Watch Zelda’s directors go deep on creating the masterpiece that is Breath of the Wild

The newest Zelda game, Breath of the Wild, is — and I say this without any attempt at being hyperbolic — an instant masterpiece. I won’t go so far as to call it the best game of all time — but if such a title can exist objectively, this one is certainly in the ring.

It’s rare to see something like this thrust into the world and have it so quickly and widely recognized for what it is; it’s rarer still to see the creators of such a game get deeply introspective about the creative process right as it’s launching. But that’s exactly what happened at a Game Developers Conference session with the game’s directors a few weeks back, and the full video of the session is now online. If you’re into BotW, it’s a damned good weekend watch.

(Worth noting: I’d avoid watching this one until you’ve gotten through a good chunk of the game, if not the entire main quest. Much of what makes Breath of the Wild spectacular is the endless sense of discovery that comes with testing the limits of this new Hyrule; the constant “Oh man, it’d be so cool if I could….”, only to find that, well, you can. This pulls back the curtain on a bit of that.)