The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Review
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Developer: Nintendo EPD
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Publishers: Nintendo
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Genres: Action, Adventure, Open-World
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Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Wii-U
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Release date:
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March 3rd, 2017
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Playtime: Over 95 hours (base game)
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Reviewed on Nintendo Switch
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is the latest entry on the long-running The Legend of Zelda series and, actually, the first entry I played. This time, the game is open world, giving the players complete freedom to play the game at their own pace without compromises to the story or player's enjoyment itself.
What is this freedom I speak off, you ask? Well, the game starts with Link waking up from a hundred years slumber after being defeated by Calamity Ganon and Hyrule being taken over by him and his minions. You exit the shrine Link was in and you're faced with a beautiful overview of Hyrule. Then, you walk down the mountain and find an old man that tasks you with completing the four Shrines located in the surrounding area to recover your lost powers (these will be the runes that you'll have at your disposal throughout the entire game). After recovering them, you speak to the man once again and you'll obtain two things: the glider and the only objective you'll have in the whole game: defeat Ganon. That's it, beyond the obligatory "tutorial" you just completed to recover the runes and the objective of defeating Ganon, the game forces nothing more on you. Yes, this means now you can head straight to Ganon, but only a fool would do that, most likely you won't even make it to his castle. Now that you know this, you'll explore Hyrule to become capable of defeating your enemy: increase your health and stamina, obtain stronger equipment and while exploring this world full of things to be discovered and pick your interest.
Throughout your adventure, you'll meet up with the different races that live in Hyrule, complete side-quests, most likely meet Impa, who asks you to liberate the four Divine Beasts (again, this will help a lot in the fight against Ganon, even if completely optional) but, most of all, you'll get sidetracked. No matter where you look at in this game, there will always be something that catches your interest. At the beginning, you'll spot Towers in the distance, which unlock portions of the map (just the map’s topography, no markers as in other open world games) and serve as fast travel points. Then, you also start going after shrines, orange glowing buildings you see in the distance through your binocul..., ahem, sheika slate and mark them so you know where you want to go. The thing is, 99% of the time when you're going to that point you marked you'll find a whole lot of other things to explore as you make your way to your objective. Maybe you notice a Korok is nearby so you want to find him, or you see a funny looking building in the distance, or sometimes you just fall down while climbing a mountain and end up near a new point of interest. Oh yeah and don't forget that you can climb literally everything in the game, you'll never have to worry about going around an obstacle just because it's in the way of you and your objective: if it's in the way you can just climb over it.
During your explorations, you'll certainly come across enemies. These are much deadlier than you'd expect, at least in the beginning hours of the game. While you have complete freedom in how you engage enemies, once it turns into direct combat things get a bit harder. Enemies deal an awful lot of damage to you, and since your health is on the short side you can expect to die a few times to say the least. Even hours into the game, when fighting stronger enemies, specially those damned Lynels, if you make light of them you'll end up dead in no time. The combat is also complemented by a pretty good enemy AI, but also by the weapon durability system. One second you can be using a high-attack weapon but on the next second it breaks and you need to resort to a low-attack weapon. Yes, one thing I do have to address is the weapon durability system. Even if stronger gear lasts longer, it still doesn't last long, which encourages players to actually not use their favorite weapons/shields/bows for fear of losing them. In short, while in the beginning of the game this encourages players to experiment with gear, it becomes a nightmare to manage which gear is fodder and what you want to keep or hold on to until you find "an enemy worth of using it against".
I've already tackled more or less the visual aspect of the game, but I want to reiterate: this game is gorgeous, and one of the most beautiful games I've seen in recent times. Just the fact that you can distinguish a great amount of elements in the horizon, such as Towers and Shrines, but also the different areas of the world with a decent degree of accuracy, is already amazing and quite rare, but to top it all off, the character designs and the attention to detail to create this world makes this a truly special game to explore and get lost in. Of course, there’s also the sound design that deepens the sense of immersion, from the sound effects of battle and movement in general to the soundtrack itself to create an amusing, enchanting and enthralling experience.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is an unapparelled experience. By giving the player a near-infinites supply of interest points, Nintendo made sure that the "lack of objectives and story" didn't make the player feel overwhelmed by having a huge world in front of them without anyone directions to follow. In fact, it had the exact opposite effect. The only downside to the experience is the dumb durability system that breaks the sense of freedom, locking players to a safer playstyle during combat. All in all, this game truly is a masterpiece and one that will definitely keep Nintendo selling Nintendo Switches for a long time.