The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Review

Seven Weeks, 350 Hours and I've not even found half of the Koroks in this game.

From this sentence alone you can grasp the immense scope of this new Hyrule, but bigger isn't always better. Has the new start for the Zelda series took off or are its wings burning off rather quickly?

Before we can answer this question there is a lot to do. 900 Korok seeds, 120 schrines, 76 side quests, four divine beasts and Ganon wait to be discovered, conquered or banished.

When Eiji Aonuma announced that a new Zelda Game was in the making for the Wii-U in 2013 we couldn't know that it would take us four more years (and another console) until we finally would be able to experience this new Hyrule. But one thing was always mentioned over the course of this four years. The Goal of this new Zelda would be to break with some of the conventions of the Zelda series. Little did we know just how different this game would feel to it's predecessor Skyward Sword.

After Ocarina of Time was the blueprint of 3D Zelda Games for the last twenty years, Breath of the Wild takes a step back to the Open World roots of the series on the NES.

The complete Review is spoiler free of course. 

Story:

A mysterious voice calls out for Link, waking him up from his slumber in a strange, futuristic looking cave. After exploring the small room he stumbles upon a blue glowing terminal, which hands him a device known as the Shiekah-Slate. This opens the way out of the cave. And with this he steps out into the huge, endless seeming world of Hyrule.

As you can see from this introduction Breath of the Wild really follows through on the promise of an open Zelda experience. The Story is definitely one of the lighter parts of the game. Which doesn't mean it's bad, just that it's not the main focus. After finishing the first area, the Great Plateau, and unlocking the full power of your Shiekah Slate, you're given only two objectives. Defeat Ganon and find Impa. And from there one it is completely up to you how and if you want to experience the Story Breath of the Wild has to offer.

You can try to fight Ganon directly or head towards Kakariko... or you simply wander into the wild and explore this huge and beautiful Hyrule. It is completely up to you and the Story reflects that. Now I won't spoil anything here, so you can read easy.

The Story itself is, like I said, rather light and pretty much the standard Zelda story. And while I prefer the personal touch of, for example, the Wind Wakers Story, I have to admit that Breath of the Wilds Story is perfectly suited for an Open World experience. And it has some of the best Character Work seen in the Series so far. Especially for Princess Zelda. Through different cutscenes you'll get to know the Princess rather well and learn to understand her struggles and where she comes from.

Like the rest of the Story, except for the final Ganon Battle, these cutscenes are completely optional, but if you manage to collect them all you'll get the true ending of the game. So calling them completely optional isn't totally right.

Also there is more than the Main Story that can be experienced. There are lots of side stories to be discovered. These are mostly simple on task missions, which tell a small story. Only a handful side quests tell a deeper tale. So in that regard they can't be compared to the often extensive Side Quests in other Games. In Zelda it's mostly: Hey I'd like to see these weapons could you bring them to me or some Monsters took our sheep, please rescue them.

But the stories are told in a charming and quirky way, so there is that.

Also this doesn't mean there are no longer side quests in the game. For example there is one, where Link has to solve the mystery of a theft in a small village, where everybody could be the culprit. And one Questline even sees you building a whole town.

But the light focus on storytelling also has one negative impact on the game. The villain. Zelda has always been home to some quite colorful bad guys. Girahim, Yuga or Zant, just to name a few. But with Breath of the Wild, and it's open design, you can't really build a Bad Guy in the same way. Heavily scripted encounters wouldn't work with the open design philosophy of the game.

This is the reason why Ganon has had a rather weak impact on me during my playthrough. He is build up by many characters as this calamity that has to be stopped, but in the end he is just that. A Calamity without character.

Lastly let me say that I really like Zeldas role in this game. Without going into much detail, she plays a vital role in Links journey. For the past couple of Games Zelda has become more and more involved in the story. She is no longer a Damsel in Distress, but her own character with her own journey. And while Link is primary there for fighting Ganon, without Zelda he would not be able to win. This also holds true for Breath of the Wild. Without Zelda you wouldn't have the opportunity to challenge Ganon. It's simple. Without Link Zelda can't succeed, but without Zelda Link can't succeed either. The Co-dependency makes neither of them a weak character, but relatable.

