Folius: Insights from "The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom" on Web3 Game Design
How to significantly improve the playability and freedom of the game?This article is from: Folius Ventures,
Original author: Aiko
Translator: Odaily Planet Daily Azuma
On March 28, Nintendo officially released a 10-minute gameplay demonstration video of the highly popular title The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, introducing four new skills that the protagonist Link will have in this new installment:
Recall, used to reverse the trajectory of objects (literally translated from Japanese as "reverse the universe");
Fuse, used for equipment fusion (literally translated from Japanese as "residual material construction");
Ultrahand, used for vehicle fusion (literally translated from Japanese as "ultimate hand");
Ascend, used to traverse the upper map (literally translated from Japanese as "sky-reaching technique").
- Odaily Planet Daily Note: The gameplay demonstration video link.
On March 30, Aiko from Folius Ventures, focusing on investment and research in the Web3 gaming sector, published a long tweet outlining some of the combinatorial gameplay showcased in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and exploring the relevance of these designs to Web3 games. The specific content of the tweet is as follows, compiled by Odaily Planet Daily (with some edits):
In the Folius 2023 research report, I referenced many Nintendo games, such as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Splatoon. After watching Eiji Aonuma's gameplay demonstration of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, I will analyze the two new skills, Fuse and Ultrahand, and emphasize the core logic behind them—this logic was mentioned in a Folius Ventures report on February 24.
- Odaily Planet Daily Note: Research report "Beyond Tax-Based Web3 Game Liquidity Sunset: Using New Navigational Charts on Gameplay, Resources, and Economic Relationship Design" link.
The first conceptual explanation needed is that Fuse represents the combinability of equipment (such as swords, bows, shields, etc.), while Ultrahand represents the combinability of vehicles (such as cars, boats).
Fuse is an excellent example of "functional design" (as opposed to "numerical design") in the game.
In The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, players can combine "wooden stick" + "stone" to obtain a "hammer" (with the effect of increased attack power), and combine "wooden stick" + "pitchfork" to obtain a "spear" (with the effect of increased attack range). By combining different items to create weapons with various effects, it replaces the traditional "numerical design" model where absolute power can only be enhanced through upgrades (e.g., xxx obtained a "+15 legendary frost enchanted sword" through enhancement).
The benefit of Fuse as "functional design" is that: from an experiential perspective, by providing diverse experiences, it can stimulate players' exploration and creativity, making them pursue new experiences rather than numerical growth; from an economic perspective, low-cost, highly combinable, functionally diverse, and additive basic components also help enhance the economic vitality and depth of the game.
Moreover, as mentioned in the research report, the equipment combinability achieved through the Fuse function can also reduce players' anxiety about item wear. Consumable items that are diverse and widely circulated differ from extremely rare durable goods, leading to less anxiety and friction in purchasing behaviors for such items. Specifically, it is difficult to get players to accept that a "+15 legendary frost enchanted sword" is destroyed due to wear, but they are more than willing to try to create a "disposable freeze arrow" using the Fuse function with "wooden arrow" + "white chuchu jelly."
Before explaining Ultrahand, some context about the Legend of Zelda series is necessary.
The greatest feature of the Legend of Zelda series is its extremely free open world, which is realized based on its highly realistic underlying physics + chemistry engine. Players can interact with any environment in the game, triggering chemical/physical reactions and producing corresponding results, which gives The Legend of Zelda unparalleled freedom. Therefore, innovations in environmental interaction are of great significance (Recall and Ascend actually belong to this category).
In open-world games like Elden Ring (although Hidetaka Miyazaki is my favorite producer, I still apologize), due to the absence of an underlying physics + chemistry engine, players can only go to designated maps, whereas in open-world games like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, the vehicle combinability achieved through the Ultrahand function will significantly enhance user experience.
In the gameplay demonstration, Eiji Aonuma made an impressive display using the Ultrahand function—by placing "fans" at different positions on vehicles (including a "boat" fused from "wood"), players can drive vehicles across water, land, and air, covering almost all scenarios. The design reflects a simple aesthetic.
Since each "fan" has limited energy and can be consumed, this indirectly transforms the durable goods of vehicles into consumables (requiring new "fans"). As players can attempt nearly infinite combinations through Ultrahand, "fans" are likely to become one of the most important basic resources in the game, thereby indirectly influencing players to manage resources effectively.
The significance of this design lies in cleverly designing durable goods as consumables while enhancing the stratification of durable goods, which can maintain long-term demand for different tiers of durable goods. Furthermore, by unlocking their liquidity, it can increase the fun of the game while further expanding the trading space.
In summary, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom significantly enhances the playability and freedom of the game, providing valuable experience for the entire gaming industry.
In the above text, I analyzed how Nintendo does "functional design" and consumables, and explained how these logics align with the research content of Folius Ventures (recommended to read the original text).
More importantly, I believe that there is a common logic between "creating interesting games" and "designing economic models." Many of my economic design ideas have been inspired by Nintendo, and I encourage more teams to explore and experiment with this concept in their work.
