Okay, the Zelda franchise has always meant so much to me, when I played Ocarina of Time when I was young, I fell in love and it has still been my favorite game of all time. All the later mainline titles always felt like an event to me, and none have really failed to disappoint me heavily, yes not even Skyward Sword, take away the gimmicky motion controls and you have a solid Zelda game.
Breath of the Wild is like Zelda's new paint of coat, if we abandoned the more linear dungeon 3D Zeldas for this, I honestly wouldn't be too mad, except for the dungeons, but I'll elaborate on that further.
It fully expands the elements of Zelda that blend well with not only the game but the Switch, even if it was originally designed for the WiiU. It's almost as if it was tailor-made for the Nintendo Switch, seeing as so many of the elements and design choices are based on that pick-up and play style commonly associated with it.
I will have to agree with some of the skeptics saying that the framerate does stumble, but it doesn't affect the gameplay much, it's just an annoyance and doesn't "ruin the game" like the Nintendo haters say it does.
I think the art style works tremendously, I love cell-shaded art, it pops out and doesn't make the textures look too bland or look like ass dirt. It mixes all the elements that worked for the different eras of Zelda and makes it its own at the same time.
The shrines are definitely one of the weaker aspects of the game, honestly, some I adore, they use the mechanics, runes, and amazing physics engine and create a genuinely hard, but not rage-inducing puzzle that recreates some of the magic the Zelda dungeons had. But then you have some puzzles that are so uninspired, and also can we talk about the combat trials. I hate them. Not the combat trials themselves, of course, you have to have to mix it up somehow, but the sheer majority of them. Yes, they are some that are more difficult than others, but you can barely tell.
You do have the Divine Beasts, I really admire the thought of them being more open than your typical dungeon, but like, they're really not the replacer of the dungeon, and even then, they're just more glorified shrines and don't live up to its potential.
I obviously am not saying that you have to have dungeons, but they really fixed a lot of the problems the shrines had. Maybe you could use a type of imaginary difficulty scale, the shrines below could be your typical BOTW shrine, but as you go higher you get more of a dungeon-like shrine. It would also make sense due to higher places often being cold, or hot if it's on Death Mountain, or there could be a dragon around. So if you're on a train, and it's 20 minutes to your next stop, you go to one of the lower shrines and vice versa. Nintendo, please hire me.
Also, Hyrule Castle. I love Hyrule Castle in this game. And I personally think this, instead of the Divine Beast, is the closest BOTW has to the dungeon. The problem is, by the time you're there, you're probably stacked, and that makes this quite a hassle, but it has genuinely creative puzzles, it's severely underrated.
I do know a lot of people complain about the story, and that's completely valid, it really makes you invested in some of these characters. You're thoroughly invested in Zelda, or probably one of the champions, even if it's through pretty short memories. And I think it leads to why people want more. Or I'm making baseless claims and nobody actually cares about Daruk as much as I do. It's probably that, isn't it?
I mean the story is really nothing that special. But it is fascinating to hear what happened 100 years ago, and amnesia isn''t a plot convenience. Well, it is, but I hope you get what I mean. Because of that, you can get the same reactions as Link and get more immersed. I think the ending is a bit weak, but I'll get to that later.
Ok, now on to the Great Plateau. I think this will stand as one of the most iconic and memorable beginning "tutorials" in the vein of 1-1 from the original Super Mario Bros. That opening shot, when you realize, "Oh shit, it's this big?", it's iconic. And seeing as it's my, and probably many others' first experience with the Switch, it hits even harder.
It introduces all the mechanics that you'll definitely use throughout the game, but it doesn't throw everything at you either. And though it is much more restricted than other parts of the game, it still feels like you're free, outside of the obvious gray fog that barricades you from the rest of the map.
I think the combat works well, it's not necessarily complicated, but it does feel satisfying when you defeat an enemy. My one big flaw is that, once you figure out the timing of the dodge, which isn't hard at all, combat becomes too easy, because you get these insanely good flurry rushes, look, I'm not asking for "Dark Souls", but at least make it so that flurry rushes only has a tenth of a chance of activating, it's a bit too easy for my liking.
And then you have the one thing that people dislike about this game the most, the weapon durability. And yeah, it's flawed. But it really comes down to what person you are. I am a perfection/completion(ist) and so, if something that is limited breaks, I whine. And so I often find myself:
- Not wanting to break it because once it's gone, it's gone
- Not wanting to use it because it will, "become useful at another, better time"
And I think that's a problem. There's no real reward for breaking your items. Games often have a hard time conveying when to use something and they have a hard time justifying using items that will be gone, or break.
What I would suggest would be to make items that break drop materials, then at a stable, or maybe a newly implemented blacksmith, you could find an anvil or workstation where you could craft it. I don't think the items that drop are the items that craft it. Because if recrafting a weapon was that easy, there would be no real stakes for breaking a weapon. I think you would need to use up a ton of rupees, or double/triple the resources it dropped.
There's also cooking, which is so cute. It's like, ridiculously fun. Just mixing up food and meat, trying to find the best combinations, or mixing up monster parts, finding out which elixirs it creates, you can kind of predict what you're making, and you feel accomplished when you get what you expected.