The Story of Breath of the Wild isn't the games strongest point, but it's serviceable and offers some great and unique characters. You may choose to ignore it, but if you decide to explore it you will find it very rewarding.

Gameplay:

When Aonuma said he wanted to rethink the conventions of the Zelda series and introduce a more open approach, I couldn't imagine how far he and his team would go. Breath of the Wild is a complete new start for the franchise, and now you don't need to have played a Game in the series before to enjoy this entry to the fullest.

The game literally throws you into the world, with only a basic objective to follow. But you're free to explore your surroundings from the get got. No more hand holding or drawn out tutorials. Well that is not entirely true, because you start out on the Forgotten Plateau, which acts as an introduction to the new world of Hyrule. And it does this job splendidly. Without the need of constant text boxes and hints. This area teaches you everything you need to know about the word. It contains all challenges and environments you'll encounter in Hyrule, albeit on a much smaller scale.

And if you need it the old Man is always present to serve as a guide and help you out. But it's not forced in any way. There are even things you can easily miss in this area, like him giving you the Winters Clothes on the peak of Mt. Hylia. From the get got Breath of the Wild respects the player and his ability to solve problems.

After learning the basics of survival and getting equipped with all necessary tools to save Hyrule the game finally lets you run free on it's massive world. But don't be fooled. The Forgotten Plateau is already quite extensive. I easily spend nearly ten hours there at the start and haven't found everything. Far from it.

Now with only two basic goals given to you you're free to head of to wherever you want. And when I say wherever I mean wherever. Breath of the Wilds world gives you an unprecedented freedom to explore and traverse your surroundings.

In older Zelda games it was common for the Overworld to open up piece by piece. In Twilight Princess you had to reclaim the different provinces of Hyrule from the Twilight Realm for example. In this game there is nothing holding you back.

In Ocarina of Time you needed the Hookshot to enter the Forest Temple. In Breath of the Wild you earn all your abilities on the great Plateau.

But these are not the only barriers that Nintendo removed. Do you know the feeling in other Open World Games when you see a point of interest and want to head there? Almost all of the time there is a clear path you're meant to take. Maybe you awkwardly try to jump up a mountain, but almost all of the time you're forced to take the developer intended path. This has the effect that even the biggest Open Worlds can feel rather small and confined.

Breath of the Wild solves this Problem with two easy solutions. Climbing and Gliding.
Link has the ability to climb almost everything (as long as he has enough stamina) and with one push of a button he pulls out his sail cloth, which allows him to freely glide through the air.
You see a huge mountain at the horizon? You don't need to follow a road. Just climb it.

See something interesting from a high vantage point? Just jump and glide there.

Breath of the Wild gives you and unprecedented amount of freedom and control over Links movement. How you traverse the varied lands of Hyrule is completely up to you. Never before did a Open World feel this open.

But this open World is also quite dangerous. Breath of the Wild is probably the hardest Zelda Game since the NES days. Ironically the most time I died was on the Great Plateau. But this only served to teach me about the brutality of this new Hyrule early on. Instead of rushing right in, I learned to prepare and adapt to my surroundings. After that I hardly ever died during my main adventure. Again the game does an excellent job at respecting the players abilities.

If you find an enemy camp, observe it closely. There is almost always a way to exploit your surroundings. Be it carelessly placed explosives or the crates, which can be used with your magnesis ability.

Which brings us directly to the enemies of the game. Overall the diversity is good, but not overwhelming. You will often end up facing a stronger version of a enemy type you've beaten countless times before. If you have seen one Bokoblin, you've seen them all. They only vary in colors and the damage they deal and tank. And while there are many iconic Zelda enemies in this game, some, like the Lynels even make their 3D debut, there are also some iconic ones missing. Sadly the Darknuts are nowhere to be found. I always enjoyed those epic battles against the dark knights in Wind Waker or Twilight Princess and with Breath of the Wilds great combat systems, I'm sure they would have been a blast here too.

Still the slightly lacking variety of enemies is diminished by the fact that they all have a very different style in Battle. Lizalfos normally try to keep some distance and only close in for an attack, while Moblins are big Berserker types, which swing wildly at you. Also the different kind of monsters often interact with each other in a hilarious way. Seeing a Moblin pick up a smaller Bokoblin and throw it at me, was a priceless experience.

