrid approach in teaching. The analysis highlights how syncretic elements, landmarks, terrain composition, and player agency contribute to spatial orientation, emotional engagement, and narrative potential.
ISSN:1594-8528
2785-2245