The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild Review

Well it’s been out for a few days, and you’ve heard everyone tell you to run out, and buy it. Not only the game, but a new Nintendo Switch to play it on. As well as a pro controller, extra joy cons, and maybe a case or screen protector. “It’s a killer app! Totally worth spending over $400 on!”. But with no other major titles coming until the summer, you might feel like I do. Is it really worth spending all of that now?

PROS: Nearly everything about it.

CONS: Pointing out the few things wrong with it almost seems like nitpicking.

WOW: This will impress Zelda, WRPG, JRPG fans, and those who like none of those things.

Well to some, it will absolutely be worth spending the extra money on a new console to play this game. To others it won’t be. But if you happen to own a Wii U, and collect games for it, you will want to buy the latest Legend Of Zelda title. Just like the Twilight Princess, this entry comes on both the platform that is retiring, and the platform taking the other’s place. If you’re waiting on the new system, and have the old one play it on the old one. If you simply have to have a valid excuse to buy a new console no matter the circumstance then play it on the new system.

I could end things there, telling you to just buy the game. But I’d be remiss if I didn’t tell you just why, all of this hype, praise, and fervor is warranted. The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild does something previous Zelda games, including the best ones, haven’t been able to do. This game does something for every type of player. Previous games might have been too RPG for an action fan. Or not RPG enough for an RPG die-hard. There wasn’t anything cerebral enough for the Simulation fan, or maybe competitive enough for someone who rarely touches a single-player game.

Other people like me, are generally casual Zelda fans. We’ve played a couple of the hallmark games, like the original NES game, or A Link To The Past on the Super NES. But haven’t gotten into the 30 plus years of the lore. So this game does a wonderful job of giving lapsed fans, and newcomers a window into just why so many devoted Zelda fans love the series so much.

Things start closely to the way they did in the original Legend Of Zelda. As Link, you are taken out of a deep magical slumber. Though it eerily resembles the cryogenic machines you see in many a science fiction story. There’s a voice that tells you, you are needed once again. You exit a cave, and see a vast, vast land upon you. When I say vast, I really do mean vast. The world of Hyrule in this iteration is one of the biggest open worlds ever presented in a video game. If you thought any of the Grand Theft Auto, Saints Row, or Elder Scrolls games had large worlds you haven’t seen anything.

But more importantly, and equally impressive, is that there is almost always something to do in Hyrule. You can spend tens to hundreds of hours completely ignoring missions. Just spending it wandering around without it getting old. Sure, one can cite driving over people in Saints Row 2 for a couple of hours. But eventually, you get tired of it, and shut the game off. Here, you’ll stumble upon enemy camps. Or you’ll find something out-of-place, investigate it, and get an item from the creature who moved things around. You can go mining for raw materials to have things crafted. You can go fishing, or hunting animals for meat. You can collect wild fruit, and vegetables. You can use all of the stuff you’ve harvested to cook meals.

Cooking meals is not only something fun to screw around with, it’s an important part of the game. Meals can often net you benefits akin to power ups. Some meals will give you warmth to survive sub-zero temperatures. Others will make you run faster. Some can give you increased attack power, or cause you to take less damage. On top of that, the game implores you to experiment. Try adding unconventional ingredients to meals just to see what happens! Often times you’ll get meals that would make someone projectile vomit, but sometimes it results in something that would even make Gordon Ramsay pleasantly surprised.

Of course, this is still a Zelda game, so you’ll be doing a lot of the stuff you’d expect from an action RPG, or an adventure game. You’ll find towns, talk to people, and be granted with all kinds of side quests, and errands. Doing these often nets you with rewards that make the main quests you’re given, a bit easier. Which is something for newcomers to keep in mind. You can go anywhere in Hyrule. Not figuratively, literally. You can get to any vista you set your eyes upon. The thing is, some of these areas will be quite hostile, and lethal when you get there. Especially if you’re unprepared.

But that’s also what makes this version of Zelda so fun, the fact that the game doesn’t hold your hand. A main character may tell you where you need to go. But they’re not going to tell you what route to take, or when to go. Only that you need to. In the interim there are many other things you can choose to do. You can try to find the many shrines in the land for instance. These are dungeons that will force you to solve puzzles or defeat enemies with functions on your Sheikah Slate. (Minor spoiler: You get a magic tablet in the game at some point.)

The storyline is a bit of a departure from previous games. In most of the previous Zelda games, you had to save Zelda from Ganon, and that was the main goal. In this one, you find yourself in a Hyrule Ganon has pretty much held hostage for a century. Zelda isn’t a captive this time, she’s an active combatant. I won’t say much more than that as the game is still new enough that I’m trying not to reveal too much. But there are a ton of characters you’ll meet, and interact with. These conversations, and experiences tell some of the story, but that’s just it, it’s some of the story. A big chunk of this game, again, feels like a Western Role-Playing game, where your game play experience is a bulk of the story. You’re deciding where Link goes, what he’ll level up first, and what weapons he’ll use to fight.

There are all kinds of weapons in this game too. Even things you wouldn’t think of as weapons, can be used as weapons. You start the adventure with no weapons of any kind. Alone, you have to go into the wilderness, and discover things on your own. Run into a monster unarmed? Better find something, anything to defend yourself with. You can use sticks. Limbs of a defeated skeleton. Farm equipment you stole from a village. There are bows, swords, and spears to be found. If you’re resourceful enough you can find your way out of a situation. Every weapon in the game, intended or improvised, can break too. So you really have to make sure you have something in reserve for a backup.