Generally combat is a strong point of the game. Not loner are you confined to one Type of Weapon, namely the Sword, but are free to choose which style suits you best. Maybe you prefer the standard combination of Shield and One handed weapon, or maybe you prefer the devastating attacks of a Broadsword? Or maybe you enjoy the quickness and range of lances? Couple this wide array of weapons and fighting styles with well thought out dodge and block mechanics and you get a nearly perfect combat cocktail.

Simply said each and every fight in Breath of the Wild feels unique. I never ever felt bored by a Yiga ambush and even after more than 200 hours of play I still love jumping into an enemy camp from above to wreak havoc. Just like with everything else in this game, Breath of the Wild gives you complete freedom to approach combat situations as you see fit. Stealth or Rambo... both paths lead to victory. But only if you properly prepare first.

The combat, however, also houses one of the few points of critique in this masterpiece. Weapon durability. I'm sure you've heard everything about this by now, so I'll keep it short. The weapons of Hyrule are more brittle than glass. Its not uncommon for a sword to break after five to ten enemies. The idea behind this, as stated by the developers, was to create a world, where you constantly have to adapt. And in that regard the succeeded. Enemies often drop their own weapons. So there is a constant stream of new weapons and in fact I've never even gotten close to run out of weapons. But even though there is a constant supply of weapons the durability creates another problem. Right now half of my inventory is filled with weapons I feel hesitant to use, because I don't want to loose them. Why should I use my Royal Greatsword on a simply Lizalfos, if there could be a Lynel around the next corner?

The weapon durability creates the need to save your valuable weapons because you don't want to ''waste'' them.

There is no easy way to solve this problem. All I can say is that I never felt restricted by the weapon durability and I fully understand the intention of the developers. But if you're a weapon horder in other games, you'll probably hate the system in Breath of the Wild.

I talked about the importance of preparation a few times now. In that regard Breath of the Wild also allows a extent of customization that has not been known in a Zelda Game so far. In older titles there was hardly any crafting or combat preparation. This is also one of the things Breath of the Wild fundamentally changes. Not only do you have countless different armor sets with different bonuses, but also crafting has become a huge part of the game. Hyrule is full of ingridients you can collect. From Fruits to Fish to Mushrooms to Insects. There is something to collect on every corner. You can hunt different animals for their meat or just be contempt with collecting what the Nature provides you with.

Also all enemies drop different body parts. Guts, Horns or Tails. There is a lot to collect.

But that isn't all there is to gather in the fields of Hyrule. Chopping down Trees provides you fire wood, which can be used to build campfires to rest or warm yourself. And the Ore Veins scattered across the various mountains provide you with rare gems, which can be sold for a large amount of money.

So what can you do with these full bags you'll definitely have after one trip into the wild? The first and most important use of ingredients is cooking. Every Human settlement, be it a town or a stable, offers you a cooking pot, and often you'll also find some in the ruins of Houses. Once the fire burns these can be used to create food and medicine. Especially early on these are necessary if you want to survive the harsh environments of Hyrule. And once again the Game respects the player and doesn't hand you anything on a silver plate. There is no menu, where you can read up on recipes. Instead you'll learn them by experimenting and exploring the world. Characters you meet may tell you a recipe. Also in every stable and most buildings you can find pictures of recipes hanging on the walls. Also if you have a cooked meal you can look up which exact ingredients you used, if you want to recreate it.

So what does cooking do? In Breath of the Wild you won't find Hearts by simply cutting grass. The only way for Link to restore Health is sleeping in a bed, resting by a fire or eating. So during heated battles you should definitely take the time to eat some Curry Rice if you want to survive. There are many different buffs food can give you, determined by the ingredients. Using Chili will create a fiery dish, that keeps you warm in cold environment. Make a delicious Fruit Cake with Mighty Bananas and increase your attack power. Together with different Armor and Weapons these buffs allow you to customize Link to fit your own personal fighting style. Maybe you want to play a raging Berserker, who dishes out devastating blows, or you prefer a defensive Tank, who takes even the mightiest blows.

Medicine works in the same way. But instead of cooking delicious fruits, meat and spices you'll use Insects and Monster Parts. Medicine won't restore Hearts, but the effects are generally stronger and are active for longer periods of time.

Master cooking early on and surviving in Hyrule will be much easier for you.

