The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild — Review

Full spoilers for Breath of the Wild are contained herein.

Change of heart

In an interview with Game Informer, legendary game directors and producers Shigeru Miyamoto and Eiji Aonuma were asked about their approaches to fan feedback when developing a new game.¹ Miyamoto-san described his methodology, explaining that he preferred a very traditional route that stressed “white paper testing” and “monitor testing”. However, Miyamoto also stated that he tells his team members that simply asking a play-tester, “How was it?” is not a good way to go about getting feedback, and that you should watch the tester play the game with your own eyes. Aonuma-san, had a different, more unexpected answer. He admitted that, “For me, it has definitely changed.” He went on to say that right before beginning development on Breath of the Wild, he had a change in heart, and that he realized there was a gap between fan feedback and his personal strategy. Aonuma stated that one fan’s personal story really made him change his view on how he needed to approach the game’s development. The fan told Aonuma-san that he loved the Zelda series, but that in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, the previous installment in The Legend of Zelda series that Aonuma also produced, he missed the feeling of having a huge world where he could simply ride a horse around. Aonuma-san went on to say that, deep down, he felt the same way, and that this experience drove his development philosophy with Breath of the Wild.

I feel that this interview provides a solid explanation for many of the design decisions made in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The nineteenth main release in the series, Breath of the Wild returns to several of the old concepts present in the early installments of the series, while simultaneously breaking free of many of the tropes and traditions the plagued the series’ entirety. Imploring player freedom and boasting a massive open-world to explore, Breath of the Wild has more in common with the original The Legend of Zelda and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past at a surface level. It values player intelligence and shies away from putting the player on rails, unlike many of the recent installments in the series (Skyward Sword and Twilight Princess). Aonuma-san allegedly claimed during a presentation that, with Breath of the Wild, he set out to make “a better Skyward Sword.“² I would argue that, not only did he succeed, but he crafted one of the finer installments in the franchise.

A new approach

In the more recent The Legend of Zelda installments, with the exception of A Link Between Worlds, it took a decent chunk of time before the player was actually given the right to make progress in the game. Skyward Sword in particular forced the player to endure an hour of story and tutorials before they could put their boots on the ground in enemy territory, and then forced them to play through another hour or so of required filler before they could step foot in a dungeon. Game development is an expensive, and time-consuming beast, and many developers do not want to see much of their effort made optional, so that it may be glossed over by players. This could be the primary driver behind games like Skyward Sword’s design, as it would be wasted effort to invest time into something most players will not even see. However, there is also the possibility that the company lacks faith in player intelligence. Forcing the player into long-winded tutorial sequences ensures that the player has a firm grasp on core mechanics before they are dealing with legitimate threats that require an understanding of them. Both of these issues are legitimate concerns when one is developing a game, and whether either of them motivated Nintendo to adopt the design approach seen in titles like Skyward Sword is up in the air. Regardless, Breath of the Wild manages to break free from minimizing optional content and herding players into lengthy tutorial segments. Instead, you are actively participating in substantial game progression within minutes.

Breath of the Wild‘s early hours feel like exactly what the series needed after numerous installments that made the player feel like they were on a ride at a theme park. The player is given freedom very shortly after the player character is awoken, and given a cinematic glimpse at the game world. While the player needs to complete four small shrines on the starting plateau to retrieve some key items before they can fully explore the game world, the fact that there is nobody dictating how your experience should play out is incredibly liberating. After a couple hours, once you have explored the relatively large plateau and are geared up to survive the game world, you are given a little push, a main objective, and you are out on your own.

Although your main quest is decided for you after leaving the starting plateau, you are not obligated to complete it, or do any questing for that matter. The entire game world is open to you, and the key items you obtain in the four early shrines allow you to do just about any puzzle in the game world, including puzzles found within other shrines that dot the map. While the early shrines are clearly bite-sized tutorials that quickly introduce the player to the capabilities of their key items, the shrines throughout the game world are much different. They house puzzles that will sometimes require one, many or none of the key items to complete. These shrines are not tutorials, but instead function more like small dungeons that follow a set theme. There is usually a central puzzle throughout a shrine, and occasionally you will fight enemies, but the main reason to explore shrines is to gather spoils and collect the upgrade point at the end. These upgrade points, dubbed Spirit Orbs, take the place of heart pieces from previous The Legend of Zelda titles, as well as the way to upgrade the player’s stamina wheel. Collecting these upgrade points are vital to surviving the game world, as getting four of them allows you to gain an extra heart on your life gauge or an extra quarter circle on your stamina circle gauge.

These perks drive the player to seek out and complete the shrines around the game world, and although there are main quests, side quests, and traditional dungeons to complete, much of Breath of the Wild’s longevity lies in these bite-size dungeons. Some of the shrines can be completed within minutes if there is a single puzzle that is of relatively low complexity. Others can take around 45 minutes if there are a handful of puzzles and enemies to defeat within. However, regardless of the length, a vast majority of the shrines are entertaining to complete. I found myself feeling a variety of the feelings that I felt when I used to play A Link to the Past and The Wind Waker as a child. The puzzles could often be confusing and head-scratching, but the “a-ha!” moment when you finally put all the pieces together and collect the upgrade point at the end is immensely satisfying and recaptures that classic Zelda wonder. Some of the shrines also include mini-boss fights against an enhanced version of one of the common enemies in the game, and these also were satisfying to complete. Often times, these mini-bosses have a similar move set and level of difficulty, but the environment you are fighting them in changes. These shifts in environment require the player to use one of their tools to face up against the foe, and figuring out how to counter an enemy’s stronger attacks is always a challenge and joy.

