In recent years, fans and critics have been asking the real hard questions about game design: namely, why can’t we always pet a dog? Indeed, even a masterpiece like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild egregiously lacks the ability to pet furry friends as you come across them. There was a game design philosophy behind the decision, however, as director Hidemaro Fujibayashi explains in an IGN interview from 2017. In his own words:
“In the game it seems like you can do anything, but what it really is are all these interlocking systems where you actually have a pretty limited number of actions that can do a ton of different things. So if it came down to something like petting a dog, we would actually have to put in a custom action just for petting a dog that couldn’t really be used for anything else.”
“In terms of design philosophy, it just didn’t fit with how we actually made the game world. It’s actually more about taking a smaller number of actions and using them in as many ways as possible.”
So the philosophy of using a small number of actions for limitless possibilities just didn’t fit with the philosophy of being able to pet good boys. Outrageous. If BOTW2 doesn’t include dog petting it’s 0/10. I clearly know more about game design than these bozos like come on. What if you could pet horses, or cats, or even little birdies as well? Get it together, Ninty.
Written by Amelia Fruzzetti
A writer and Nintendo fan based in Seattle, Washington. When not working for NinWire, she can be found eating pasta, writing stories, and wondering about when Mother 3 is finally going to get an official localization.