But you can also play very stealthily, and avoid a lot of combat by trying to sneak your way into shrines, landmarks, or other objectives. This is actually the preferred method when all of your weapons are broken, you’re low on supplies, and the nearest town is a fortnight away. You can climb any surface, save for during the rain, where things become slick. (Because there has to be *some* realism). Though you also have to keep an eye on your stamina. Get too tired, you’ll fall off of that cliff to your doom. Or drown in the pond. Or pant after sprinting, and get shot by a goblin archer. Or gored by a wild bull.

Which brings me to another point. The difficulty. The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild is tough. If you’re ill prepared at any time, there’s a good chance you’re going to die. As stated a moment ago, there are a zillion ways to die in Hyrule. On top of the environment killing you, or the wildlife, the enemies are especially brutal. Particularly once you get beyond the initial area. Even when you think you’ve got one of the villains on their last leg, they’ll one shot you, and it’s a Game Over. Bosses in the game are also hidden. You never know when you’ll stumble onto one, and when you do you’ll panic.

The thing is, the sense of wonder, and discovery balances out the trepidation, and frustration really well. It isn’t hard “Just to be hard”. It’s to more or less affirm that in Hyrule, much like life, you have to get out there, and take chances. You have to go fight zombies at night. You have to risk falling to your death to get that treasure. You have to sneak up on that wild horse, and make him your pet. That’s right, this game also has mounts. You’ll want to use them to get you across long distances. Sure, you can fast travel between shrines, but that doesn’t always get you headed in the right direction. You can also fight while on horseback, which is yet another really cool feature. There are stables where you can keep your horses, and there are shops where you can get new clothes, weapons, food items, and other stuff too.

All of this in addition to the campaign’s many missions. It all culminates to make one of the best single-player experiences in a long time. It also supports any Zelda themed Amiibo toys you may have. The Breath Of The Wild figures, aren’t the only ones. If you’ve got the Super Smash Bros. themed Zelda characters those work too. The in-game content varies, some of them clothing items, but most of them random loot drops.

Visually, the game is pretty stunning. I own the Wii U version, though I’ve seen the Switch version first hand. They’re largely similar, so whatever Nintendo machine you decide to buy the game for, it isn’t too different. That being said, I have noticed the Wii U version has lower texture quality (Think a PC game’s *medium* setting as opposed to *high*). But the physics of the wind blowing grass in the fields, or the little touches like insects flying off of flowers, or tiny birds fluttering about, are all here. Unfortunately the one major issue affecting the game is performance drop off. It isn’t uncommon for open world games to have performance issues, as they’re some of the more demanding games for video cards, and chipsets to render. In the case of Zelda, some of the drops are really rough in some areas. The initial area seems to be the worst since it is so densely populated with objects, and NPCs. Factor in the special effects, and the frame rate begins to take a big hit.

 

Now the good thing is, these still aren’t bad enough to make things unplayable. It’s still responsive enough to do what you need to do. But it will be noticeable, both from a visual standpoint, as well as feeling. Movement becomes sluggish, and frame drops will sometimes make it look choppy. The other saving grace is these usually only last a few seconds, and in the scope of the game world, they’re pretty small areas. Still, for some players it is going to be really annoying.

The other issue is that at least on the Wii U, you’ll see a significant amount of pop in a few areas, as it looks like the draw distance was adjusted to increase performance. It’s a pretty minor nitpick in the grand scheme of things. Still, seeing wild sheep randomly appearing as your parachute passes over a farm, or seeing details of rocks load in when you get closer to a mountain, are noticeable things. Nothing that ruins the enjoyment, but it is a technical issue that open world games often have, and Zelda is no exception.

 

Be that as it may, the game still looks beautiful, taking the pseudo cel shaded look of Skyward Sword, and merging it with some of the realistic look found in Twilight Princess. The result is pretty great, giving a nice mesh of fantasy, and realism. It can be very vibrant, rich, and colorful when it needs to be. It can also be very grim, frightening, and full on terrifying when it needs to be. This gives an already great game, an amazing sense of atmosphere. The dynamic soundtrack does this as well. In many ways it reminded me of playing one of the Metroid Prime games. A song that fits any situation. When things are bleak, the music reflects that. When things are hopeful it reflects that too. Even when things are calm, it manages to come off with something light, and nurturing. Unless you start thinking things are too quiet. In which case the game probably thinks that too, so the soundtrack begins to change.

I could probably fit another 8,000 or so words into this review talking about the excellent weather effects, how you’ll freeze to death in the snow without the right clothes. Or how great the animations are for any situation. Or the effective use of day, and night cycles. Or the neat little effects like fire burning grass when you swing a lit torch at a bad guy in the fields. Or about how you need to solve the shrine dungeons to get enough McGuffins to go to another place to extend your life meter (Okay, another spoiler there.). I could talk about the importance of towers, and constant saving (Again, you will be screaming “NOOOOOOOOOO!!!” a lot.). But I don’t want to give everything away, nor do I want to prattle on too long. The point is, that yes, The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild is worth getting, even if you’re not a rabid Zelda fan. The technical hitches keep me from calling it sheer perfection. But if you haven’t owned a Nintendo console since the Gamecube, it makes for a very strong launch title for the Switch. Likewise, if you own Nintendo’s current system, and want to wait until there are more games for the Switch before buying one, this is a terrific sendoff for the Wii U. It’s a huge game with hundreds of hours of content. Not busy work. Not banal tasks. Real stuff. Plus, by the time you do see everything the digital expansion pack they’re working on will be out, which could possibly make a great game even better. Early adopters get some in-game cosmetics, but I recommend waiting, until it arrives. There’s already a ton to do in the initial game.

The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild is excellent, and an early contender for many GOTY lists. Whether you experience it in the flashy new sports coupe or the old jalopy you’re going to be going on one hell of a ride. I’ve still got a long way to go journeying through it. But at 40 hours in, I think it’s safe to say this is one ride worth taking.

Final Score: 9 out of 10