Despite my praise, there were numerous shrines that legitimately frustrated me. These shrines typically required the use of the gyroscope, and played out like a ball-in-a-maze puzzle. Despite the serviceable physics in Breath of the Wild, these puzzles often did not work as intended, and required me to exploit the puzzle in a way that clearly was not intended to finish the shrine. I felt guilty doing this, but also relatively upset that more thought had not been put into these few bad apples’ design. One shrine in particular tasked the player with launching balls through various obstacles into a hole that would switch open a door to the shrine’s Spirit Orb. After minutes upon minutes of messing up, dragging the ball back and failing over and over, I realized that you can bypass the puzzle. Using one of your four tools, you can make a platform on the water to simply toss the balls into the holes, completely ignoring the puzzle’s intended design. These kind of moments feel like dents in an otherwise excellent assortment of puzzles, but they still leave a sour taste that lingers long after you experience them.

Sides before the main dish

While the 120 shrines are the star of the show when it comes to the side content in Breath of the Wild, there are also traditional side quests. These side quests often reminded me of the many side quests present in a previous installment of the series, Majora’s Mask. The side quests in that game were often long-running, and required the player to partake in a variety of tasks and events before they were rewarded at the end. Breath of the Wild does not have the same exact system going as Majora’s Mask did, but a number of the side quests evoke a similar set of feelings to the ones I felt while playing its predecessor. Many of these quests have multiple phases, usually requiring Link to talk to some other non-player characters or collect some items. Other times, Link is tasked with killing a monster; or at the very least, photographing it using a tool he obtains later in the game. These side quests are not quite as compelling when compared to the shrines, but the longer-running ones bring back memories of the many moments in Majora’s Mask where you watched characters change as the quest went on. They are not as good as the quests in that game, but the fact that they evoke those memories is a perk worth noting.

Some of the side quests even lead into shrines. These quests, dubbed Shrine Quests, are focused on the player figuring out how to access a hidden shrine. Sometimes this requires doing a task for someone, other times it needs you to solve a puzzle in the open-world environment. These quests usually lead to a special kind of shrine called a “Blessing”. These shrines contain no puzzles, and instead offer just treasure chest and a Spirit Orb. I am a big fan of this approach, as some of the Shrine Quests are incredibly tasking, and it would be a nuisance to finish one puzzle just to be greeted with another. The Shrine Quests in Breath of the Wild can lead you through some awesome areas. One in particular requires you to fight a flying serpent that has been tainted by evil. Soaring on your paraglider above the mountain you start the fight on, you have to take out a variety of weak points dotting the foe. Once you have bested him, you offer one of his scales to a goddess statue, which then grants you access to a new shrine. This was one of my favorite moments in the whole game, and it is mind-blowing that it is completely optional.

There are other side activities to participate in as well. These activities usually boil down to the player scavenging the environment for items that have various uses. Plants and fungi that grow across the open world can be cooked alongside meat obtained from hunting to create various dishes. These dishes can replenish one’s health or stamina, and also give a variety of stat buffs to assist the player when traversing the world. The player can additionally chop down trees to build campfires. These campfires allow the player to pass game time, which is essential for certain side quests and activities. You can also mine for ore if you find any mineral deposits on the sides of mountains or hills. These mineral deposits will give the player flint that can be used to start fires, rock salt for cooking, and most importantly, gems. Gems come in a variety of different types, and each fetches a different price when sold at merchants throughout the game world. Gems are probably the best way to farm currency as the game progresses, because the deposits eventually respawn and there are types of deposits that often yield high quality gems. However, these deposits are often surrounded with enemies or environmental hazards, making them a bit tougher to dig into than most mining locations. You can also collect Korok seeds. These mini puzzles scattered around the game world often require the player to identify that something is wrong in the environment, and then interact with that defect or fix it altogether. A small woodland creature called a Korok appears once you have solved the puzzle, and grants you a Korok seed, which can be used to upgrade you inventory later in the game. These puzzles are fun to find, and the added bonus of extra inventory slots becomes important when you find yourself running out of storage space. There are 800 Korok seeds to collect, which is a crazy amount of exploration that the player will need to do if they want to totally complete the game. It also provides plenty of opportunities for casual players to stumble across the puzzles, so that they can have ample inventory space on their adventure even if they are not actively seeking them out.

The side content in Breath of the Wild is enough to keep you entertained for hours on end. You can jump right into these side activities before you even touch the main quest, which is both liberating and also stunning. After Skyward Sword forced filler quests and activities onto the player as a means of progressing in the main quest, the fact that Breath of the Wild boasts a plethora of content that is entirely optional is a major change in direction for the series. It feels great to ignore the game’s story and focus on exploring the world. This is a massive open world, and with all of these optional activities to discover and participate in, you have a real drive to explore it. That being said, exploration in Breath of the Wild is a whole other beast of its own.

Open-air adventure

With the immense amount of side content present in the game, the player is compelled to explore the game world. This is another major change in Breath of the Wild compared to previous three-dimensional installments in the series. This is the first game in the franchise to boast itself as an “open-world game”. While The Wind Waker, which was released in 2003, feels very much like an open-world game, Breath of the Wild is the first installment in the series that gives the players all the tools they need to fully explore the game world from the get-go. After leaving the initial plateau, you can go absolutely anywhere in the game world. Certain areas are a bit harder to reach if you have not upgraded your stamina wheel at all, but they are still reachable regardless. This includes the final dungeon, which is the daunting Hyrule Castle you see during the opening cinematic when you get your first glimpse of the world. This castle is crawling with tough-as-nails enemies, but you can sneak past them if you are smart enough and figure out different angles to approach the dungeon from. The fact that you can actually take on the final dungeon, and even the final boss, only a few hours into the game is honestly one of my favorite aspects of the game. Few games trust the player so much as to allow them to shoot themselves in the foot. Breath of the Wild trusts the player to not blow themselves up with a rocket launcher, which is on a whole other plane of trust.

