Broche calls Breath of the Wild the first honest open world

In late June 2026 Guillaume Broche, creative director of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, used Konbini’s Video Game Club to talk through The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. For him it is the first open-world game that actually let the player go, rather than only promising freedom on the box.

He has known the series since a childhood Game Boy, but the 2017 release was only the second entry he finished himself. Sandfall Interactive still has plenty of longtime Link fans. Broche is usually cool on open worlds and started this one mainly because colleagues kept praising it.

What caught him was an empty frame where a minimap would sit. The goal is on the horizon, the route is yours, and side business keeps interrupting the walk, so the path changes every time.

He treats the level design as a lesson that later big games were built differently after. The conversation is in the Video Game Club episode.