This video was made possible thanks to our sponsor, the brand new game Labyrinth City:
Pierre the Maze Detective, based on the popular series of children’s puzzle books.
Last week at E3 2021, we got our first look at the gameplay in the sequel to Breath of the Wild.
Suddenly the Skyward Sword re-release makes even more sense, as it appears that Link
will be taking to the skies once again as he fights against Ganondorf’s malice, and
attempts to rescue the Princess Zelda…yet again. It’s interesting to see many of Breath of the
Wild’s mechanics returning for a second game. Many players are endlessly frustrated by weapons
that degrade over time, Blood Moons that upset all your hard work, and unpredictable weather patterns
that can sometimes mean players end up failing at a particular task through no fault of their own.
This, though, is secretly the game’s hidden genius. Link’s failures across Hyrule during
gameplay deliberately reinforce Princess Zelda’s central story arc.
Our family are all, of necessity, experts in Zelda lore.
Our daughter, still completely obsessed with the entire game series, recently discovered
Zelda Theory videos on YouTube, and when she’s not watching Zeltik, she’ll regurgitate random pieces
of trivia while doing otherwise unrelated tasks. You can only take in so much Zelda analysis before
you start seeing patterns. Here at Video Game Story Time we are, as you might have guessed,
big fans of narratives in games. And the Legend of Zelda series is perhaps the
best popular example of how to perfectly connect a game’s experience – how it feels to play the game
– with the story that the game is trying to tell. If you’ve ever watched a video essay about gaming
on YouTube, you’ll have heard the phrase “ludonarrative dissonance”, which is used
to describe when gameplay doesn’t match story. For example, if a character refuses to kill a boss
character because of some shared history, but will happily cut a path through hundreds of minions.
Many games in the Zelda series are instead an example of ludonarrative consonance:
their central mechanic subtly reinforces the message that the story is trying to convey.
Everyone knows how much we love to find the moral in every story, so we’ve decided to start a brand
new series analysing how Zelda games communicate their message through gameplay gimmicks.
Breath of the Wild is a very clever game. It’s effectively telling two stories at once:
the story of Princess Zelda’s struggle to awaken her powers and save Hyrule, and the player’s
personal story as they make their way across Hyrule in search of shrines and Korok seeds.
Speaking of Breath of the Wild, Shigeru Miyamoto once said:
“I think what’s important, especially for the Zelda series, is for the person to be able to
think it through for themselves, and to really live the story. I think that’s the challenge
we’ve been working on through the many iterations of The Legend of Zelda. And so in this game,
while you’re playing, you start to kind of dig the narrative out and see the
overarching story that lies in the background. “And so I think the story in Breath of the
Wild still doesn’t break the balance that’s been established in previous Zelda games.
But we also wanted to make a game where, after someone is done playing, their own experience in
that game is what the story is, and I think we’ve been able to accomplish that with this title.”
So the point is for players to come out of Breath of the Wild raving about their own experiences –
how they bested a Guardian, or scaled a mountain, or found an incredibly rare creature.
Meanwhile, Zelda’s story – the legend of Zelda, if you will – slowly unfolds in the background.
It doesn’t draw attention away from the personal journey, but it provides the player with context.
Where previous Zelda stories focus on Link’s achievements,
starting out in a small village, receiving the call to adventure,
earning the Master Sword, and becoming a hero – none of this is present in Breath of the Wild.
Even in the game’s flashback cutscenes, Link already has the Master Sword.
We learn very little about his background. He’s little more than Princess Zelda’s sidekick,
while Zelda herself learns, and grows. Longtime series producer Eiji Aonuma has expressed
his excitement about telling a story this way – and made it clear that Zelda’s story is meant to
dovetail with the player’s personal story. He said:
“There is a little bit of a trick that I implemented this time. This idea is something
that I’ve had since I started developing games 20-some odd years ago. … These are all decisions
that the player can make themselves. “Of course, to be able to go through
the storyline, and then it will connect with the goal or the result: that is very important.
But, at the end of the day, there is an element of Zelda in there.”
Thus, Breath of the Wild tells two stories; but both stories are
actually about exactly the same thing. Before we explore the narrative message
in Breath of the Wild, we’d like to talk briefly about this video’s sponsor, which made it possible
for us to make something a little different today. Labyrinth City: Pierre the Maze Detective is a
puzzle game from Darjeeling, the award-winning studio behind Homo Machina and Californium.
The game is based on the popular series of children’s puzzle books by IC4DESIGN, transforming
the complex, engaging artwork into a beautiful interactive environment with plenty to explore.
Playing as child detective Pierre, you must find your way and solve puzzles to retrieve the Maze
Stone, a magical artefact stolen by the nefarious Mr. X. On your way to getting the Maze Stone back,
you will meet adorable and hilarious characters, travelling literal works of art,
and interact with a world that was previously only available on paper!
Labyrinth City: Pierre the Maze Detective is out now on Steam, and is exactly the type
of game we love to share with our daughter – when we’re not being bombarded by Zelda facts.
Speaking of which; what exactly is the message taught in Breath of the Wild?
Essentially, it’s a story about preparation, and failure.
We see, though cutscene, how Zelda struggles with the burden of expectation that’s be
placed upon her back. She alone can save the world, but no matter what she does,
she can’t unlock the power within her. We watch as she gets frustrated,
lashing out at Link who, vanilla as ever, has nothing really to say in response.
Zelda does her best to prepare for the end of the world, but she just can’t
prevent the rise of Calamity Ganon. And so, Zelda fails – but what comes
next is the crux of the story. Meanwhile, the player character, Link,
is stumbling his way through a post-apocalyptic Hyrule.
The game is designed to punish you for playing.
Weapons explode into dust out at the most awkward moments. The weather will turn,
and suddenly all your metal equipment becomes a liability as a lightning storm begins to rage.
You are expected to fail. Things are supposed to go wrong, and you’re meant to be left
awkwardly trying to pick up the pieces when you get hit harder than you expected.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a game about how to cope when things go wrong.
So, in Zelda’s flashback story – arguably the main plot of the whole game – we see Zelda freewheeling
after her preparations fall apart. Her true talent doesn’t come from some ancient power within her
from birth – instead, she saves the day by relying on her research, and by thinking on her feet.
With Link’s life at stake, she has the wisdom to send him to the shrine of resurrection, and to
place the Master Sword back in its pedestal. This perfectly parallels the smaller moments
throughout the game when the player finds themselves temporarily without a weapon,
or up against a monster that’s far too strong for them to beat with their equipment.
Things go wrong, and in that instant, the player has to innovate.
Thus, Zelda’s story and Link’s story both reinforce each other,
as the player learns about how to deal with failure. You don’t give up;
you dust yourself off, stand up, and try a different approach to solving your problem.
All Zelda games similarly communicate the message within their story not just through cutscenes,
but through gameplay. If you all like this video, we’ll hopefully be able to
return soon and explore how another game in the series uses its central unique
gimmick to drive home the narrative’s message. In the meantime, thank you very much for watching,
and thanks to Labyrinth City: Pierre the Maze Detective for sponsoring this video.