Final Rating: 9.9/10
The Legend of Zelda is one of the most revered and celebrated names in the entire medium of video games. Since its first entry more than thirty years ago, the Zelda games have told and retold the story of the Princess Zelda, her champion Link and the evil warlord Ganon. The fact that this same story has been retold over and over and the games continue to be fresh and evoke a sense of newfound wonder is a testament to their magical craftsmanship. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (BotW) is just the latest entry in the franchise, serving as the Wii U’s last hurrah and the Nintendo Switch’s inaugural ball. While it has its minor flaws and some past entries do certain elements better than it does, Breath of the Wild is easily the best Zelda game made to date. From the beginning we are shown that BotW is a game that’s ready to take risks.
You are awoken by a voice, the voice of Princess Zelda, the first significant voice we’ve ever heard in a mainline Zelda title. You are called by your name, Link, the first time a Zelda game insisted that you bear the canonical name of the series’ hero. From this point and onward BotW does what series producer Eiji Aonuma promised it would, it fundamentally reimagines the tropes and conventions of the series. Simple things like being able to jump manually and climbing any surface breaks the formula that had solidified with Ocarina of Time nearly twenty years ago. Gone are the narrow set paths designed to funnel you through the game, instead you’re given everything you need to explore the vast sprawling world of Hyrule at the beginning of the game and told to explore to your heart’s content. In many ways Breath of the Wild is a return to the very first Legend of Zelda for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Like the first title, exploration is key and players are left in the middle of Hyrule with only a few basics and their wits. As graphical fidelity became more complex, creating open worlds of that size and maintaining stunning visuals became nearly impossible. With the Wii U and Switch, Nintendo finally has the technology to create a massive living game world worth exploring and drop the player in the middle of it all. Breath of the Wild unshackles the player from the once necessary limitations imposed on the series with entries like Ocarina of Time.
I’ve experienced many open worlds before, Cryodiil and Skyrim from The Elder Scrolls, Mira and the Bionis from Xenoblade and Liberty City from Grand Theft Auto but the vastness of BotW’s Hyrule feels like it dwarfs anything that has come before. Part of this is that Hyrule is as tall as it is wide. Gigantic mountains and canyons grace every province of Hyrule, and diverse environments such as forests, jungles, tundras and deserts look like they can go on forever. Trekking through a snowstorm with zero visibility feels almost as suffocating as it does in real life and gliding down Hyrule’s gargantuan peaks and looking down feels like gazing out of an airplane’s window mid flight. The world is so big and you’re so small that when you finally reach the borders of Hyrule you feel like you’ve travelled a million miles and wonder if this is how it would’ve felt to look into the abyss at the edges of a flat earth. The most remarkable part is that while Hyrule is so large it never feels empty even though it often looks like it is. Unlike other open world franchises such as Assassin’s Creed or Grand Theft Auto, discoverability and exploration are given tantamount importance. You’ll die often due to the game’s relative difficulty but the penalty for death is light enough to never discourage you from taking risks. The aforementioned titles would litter the world map with hundreds of icons telegraphing to the player what they can and can’t do and when and where, BotW does no such thing. While entire sections of the in game map are opened up via Ubisoft-Like tower points, only the topography of the land is revealed. The player is encouraged to explore the provinces of Hyrule and only then are places given names and icons are set. Even then, not all points of interests are marked and the game gives the player the choice to mark the map themselves. This not only means the player is forced to explore but that they organically stumble upon things while exploring, surprise and distraction are offered up regularly in Hyrule and one could easily spend hours doing tasks they never planned to do when they booted up the game.
