In the 74th annual general meeting and Q&A session between Nintendo and their shareholder, Shigero Miyamoto addressed the upcoming Legend of Zelda for the Wii U.
While the game was broadcasted at E3 as an “open world” game, Miyamoto stated that he would “prefer not to use the generally used term ‘open world’,” and that “there is a large world in which players can do numerous things daily.”
This could be a question mark to the direction of the game, but he went on to explain that he is trying to shift the focus in attitude players may take when approaching the new Legend of Zelda.
“In the traditional “The Legend of Zelda” series, the player would play one dungeon at a time. For example, if there are eight dungeons, at the fourth dungeon, some players may think, “I’m already halfway through the game,” while other players may think, “I still have half of the game to play.” We are trying to gradually break down such mechanism and develop a game style in which you can enjoy “The Legend of Zelda” freely in a vast world, whenever you find the time to do so.”
This idea appears promotes an attitude that hints that their idea of open world may not be as similar to other such games. Miyamoto concluded his response by mentioning that they look to evolve the Legend of Zelda series for the Wii U — likely to try and conform to a format of gameplay that is prominent today, yet adding their own personal touch.
So, yes, you can go to those mountains over there, but maybe not right away.
This literally says nothing about it not being an open world other than the fact they don’t like to call it open world.
The point of this article was to show exactly what Miyamoto means when he says that he doesn’t like to call the game open world. Most likely Legend of Zelda won’t be a world of side quests and mindless exploration, but rather purposeful exploration.