Former Diablo and Ghost of Tsushima developer criticizes Korok seeds from Zelda: Breath of the Wild — a poor example of collectibles

Joe Morrissey, a veteran game developer who worked on Ghost of Tsushima, Diablo 2, Diablo 3, and inFAMOUS: Second Son, shared his thoughts on what makes collectibles in games engaging. At the Game Developers Conference (GDC), he presented eight key characteristics of "good" collectibles and didn't spare the notorious Korok seeds from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, placing them in the "C" category.

If the answer is, 'Well, you just gotta search for them'… that's not gonna be a good time. Nobody is gonna have fun with that. They'll just go online and find wherever the stuff is. I'm lookin' at you, Korok Seeds.

In his opinion, visual cues and special environmental scanning systems can make searching for collectibles much more engaging.

Among the most important characteristics of good collectibles, the developer mentioned discoverability, adequate rewards, and connection to interesting mechanics requiring skill. Morrissey emphasized that many creative directors underestimate the importance of rewards:

... all the play testers are like, "Why would I waste my time doing this?"

In Breath of the Wild's case, collecting Korok seeds is useful for expanding inventory, but for collecting all 900 (or 1,000 in the sequel), the player receives nothing particularly useful.

Other important criteria include revealing the world and characters, justifying the existence of items in the game universe, connection to the plot, consistent placement, and a reasonable quantity. According to Morrissey, Korok seeds successfully meet the criteria of world-building and justification but fail on other points — there are too many of them, they're scattered throughout the huge world, and the reward for complete collection isn't worth the effort.

As examples of excellent collectibles, the developer cited backpacks from Marvel's Spider-Man and Blast Shards from inFAMOUS, giving them an A rank. The former only lose points for lacking "interesting mechanics requiring skills," while the latter fall short in "consistent placement."