This study shows that playing an open-world game, such as The The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and nostalgia evoked by Studio Ghibli films significantly foster a sense of exploration and calm in life, as well as a feeling of mastery and skill, and purpose and meaning, hence ultimately contributing positively to one’s overall happiness in life.
Source: Arigayota A, Duffek B, Hou C, Eisingerich A Effects of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Studio Ghibli Films on Young People’s Sense of Exploration, Calm, Mastery and Skill, Purpose and Meaning, and Overall Happiness in Life: Exploratory Randomized Controlled Study JMIR Serious Games 2025;13:e76522 DOI: 10.2196/76522
Since the demo remake just came out, it’s very topical:
I played The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky decades after its release on a gaming rig. Though just an RPG, it does give the feeling of exploring a bright and positive open world with cheery music (and terrible character tragedies amid the story). It somehow gave me that same sort of feeling of nostalgia and happiness, even though I’d never played the game back during its release.
I do think Breath of the Wild is very good at eliciting a state of slowness and calm in people that are normally rushing through actions or constantly distracted. Just suggesting, it’s possible to achieve those feelings with more varieties of games.
my current experience :
Stupid lizard, it's running away. Finally, a new one I can actually see. Fuck, a bunch of bokoblin skeletons spawned and shood it away. Oh boy, a dragon, I gotta get some dragon pieces to upgrade my armour. Where did it fall to? Oh boy, a shooting star.
I still need more fucking lizards...
BTW : any advice finding dragon pieces after they fall? I have lost where they went a couple of times.