In yesterday’s Nintendo Direct stream, it was revealed that the upcoming 3DS Zelda game, The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, will not force players to complete its dungeons in any particular order. Apparently this is called “sequence breaking,” though I’m not sure if I’m cool enough to be throwing around big words like that.
Though most Zelda games most definitely do not partake in this practice, A Link Between Worlds isn’t the first of its kind. The original NES game had a similar lack of predetermined progression, as did A Link to the Past for the SNES. It seems fitting, then, that the sequel to that game is the one to fire up the practice for a new generation. On the other hand, from what I understand, “sequence breaking” is completing parts of a game out of the developer’s intended order. If Nintendo is including an item rental shop that essentially allows the player to choose their own order, is it really sequence breaking? And that’s your philosophy lesson for the day.
As mentioned, the way in which the breakage occurs is via something called Ravio’s shop. Presumably, this dude can rent out items at opportune times that will help you advance in dungeons that might be a bit over your head – in exchange for a fee, of course. I personally like discovering items for the first time when I actually own them, so I don’t know if this renting deal will be for me, but I can definitely see the appeal.
The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds will be out this November, so we won’t have to wait too long to figure out what’s actually going on. In the meantime, take a look for yourself and check out yesterday’s Direct.
