Do you see that tower waaaay off in the distance?
You can go there.
Or what about the twin peaks to the east?
Yep, you can get there too--as well as the mountains behind them, and so on and so forth...In
Zelda: Breath of the Wild, if you can see it, you can go to it..and around it, or over
it.
Literally nothing is off-limits--every house has a roof, every building an interior, every
wall an opposite side, every mountain a top, every river an opposing shore--you can explore.
it.
all.
Zelda: Breath of the Wild blows the doors off Zelda conventions and does something new
at nearly every turn, being an open-world, open-ended adventure.
And that open-endedness extends far beyond just the geography of the world, but also
permeates your every interaction with it.
This is a game about options--both big and small.
For instance, you’ll often encounter enemy camps during your travels--do you try and
stealthily sneak up on them for a surprise attack?
Or maybe you’ll wait for nightfall and raid their camp while they sleep.
Or perhaps you’ll attack from afar by rolling bombs their way.
Or maybe you’ll use your Magnesis ability and grab a nearby metallic block and dropping
it on them.
Or maybe...I should shut up because you get the idea--there are a ton of options at any
given moment.
Especially because, by the time you depart the Plateau a couple hours into the game,
you will already have almost every major ability--including gliding.
Yep, the game just hands you a complete toolbox and lets you go nuts, with abilities like
creating bombs out of thin air, or flinging metallic objects around with Magnesis, or
temporarily freezing objects with Stasis--all 3 of which are a lot of fun to play with and
open up a ton of options for enemy encounters, and solving puzzles.
Although Ithere is a 4th ability too, Cryonis, which must have drawn the short straw in terms
of fun, as it’s the only one that isn’t really enjoyable to use in and of itself,
and I only used it when I had to.
Okay, so with the world being so big and open, it can be tough even figuring out where to
start!
Every corner of the map--and literally everything inbetween, invites the curious.
What’s on the other side of those twin peaks?
What might be hidden in that valley far below?
What lies behind the walls of Hyrule Castle?
Or at the top of that snowy peak.
And deciding where to go isn’t even the tough part--it’s staying on track that proved
nearly impossible for me.
On the way to any one objective, I’d almost certainly find at least a half dozen things
begging for my attention--which then lead to their own tangents, until I eventually
wind up on nearly the opposite end of the world from where I meant to go!
I was basically Dug from Up...SQUIRREL!
And the best part is, I didn’t mind...at all.
In fact, I loved it.
A world full of distractions!
And I wanted to see them all.
Which is why it’s probably a good thing that there’s a quest log, which not only
keeps track of your main quest, but every sidequest too--and thank god, because there’s
a tooon of sidequests.
Which based on the ones I tried, are extremely varied and rarely repeititve.
You can then select which one to focus on, and it’ll mark the next primary destination
for it on your map.
But it does this without ever coming across as overbearing--yeah, there are no annoying
sidekicks this time to make sure you stay on track.
I’m looking right at you Fi.
You’re free to ignore your primary objectives for as long as you want without consequence--and
that’s pretty cool.And if you choose to do so, it rarely feels like you’re wasting
your time, since most everything else you do will help you down the line, whether it’s
finding materials, cooking food, or seeking Shrines.
In fact, that’s generally how I played--I largely ignored the quest markers and just
went wherever the wind took me--sometimes literally.
It was a joy to venture across fields, mountains, forests and all kinds of landscapes just to
see what was waiting for me around the next corner--it might be a small hut, or an entire
village, or perhaps an enemy stronghold, maybe a Shrine--or heck, it might just be something
cool looking.
For as big as the world is, I found no shortage of unique sights to behold.
And at every turn, there’s countless ways in which to go about it.
Do you trek to that distant mountain on foot?
Or try and grab a wild horse to pick up the pace?
Or do you climb up a nearby tower and try to glide to the mountain from there?
And once you reach the mountain--do you try and climb it from the base and risk running
out of stamina, or do you circumnavigate it to find a less direct route, but with spots
to rest along the way.
Or do you try and glide to the mountain from a tall structure nearby?