Fighting monsters and gathering ingredients. Is there more to Breath of the Wilds World than that? Of course. Hidden across the entire World are 120 Shrines and 900 Korok Seeds as well as 76 Side Quests. The Side Quests, like stated earlier in the Story section, are pretty basic most of the time. Which of course doesn't mean they don't tell engaging Storylines from time to time. But they were definitely not to focus of the game and can't keep up with the great offering provided by other games like the Witcher.

The much bigger star are the Shiekah Shrines hidden across the land. These mostly replace the Dungeons of old Zelda titles. Most of them revolve around one puzzle concept and can be solved in five to fifteen minutes. And they are home to some of the most unique and imaginative Puzzles in the series. Also while there is often one clear solution, the open design of Breath of the Wild often allows for completely crazy solutions. There are some truly insane ways of solving some shrines.

The shrines also serve as means to progress your character. Solving one rewards you with a Spirit Orb. Four of these Orbs can be used to either increase your Stamina Gauge or get a new Heart container.

The Shrines can be found all over Hyrule and often you'll probably stumble across them by accident. However there are also 42 Hidden Shrine Quests. Those aren't like Side Quests, where you're told the objective quite clearly most of the time, but more like riddles. These often serve to make the world even more believable and alive. For example Link finds an old Diary in a destroyed hut on the peak of an icy mountain. Instead of having a Quest Marker telling you exactly where you have to go, you just have the notes from the diary, which abruptly stops. This makes you wonder what could have happened to the Author, and also it makes finding the Shrine even more rewarding, because you finished his work after so many years. It just feels great stumbling across this destroyed hut on this mountain peak, finding the diary and solving it's mystery. Something that Breath of the Wild manages to create is a very believable Open World.

120 Shrines may sound like a lot, but Nintendo cheated a little because not all of them contain puzzles. Some are simple Combat Trials, where you are pitted against a small guardian. These come in three different difficulties. Another cheap method to increase the Shrine number are the blessing Shrines. These often come at the end of a hidden Shrine Quest and simply contain one chest and a Spirit Orb.

Still searching for the Shrines never grows tedious. Something that can't be said for the Korok Seeds. 900 Koroks are hidden across Hyrule and wait for you to find them and solve their Puzzles. Of course it's not 900 different Puzzles. They often repeat themselves, but the variety is high enough. But still there is Korok around nearly every corner in Hyrule. So if you focus on finding them all there is hardly a time where you can just enjoy the breathtaking lands. Instead you'll be forced to search every nook and cranny. And the reward for finding all 900, without spoiling it, is simply not worth the hassle.

Still you should try to find at least a few because these seeds are used to increase the size of your Shield, Bow and Weapons pouch respectively. But to increase all of them to the maximum only needs 441 Seeds.

When Aounuma first announced Breath of the Wild he stated that the World is the true star of this game. And he was absolutely right with that statement. I've simply never explored a World that has felt that alive and believable in any game so far. Hyrule is a living and breathing world and you can see the love to detail the developers used to create it. It's many different factors that make this Open World. But the two central pillars are the absolute freedom to traverse the land and the great physics engine. Link can interact with anything in this world. Nothing feels like it's just scenery.

The whole game revolves around survival. To survive the bitter cold of the Hebra mountains you either need to put on some warm clothes or cook special food or medicine. Snow and Sand slows you down. During Rain Fire and Bomb Arrows won't work. Metal will attract lightning. The environment plays a huge role in how you approach the situation.

But that is not all what makes this world so alive. It's not just how you react, but also the other characters. People will seek shelter when it rains. They tell you to stop if you pull out your sword in a town.

To put it simply everything in Breath of the Wild has impact. If you shoot an arrow at a tree you can retrieve it. Link will leave footprints in the snow. You can cut down a tree and use it's trunk to cross a gap. Everything you do influences the World and the World itself influences your actions.

In regards to the world itself Breath of the Wild is simply the best and most complete Open World experience so far.

Presentation:

Breath of the Wild takes a similar approach to presentation as Skyward Sword did. The characters and world are clearly influenced by a cartoon look, but not to such a degree as in Wind Waker. Instead the presentation often reminded me of Animes, especially the works of Studio Ghibli. This means that if you're a fan of realistic looking Zelda tittles, you probably won't enjoy the presentation as much.