You can climb mountains, swim across rivers, and use your paraglider to soar over chasms and fiery lakes. You are also able to tame horses around the game world to speed up on-foot travel. You build bonds with these horses, and whether or not they respond to your commands depends on how strong your bond with them is. There are different kinds of horses too, ranging from normal horses, giant horses, to skeletal horses. You can keep some of these horses in stables and give them names, allowing you to access them around the game world. If they die, you can revive them at a special shrine found late into the game. Despite all of these various transportation methods, climbing remained my favorite aspect of Breath of the Wild. Previous Zelda installments allowed the player to climb in certain, controlled situations; usually on vines or ladders. Breath of the Wild puts almost no limit on where the player can ascend to. As long as you manage your stamina wheel, you can reach basically any point in the game world, even the spike at the top of Hyrule Castle. Almost all surfaces are able to be climbed on, with certain angles and inclines being a bit more draining on the player’s stamina when climbed. The player is free to explore these mountain tops, or use them as a leverage point to paraglide off of to other parts of the map. The thrill of seeing a mountain in the distance and being able to say, “I’m going to climb that,” and then doing it is something unparalleled in open-world games to this date. Games like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim boast large game worlds with huge mountains and deep chasms to explore, but they often have intended ways for the player to scale them. In Breath of the Wild, you just approach where you want to go, and start climbing or descending. The only thing preventing you from climbing most surfaces is inclement weather, as rain causes you to slip off rocks when climbing. It is a minor annoyance, but you can always avoid it if you camp out until the rain stops.

The way the world you explore changes is another interesting aspect of the game. Many games include day and night cycles or weather cycles that do not have much of an effect on the game world. Both of those mechanics play a significant role in how you explore and interact with the world in Breath of the Wild. As previously mentioned, climbing is difficult in weather that includes rain, as the wet surfaces cause the player to slip and lose stamina when making an ascent. Thunderstorms can be dangerous if you have any metallic items equipped on your person, as it makes you a prime target for a lightning strike. The game gives you a visual cue that it is about to happen, and you can quickly remove the gear to prevent it from happening, but it is still a scary moment. It also can leave you at a disadvantage if you are in the middle of a battle. Sandstorms and snowstorms can damper visibility in certain environments, the former actually rendering your map and minimap useless if you get caught up in one. Temperature also is an odd, but fun feature present in the game. Snowy environments are obviously cold, and you need to dress accordingly or drink an elixir made through cooking to traverse the frozen area. Deserts are hot and humid, and you also will need special gear or an elixir to make it through alive. Best of all are fiery environments, like the volcanic Death Mountain you can visit. These areas also require the aforementioned items, but additionally can set any wooden gear you are wearing ablaze. It manages to be simultaneously funny and scary at the same time. Day and night plays an important role too, as enemy types change based on the time of the day. You also can only visit certain types of merchants at nighttime, and sometimes townsfolk or travelers will be asleep if you are vying to talk to them once the sun has set.

One of the more major environmental events in the game is the Blood Moon. This looks as you would expect it to, a blood-red moon that rises at night time. It only occurs occasionally, but it acts as a story excuse for respawning enemies. Each Blood Moon, all of the enemies, along with environmental objects like mineral deposits, respawn. If the Blood Moon has not occurred in a while, it may be wise to wait for it to come and subside before clearing out an area of enemies. This prevents you from having to fight mobs of enemies multiple times, and also protects you if you decide to stay at a cleared enemy encampment for the night. Compared to other games that either respawn enemies on a hidden timer or at a random point, it is nice that Breath of the Wild provides some story explanation for its game mechanics. It also adds to the list of environmental events you need to look out for when exploring the overworld.

Towers that unlock parts of the map have been present in open-world games for quite some time now. Many credit Ubisoft for popularizing the trope, but games with large worlds have had similar systems in play for a long time. The Wind Waker asked the player to hunt down talking fish in certain regions and lure them with bait in order to fill in parts of their map. This was completely optional, and you could go through the game leaving 90 percent of the map uncharted. Breath of the Wild adopts the tower trope present in numerous modern open-world games, but does not necessarily require the player to activate the towers in order to finish the game. The downside to not activating towers around the map is that you will be unable to see a topographic map of the region when you pull up the map menu. Given that most main and side quests put waypoints on your minimap that lead you to your objective, the player does not actually need the detailed map. The entire world is open for exploration right after you leave the plateau, so not activating the towers only means you will be unable to see the details of the region you are exploring on your map. That being said, towers are usually relatively fun to activate. Some of them are straightforward, simply asking the player to climb up the tower and activate it once they reach the top, but others put a twist on the ascent. Sometimes an enemy encampment will be built around the tower, or there will be obstacles like thorny vines or damaging slime that cover the tower from bottom to top. These towers required you to think outside the box when it came to activating them, and I had quite a bit of fun figuring out how to activate them. Sadly, a significant number of the towers were relatively bland and did not require much thought to activate. These towers often required you to either simply climb the tower, or find a higher vantage point near the tower to paraglide onto its side. The number of towers is good as is, but I do wish there was a bit more challenge with activating some of them.

