The Quest for Cognitive Accessibility: An Evaluation of Legend of Zelda Games

In this comprehensive report, the Games & Interactive Technology Lab at Claremont Graduate University evaluates the cognitive accessibility of two popular games in the esteemed Legend of Zelda series. The goal is to assess whether these mainstream games are accessible to people with cognitive and learning differences such as ADHD, Autism Spectrum Disorders, Traumatic Brain Injury, Down Syndrome, and more. 

by Vanya (Chun Ling) Hsu and Elizabeth Kirschner

Gaming accessibility is a rapidly evolving and critical part of the game development process. There is greater pressure on developers to include accessibility from the start of development. Assessing the quality and effectiveness of accessible game features is also a rapidly growing field. This project set out to explore a potential method for qualitatively evaluating the accessibility of games based on standard guidelines.

Despite Nintendo’s efforts, there is ongoing discourse surrounding accessibility in the gaming industry. Numerous gaming enthusiasts and critics continue to express the sentiment that Nintendo's efforts could be more robust. In online forums, there is a demand for increased inclusivity within the Zelda franchise. To assess two of the most popular Nintendo games, our team at the CGU GIT Lab conducted a comparative analysis, with a specific focus on cognitive accessibility to evaluate the extent of Nintendo's progress.

It's important to note that this study exclusively concentrates on cognitive accessibility, and does not encompass other crucial accessibility facets such as motor skills, vision, speech, and so forth.

Methods

A heuristic evaluation was conducted on each game with the cognitive metrics of the Game Accessibility Guidelines (GAG) serving as accessibility heuristics. This evaluation included five user experience researchers. Nine major aspects of the Legend of Zelda game were evaluated, including Shrines & Runes, Fights, Map, Inventory & collection, Dialogue, Storyline, and Movement.

Nineteen of thirty available guidelines were selected for the evaluation. Eleven Guidelines were omitted due to relevance and salience for observational evaluators. The GAG divides guidelines into three levels of complexity: basic, intermediate, and advanced. The evaluation predominantly focused on the cognitive perspective, with a keen emphasis on the thought, memory, and processing of information. 

First, each researcher was assigned to one gameplay video of Breath of the Wild and one gameplay video of Tears of the Kingdom. Then, a training session was done to make sure researchers understood the details of the guidelines and the evaluation process. A sheet was created to code the data on a five-point scale for each guideline with qualitative comments.

Basic	Intermediate	Advanced
Use an easily readable default font size	Include contextual in-game help/guidance/tips	Avoid any sudden unexpected movement or events
Use simple clear language	Indicate/allow reminders of current objectives during gameplay	Allow all narrative and instructions to be replayed
Use simple clear text formatting	Indicate/allow reminders of controls during gameplay
Include tutorials	Include a means of practicing without failure, such as a practice level or sandbox mode
Allow players to progress through text prompts at their own pace	Employ a simple, clear narrative structure
Avoid flickering images and repetitive patterns	If using a long overarching narrative, provide summaries of progress
	Ensure no essential information (especially instructions) is conveyed by text alone, reinforce with visuals or speech
	Give a clear indication that interactive elements are interactive
	Provide gameplay thumbnails with game saves
	Ensure sound/music choices for each key objects/events are distinct from each other
	Highlight important words

Example of evaluation criteria

Results

Shrines & Runes

Breath of the Wild includes guided interactive tutorials in the beginning and during gameplay. These tutorials benefit players with a diverse range of cognitive impairments providing a solid foundation for understanding the game’s mechanics. The consistency of a simple clear message and the way of solving the puzzle helps the player associate. It is less demanding on short-term memory to recall the instruction every time. 

Tears of the Kingdom helps more than that. Having more flexibility and variety in solving the shrine puzzle. This increased adaptability makes Tears of the Kingdom notably more accessible to a wider spectrum of players, accommodating varying cognitive needs and preferences.

An issue identified during the evaluation process pertains to the unexpected movement and flickering patterns present within the Shrines of both games. The presence of blue lights or blinking indicators, while integral to the gameplay mechanics, could potentially pose risks for individuals susceptible to photosensitive epilepsy. As a recommendation, a reduction in the frequency and intensity of these visual stimuli could significantly mitigate the risk and enhance the overall safety of the gaming experience.

Fights

An examination of the fighting mechanics in Breath of the Wild revealed an effective approach to conveying critical information through a combination of text, visuals, and speech. For instance, the player's health is indicated by a flashing red body, and damaged weapons have text and color as a reminder. 