LIke I said, it’s all about options--and that’s what makes exploring so damn fun.
And it doesn’t hurt that the Paraglider really helps in getting around, while providing
some magnificent views.
And those options become even more varied when you take into account how interactive
the world is.
You can cut down trees--just for the heck of it if you want--but also specifically to
drop onto enemies, or to use as a bridge to cross a chasm, or as a platform to cross a
river.
And while we’re talking about destroying the environment, you can set fire to the nearby
grass to keep enemies at bay, and then use the updraft it creates to take to the skies
and escape with your paraglider and then go on a bombing run if you want.
It’s all up to you.
Beyond that, the world itself feels alive in ways no Zelda has before.
Whether it’s the varied wildlife you’ll encounter in every corner of every region--including
bears!--or the travelers and merchants that you’ll find wandering the wilderness.
And they all react dynamically to what’s happening around them, sometimes even fighting
enemies off themselves, or cowering in fear of an arrow aimed right at them--yeah, they
probably didn’t enjoy their encounters with me too much.
The villages are especially impressive with how true-to-life they can feel, with nearly
every individual having their own schedule.
You can follow pretty much anyone from their house in the morning as they head for work,
and then back again once their shift is done.
Even the kids will return home once it’s bedtime.
And in a really neat touch, towns will even clear out in a heavy rainstorm as the villagers
run inside for cover.
And speaking of weather, it’s changing constantly--to the point where the game even includes a forecast
on the HUD.
And you’ll want to keep an eye on it, as it can have a severe impact on how you play.
Fog will greatly reduce how much you can see, while rain will make every surface too slick
to climb--and then there’s lightning storms that put Link at risk of being burned to a
crisp if he has anything metallic equipped.
The world really is changing constantly, and it’s something you’ll need to account
for.
But for as much exploring as I’ve done, surprisingly little of the world is truly
required to finish the game.
Hell, I made it to the end with something like 3 regions not even filled in on my map.
That’s kind of nuts.
But on the other hand, if you’re not quite the exploring type, you can also just focus
on the main objectives too--going point to point as marked on your quest log.
But doing so will almost assuredly make the game much tougher--because in order to permanently
upgrade Link’s health and stamina, you’re going to need to seek out at least some of
the hundred+ plus Shrines in the game
Now each Shrine is essentially a bite-sized temple, taking between 10-15 minutes on average,
that’s usually based around a handful of puzzles built around a single element, such
as redirecting airflow, stacking metal boxes, or moving energy orbs around.
And I loved them--they’re just long enough to offer an isolated challenge, but quick
enough that I didn't feel mentally drained afterward.
Even if some of them can be pretty tricky.
Just ask RogersBase about that constellation puzzle...
And like the game itself, the puzzles are frequently open-ended too.
Such as this one where you have to tilt the maze to get the ball through--which I solved
by flipping the entire thing upside down for a flat surface, and lobbing the ball off.
Now even though there are a ton of Shrines, they’re not always that easy to find--sometimes
even requiring you to solve puzzles just to reveal them.
But the effort is well worth it, as the Shrines essentially reward you twice.
Once for finding it, as it then acts as a quick travel point--which is crucial in a
world as big as this--then again with a spirit orb for actually completing the trial within.
And those spirit orbs are crucial, as you can trade 4 of them in at a Goddess Statue
to upgrade your heart or stamina- meters--so yeah, they’re pretty important.
Now even though I just said the Shrines are essentially “mini temples”, they don’t
replace temples entirely--because they’re still here too...except there’s only 4 of
them, and they work a bit differently than before, now primarily taking place within
a single large structure, and feature elements that you can manipulate on a global level
that directly changes the temple’s layout itself.
I don’t want to get too far into it for fear of spoilers--but it’s super cool, and
something the Zelda games have only slightly dabbled with before.
I found most of the temple to be well designed and easy to navigate--except for one, which
was a confusing mess.
Unfortunately, the bosses at the end of each temple are pretty underwhelming.
