Hashtag Worldbuilding

As a designer, I appreciate the little things in games that most people don't notice. I've played an absurd amount of Wind Waker this week, and at one point I tried to decipher the Hylian characters in a few places on Dragon Roost Island. For example, on the letter that the Rito Cheiftan writes for his son, there are the Hylian characters for Komali's Japanese name, "Komori", as well as another kana, "ru", which is supposedly an out-dated term for "outcast". This gives Komali's reaction to the letter another layer of depth, and honestly makes him seem less like a brat.

At first, you think that Komali is just some stubborn kid who won't listen to his father, mostly because when the father speaks to Link, he does so in a manner that is calm and dignified--the way you'd expect a chieftain to be--while Komali acts like an immature child. But the relationship between Komali and his father is just that--a father-son relationship. As such, it's not hard to believe that they would speak less formally to one another, and that there would be more raw, personal things in the letter that Link, as an outsider, does not see directly. But by Komali's distressed reaction to the letter, we learn of the conflict from his more emotional take on the situation--whereas the chieftain's is more matter-of-fact.

Most players wouldn't pick up on such harshness from the chieftain, but it is quite possible that he, as an authority figure, is embarrassed by his (assumedly) only son's trepidation performing what is, to the Rito tribe, a rite of passage that signifies manhood. By not climbing Dragon Roost for Valoo's scale, Komali is essentially perpetuating his childhood--much to his father's chagrin. How must his people see him as a chieftain if his own flesh and feathers is too cowardly to be a man? For the chieftain, Komali's reaction is a disgrace to his entire way of life; Komali, however, is going through emotional turbulence and isn't thinking about his heritage. Granted, it's definitely a trope, but it's still an interesting minor conflict.

Something that a lot of people don't realize when they're playing adventure games like Zelda is that, in many cases (at least, in good games), the troubles of the people you assist have persisted since some time before your arrival. As such, the people in question should act in an appropriate manner. In the case of Valoo's rage, Komali is the most directly affected because he cannot climb Dragon Roost in the manner that he needs to to earn his wings. His father is deeply entrenched in the situation, as well, but in the manner that a chieftain/father would be. Everyone else is essentially a postal worker for the people of the Great Sea, and they still have jobs to do. They are no doubt troubled, as well, but they continue their work because they have to--which speaks to their tribe's mentality. The Rito are a proud race, and don't let their personal issues interfere with the duty they have to others. It is never expressly stated (as far as I know), but yet we can still make such statements about the Rito tribe. This, to me, signifies good world-building.

This kind of insight and thoroughness is what separates the great games from the not-so-great games. World-building is something that Zelda games do very well for the most part, aside from a few minor issues every now and again which I won't get into here. If you try to complete the Nintendo Gallery figurine collection in Wind Waker HD (which I actually did earlier today), you'll realize just how many characters there are that you don't even really think about.These characters help flesh out the world on the surface of the Great Sea, and while they may seem unimportant, with only a few lines of dialogue each (if any at all), without them the game would feel empty and incomplete. So for all you designers out there: spend some time making the world feel alive instead of just focusing on the protagonist and his story. I guarantee it'll make for a better finished product.