Breath of the Wild Review

The Legend of Zelda is one of Nintendo’s Big 3. The quintessential series that make Nintendo the gaming giant it is. There’s Mario, Pokemon, and Zelda. Each of these franchises have had at least 20 entries released including spin offs. So it stands to reason that at some point things would get boring. Well that’s exactly what The Legend Of Zelda Breath Of The Wild defies.

Breath Of The Wild is at core a Zelda game. You’ve got a Link, a Princess Zelda, a Ganon, and The Land of Hyrule but that’s where similarities end. This entry shakes the Zelda formula up a lot. No more linear storytelling to guide your adventure, Hyrule’s an open world now. Which means everything is open to you from the very beginning. This gives you the freedom to choose how you play the game. You can just wander around having little adventures and discovering secrets throughout the landscape. The game rewards you for doing that by giving you weapons and resources which then makes the main story much easier when you eventually decide to tackle it.

The story of Breath Of The Wild relies on the shroud of mystery. Link wakes up in a medical chamber called the Shrine of Resurrection. He retrieves a device known as the Sheikah Slate and upon heading outside realises he is on the Great Plateau, a piece of land held above Hyrule by sheer cliffs. The Great Plateau serves as a tutorial section where Link learns everything he needs to know to embark on his adventure. He learns that Calamity Ganon returned 100 years ago and that Princess Zelda has been holding him back the whole time. He is also told that 100 years ago he was the sworn knight to Princess Zelda and that it was his duty to rescue Zelda and slay Ganon. After completing the Great Plateau Link receives a Paraglider and glides down to the ruined and destroyed Land of Hyrule.

I had a really hard time adapting to this game at first. Open Worlds can be really overwhelming for me because I get confused on where I’m meant to go. There’s too many options with an open world that I end up just going in a straight line towards the beacon instead of trying to find the proper way to get there. I do really like it now though, once I started to familiarise myself with some landmarks things got easier. I also really liked the shrines. Finding a shrine and then figuring out the puzzle inside was my favourite part of Breath Of The Wild. I was actually disappointed with all the Blessing shrines, it felt like they had gotten lazy towards the end of puzzle making.

I do have two really big complaints, one of which is visually related. I personally prefer the way the game looks at night time, I can just see more clearly. But that’s really annoying when Stal enemies keep spawning every 10 metres. It wouldn’t be a problem if they died quickly but they don’t. Stal enemies only have 1hp but the only place they take damage is the head and to hit the head you either shoot it or knock the enemy over so its head detaches, then you can hit it. Oh and the Urbosa’s Fury doesn’t work.

The other major problem is Rain. Fucking Rain. Breath Of The Wild features a weather system that changes every 4 in-game hours or so and when it rains the game is almost unplayable. A massive part of Breath Of The Wild is being able to climb but when it rains you lose grip and slip every so often. There was a very easy solution that could have been implemented, all they needed to do was introduce an item that allowed you to climb surfaces in the rain but slower. That way you don’t have the annoying slipping and still use the stamina system. Even worse than rain is thunderstorms. Thunderstorms bring with them lightning which in this game is kind of realistic. Lightning is drawn to metal objects like metal crates, doors, and weapons. So if Link is equipped with any metal swords, shields, or bows he becomes a lightning rod. Equipping wooden gear negates this but when you’re in the end game, you’re not using anything wooden. These two complaints really hurt the games enjoyability for me.

I was very impressed with Breath Of The Wild when it came out and for a long time it was the only game I played. Since then I’ve played a lot more games and while Zelda will always be my favourite franchise, Breath Of The Wild is not my favourite Zelda.