The arenas are bland and aren’t particularly well-suited for combat, and the battles themselves
lack the open-endedness and inventiveness of normal enemy encounters.
Oh, and all of this applies to the final boss too.
Really, I much preferred the mini-bosses you encounter out in the fields--such as one guy
who’ll rip trees right out of the ground to use as a weapon against you, requiring
you to be resourceful yourself while taking the environment into account.
Now that’s awesome!
But regardless of who or what you’re fighting, keeping a properly stocked-inventory is essential,
for all kinds of reasons.
Such as having ingredients on-hand so you can cook food in order to restore your health
and gain other benefits, like increased stealth or a temporally extended heart meter.
And then there’s the fact that your weapons, shields, and bows will all break with extended
use--and I use “extended” loosely as those things really do break all the time, which
means you’d better have a few spares on hand, otherwise you may find yourself totally
unarmed!
Now thankfully, there’s rarely a shortage of weapons to go around, as you’ll find
all kinds of tools everywhere, lying around in towns, dropped by enemies, or inside treasure
chests.
In fact, there’s almost too many--as my inventory was constantly bursting at the seams--which
the game reminded me of over and over and over with a message that pop-ups any time
I tried to pick up a weapon I didn’t have room for.
So to make space available, you need to access the inventory screen, page over the packed
section, such as bows--and there can be a lot of pages to get through--find a weapon
to discard, and then finally reopen the chest to collect the treasure.
As a one-time thing, it’d be no big deal.
but I saw that message hundreds of times.
And the process began to get reeeeally tedious.
Especially as one who’s a bit of a completionist--because every chest will remain active until you make
room and retrieve its treasure.
It’s similar to the problem Twilight Princess had with chests that contained rupees--only
now with weapons.
And it’s pretty annoying.
Nintendo could have easily fixed this too, with having an option to automatically discard
your weakest or oldest weapon in favor of the new one.
And unfortunately, my qualms with the inventory don’t end there--because I spent way too
much on that stupid screen, whether to equip a weapon, shield, or bow, or to find particular
Materials for crafting or cooking, or even just for food to eat mid-battle
And those last two sections in particular are especially annoying, because there so
many materials and food, that they’re spread across multiple pages--right now I have 5
screens worth of materials and 3 for food.
And this not only makes it a nightmare to find a specific item--like, say, Flint--but
you also have to page past every screen if you’re trying to get to another section
on the opposite side, such as weapons or armor.
Again, if you only had to deal with the screen sporadically, it wouldn’t be a big deal--but
as something I was accessing constantly over my 50 hours of playtime, I grew to detest
it.
It frequently interrupts and slows down the action as you just try and find just the right
weapon to equip[ or food to eat--often times in quick-succession thanks to the breakable
items, which only compounds the problem.
Now thankfully, the game does have a Quick-Access option, where each direction on the D-Pad
allows you to swap a different piece of equipment without having to access the inventory screen.
Buuut this has issues all of its own.
For one, the game lays out everything in a row, meaning you have to scroll past past
every item of the selected type to get to the one you want--and that’s a problem that’s
only exasperated as you add more inventory slots throughout the game.
And then there’s the fact that, for whatever reason, the quick-access barely takes up a
third of the screen’s width, meaning you can’t even see most of it without scrolling
through the whole thing.
Why can’t it take up the full width of the display?
Or better yet, why doesn’t it lay them out in a radial fashion like Skyward Sword, allowing
for more items to be displayed, while also solving the problem of having to scroll past
everything, as you could just use the right-stick to point to the item you wanted instead.
And finally, because there are more inventory sections than there are directions on the
D-Pad, you’ll need to remember to hold the Right-Trigger in order to change the shortcuts
for Weapons & Armor to Bows & Arrows--which is really easy to forget in the heat of battle,
especially if your Bow just broke.
Its needlessly cumbersome.
Look, I realize it may sound like I’m just nitpicking, but the inventory is something
you’ll be accessing probably thousands of times.
And the fact that it made it into the game in this rough of shape is shocking to me,
especially given how polished most of the game is.
But on a better note, Zelda: Breath of the Wild can be absolutely breathtaking--in both
big and small ways.