Being a Zelda game, there are obviously dungeons to explore too. There are four main dungeons in Breath of the Wild that function in a similar way, along with a final dungeon. The player usually has to manipulate the main dungeons’ environments using their map, which allows the player to reach new areas of each dungeon and solve certain puzzles. The goal of each dungeon is to access five terminals scattered throughout. Some of these terminals are easy to get to, while others require quite a bit of thinking and planning. There are numerous puzzles, and all of Link’s key items usually see usage within a dungeon. There are enemies too, but less compared to series tradition. Dungeons mostly serve as length puzzles to solve with a boss at the end. These bosses are fun to fight, and often follow the dungeon’s theme. A couple of the dungeons, particularly the air and water dungeons, were a blast. The other two were serviceable as well, but all of the dungeons feel less memorable compared to dungeons in previous games. While these dungeons are by no means the draw of the game, they still could have been better. I would have liked to see more uniqueness in each dungeon, and maybe more enemies and treasure to be found. These are not a bad series of dungeons by any stretch, but compared to previous installments’ dungeons, there is a lot of improvement that could have been made.

Overall, I actually think exploring is one of my favorite aspects of Breath of the Wild. Some of my fondest memories in the game come from exploring Hyrule Castle later into the game, as there are multiple entrances you can enter the dungeon from with varying levels of difficulty when it comes to making it to the final boss. One particular route takes you through an old cave, and up through some of the ruined areas within the castle. Fighting a horde of enemies in an old library was a blast, and fighting a skeleton boss in the castle’s dungeons to grab some rare loot was immensely satisfying. The fact that you are free to explore all of these parts of the world at your own discretion is fantastic, and it makes sinking time into the game so much easier to do. However, the main story is the primary draw of the game, and it manages to do a decent job of entertaining the player as well.

Recollections and revenge

One of the major focuses of the Zelda games since Ocarina of Time has been story. Early games in the series usually used very weak, harmless stories to thread a string through the player’s journey and give them motivations, but they never resulted in any memorable characters, plot points, or themes. I feel that The Wind Waker came the closest to having a great story in a Zelda game, because of its great characters, plot, and cinematic moments. Games like Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword spent a significant portion of their time on plot development, but so many of those games’ events happened outside of the player’s involvement that it often felt like you were not getting the whole picture. On top of that, Twilight Princess had relatively forgettable characters that were heavily focused on during their introductions, but never really developed by the game’s conclusion. Skyward Sword did a better job by focusing on many of its characters, but the time given to the story really detracted from the amount of time that the player was actually playing the game. A good story is hard to pull off, especially in a series that has games averaging around 30 hours in length.

Breath of the Wild tries to alleviate these issues with a hands-off, mostly optional story to stay out of the player’s way while still providing a narrative to players who are interested in the world and characters. This approach has varying degrees of success. Much like 2015’s Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, much of the plot and character development is hidden behind optional text and scenes. There is a relatively large cast of characters this time around, so it is not easy to give ample screen time for them all to develop. This is especially an issue when most of the screen time given to the characters is optional and given in non-intrusive, small chunks. I feel that in some areas, the game was able to pull off its approach to storytelling. In other areas, not so much.

The story of Breath of the Wild is one of the darker narratives in the series, probably the darkest since Majora’s Mask. A hundred years prior to the events of the game, Link, the player character, and a cast of colorful characters were preparing to fight the antagonist Ganon when he eventually arrived to attack Hyrule. This cast of characters included the titular Princess Zelda, and four champions from the various races that populate Hyrule. These champions were tasked with piloting colossal machines known as the Divine Beasts. Daruk was the Goron champion. The Gorons are a race of rock-eating creatures who live on Death Mountain. He had a lighthearted personality, and he treated Link somewhat like a brother. The Rito champion was the attractive and somewhat conceited Revali. The Rito are a race of anthropomorphic birds who are capable of flight. Revali is boastful and doubtful of Link’s ability, but he is a likable character nonetheless. The Zora champion was the soft-spoken Mipha. The Zora are a race of anthropomorphic fish who swim incredibly fast. Mipha was sweet, and actually is revealed to have had feelings for Link. The Gerudo champion is the strong-willed and mysterious Urbosa. The Gerudo are a race of dark-skinned, large humans that are predominantly female, as only one male is born every one-hundred years. Urbosa was brave, cunning, but also is revealed to have had a soft side. This sounds like a great cast of characters to pull the player through the game and craft a good story along the way. The problem? They all are dead for the entire game. Zelda, Link and the champions’ plan to defeat Ganon backfires. Zelda’s father, the king, is murdered. All of the champions are slaughtered, and their souls were trapped in their respective Divine Beasts. Link was gravely wounded, and Zelda was left to fight Ganon on her own.

Link wakes up one-hundred years later in a resurrection chamber that he was sealed in to prevent his death after being wounded. None of the above information is revealed to the player until late in the game, and even then, you have to piece it together yourself. There is a fantastic story arc involving Zelda. Prior to Ganon’s arrival, Zelda’s training to seal Ganon away repeatedly results in failure. Her powers do not reveal themselves until after the time that she needs to use them, and as a result, she can only hold back Ganon instead of defeat him. This allows Link time to recover (over one-hundred years, unfortunately), but it is not enough to seal away the vicious antagonist. Throughout the game, you discover these details, along with stories involving the four champions who piloted the Divine Beasts. All of this, at a surface level, sounds like a unique Zelda story that has the potential to be one of the best in the series. The issue is that the game squanders a decent amount of that potential.

The champions do not get enough screen time. Most of their conversations with Link are obviously told through flashbacks, as they are all long dead when Link is out and about one-hundred years later. These flashbacks leave a lot to be desired, and there is only one per champion. The Divine Beasts that each champion piloted serve as dungeons for Link to conquer on his quest to defeat Ganon, and these yield some extra development of the champions, as their spirits guide Link through the dungeons. However, it never feels like enough, and despite completing all of the main story quests and memory segments, I did not feel like I got to see enough of these characters. Revali and Daruk were two characters I particularly enjoyed seeing on screen, yet their flashback segments are brief and their short time on display as spirits did not leave me satisfied. I truly wanted to see more of this cast of characters in action, but their tragic deaths prior to the game’s events really limited what could be done with them. It makes for a dark tale, one laced with both sorrow and vengeance, but it also makes the story feel like a missed opportunity in its entirety.

