I Just Want Players to Save Money, They Insist on Giving Me!
Chapter 728 - 226: There’s a Big Problem with This Zelda! _2

Chapter 728: Chapter 226: There’s a Big Problem with This Zelda! _2

"This...?" In the conference room, the executives exchanged glances, their eyes filled with a hint of surprise.

"Click." Mide also pressed the pause button at this moment, looking up at everyone.

"Let’s talk about the elements that have appeared so far. First, there’s the commonly seen grand landscape in open world games. It’s present in Elden, we have it in Divine Continent, and now it’s appearing in Zelda."

"Then, the character drawing a bow should be a way to show one of this character’s attack methods."

"But judging from the sword sheath on his back, it’s not hard to see that he also has melee attacks, so this could be a traditional level-up RPG similar to our Divine Continent."

"However, the last scene depicted hunting and cooking activities. Although no clear text was provided, I suspect it might be some kind of health restoration method."

Unlike Conna, the former CEO who focused on platform operations,

Mide, as the former design director of Blizzard and the current CEO, had a deeper understanding of game design.

The Zelda trailer had only been playing for a short half-minute, but he had already quickly analyzed some content from it.

The number one player in this game is trying to further expand the things players can do in the open world!

They are attempting to construct a new ecological chain.

"For instance, scattering goods that should be obtained from various NPCs across the wilderness?"

"What would be the benefits of doing this?" Mide pondered while looking at the crowd.

Soon, a designer nodded slightly and said, "Could the benefit be... that players have more waypoints in the wilderness?"

The so-called waypoints are different from points of interest.

They are not entirely things that players explore out of interest.

If an interestingly designed weapon makes players curious, they’ll want to acquire it.

But a plain-looking weapon that’s purely more powerful and has better Skills is a strong waypoint.

Players might not be very interested in getting it, but the need to obtain it is great.

The cooking system presented in the trailer alerted Mide to a subtle change different from other open worlds!

If there’s cooking, it might mean there are Collection Elements.

These scattered Collection Elements will inevitably lead players to explore the open world more thoroughly.

"Hiss..." Realizing this, Mide’s eyes widened as he inhaled sharply in his mind.

Why hadn’t he thought of this?

Incorporating collection elements within an open world... indeed could increase players’ rate of map exploration!

What made Mide uncomfortable was,

that Elden actually had these hints, albeit subtly so.

You could collect minimally in the wilderness too.

But this element wasn’t utilized much by players; collection was just something done in passing.

Therefore, after a series of data analyses within Blizzard,

it was unanimously believed that since players didn’t love using it, it would be better to remove the Collection Elements from Elden Ring altogether.

Leaving everything to NPCs would better maintain players’ interaction rates with them.

But now, seeing that Zelda could involve wilderness collection and hunting afterward,

Mide felt as though he had just woken from a deep dream, snapping back to reality quickly.

If healing items and various status-effect materials were spread haphazardly across the wilderness...

they would surely form a strong waypoint for players!

This could be a major driving force for players to travel all over the world!

With this in mind, Mide’s expression became somewhat unnatural.

How much time had passed?

The game itself wasn’t even released yet.

Watching half a minute of this trailer made him feel uneasy.

"Let’s continue." With little emotion on his face, Mide pressed the play button again.

What followed was a slow sequence of scenic shots.

Desert lands like rolling waves,

Mountains blanketed in white snow,

Lush, verdant forests.

A minute later, the scenes from various regions flickered past swiftly.

All were depicting the beautiful scenery of this continent.

These didn’t momentarily catch Mide’s attention.

It’s not just open worlds; even linear games will have a variety of different environments and stylistic changes.

The goal is to bring freshness to the player, which isn’t worth mentioning.

But just as Mide was about to resume the screening,

a voice from the executives in the conference room softly interrupted.

"BOSS, I’ve noticed a problem."

"Go ahead." Mide immediately pressed pause and turned his gaze toward the speaker.

"Near those different environmental grand landscapes, it seems we can always see the presence of the blonde youth." The designer hesitated slightly as he expressed his opinion,

measured by his colleagues with a somewhat uncomprehending gaze.

"Hey bro, that’s pretty normal, isn’t it? If the blonde youth is the protagonist of the game, then finding him in every scene means he’s traveling all over the world. It’s just a subtle way of promoting their game’s genre. Isn’t that what open worlds are all about, running around the world?"

"No... What I mean is..." The designer thought for a moment, then continued.

"The blonde youth always appears in some... unlikely places. To be honest, I don’t quite understand why he would be there."

In the wrong places?

That did sound a bit odd.