Looking out from most any hilltop toward central Hyrule is just...wow.
I definitely uttered “holy shi...eka” more than a few times.
The fact that you can see nearly the entire world from any mountain peak is bonkers.
And then there’s the smaller details, like how the sun reflects off the parting grass
as you make your way through, the rolling clouds overhead, the fact that you can watch
mountain shadows envelop the landscape with the setting sun, or even how moonlight lights
up a river.
It’s often jaw-droppingly gorgeous...
From a distance, because it’s when you get up close that the game’s visual shortcomings
become apparent.
Mountain textures, for instance, clearly weren’t optimized to be seen from arm’s length,
looking rather flat and featureless.
Indoor environments are also generally plain and lackluster-although to be fair, you can
enter and exit any building seamlessly, without any loading screens.
Also, while the game generally runs at a mostly smooth framerate with occasional hiccups,
there were several instances where it would start to chug--and sometimes even grind to
a complete halt for a few seconds, making me think the game froze a few times . Thankfully
those really were the exception and the framerate otherwise wasn’t much of a problem, but
those issues do rear their ugly head every now and then.
Alright, so let’s talk story...and don’t worry, I’m going to be very careful here
so as to avoid any spoilers.
So Breath of the Wild is kind of weird, in that while there’s a lot of optional exposition--there
isn’t exactly a ton of depth to it.
The core story is actually incredibly simple, and any number of NPCs will tell you the same
familiar details over and over again, just using different words.
And with how many people there are to talk to in general, there’s a lot of text to
get through--and granted, you’re free to ignore most of it if you want.
But I’m the type of gamer that needs to talk to everyone...even if I’m not all that
interested in what they have to say--and as a result, I found much of the dialogue a bit
tiring to get through at times.
Now despite the ruined state of the world, the game lacks an overall sense of urgency.
Sure, you know Calamity Ganon’s trying to come back--but beyond the opening cutscene,
you barely hear from him again.Of course, NPCs will occasionally mention the menace,
but when they seem to be going about their daily lives just fine otherwise, it’s hard
to take the supposed imminent threat that seriously.
And while we’re talking about the story, the game conveys major moments through fully
voiced cutscenes for the first time in the series.
And while it’s passable for the most part-- the voicework is definitly a bit uneven--bouncing
between pretty decent, to occasionally lifeless.
To be fair, this may be a function of the script, as some of the characters are pretty
bland.
It’s perhaps not a surprise that the best voicework comes from the characters that exhibit
an actual personality--for all of the 3 cutscenes or so that they’re in.
Finally, there’s the matter of difficulty.
This game is tough--as in, Zelda 1 tough.
You’re going to die a lot--but rarely unfairly so.
The world feels brutal--as it should--and makes the reward of finding Shrines and expanding
your health or stamina meaningful, as they will have a significant impact on your ability
to withstand this world.
Plus, the game auto-saves frequently enough that you’re rarely set too far back.
Ultimately Zelda: Breath of the Wild is an adventure about discovery--one in which you
blaze your own trail and decide for yourself what’s important to accomplish--and how
you go about doing so.
And it’s that sense of discovery and freedom that makes Breath of the Wild such a breath
of fresh air.
It’s simply fun to just explore and see what surprises await you in the world-- Breath
of the Wild was surprising me constantly--although, because of the game’s open-ended nature,
those surprises are sometimes more fleeting experiences as compare to entire segments
that I remember fondly from past Zelda games.
So overall, I liked Breath of the Wild a lot.
It’s a liberating experience by recent Zelda standards--and one that guarantees everyone’s
voyage will be unique and truly their own.
It’s an adventure that is frequently brilliant, and puts exploration & freedom back at the
forefront, giving you true agency over your own adventure.
While it may not be perfect, such as with the lacking story, uneven voicework, and everything
about that stupid inventory, it otherwise provides an extremely promising foundation
for Nintendo to build and improve on and i can’t wait to see where the series takes
it next.
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Zelda: Breath of the Wild and other things gaming too.