The Legend of Zelda's foray into the realm of open-world design proved to be so successful that it has defined the genre for, at the very least, the foreseeable future. Its approach to freedom, its abandonment of the mollycoddling of yesteryear in favor of player-guided exploration, and its rewarding the player through discovery, rather than the abstract concept of the intangible loot, have become staples in an ever-growing subset of…