The champions and Zelda are not the only characters who get the spotlight during the main quest. Each race has a primary character that is alive during the events of the game. There is a Goron named Yunobo, who is a descendant of Daruk. He is timid and a bit childish, but he also boasts some of the toughness and bravery his ancestor possessed. The modern Rito character is Teba, a skilled warrior who is well-respected by the Rito people. Despite his fierce personality, he helps Link board the Rito Divine Beast to help free Revali’s spirit and stop Ganon. The Zora have Prince Sidon, who is Mipha’s brother and the heir to the Zora throne. He is easily the best-developed of the modern cast, and his charming personality and polite attitude makes him extremely likable. Finally, there is Riju, who stands as the chief of the Gerudo people. She is a bit childish, but also shows incredible potential as a leader. This cast of characters, much like the previous cast, have quite a bit of potential. I would say they are better developed than their deceased counterparts, but they also do not get enough screen time. Yunobo and Sidon get the most, as they accompany Link through his journey that leads up to the boarding of their respective Divine Beast. Riju and Teba, on the other hand, are absent for a decent chunk of Link’s journey to their races’ Divine Beasts. Riju is chief of the Gerudo, and as a result, she mostly sits in her chair and tells Link to do things before he can board the Divine Beast. Teba is not even introduced until shortly before Link boards the Rito Divine Beast, and despite seeming like a likable character, his screen time is so minuscule that you would think he was a side character. This game’s cast is chock full of potential, and it does not use much of it to its advantage.

The side characters in Breath of the Wild fare a bit better. Due to the immense amount of side content, and the variety that it entails, the side characters who linger during Link’s adventure are much more memorable than most of the main cast. The star of the show is obviously Kass, the traveling minstrel who gives the player Shine Quests by playing them a song about the current area. He is handsome, funny, and remains a constant during your exploration of Hyrule. The sound of his accordion in the distance is always a giddy moment, as you know he will have a Shrine Quest waiting for you, and there is a puzzle to solve along with it. He also has his backstory fleshed out if you talk to him at the stables around Hyrule. He will tell you about his past, his master and the reasons he enjoys the music he plays. Kass is one of the best parts of the game, and I have no doubt that he will go down as one of the many great and memorable Zelda characters. Alongside Kass are returning characters like Beedle. Beedle is as cheerful as ever about selling the player items, and his energetic attitude made me smile even when I was feeling somewhat frustrated with the game. There are also new vendors, like Kilton. Kilton is a traveling monster connoisseur who will let you trade monster parts with him to get rare types of armor and weapons. He is very creepy, and is up there with the Happy Mask Salesman from Majora’s Mask as one of those characters you both fear and enjoy seeing at the same time. Overall, the side cast is pretty good, and their reoccurring nature gives them more time to shine, letting them reside in your memory long after you have stopped playing.

Given the heavy-handed story in Skyward Sword and, to a lesser extent, Twilight Princess, it is possible that Nintendo was just trying to listen to fan input and ease back on the main story a bit. This is completely understandable, and as it stands, the game’s main quest is not bad. However, given the taste that Nintendo gave us through the tidbits of character development sprinkled throughout the main quest, it is no surprise that players would want more. Zelda’s excellent storyline about her feelings of failure and the dislike she harbors towards the destiny she inherited is compelling, is told through flashbacks, and is probably the best-developed arc in the whole game. It turned out so well, that I would imagine the team could have pulled off similar arcs with the champion characters through similar flashback sequences, but they only get one flashback each. This could be excused if the modern characters got more development, but those characters feel as though they had their development squandered as well. While Breath of the Wild certainly boasts a darker story compared to most installments in the franchise, it feels like a missed opportunity. Its optional, flashback-driven story structure is obviously difficult to build a good story around, but Zelda’s arc is so good that there is no way they could not have pulled off similar segments for the other characters. Overall, the story is not an utter disappointment, but it leaves quite a bit to be desired.

From swords, to spears, and more

Since the original The Legend of Zelda, the player’s primary method of combating enemies has been swordplay. Every subsequent main title since the original has had the player fighting with a variety of different swords, usually with each type just being more powerful than the last. Link was able to use some of the key items he obtained in combat, but their use was limited compared to that of his sword. As a result, for nearly 30 years, Zelda games have had the player swinging their sword a majority of the time to defeat enemies. The way the sword was used varied, however. In the two-dimensional games, Link simply aimed and swung his sword at enemies to defeat them. In three-dimensional Zelda games, Z-targeting was introduced. When Ocarina of Time, the first 3D Zelda, was released in 1998, this was a revolutionary way to tackle combat in 3D space.

Z-targeting made the player to focus on individual enemies, and it completely changed how to player moved and interacted with the world when it was active. While in Z-targeting mode, the player could jump left and right, backflip, thrust their sword at an enemy, do horizontal slashes, and jump attacks. This was a lot more compared to what the player could do when they were not Z-targeting, as the player could only slash and do a spin attack, which were both possible in Z-targeting anyways. This forced the player to use Z-targeting for most combat situations, and many of the enemies were designed with this mechanic in mind. The Wind Waker added in the ability to pick up a few enemy weapons, but the player could not take them between rooms, and their functionality was limited compared to the player’s sword. You also could do a counter attack if you responded to a button prompt in time, causing Link to roll around the enemy and hit them in the back. This was necessary when it came to defeating some of the game’s enemies. Twilight Princess added a variety of more moves similar to Wind Waker’s counter attack, but these moves were optional when it came to defeating enemies, so the entire combat system felt like a missed opportunity. Skyward Sword changed things up the most by introducing motion controls, but Z-targeting was still present, and the motion controls made attacks that were easier with button combinations in previous installments more frustrating and difficult.

