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Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom give players more freedom to choose where to go and how to approach problems, while Ocarina of Time builds its adventure through a more carefully paced sequence of story and progression. That is the central difference—not that one style has exploration and the other does not. Nintendo describes exploration and discovery as foundations of the series, while its developer interviews explain how the open-air games shift the balance toward free traversal, emergent problem-solving, and equipment-based progression.
At a glance
| Design question | Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom | Ocarina of Time |
|---|---|---|
| How does the adventure guide you? | Choose a path through a connected world; discover places and story elements in different orders. | A carefully paced sequence of adventure and story beats gradually builds the player’s growth and understanding. |
| What structures exploration? | Many smaller destinations and puzzles, including shrines in Breath of the Wild. | A more guided progression, with major story and adventure beats arranged to build on one another. |
| How does progression work? | In Breath of the Wild, finding weapons and replacing ones that break helps drive progression without conventional RPG level markers. | Progress is more closely shaped by the adventure’s sequence; this is a broad contrast, not a claim that every older game works identically. |
| What does “open-air” add? | Tears of the Kingdom connects the surface with sky areas and caves, and gives its dungeons more regional character. | Ocarina of Time is Nintendo’s example of a carefully paced Zelda adventure. |
What does “open-world Zelda” mean here?
“Open-world” is a familiar shorthand for the newer games, but Nintendo has described Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom as “open-air” adventures. The useful distinction is about how the world and the player’s route are organized: instead of moving mainly along a sequence of connected areas, players can travel through a broad, connected Hyrule and choose their own path. That freedom changes the rhythm of play, because the next discovery may come from following a landmark, trying a route, or solving a problem in an unexpected way.
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This does not mean every door is open from the start, or that the game has no direction. It means the experience leans less heavily on one prescribed order for reaching major places and uncovering story elements. In Nintendo’s 2026 comparison, producer Eiji Aonuma contrasts that freedom with the carefully paced adventure of Ocarina of Time, where story and the player’s understanding build gradually through progression. Nintendo’s developer interview about Ocarina of Time is particularly useful for understanding that contrast.
The label also needs a boundary: “traditional Zelda” is not one fixed blueprint. A comparison with Ocarina of Time can explain a more guided structure, but it should not be stretched into a claim that every earlier game has identical pacing, item gates, or dungeon design. Nintendo’s own point is about the design emphasis of particular games, not a simple rule dividing the entire series into two uniform halves.
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How does the world change the way you explore?
In the open-air games, the world is more than scenery between planned story beats. Traversal and choosing where to investigate become central parts of the activity. Nintendo describes Breath of the Wild as a vast, connected Hyrule where players can choose their path; the design invites players to turn curiosity into a route rather than simply follow a corridor toward the next objective. Eiji Aonuma explained in a 2017 interview that earlier design often linked areas with small paths that players passed through, and said players had reproached the series for lacking freedom. The English version of that interview was published by Nintendo Everything as a translation of Le Monde’s conversation with Aonuma.
A more guided game can still invite exploration. The difference is that exploration sits within a more deliberately paced journey: the game builds the player’s knowledge and growth as it leads through its sequence of events. Nintendo has described that structure as one source of Ocarina of Time’s appeal, not as a lack of discovery. Put simply, the open-air games make choosing a direction a bigger part of the adventure, while a traditional-style example can make the order in which the adventure unfolds more central.
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Why does story pacing feel different?
The newer games can let players encounter story elements gradually and in different orders; Ocarina of Time builds its story and the player’s understanding through a more carefully paced progression. As a result, players may experience the newer games’ narrative less as one fixed chain of revelations and more as something they piece together while exploring. The contrast is about the timing and order of what players encounter, not whether one style has a story and the other does not.
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Aonuma’s description of Ocarina of Time is specific: part of its fun comes from “progressing through a carefully paced adventure and story,” gradually building the player’s growth and understanding of the narrative. In the open-air games, greater route freedom means the game cannot rely as much on every player seeing the same discoveries in the same order. Story information can be layered into exploration instead. The trade-off is that a highly directed sequence can deliver a more controlled buildup, while a more flexible structure can make discoveries feel tied to the player’s chosen path.
Neither approach automatically makes a story stronger. A player who prefers clear dramatic sequencing may find the guided structure easier to follow. Someone who enjoys assembling context from discoveries made along a self-chosen route may prefer the open-air approach. Those are consequences of different pacing priorities, not universal verdicts on which game tells a better story.
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What replaces a conventional level-up system?
In Breath of the Wild, acquiring weapons, using them, and replacing broken equipment helps create a progression loop. Aonuma described monsters dropping weapons, stronger monsters yielding stronger equipment, and weapons breaking; he said the design lets the game manage progression without conventional RPG level markers. That system means a player’s development is not expressed only through a steadily rising character level. What the player finds and carries can matter to the next encounter.