This sense of discovery is present for one of the biggest departures from 3D Zelda titles, the puzzle shrines. Instead of eight or more large linear dungeons composing the bulk of gameplay, BotW scatters the world with over a hundred small puzzle rooms called shrines. Many are visible from the beginning of the game and many others require clever ways of getting in. The shrines are bite sized and Link has all the necessary tools to beat them early in the game. They also serve as fast travel waypoints when activated and the completion of every four allows Link to expand his max health and stamina, allowing him to face stronger enemies, climb higher mountains and swim longer distances. Their purpose and the way they’re scattered across Hyrule are most similar to oblivion gates in the Elder Scrolls IV except the oblivion gates were painfully boring, repetitive and arguably brought exploration to a halt. In contrast, the shrines are exciting, unique and a pleasure to discover. While Breath of the Wild does away with much of the dungeon structure, traditional dungeons do return. BotW’s “dungeons” are giant mechanical beasts possessed by Ganon and Link must solve the puzzles within them to free them from that possession. Like everything else in BotW, these dungeons are recommended but optional. There are four in total and while they are enjoyable in their own right, they pale in comparison to the best dungeons of prior Zeldas. In a similar vein, the bosses found in these dungeons are also lacking the creativity and memorability of previous titles. They are all slightly different manifestations of Ganon and they all fail to be interesting foes. This is possibly the biggest flaw of BotW, even Calamity Ganon itself lacks any true characterization. If this was your first Zelda you’d be excused if you came away “not getting” why Ganon is one of the most memorable and interesting characters in Nintendo’s long history. He does not develop past the opening five minutes of the game. If you’d like a game that does Ganon some justice you’re better off playing Wind Waker, Ocarina of Time or even Twilight Princess. Link himself is also a fairly blank slate relative to other Links such as the Hero of Wind from Wind Waker, though he’s not as bland as the Link from the NES and SNES titles. All is not lost with BotW’s cast however.
Surprisingly, Zelda herself is at her best. She’s a relatively developed character and her journey from frustrated young woman to a princess worthy of carrying the Triforce of Wisdom explores the themes of responsibility and duty. This is also the first time we really see Zelda struggle with her cosmic burden of constant rebirth and struggle with Ganon, a cycle that has that has lasted tens of thousands of years. In fact, the game begins with Zelda in a century long battle containing a raging Ganon to the grounds of Hyrule Castle. Link isn’t so much rescuing her but joining her in a battle he’s a hundred years late to. The four champions from the other races of Hyrule that assist Link are also memorably designed but other than that and a few stand out NPCs, BotW is not in the running for the series’ best story or characters. In fact, many players may not even experience what little story there is if they don’t actively seek it out since the game won’t force any of it on the player.
For a game of this size and scope, BotW is surprisingly free of bugs and glitches. However, In comparison to Nintendo’s other simpler titles it struggles often to maintain a consistent framerate but outperforms in comparison to similar open world titles by developers like Ubisoft, Bethesda or Bioware. If performance dips didn’t affect your enjoyment of titles like Fallout or Mass Effect they shouldn’t affect you here and they are a great deal more manageable. Many smaller critiques such as weapon degradation and limited stamina are are admittedly annoying but serve the broader purpose of player development and character building. Breaking weapons forces the player to experiment with combat, juggle and use different weapon types and keep combat fresh and exciting over the many hours you’ll spend in Hyrule. Unfortunately this constant item management would have benefited greatly from mapping the inventory to a second screen, a feature removed from both versions when BotW began development on Switch.
I could sit here and pick apart the Mona Lisa or the Sistine Chapel but small complaints don’t do much to dull the experience. After over seventy five hours Breath of the Wild still invites me to do a lot more. I’ve only completed a third of the shrines and have yet to complete the vast majority of side quests. There’s even massive mission threads I’ve yet to stumble upon and the amazing thing about all of it is that it feels worth doing. I’m currently playing Mass Effect Andromada, a game I’ve spent more than four years waiting for but all I can think about is going back to Hyrule. This game has a gravitational pull that is difficult to resist and because of that alone I give it my highest recommendation. It balances every facet of itself with grace; It is challenging without being frustrating, massive yet still dense, liberal with convention yet honouring what came before. When looking at it as a whole It is without question the best Zelda game crafted to date and it is in the running for one of the best titles developed or published by Nintendo, a feat that’s not exactly easy. Decades from now Breath of the Wild will be looked back upon with reverence in the same way predecessors such as Ocarina of Time and A Link to the Past are looked back upon, It is an essential experience for anyone who has a passion for video games.