Luckily, Breath of the Wild reverts back to the system in Ocarina of Time, with a few major changes. The biggest alteration to the combat is the fact that the player is no longer limited to swords. You are able to wield polearms, axes, and maces alongside your standard swords and shields. These change Link’s move set slightly, usually either speeding up his movements or slowing them down with changes in damage and range. Polearms give Link lots of speed and range at the cost of damage. Axes are balanced in speed and do decent damage, but lack range. Swords are moderate in damage, range and speed. Maces often are slow, but powerful. There also are one-handed and two-handed variants of weapons, with the latter being much slower, but far more powerful. You also have the option of sporting a shield with one-handed weapons, which allows the player to block enemy attacks. Link can additionally use bows, much like in previous Zelda games. You could Z-target with a bow in many of the older 3D installments, or go into first-person to precisely hit targets. Breath of the Wild allows you to Z-target, but you need to aim using either the gyroscope or the right analog stick. You can free aim too, and the additional gyroscope controls feel great when picking off enemies at a distance. Some bows actually allow you to fire multiple arrows at the cost of just a single arrow, which is a cool addition that diversifies the weapon pool a bit. All of these weapons have stats, which helps the player distinguish how good a weapon is compared to another. You can also find weapons with buffs added to them later in the game. These weapons have extra perks, like an increased critical hit rate, extra throw range, quicker aiming speed, and improved durability.

Durability is a relatively new feature in Breath of the Wild. Your shield had durability in Skyward Sword, but all weapons and shields can be completely destroyed in Breath of the Wild, with no way to get most of them back. Some legendary weapons can be reforged in certain towns at a hefty price, but the common weapons you will probably be using throughout the game will break, and you cannot prevent their destruction with repairs or tempering. At first, this system irked me, and it has caused a decent amount of division in the gaming community. We are so used to finding a weapon we like, and holding onto it tightly before we find a new weapon to replace it. The period of time between retrieving a weapon and getting one to replace it is cut short in Breath of the Wild, as sometimes your weapon will break, and you will have no choice other than to switch to a new one. This forces you to constantly be picking up new weapons, regardless of whether or not you are a fan of the weapons you are using. I can definitely see why people have a problem with this system, but I ended up enjoying it. I am a huge fan of diverse combat systems, and forcing the player to switch things up rather than sticking to the same weapon type throughout the entire game. You end up losing attachment to much of your arsenal, and you need to learn how to deal with the many types of weapons the game offers you. If you lose a good weapon, there is often a great one to be found within minutes, which means breaking your precious weapons is not as big of a deal as it could be. The only thing you need to overcome is your attachment to your arsenal, and you will have a great time experimenting with the wide variety of weapons found throughout the game.

The player can also equip various types of armor found throughout the game. Unlike previous Zelda games, where Link starts with a primary set of armor that includes his green tunic and hat, and gains access to a couple of other tunics that have special abilities late into the game, Breath of the Wild has no primary set of armor. You start out naked, and eventually get some clothes, but those clothes are weak and cannot be upgraded later in the game. The clothes Link sports in the boxart for the game are obtainable, but they lack many of the stat bonuses and protection present in other armor sets. Some armor sets give lots of protection, some give a bonus to your stealth, some allow you to swim or climb faster, and others are purely collectible sets that provide aesthetic. You can upgrade certain pieces of armor at Great Fairy Fountains, which are hidden in various locations around the world. All of this is a major change compared to previous installments in the series, and I found myself enjoying the new system. Armor lacks durability, so you can use it indefinitely once you obtain it. You also have an infinite amount of armor slots in your inventory, which means you do not have to worry about getting rid of armor when you have collected a significant amount of it. The only issue with the armor system is the fact that sometimes you will feel obligated to switch to a certain set of armor when a situation calls for it, which can often break the flow of the game. The Zora set allows Link to swim up waterfalls, which is a cool ability that is very useful in certain areas. I found myself swapping out my armor whenever I saw a large waterfall that could be swam up, as it would prevent me from having to climb the incline that the waterfall was pouring off of. Switching between my typical armor set and the Zora set was fairly immersion-breaking, and I felt some of the bad feelings that I felt when switching between the normal boots and iron boots in the dreaded Water Temple in Ocarina of Time. While this inventory issue never quite got as bad as it did in that game, it still was a minor annoyance that disturbed the game’s flow. In the end, though, I was a big fan of the changes in how armor worked, and I hope future Zelda games take the system along for the ride.