But if you don't mind such colorful graphics, I would say that Breath of the Wild is among the mot beautiful looking games currently available. The presentation is very colorful and time and time again Hyrule manages to create breathtaking views.

On the technical side of things the game runs with 720p and 30fps on the Wii-U and with 900p and 30fps on the Switch in docked mode. In Handheld mode this is scaled down to 720p and 30fps also. But, and this is unusual for a Nintendo game, from time to time there are recognizable fps drops. Especially during high intense actions scenes it can happen that the frame rate drops below 20fps. Nintendo has already applied several smaller patches, which helped with the problem, but didn't entirely fix it. And while overall these technical issues didn't bug me much, they should be noted. They can diminish your enjoyment of the game greatly if you deem such things important. Even though the don't happen around every corner, fps drops are a semi-regular occurrence.

On the music side of things Breath of the Wild also breaks with series tradition. For the first time Konji Kondo isn't the main composer. Luckily the music didn't suffer from this fact. But in this game takes a backseat, sort of. While you're exploring the Wilderness there is little to none background music. Everything is kept very light with natural noises being most of it. Only during select view events or confrontations the music starts to push into the foreground. But this general natural and light approach to music makes these events even more impactful.

Saying that Breath of the Wild doesn't have a memorable score would do the game injustice. Like everything else in this game it's a bold new step for the series, but overall Breath of the Wild has an amazing score. Just not the one you would expect at first. Still there are some absolutely epic pieces of music in this game. To me Hyrule Castle stand out the most, combining dread and the glimmer of past grandness with many memorable tunes from the series.

Conclusion:

The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild is a bold new step for the series. For the first time Link and the player are able to explore a truly open world. And Nintendo really knocked it out of the Park right from the get go. Simply speaking Breath of the Wild is THE Open World games on which all others will be measure from now on. Never before have I experienced such a degree of freedom. Never has a World felt more believable and alive.

Exploring the new Hyrule is one grand adventure. Climbing every surface and gliding from tall peaks gives you an unprecedented freedom of exploring your surroundings. And the world was designed with this in mind. There are countless high vantage points which you can glide off.

The World is filled with countless secrets to uncover, treasures to find and people to encounters. This sheer size can feel overwhelming at times, but Breath of the Wild does a splendid job in simply making traverse the terrain fun.

This new Hyrule is home to some fierce foes however, which make exploring the lands quite dangerous. And the game isn't afraid of letting you fail. Without proper preparation the Game Over screen will be a common sight. The enemies are fierce and often will take you down with one or two hits, but the combat system is never unfair. Everything is beatable from the get go. With Parries and dodges the combat has never felt more rewarding and fluent in any Zelda game. Even without a treasure chest at the end it's a lot of fun to attack an enemy camp, no matter if you take them out one by one with a stealth approach or storm in like a Berserker.

The Key word that comes to mind when describing Breath of the Wild is survival. Hyrule is a harsh and hostile land, but it offers you everything you need to survive. Medicine and food with helpful effects can be created. The countless weapons allow you to quickly adapt to any situation. Simply said Hyrule demands a lot from you, but it's incredibly rewarding.

Of course not everything is great. Beath of the Wild is no perfect game. No game is. Weapons often break after you have barely used them. The quickness in which you find new weapons helps with this problem, but it still feels bad to have your Savage Lynel Sword break after only one Hinox battle.

Also the Story is quite hit and miss. With the open World approach and the fact that you can go anywhere anytime (only hindered by your own abilities) it is a given that the Story has to take a back seat. And while the Story isn't bad this is a recognizable fact. Also the Side Quests often feel very mundane.

What Breath of the Wild nails however is the characters. While the overarching plot is on the lighter side of things the characters are great. Especially Zelda comes to mind. Her story is told splendidly and I greatly encourage you to get the true ending of the game to give it proper closure. And while most of the other characters remain a little bit pale they are still very likable.

However there is one exception to this. Ganon. The big bad himself is probably the weakest incarnation of the dark Lord we have ever seen. Storywise. Powerwise he is freaking powerful.

Conclusion (One Sentence):

Breath of the Wild drastically changes the Zelda formula to create an unprecedented world of survival and exploration, which will be the go-to comparison for every Open Word in the future and simply is one of the best games of the last decade.

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