How Nintendo Successfully Packaged Challenge As Entertainment
(SPOILER ALERT) A Deep Dive into Breath of the Wild
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, a critically acclaimed game with multiple accolades. Launched in 2017 to the Nintendo Switch, I know of a few individuals who bought the console just to play this game. When it was first launched, two of my close friends introduced me to it. But back then, gaming wasn’t my thing. Now that I develop educational games for a living, I thought I’d try it out. And I regret not giving it a shot earlier!
On many occasions, I found myself spending over an hour trying to tackle just one of the challenges they presented to me. Solving these puzzles felt as tough as debugging a code. I’ve been told that the average gameplay time for Breath of the Wild is more than 100 hours. Imagine getting anyone to spend 100 hours on homework? Tough luck! So in my feat to trying to merge game design and education, I decided to share some of my personal opinions on how this game harnessed the power of motivation to get users to overcome extremely difficult challenges.
A Powerful Backstory
The game starts by showing Link waking up at the Shrine of Ressurection, and I heard a slightly creepy voice telling me to get up. I began feeling completely lost and feel desperate to find out what is actually going on. To get out of the Shrine, I intuitively learn the game's basic mechanics: running, jumping, climbing, etc. It was amazing how the tutorial was camouflaged into the beginning of the game.
Once I got out of the Shrine of Ressurection, I was greeted with a beautiful landscape of Hyrule. From afar, I saw a mysterious man who seemed to have an answer to all my questions. So I walked up to him. But all he told me was to visit four Shrines in exchange for a glider. With this glider, I’d be able to jump from heights without dying. So even though I had no idea what was going on, I decided to listen to him.
I eventually learnt that the mysterious man was actually a King of the Fallen Kingdom, which I tried to save 100 years ago, and currently have to save again. He presented me with the overarching storyline of the game and my ultimate goal: Defeat Calamity Ganon, Help Zelda Save Hyrule.
I really loved the story because they successfully piqued my interest in Link’s past and how they played to this emotion throughout the game. They planted many seeds of curiosity within me and successfully camouflaged the game's initial learning curve. I unknowingly solved tens of challenges in a search for an answer.
My favourite feature in the game was how they played with Link’s lost memories. I met an important NPC who fixed my Sheikah Slate and showed me twelve images. They were called captured memories. The game dangles a half found treasure in front of me and incentivised me to travel across the map to turn these images into videos.
Randomly during my travels, I would find glowing spots that helped unlock these images and I would watch a video that gave me a glimpse into what exactly happened 100 years ago. Some of the videos were bittersweet, some made me even more curious, and some answered my questions. It was really interesting to see history come alive as I continued to play the game.
I once told my Brother that the emotional aspects of stories in games couldn’t compare with movies. After playing Breath of the Wild, I completely take that back.
Everything Happens For A Reason
My problem with open-world games is that I often don’t always understand why I’m doing what I’m doing. There is often a lack of purpose and incentive to entice me to explore. What this game did really well was tying everything back to the storyline.
Why should I kill those monsters? Why should I climb a tree to get food? Well, I can cook the food to help me in battle. Unlocking the shrines allowed me to get spirit orbs that can be exchanged for an increase in hearts or stamina. I could then survive longer in battles or move around the map faster.
This game blended all the actions I had to take with the overarching story really well. I always knew why I was working hard to solve a puzzle, fighting monsters and conquering divine beasts: I wanted to save Hyrule.
My Decisions, My Choices
Throughout the game, I have never felt like I was forced to take on a linear pathway. I always made my choices and lived the consequence of them. If I decided to fight Ganon in the first hour of the game, I could.
When I started playing the game, I did not realise how underpowered I was. I tried to take on Waterblight Ganon with just 3 hearts, 10 arrows, 2 shields (Pot Lid and Boko Shield) and melee weapons that were going to break. My brother laughed like crazy when he discovered what I was trying to do. It was pure entertainment because I would just die in a few seconds. But that’s part of the experience! I fight the battles I choose. I commit to the challenges that I took on, and my skills became better because of it. It took me 1 week before I finally defeated him. That was the win I am most proud of because I worked really hard to earn it.
In the interview below, the game designers mentioned that it was a deliberate design decision to ensure that players always made their own choices in the game. This design pillar really created ownership for every player’s journey.
Picking At Your Brain
Perhaps the one thing I am most impressed by is how the game made me feel after playing it each time. I would come out of it feeling like I took a 3-hour exam. I know most people wouldn't associate games with exams, but to me, they are both a test of mental resilience, application of knowledge and resourcefulness.
Shrines form the biggest part of puzzle challenges in the game. Almost every shrine is different and pushes your problem solving, creativity and resourcefulness to the limit. There is always more than one way to solving each shrine puzzle. You could use one or more of the powers in your Sheikah Slate or use the weapons in your inventory to solve them. Here’s an example to illustrate:
In this Shrine, your task is to get the ball out of the maze and onto the platform on the left. You tilt the switch console to get the maze to move 360 degrees. You had to be really careful because the ball could fall out of the edges really easily.
I first started by taking the traditional route: getting the ball to move along the maze without falling off. It was an extremely frustrating challenge to solve. Eventually, I thought of an alternative. I managed to toss the ball to the middle of the maze without going through the path. There were really many different ways to solve this puzzle, but as long as you got the ball to where it is supposed to be, it’s all that matters.
Another interesting example was how the player could strategise to defeat monsters. You don’t always have to jump head in to defeat them. You can look for different components nearby and use them to your advantage. In the GIF above, the player chops down a tree and pushes it down a hill to kill the monsters.
In this other GIF, the player uses lightning to their advantage. They dropped a metal weapon down and used the lightning to kill the monsters instead. It was really amazing how the game designers kept every puzzle open-ended. This key feature allowed me to constantly strategise and take pride in the solutions I came up with.
Conclusion
Over the past year, I have been investigating thoroughly what exactly makes games fun. And I’ve come to realise that the heart of any fun game is achievable challenges and epic purpose. To all the educators out there, I highly recommend giving this game a try. While it might not have a strong correlation to educational content, Breath of the Wild allows us to see how powerful game design can be in getting users to overcome steep learning curves, conquering difficult challenges and building mental resilience.
If there is one thing the education industry should learn from the gaming industry, it is the art of packaging challenges as entertainment. And this game, for me, has demonstrated this art at its best.
