Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

It's just over a week since Breath of the Wild took the world by storm, and I have spent nearly every available moment grinding through it in order to bring you wonderful readers a comprehensive, and honest review of this monumental game. In general, it's reviewed exceptionally well amongst critics, and gamers alike. I have run into the stray gamer who hasn't enjoyed the experience as much, and to each their own for sure. I'm certain my thoughts and experiences will differ from others as there are a lot of different ways that this title can be played. It should go without saying that this article may contain spoilers. I'll try to stay vague on most things, but it's inevitable.

Ok, so where do we begin? I haven't actually gotten terribly far into the main story of the game so I'll mostly stick to non-story elements since I know those That said, I didn’t want to do this review without having beaten at least one of the actual dungeons, which I did, and that will definitely factor into this review.. As far as what I do know, you play as Link, obviously. You were put into a deep stasis like sleep 100 previous to the beginning of the game because Ganon had defeated you at the end of your previous adventure. This is important because there are, like, a gajillion time lines in the Legend of Zelda franchise (there are three), and this bit of information firmly roots this game in the Fallen Hero timeline. Zelda has spent the last century trying to keep Ganon’s influence confined to Hyrule castle, but she's weakening. This is all pretty standard fare for a modern Zelda game.

There are a couple of variations in certain areas however. The Sheikah, who were roaming assassins in the last game I can remember, Ocarina of Time, have been written to have had mad technology skills that they used to protect Hyrule. They died out, and now their tech is just hanging out dormant all over the place. Actually, that's the only variation of which I am aware so moving on. The bulk of Link’s quest in this game is to unlock special towers that fill in more map, and to complete puzzles in shrines that give you currency to put towards hearts and stamina increases. The shrines serve as the grinding mechanism of the game. They're the means by which players permanently buff Link. As a person who hates the grinding aspect of RPGs, I can honestly say that I don't mind this method. The shrines have puzzles that need to be completed, and that holds my attention pretty well. We'll see how I feel after completing the first hundred or so. Also, this is a pretty big departure in implementation on Nintendo’s part. In the past, Zelda games have primarily relied on milestone leveling, or giving the player good stuff when they do something big, like beat a dungeon. Now we're straying into XP grinding territory, but like I said, it's bearable even for the more casual gamer.

There are a few elements that are new to Zelda in this game, but for the more cultured gamer, they’re pretty familiar. First off, there’s a cooking mechanic. Instead of just giving hearts after Link kills an enemy, you get to run around the immense world map collecting materials to cook different meals. I gotta say, it’s pretty fun. You can have a certain number of ingredients,and depending on which ones you’re using, you can make food that will do different things like temporarily buff your stamina, or life, or give you resistance to cold. It’s pretty fun experimenting with the different ingredients to see what they do,and being able to access them when needed really helps in particularly difficult combat situations. The other element that’s new is one that I’m not quite as crazy about, and that’s the weapon and shield degradation. You’re constantly being given weapons to have, although you can only carry a certain amount, but you need to constantly be replenishing that pool because after a few hits, most weapons break, requiring you to equip a new one. I’m fine with the idea of finding progressively stronger weapons, but I’m not a huge fan of those weapons breaking after so much use. There are a few that are bearable to own because if they break, you can take them to key areas to be repaired. Of course, the only weapon in the game that doesn’t break is the Master Sword, but from what I hear, it can be pretty tough to get. I guess the boys at Nintendo wouldn’t want to make life too easy on us.

I mentioned that I wanted to play through a dungeon before reviewing the game, and there was a good reason for that. Dungeons have played key roles in every Zelda game since day one. They’ve served as benchmark encounters where the player pits their skill and items against a, usually brutal, dungeon crawl. They’ve often included puzzles to solve, and special items to retrieve. I’m pleased to say that the spirit of the dungeons remains intact. There are still monsters to be killed, puzzles to be solved, bosses to be beaten, and special items to be had. I was impressed with how well it walked the line between difficult, but not too difficult. Some might see this as a flaw, but going up against a dungeon that you flat out can’t complete is a drag. To make up for the dungeon not being excruciatingly hard, they made the boss battle pretty difficult. It took me more attempts than I’m willing to admit to in order to finally beat the first boss, and I had to leave and stock up on some better stuff in order to do so. It was just the right amount of challenging for me. After beating it, I got not one, but two special items. I got a spell, and a weapon. I was just like, “You been hard all this time. Why take it easy on me now Zelda?” But, they were welcomed additions to my repertoire, and I’m sure they’ll make life a little easier going forward.