I do think horse whistling is super annoying. Like, please just make it so they hear you no matter what. Like, sure it's realistic, but it's a Zelda game, who cares. Horse riding itself is solid because every Zelda games' horse riding is solid, but I find it super annoying that you can't ride them in the desert, I think it's generally ok, that they can't ride in the desert, but it's annoying because you have to find a plan to get him accross, which means you have to find some wacky to break the game's physics engine, you have to find a stable, or you have to pay money.
Flying around with the paraglider feels so good, especially if it's off a tower, I love that first time you use it, which for most people is in the Temple of Time, where you glide off the cliff that you've been restricted by.
I think general movement in this game is good too, be it, a little flawed. Sprinting, though can be annoying sometimes because you constantly run out of it in the start, gets better as you get more spirit orbs. Jumping finally properly introduces itself into 3D Zelda, though that was expected, I do wish it was a bit higher though. Swimming is so bad, why can't you actually control yourself, you just have to fight against a current with a single button and hope you don't run out of stamina.
Climbing can be really obnoxious, due to it being a bit slow. Sometimes you also have to take a gamble and say, "Can I do this?", and then be completely wrong. And then you have rain, oh my gosh, I hate rain. I get that it encourages creative solutions to platforming, but why does it come so often? When you're scaling a mountain and the rain comes. you're screwed unless you pussy out and save or bomb clutch. It's not a bad idea, it's just it doesn't seem like a legitimate feature, it feels like an intentional annoyance. I also love shield-surfing, it's incredibly fun and finding it out for the first time blew my mind. Sucks that it sucks up a lot of shield durability for shields that you probably often use.
And that brings me to the physics engine. I love the way BOTW implements the combination of the runes and the physics engine, it allows for some of the greatest shrines and puzzles in the game. It's so fun to play with Magnesis and knock enemies over with blocks.
But that also allows people to abuse it. I think it is cool that people can use these insane tricks with bombs or stasis, I love the community around it, but it also makes some aspects, like Revali's Gale useless. I don't know, I love the people who find these cool tricks, but learning them just makes me realize how kind of useless core mechanics of the game are.
You also have the Koroks. At the start they're cute, but holy shit, their laugh brings back so much PTSD. I feel so sorry for the guy who found them all without using an online map, even with the Korok Mask. I do like their usage when it comes to actual function, inventory management is irritating a lot of the times, especially with weapons.
Now the boss fights. I'll start with the mini-bosses. I love the Stone Talus, yes all of these have their gimmick that makes it pretty easy to defeat them, but my first experience and I'm guessing a lot of yours was on the hill. (Very vague, but I think people know what I'm talking about). This one is so fun though, bashing the crystal on top of him feels so good, I don't know why.
The Hinox are fine. I would find them less enjoyable. And then you have the Lynels, oh god. Honestly, like I complained about in the combat section. Once you get the timing right for the parry and dodge, it's not very hard at all. But fighting it for the first time to collect shock arrows is unforgettable. At that point, the difficulty goes up pretty high, and when you defeat it, it feels amazing
Then the blights, they're not bad. I wish the designs were more distinguishible and unique, the general aesthetic for the shrines and the divine beasts are good but they're used for everything. The bosses themselves aren't really hard, you'll die once or twice but it's not necessarily difficult. I've heard people say Thunderblight is hard, maybe I was a bit too overpowered since it was my last Divine Beast, but no, not really.
Ganon's fight started off great, but at the end was extremely disappointing. The start with the Divine Beasts is great, kind of that final punch for the people who actually freed them and got some sort of resolution (unless you played The Champion's Ballad before you completed the game, seriously new players do that first). Then you do some damage, he has a good variety of moves, and then. The disappointment.
You shoot arrows. There should have been like, some actual finale, the slow-mo final shot is cool, and it works, it makes you feel emotional, but that's not because of the boss fight, it's because of your experience with the game. Come on, give us a better ending. An actual hard fight, an actual pay-off, but no.
And then you have the DLC, which..it's worth it? Trial of the Sword turns a pretty easy game to a decently hard one. It combines all the elements of the game and makes for a decent challenge. Would I say it's worth it? Maybe not for the typical player. It does add stuff, but it doesn't really add more plot and character development, or cool weapons, it just builds off the game.
The Champion's Ballad, I would say is worth it. They put a lot more effort into the challenges than they did the actual game, like the shrines are damn solid. It's also cool that you fight the Divine Beasts again but with an assigned set of armor, but I wish there was more of a change. I think that the real shining jewel are the cutscenes though, especially the last one. It's so bittersweet. You also get the bike, I don't really care about it that much though. It's much better than the horse, but I very much prefer the horse. Riding it just feels kind of..wrong.
You also have super cool cosmetics. I love these, mainly because I'm a massive Zelda fan. Some of these items do make your character a bit too overpowered, but I love them.
The amiibo functionality is well, mixed. The thing that I hate the most is that it's random, just let me get the cool shit. The rewards are great though. Getting Epona was jawdropping and Wolf Link was a total shock.
As you can tell, I love this game, I really do. And because of that, I nitpick it a lot, like a lot. I definitely wouldn't say it's my favorite Zelda, Ocarina and Majora hold a much bigger place in my heart, but this was the game that made me buy a Switch day one. It's phenomenal what it also did the gaming as a whole. It inspired a ton of games in the style of it, like Immortals: Fenyx Rising, Genshin Impact, it's great to see the impact that it's made.
10/10.
