My thoughts on Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Attention: The following blog is not a review, but has been critically acclaimed by those who have. As I know how these things can sometimes go when you look at a game such as this, please remember I’m only speaking my opinion. Please understand, but with that let's get onto the review.

I feel like there is something important I have to mention before this, as it is one of the problems I have with reviewers at times. I am a big Zelda fan, and the reason I say this is because when looking at review company you have no idea if the one who wrote the review is a fan or not. It’s one of the reasons I trust gamexplain and Game Informer (85% of the time anyways) more than I do other reviewers (the completionist is technically a reviewer, but not in the traditional way). I won’t do a review for a series I don’t feel fond of or don’t have any prior experience with, which is why when I get Sonic Forces don’t expect a My Thoughts blog on that game.

Of course, the important thing here is that I am a Zelda fan, and a big one at that. I’ve played most of the gameboy titles minus Link’s Awakening, and have play most of the 3D games as well. The only ones I have yet to play are Zelda 2, the DS titles, 3DS titles, and Majora’s Mask. This isn’t because I’m not interested, I just haven’t had the systems to play them. So obviously when the announcement of Breath of the Wild occurred I was hyped… and the calmed myself down instantly because I knew it was a bad idea.

One thing I should mention about these reviews is that while I don’t have much of a structure, I do have two rules for the games I review. First of all, the have to have been out for more than a month, which gives me enough time to not only have reviewers do their thing and for hype to slow down. Second is that I have to have completed 50 to 100 percent of the story (with Destiny 2 being the an exception), as by the halfway point you should have a good idea of what the game’s story, mechanics, and gameplay is like. This is all done so I don’t let a games hype get to me, and so that I have played enough to understand my feelings on the game completely.

So what is my thoughts than about Breath of the Wild? Lets find out with what is going to be probably my longest blog post yet.

Allow me to start off with something important: when a game is hyped as much as this you can easily be blinded by what you see. While I do think Breath of the Wild is a great game, and to me brings some changes needed to the series, many of the reviews glanced over some issues. I’ve played some open world games like the Elder Scrolls Oblivion and Skyrim, as well as Fallout 4, and seeing the successes in these games and why they were good opened my eyes. Is Breath of the Wild good? Yes. Does it’s open world, battle system, and atmosphere reach the same heights as other open-world greats? No, and that’s where being hype-blinded comes into play.

Let's start out with the good things, and the biggest one is that it made changes that were necessary to keep the series going. While some series like Mario and Call of Duty can get away with repetitive gameplay elements because of series staples and simply gameplay, Zelda is a little different. It’s an action-adventure game, and in the time since Ocarina action-adventure games have gotten less linear and open ended. Skyward Sword, as much as I like that game, didn’t compare to other games in the genre upon its release as most regions were still rather small. Other gameplay things have also become common in that genre too such as stealth, parkour, and the ability to play in multiple styles. Even when it is more linear such as in The Last of Us, it allows people to customize their play styles. While Zelda is still fine how it was in Twilight Princess and Ocarine of Time, it was only a matter of time before it had to update to that of modern adventure games.

This is where it succeeds the most, being able to blend the Zelda formula of dungeons, sword fighting, and puzzle solving with modern action adventure game mechanics like open worlds, some crafting, and many ways to defeat enemies or puzzles. Stealth is also a great addition, as this game will kick your butt if you don’t think out your attack. Weapons also have more types beyond swords, like clubs, axes, spears, and boomerangs (which for some reason don’t return to you). It adds all this while keep series staples in terms of characters, races, and clever puzzles.

The music in the game is also really good, and though you will usually only hear ambience as you cross the great expanse of what Hyrule has become it fits. The music that it does have fits well,  and the focus on piano makes me especially happy. It also looks incredible, with each region of Hyrule looking just as beautiful as the last (except for the goron region, though I’m sure I’m not the only one who didn’t like the goron section of the story). My favorite of these were definitely the Zoras, though I do have a bit of bias towards them.

However, this is the time where I think it is important to talk about some problems that were looked over, and I’m not talking about lag because that was fixed not long after launch. What I want to focus on specifically is something I feel about the overworld: it’s empty. Outside of the towns and divine beast, the only structures you really come across are stables and shrines, both of which you will probably only see or use once. Even the towers you will only visit once or twice, as the game really encourages you to not fast travel, which is another problem.

Allow me to explain by using Skyrim as an example. In Skyrim, fast travel points are all over the place and aren’t limited by being activated by a device. You can travel to any dungeon, town, or important location with very little effort, only having to visit the area to unlock it as a fast travel point. Even when you can’t fast travel to the exact location you will be able to find a fast travel location at least near the objective unless it’s the beginning of the game. While exploring the world is fun, having the ability to immediately get to a quest location or other event is useful.

The reason I bring this up is that while Breath of the Wild does have a stunning world, being limited to only shrines and towers can sometimes mean you have to travel a long way to your destination. Yes, these shrines and towers are many, but keep in mind that some of them involve solving puzzles outside of them to just activate the fast travel. Even than traveling on foot is slow, your mount doesn’t travel with you like they do in Skyrim and outside of the first two or three times I was with my horse I eventually forgot about him. Add this to running and climbing not only being slow but taking up stamina and it feels like getting to a new location like the desert more tedious than I think it should be.

Secondly, while I’m okay with the weapon break mechanic 75% of the time it can be a nightmare in some situations. I didn’t find myself running low on weapons too often… except for the times when I needed them badly. By the point I’m doing this review I’ve done both Ruta and Nabooru, and while I started the Goron section I haven’t finished it yet and haven’t enjoyed it all that much. These dungeons are definitely fun and innovative, which is something I give Nintendo props for, but the bosses chew threw swords, bows, and shields like they are nothing. It also didn’t help that some bosses like Thunderblight did more damage when you had metal items equipped, which was all I had by that point in the game.

Now this wouldn’t be as much of a problem if the inventory wasn’t so freakin small. While you will undoubtedly have thousands of cooking materials and miscellaneous items at any point, you can only carry up to six or seven melee weapons in the beginning, around the same number of bows, and only four or five shields. You can upgrade these by finding korok seeds, but they are so scattered (which you wouldn’t think is true when there is 900 of them) you need a guide to find even a small amount of them. Even than having to upgrade the inventory in this way seems more complicated than it should. Couldn’t you have just added crafting to make more pouches? Wouldn’t that make sense given how Zelda has treated bomb and arrow upgrades in the past?

So in the end, Breath of the Wild is one of those titles that, while good, has some issues that not I don’t think are brought up. Hype can go two ways when it comes to games, and while I do have these issues it still make some improvements that I like. Breath of the Wild feels like a Zelda game, which is important considering the amount of changes that were made when adding the open world concept. While I didn’t touch on everything that I like and dislike about this game, I think I got my point across.

Being hype-blinded can at times hurt you when their is a game you are so looking forward to, and while I did mostly contain myself with Breath of the Wild I didn’t hold it as well as I could. Thing is, I know that Nintendo is going to fix these issues in the future considering the amount of care they put into their game. Say what you will about how they handle fan content but video games wouldn’t have been around today without Mario, Link, Samus, and other Nintendo series and characters. Maybe my opinions will change upon finishing the game, and if that does happen expect an updated version of this to come out.