Now let’s talk the world on the whole. It’s huge. Here’s a size comparison for your viewing pleasure:

That’s about 116 square miles for my Yankee friends. That HUGE!. It’s by no stretch the largest game map ever developed, bt for a Legend of Zelda game, it’s enormous. And there’s a lot to be done on that map. In true Zelda fashion, there are plenty of side quests to be done, lots of areas to explore, tons of enemies to be killed, and who knows how many secrets to be found. I’ve been at the game for around 15 hours, and I’ve not yet tired of all the things that can be done, and I’ve only opened about one third of the map! Getting around a map that large could end up being an exercise in tedium, but the developers wisely included a fast travel feature. You do have to find shrines and at least enter them in order to unlock that feature for that particular location, but once you do, you just highlight it on your map, and warp away. I feel like this adds a gradual nature to the was that you open up details on the world mad that allows for there to be mystery as you go, but it also alleviates the hours it would take to huff it on foot. Of course, there is always the option to ride a horse, and you can own up to five in this game. However, you have to catch them yourself. Lol.

Let’s talk tech specs now. I mentioned last week that the Switch is a pretty different type of console attempting to marry the home console, and the portable. This decision did hurt BotW somewhat in some circles, but not much overall. What I mean is, there are a lot of gamers looking for each console generation to push the boundaries of what the technology can do by way of graphics, and load times, and what have you. As of now, the most recent step has been into 4k gaming. The Switch can’t do that. In fact, it’s not a huge leap in terms of specs over the Wii-U. That said, because of this nerfing of power, BotW relies on the same sort of cel-shading process that Windwaker used in order to render all of the cool stuff that the developers wanted to include. It still looks amazing, but only in the artsy fartsy sense of the word. If you’re looking for higher definition, and better textures, lighting, etc… then you’re going to be disappointed. But for what it is, it’s very pretty. The controls are fairly intuitive, and they’re quick to respond. My only gripe is that the Nintendo controllers mirror their buttons to the Xbox controllers and so I’m constantly getting the buttons mixed up. My fault, not theirs. Also, you don’t have to climb everywhere. Just saying. Anyway, the menus are clean, and easy to understand. The environments are laid out well, and in a way that makes cross country travel challenging. I also took the liberty of trying the game out on the portable, and it runs surprisingly well. You don’t get much battery life so it’s pretty impractical if you’re at a point where you’re doing a lot of exploration, but it’s nice that it’s possibly to take on the go.  It’s pretty good for a hybrid game.

I’ve been singing praises pretty much this whole time, but let’s not delude ourselves, BotW is by no means perfect. We mentioned the graphics already, although graphics are not the end all be all of a game’s worth. I am kind of disappointed that there are only five dungeons. Don’t get me wrong, they’re great to play through, I only wish that there were a few more to be explored. This stems from wanting a bit more story in the game. Yes it’s there, but it’s very light. I feel like for as many times as I found secret journal entries and whatnot is Assassin’s Creed, that Nintendo could have done more of that to give us a bit more. It’s not lacking much, but enough to be noticeable. Stamina based actions can be atrocious. Swimming, climbing, running, and paragliding all use the stamina bar mechanic, and of the four, you can only really do one well for any period of time, and that’s paragliding. I feel like that really should not have been tied to stamina as you’re already fighting gravity, and it’s probably not going to break the game because of that. Running is the thing you do the next best, and at that, it’s more of a sprint. That one I get. Swimming is another minor disappointment. In previous games, you just swam. There was no reason to worry about how long you could do it, you just did it. I kind of see why the developers would feel the need to limit how long you can swim, I just kind of feel like something was taken away from me. Of course, climbing is the new hot thing. You can climb basically anything. However, the climb rate is maddeningly slow, and because it’s tied to stamina, you can’t do it indefinitely. Most of the time, you can’t do it long enough to actually get where you’re trying to go. Do yourself a favor and use it sparingly.

Okay, gripes over. What’s the final verdict? This is a fun game! It has it’s flaws, but not many in my opinion. It offers challenge, and variety, for now at least, It allows you to explore this iteration of Hyrule in a way that just wasn’t possible with any of the previous games. It’s a game that’s going to keep the completionist bust for a long time. It only innovated a little bit for the Zelda franchise, but I’m willing to overlook that as the open world aspect is plenty enough for this title. I can see further releases adopting this mode, and hopefully improving on the places where BotW did lack. But at this moment, I can genuinely say that this is a good game. It brings back elements from previous installments that I think some of the older Zelda fans will appreciate, but it’s definitely trying to push the boundaries of what to expect from a Zelda game. I’d recommend it for sure, and not to sound like a shill, but if you don’t already have a Wii U, I would recommend getting it for the Switch. It just runs better for that console. Final verdict: solid B+! Give it a try if you’re able. I guarantee that you’ll be hooked! Stay tuned for next week to see what kind of shenanigans I can conjure!