This has a practical effect on how risk and reward are framed. A stronger enemy can be valuable not just as a combat challenge but as a source of better equipment. At the same time, a weapon is not necessarily a permanent prize: durability means a player must keep thinking about what to use and what to seek next. The loop connects exploration, combat, and equipment in a way that supports the open-ended structure, rather than asking the player to follow a conventional level track.
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That description is specific to Breath of the Wild and to Aonuma’s explanation of its design. It is not a claim that every open-air Zelda game uses precisely the same equipment loop, or that every traditional Zelda game has one standard alternative. The comparison is best understood as a shift in emphasis: Breath of the Wild uses equipment acquisition and replacement as part of progression, while Ocarina of Time is presented as a more guided adventure whose sequence builds the player’s growth and understanding.
How do shrines and dungeons fit into the difference?
Breath of the Wild uses many smaller shrines as exploration goals and puzzle destinations distributed across its world, rather than relying only on a pattern of large labyrinths. Nintendo’s 2017 interview coverage describes the shrines’ physics-based puzzles and their role in balancing the scale of the world with puzzle objectives. Aonuma discussed the design as a way to give players manageable goals within a vast environment. VICE’s interview with Aonuma also covers the team’s thinking about shrine scale and overworld connectivity.
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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsThis structure helps make exploration rewarding at multiple scales. The broad world gives players room to choose where to go; a shrine offers a smaller, defined puzzle challenge within that broader journey. In design terms, the two formats serve different rhythms: a large world supports wandering and self-directed discovery, while smaller puzzle spaces give those travels frequent, more focused objectives. It is more accurate to describe shrines as an important part of Breath of the Wild’s approach than to say that the game simply removes dungeons from Zelda.
Tears of the Kingdom complicates any simple “old dungeons versus new shrines” division. Nintendo describes its dungeons as having more regional character and a more traditional Zelda feel than Breath of the Wild’s approach. In other words, it combines open-air traversal with dungeon design that more strongly recalls earlier Zelda conventions. That blend is one reason the distinction between traditional and open-air Zelda should be treated as a spectrum of design choices, rather than a strict either-or category.
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Are open-air Zelda games less guided?
They are less dependent on a single prescribed route, but that is not the same as being without structure. The newer games still use places to visit, puzzles to solve, equipment to find, and story elements to encounter; they give players more say in how they approach those activities. The key change is where the guidance comes from. In a carefully paced adventure, the sequence itself does more of the guiding. In an open-air game, the connected world and the player’s own choices take on a larger share of that role.
That freedom comes with a trade-off. Players who want a clear, consistently signposted sequence may prefer the feel of Ocarina of Time’s carefully paced progression. Players who like setting their own route and deciding which lead to follow may find the open-air structure more satisfying. These are tendencies, not guarantees: the games differ in more ways than this single axis, and individual preferences will vary.
What do the games share?
Exploration and discovery are not inventions of the open-air era. Aonuma said that “since the very first The Legend of Zelda game, the series’ gameplay has been built around the core concepts of exploration and discovery.” That statement, in Nintendo’s 2026 developer interview, is a useful corrective to the idea that earlier Zelda was simply linear or that only newer entries let players discover things for themselves.
The difference is how strongly each design makes those ideas shape the whole adventure. A traditional-style game can make discovery part of a carefully arranged sequence; an open-air game makes freedom of movement and player-selected routes more prominent. The enduring series principle is the same, but the player’s relationship to the world and the timing of progression change.
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Which style might suit you?
Choose a traditional-style example such as Ocarina of Time if you value a carefully paced story, a stronger sense of sequence, and progression that builds your understanding step by step. Its structure can make the adventure’s unfolding feel deliberate and cumulative.
Choose Breath of the Wild if you want route choice, exploration-driven goals, and a progression loop in which finding and replacing equipment is part of the challenge. Choose Tears of the Kingdom if you want that open-air foundation expanded into sky and cave exploration, alongside dungeons with more regional character. These descriptions are grounded in the games’ stated design contrasts, not a claim that one is objectively better or that the games represent every Zelda entry.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is “open-air” Nintendo’s official name for the whole open-world genre?
Nintendo uses “open-air” to describe the design direction of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. It is a useful description of those games’ emphasis, rather than a formal label for every open-world game or every Zelda entry.
Does the open-air design mean the story has to be played out of order?
No. It means story elements can be discovered in different orders because the player has more freedom to choose a route. A player may still follow the leads they encounter in a relatively focused sequence.
Is Tears of the Kingdom simply more of the same dungeon design as Breath of the Wild?
Not entirely. Nintendo describes its dungeons as more regionally distinct and as having a more traditional Zelda feel, even as the game retains open-air traversal.