Missed opportunities

You also can sometimes use your key items on enemies, much like in previous Zelda games. There are four key items in Breath of the Wild: Remote Bombs, Cryonis, Magnesis, and Stasis. Remote Bombs are just as they sound, remote explosives that can be placed and set off from a distance. There are two types given to the player, a spherical version and a cube version. The spherical Remote Bomb is good for rolling down hills or through tubes, while the cube version is good if you want your explosive to simply stay put. These can be upgraded later in the game, which increases their explosive range. Cryonis creates up to three pillars of ice on the water. These pillars are fairly large, and they are usually used for puzzles, but can be used in the occasional combat situation if there’s water around. You can also use the ice pillars as stepping stones to get across the water, but this approach is slow compared to using rafts or other means of traversing bodies of water. Magnesis allows the player to pick up metallic objects. Much like Cryonis, it is mostly used for puzzle-solving, but you can drop metallic objects on your enemies or manipulate the environment in certain situations. Finally, there is Stasis. Stasis temporarily freezes objects in time, and can actually be upgraded to be used on enemies. You can even freeze the final boss very briefly using Stasis. I was pretty happy with how these abilities cropped up in certain fights. Some bosses require you to use these abilities to defeat them, like one boss that requires you to toss back a metallic object using Magnesis. Some enemies also can be combated using key items. A number of enemy attacks can be blocked using ice pillars made from Cryonis, which is a cool feature that is very vital to defeating some of the more difficult enemies within shrines. At one point, a difficult enemy’s attack proved difficult to block, but I realized that you could use Magnesis you pull up iron blocks housed within the arena’s flooring to block the aforementioned attack. This moment made me grin, and it was a wonderfully memorable experience.

Breath of the Wild has additional tricks up its sleeve when it comes to combat, but they feel like missed opportunities. You can parry if you have a shield equipped, a la Hidetaka Miyazaki’s Dark Souls. The parrying system works exactly as it did in that game, where the player can shield bash an enemy attack at the right moment to stagger them and unleash some extra attacks upon them. Your jumping moves when Z-targeting also have usage outside of simply moving around the battlefield and dodging enemy attacks this time around. Much like in Hideki Kamiya’s Bayonetta, you can dodge an enemy attack right before it hits to slow down time and land a flurry of hits upon them. Another cool feature allows the player to slow down time in mid-air when aiming a ranged weapon. This drains your stamina wheel, but it is useful for various situations where you are fighting enemies in aerial combat, and you need to land a precise shot. Melee weapons can be tossed at enemies too, which is a neat feature that does not see much usage. Stealth is present in Breath of the Wild, and it actually is a half-decent system. The player can sneak around enemy camps and perform a sneak attack on unaware foes, which will often kill or deal large amounts of damage towards them. You can use elixirs to improve your stealth ability, and some gear also helps you sneak around too. These new additions to the combat system are incredibly helpful to defeating enemies, but much like in Twilight Princess, they are disappointingly optional. Some bosses and enemies put up a barrier that can be bypassed with a couple of these attacks, but there are other combat options that are far easier to maneuver that can accomplish this.

When a player defeats one of the four dungeons, they are awarded with an attack corresponding to that dungeon’s champion spirit. One of these attacks is Urbosa’s Fury, which allows the player to create a dome of lightning that shocks enemies in their vicinity. This attack has three charges, with a relatively low recharge time that restores them if they are exhausted. This attack is not only incredibly overpowered, chipping huge chunks of health off of bosses, but it also penetrates the aforementioned barriers that some enemies put up. Because of this, using your other special attacks is just a waste of time. You can simply spam Urbosa’s Fury and wait for the cooldown to defeat most difficult enemies, which renders some of the game’s better additions to combat completely useless. You can disable the attack in the menu screen, along with the other champion powers, but the fact that it is even there is tempting to players, as you can simply abuse that rather than utilize the complexities of the combat system.

Other champion powers include Rivali’s Gale, which allows the player to create a gust of wind to propel themselves upward with their paraglider. This is easily my favorite champion ability in the game, as it can be used for both exploration and combat without feeling cheap in either situation. There also is Daruk’s Protection, which is a slightly annoying ability that creates a barrier around the player when they Z-target an enemy. I ended up turning this off after a few combat situations where I used it, because it felt distracting and also had limited usefulness. Mipha’s Grace is the last ability, and it is pretty terrible. This ability revives the player instantly if they are killed, fully restoring their health and even adding an additional five hearts on top of it. This ability only has one charge, but it has a similar cooldown to Urbosa’s Fury. There are other ways to revive the player besides this ability. You can use fairies gathered from fairy fountains, much like in previous installments in the series. You can gather a large amount of fairies, which will grant you quite a few revives, but you have reduced health when you are brought back to life. Mipha’s Grace is utterly cheap, as it often will finish its cooldown between enemy encounters, giving the player a huge amount of leeway when it comes to making mistakes in combat. Games like Bayonetta and Dark Souls, where Breath of the Wild took some of its more complex combat mechanics, often punish the player if they do not at least have a decent grasp on their combat systems. All of the safeguards that prevent player death allow the player to make their way through the game without having to use any of the complexities present in the combat. This is saddening, and while Breath of the Wild is very keen on making much of its content optional, the fact that these combat features are not utilized to their full extent is a huge missed opportunity. It makes for a combat system that overall feels uneven, even if it does shine in many areas compared to the other games in the series.

I feel like multiple difficulty levels could have alleviated many of the issues and divisive mechanics present in Breath of the Wild. Weapon durability has been a major talking point when it comes to the quality of the game’s combat system, and an easier difficulty that removes the feature entirely or provides outlets for repairing your weapons would be great. Even though I was a fan of weapon durability, the ability to turn it off would be great for someone who desires an easier game. Some people have complained about more powerful enemies defeating the player in one or two hits, and an easier difficulty could fix this as well. The same goes for abilities like Urbosa’s Fury and Mipha’s Grace, as they make the game far easier. While these abilities can be disabled, the fact that they are there is tempting, which hurts any semblance of difficulty the game could have. I would like to see a harder difficulty mode in the game, one that punishes the player for not using the combat system to its full extent and prevents player revival. While there is apparently a hard mode in the works, it will be premium downloadable content, and it is saddening that more difficulty settings were not present in the game at launch. Overall, this simple change could have fixed much of the divisiveness in Breath of the Wild, which is incredibly disappointing.