The game also introduces new controls one at a time and provides contextual guidance, with hints that match the player's progress to prevent overwhelming them. Despite these merits, the presence of flickering images and instructions at the center of the screen during fights may potentially disrupt the overall battle experience.

In comparison, Tears of the Kingdom reduced this issue by relocating instructions to the sides of the screen during fights. It has a clearer presentation of control reminders throughout gameplay, ensuring that critical information remains accessible without obstructing the player's view. Researchers agreed that both games do an excellent job of indicating interactive elements with directional arrows on the enemy target.

Breath of the Wild

Tears of the Kingdom

Map

Wayfinding and navigation are challenging in Zelda. The non-linear nature of the story allows you to explore the map freely; you can fly, walk, and fast travel to your next destination, without following a specific route. This open-ended wayfinding doesn’t suggest a preferred route to the player either. For cognitively impaired players, the open-ended nature of this kind of wayfinding could be unnavigable.

In Breath of the Wild, you can drop a pin on the map to help with the long overarching narrative and keep track of the progress, and in Tears of the Kingdom, the quest update and text notification of the map help display the essential information. 

Inventory & Collection

For Breath of the Wild, the font size for inventory item descriptions could be bigger and clearer. The game does a great job of reminding players how to access inventory when items are collected. It also provides a distinctive sound when swapping between different items in the inventory and having a clear display in the inventory. More assistance with wayfinding will be helpful in terms of collecting items in the open world.  

Conversely, Tears of the Kingdom introduces improvements to the overall menu system. However, the collection flow occasionally struggles to convey the interactive nature of various elements effectively. This limitation may lead to potential confusion for players, thereby hindering the seamless collection experience within the game.

Dialogue

In both games, keywords in the dialogue are effectively highlighted, aiding individuals with reading difficulties in quickly comprehending the content. The down arrow prompts you to press a button to advance to the next line of dialogue. 

While immediate access to previous messages isn't available, players can engage with the character again to replay the instruction. Additionally, the findings reinforce that Tears of the Kingdom employs a straightforward and clear text formatting style in its dialogue. 

Movement and Extras

Both games do an excellent job of giving control reminders and guidance during general movement, encouraging players to recognize familiar actions rather than relying on memory recall. However, the freedom of movement poses challenges for effective wayfinding. To mitigate this issue, both games incorporate contextual in-game help guidance. They also provide gameplay thumbnails with game saves. Furthermore, the adjusted head-up display in both games helps minimize the distraction of the screen.

Overall Storylines and Quests

Remembering the narrative and missions in the Zelda series can be difficult for people with impaired memory or limited familiarity with the game. Both of them did a good job of providing summaries for the long story through the use of the adventure log* and character storytelling. In both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, when the NPCs explain a quest, the screen dynamically shifts to relevant locations being described, reinforcing the contextual connection. However, it doesn’t allow players to progress the character's speech at their own pace. The evaluator indicates that Tears of the Kingdom has room for improvement in providing progress summaries. 

Open-world gameplay can be a cognitively taxing environment for people with attention, memory, and decision-making deficits. Because Tears of the Kingdom provides even more opportunities for unstructured play compared to Breath of the Wild, players should be aware of this difference when choosing which game to play.

*Adventure log is the repository for Quests given to Link (player) as well as any Memories he has recovered.

Conclusions

Score by ease of implementation (basic, intermediate, advanced) for cognitive accessibility guidelines

After conducting a thorough analysis, we have concluded that overall, Tears of the Kingdom improved compared to Breath of the Wild by offering a better general user experience than Breath of the Wild. However, when it comes to Cognitive Accessibility, the improvements were negligible.

	Breath of the Wild	Tears of the Kingdom
Shrines & Runes	⚠️	⚠️
Fights	⚠️	👍
Maps	👍	👍
Inventory & Collection	⚠️	⚠️
Dialogue/Menus	👍	👍
Movement and others	👍	👍

Summary of comparison by gameplay element

In sum, the cognitive accessibility research showed that both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom met the cognitive game accessibility guidelines across the basic, intermediate, and advanced implementation levels to cater to gamers with disabilities or impairments. Due to the nature of The Legend of Zelda series and its genre, this open-world sequential story is hard for neurodiverse players but the flexibility and freedom of the game also help the player play at their own pace and focus ability. While there’s still room for improvement, we can hope for better gaming experiences in the future.