"The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild" has been hugely praised in reviews, as well as having positive impressions for its open systems, where players can use multiple different methods in solving puzzles.

This departure from "The Legend of Zelda" franchise's repetitive use of items, like how every dungeon was always solved with a certain specific tool, was helped along by a creative 2D prototype created by the Breath of the Wild team.

According to a report from Polygon, game director Hidemaro Fujibayashi officially revealed a 2D Zelda prototype that imitated concepts that are now seen in Breath of the Wild. He told a packed audience during the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2017 today that the prototype was indeed useful for testing ideas for open-world gameplay, as well as helping the game return to its roots.

Using a translator, Fujibayashi said that he wanted to create a game where the user could truly, and fully, experience freedom in the Breath of the Wild playing field, as well as a sense of adventure as players freely navigate through the game's world. He also said that the team wanted the players to experience a whole new discovery every time the screen scrolled to another place.

Fujibayashi also said that he wanted to change the game from a former "passive" game to a current "active" one. This said active game experiences, according to Fujibayashi, would include having puzzles that didn't just have a single solution, as well as objects that could react with each other in multiple ways.

According to IGN, before he decided to fully test these concepts in the more complex systems of a 3D Zelda world, he first enlisted Breath of the Wild technical director Takuhiro Dohta to develop a 2D prototype that would include pieces of the game's physics and chemistry systems.

A glimpse of that prototype was shown off during the GDC event, with comparisons on how the said method has impacted Breath of the Wild's puzzles. "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild" will come to the Nintendo Switch on March 3, 2017.