I was 5 years old when The Legend Of Zelda came out. It's hard to remember, exactly, my first time playing the game. All I remember was that I loved it. I played it ceaselessly. I thought about it constantly. It was my favorite video game.

I remember having a conversation with a kid at school over lunch. We were both playing The Legend of Zelda and we were trading stories of our exploits in the land of Hyrule. I remember him, as clearly as if it were yesterday, telling me an extended story about how he and his dad had been playing the game the night before. He had discovered a secret area with a large tree that extended up to the sky. They claimed the tree and at the top, they found a nest with a key in it. But when they went to get the key, a giant bird flew onto the screen and carried them away. I was awestruck and hanging on his every word. There was a secret area I hadn't seen before? You can climb trees? There are birds big enough to carry Link away? Where did he take them? How do I find this place?

It turns out you can't. He was lying, which is painfully obvious today. The reason I remember this story so well is that it's the first instance that I can recall of someone lying to me for no reason, and because while he was making up an outlandish story about a video game that wasn't remotely true... it COULD have been.

The Legend of Zelda was a phenomenal game largely because of it's sense of mystery and discovery. This doesn't get talked about nearly enough, but the most astounding and amazing thing about The Legend Of Zelda was that you, as the player, had absolutely no idea where Zelda was or what she looked like. As you battled your way through Hyrule, eventually scouring the land from corner to corner, you were ACTUALLY LOOKING for Zelda. She could be anywhere. Part of the appeal of that game and the way it was constructed, was that any square inch of the game world could hold a secret. For all you knew, Zelda could have been hidden on the very first screen of the game, if only you had the tools to discover her.

Once I had beaten the Legend of Zelda, I waited impatiently for the rumored sequel to debut. A few years later I was treated to playing the phenomenal Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. But, as everyone knows, Zelda 2 wasn't a true sequel to The Legend of Zelda. Sure it still starred Link. Sure it featured some of the same badguys and environments. Sure it was created by the same company and many of the same developers. But what was missing from the game was that feeling of mystery and exploration. (It was replaced by amazing combat, and wonderful new environments).

For most of my game playing life, I have always wanted a sequel to The Legend Of Zelda. Not just a game that featured Link and Hyrule, I wanted a game that made me feel the way The Legend of Zelda made me feel. I wanted that sense of mystery and exploration back. I wanted that feeling where every square inch of the game world could be hiding a secret if I just knew where to look.

I feel like The Witness is a game very much like what i have been waiting for. The similarities to The Legend Of Zelda are numerous and immediately apparent. Both games take place on small but dense land masses where just a few steps can take you from beach, to evergreen forest, to autumn forest, to desert, to mountain. Both games center around an ascent to a mountain region where the promise of answers reside. But most of all, both games drop you in a world with only a vague sense of your purpose. Where to go... what to do.. it's all a mystery. It's not just that you solve puzzles in a dungeon to lead to the next area... the WORLD ITSELF is the puzzle.

I just wanted to write this and make the connection between the two games because I don't think anyone has said this yet.

But what about all the other Legend of Zeldas? Zelda II was a deviation from the serie's formula (granted there was no "formula" as such at the time). To me, The Witness seems like a way bigger leap than say, A Link To The Past.

It's not a new comparison but I think that Dark Souls fits in with what you are describing.

Don't get me wrong, I love A Link To The Past, but it's not remotely the same spirit of game as the original Legend Of Zelda.

The Original Legend Of Zelda, mechanically, employed a tile system. The screen was made up of a grid, and every grid section could be any tile. A forest could be made up of tree tiles. A desert could be made up of sand tiles. The key thing that made Zelda so amazing was that Link was given tools. Each tool could transform a tile into another tile. This gave Link the extraordinary ability to actually interact with the game world. Most games never did this. So, Link could use a bomb item to transform a "rock" tile into a "door" tile. He could use the candle to transform the "bush" tile into a "stairway" tile. He could use the whistle to transform the "lake" tile into a "sand" tile.

This mean that literally every square inch of the game world could be hiding a secret of some sort. That statue you passed 100 times could be hiding a magic bracelet underneath. That boulder that looks strangely out of place could be pushed, exploded, transformed, or otherwise changed... somehow... to reveal something you never thought of.

That feeling that the game was overflowing with secrets and possibilities is something that no other Zelda game has ever approached. Especially since the games went 3D. The way the games are constructed just doesn't allow for it. And, with the way games play these days, people wouldn't want it. The downside of every square inch of the game being a potential secret is that the only way to find them all is with trial and error. You could literally do everything Link is capable of doing to every tile the game to see if you are missing anything.

But, like the Witness, most secrets are telegraphed to some degree. Knowing to look for something that seems odd or out of place is crucial.