Audiovisual prowess

One of the greatest strengths Breath of the Wild has is its visual style. Inspired by animated films like Studio Ghibli productions, much of the art-style has a cartoonish, but painted vibe. The landscape moves and flows, with wind visibly cutting through the air and blowing the grass that it glides over. Light shines off the surface of the environments, and when you walk through a field on a sunny day, it is an incredible visual treat. Wandering through a forest and watching the light shift around as the sun hits the trees at different angles is jaw-dropping, and it is all the more impressive given that this is an open-world game. Animals dot the landscape for the player to hunt, and their reactions to Link are believable as can be. While animals will occasionally vanish if they run far enough from the player, temporarily breaking the immersion, these moments are few and far between. Characters throughout Hyrule, including Link, are incredibly expressive, and their facial expressions and cartoonish reactions to in-game events are humorous and delightful. While the game never gives the characters the opportunities to be as expressive as some characters were in previous Zelda titles, what is there is fantastic enough. Nintendo worked wonders in The Wind Waker, which also sported a cartoonish style, but from a different angle than Breath of the Wild. That game aged wonderfully, and I am sure Breath of the Wild will as well.

The music in the game is as superb as you would expect it to be. The Zelda series has been known for producing a variety of legendary game tracks, and Breath of the Wild has a few contenders to be added to that list of fantastic songs. The overworld themes that will occasionally play when you are exploring are simply beautiful. They often mix piano with woodwind instruments, and it is a calming feeling as the music plays while you are running through a field or climbing a mountain. Some of the tracks that play in towns are remixes of themes from previous Zelda games, and the twists put on these tracks are often enjoyable. I especially liked the remix of the Dragon Roost Island theme that plays in Rito Village, as it calls back to many of the great moments of that track with a softer, more laid back tone. Other pieces of town music are brand new, like the Kakariko Village theme. This theme suits the town’s style very well, and is a pretty track in its own right. The battle themes are fairly passable, but a few of them stand out. The music that plays when you fight sand worms in the desert is ecstatic when it gets going, and it bolsters the entire experience of fighting that enemy. My favorite track in the whole game, however, is the Hyrule Castle theme. This track changes depending on if you are inside or outside, but the driving force behind it is incredibly motivating regardless of what you are doing within the dungeon. It pushes the player all the way up until the final boss fight, and it is a truly memorable theme of astounding quality. If you do not plan on playing Breath of the Wild, I would recommend listening to the track. It is just that magnificent.

The only downside of Breath of the Wild’s excellent audiovisual department is the voice-acting. Breath of the Wild is the first game in the series to include voice-acting in cutscenes, and the work here is a mixed bag. Some of the characters have great voices, like the voices of Revali, Daruk, Urbosa, and Riju. Others are simply serviceable, like most of the modern day characters; including Teba, Yunobo, and Sidon. Some, however, are pretty abysmal. Princess Zelda’s voice work is fairly inconsistent. Her fake British accent is cringeworthy, even if she delivers emotion pretty well in certain pivotal game moments. Considering that she is the titular character of the game, and a major part of the story, you would think that Nintendo of America would have put more effort into her casting. An actual United Kingdom born-and-raised voice actor would have been a much better choice if they were going for a character with a British accent, as hers sounds fake and laughable during several cutscenes. The worst offender in terms of voice-acting, however, is Mipha’s voice actor. She is not as pivotal to the story as Zelda, but every time she opened her mouth and spoke, I was stunned at how terrible the delivery was. I do not know how to put into words how bad her performance is, and I am not even sure what the voice actor was going for with her character. She tries to sound soft-spoken, but simultaneously analytical and firm. The result is a mess of inflections and deliveries, which often lead to me shaking my head and giggling when I should have felt immersed. I want to say that the voice-acting in Breath of the Wild is good, as a few of the performances were pretty great. Revali in particular was such a wonderful character, and his voice actor’s excellent performance made him all the more memorable. That being said, the voice work in its entirety is too inconsistent for me to give it any glowing praise, and it stands as one of the more prominent flaws in Breath of the Wild’s audiovisual presentation.

Conclusion

All things considered, I truly enjoyed my time with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. I honestly think it is one of the finer installments the series has to offer, and its flaws are greatly outweighed by its strengths. Director Hidemaro Fujibayashi and producer Eiji Aonuma truly crafted a unique Zelda adventure, one that breaks free from the formula that has plagued the previous 3D installments since 1998’s Ocarina of Time. While that formula was great for a while, it started to feel stale by Twilight Princess and a new approach to reinvigorate the feeling of adventure that the series is known for was necessary moving forward. Breath of the Wild, in its entirety, is exactly what the series needed. It made me feel the feelings that I have not felt while playing a Zelda game since The Wind Waker. It is a magical experience, and I found myself thinking about the game long after I had stopped playing. 90 hours in, I still have so many shrines to find, side quests to complete and foes to best. Even though I found myself disappointed with many of the aspects of the combat system, and thought the story could have been better, I cannot help but love this game.

Breath of the Wild is everything I have wanted in a Zelda game since the formula began to stagnate. Aonuma-san spent most of this game’s development driven to re-emulate that feeling a fan had of having a huge world where he could simply ride a horse around. This game, in my honest opinion, captures that feeling and more. I think that Aonuma-san and the rest of the team have really tapped into the key aspects of fan feedback that needed to be addressed. Although the game comes with some new flaws the series will need to tackle in the next installment, I dearly hope that many of the ideas introduced in Breath of the Wild persist in at least the next couple of successors. This is easily one of the best games in the series, and certainly a game worth your time and money. More than that, it will probably linger in gamers’ minds and memories for years into the future. Perhaps longer.

Amber Reviews