The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Expansion Pass
released on Mar 03, 2017
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Expansion Pass
released on Mar 03, 2017
The expansion pass is the only way to purchase the DLC packs for the game. The pass includes 2 DLC packs: The Master Trials and the Champion's Ballad. DLC Pack 1: The Master Trials. Master mode, a new game mode which makes all monsters stronger adds powerful new enemies. The Trial of the Sword is a new challenge where you start with no equipment, and has to fight through 45 rooms of enemies. Hero's Path allows you to see the path you've travelled. Travel medallion is a new item which allows you to register your location as a travel gate on the map. There are also several hidden items for you to find. The following items, which pay tribute to The Legend of Zelda series, can now be found scattered across Hyrule: Majora's Mask, Midna's Helmet, Tingle's Hood, Tingle's Shirt, Tingle's Tights, Phantom Helmet, Korok Mask, Phantom Armor and Phantom Greaves. DLC Pack 2: The Champion's Ballad. The Champion's Ballad. Following the guidance of an unseen voice, Link encounters a new test: the Divine Beast Tamer's Trial. Take hold of the One-Hit Obliterator to clear out monster encampments, discover new shrines, conquer a huge dungeon and more. Overcoming all these obstacles will earn you the power to call upon the Master Cycle Zero. Nine hidden items for you to find. The following items, which pay tribute to The Legend of Zelda series, can now be found scattered across Hyrule: Island Lobster Shirt, Ravio's Hood, Zant's Helmet, Phantom Ganon Skull, Phantom Ganon Armor and Phantom Ganon Greaves. You can also find the Royal Guard Cap, Royal Guard Uniform and Royal Guard Boots, which were once worn by Hyrule's royal guards. Ancient Horse Gear. The Ancient Bridle and the Ancient Saddle are hidden in treasure chests somewhere in Hyrule, waiting to be found.
Reviews View More
The expansions are... nice? I don't feel like they heavily enhanced my experience as a whole, even if it was nice to have something new this time around.
Master Mode is at first nice, especially on the plateau, and works as added challenge for the minibosses and Lynels, but became rather annoying otherwise. For one, I am unsure if it was a good idea to both increase every monsters level and on top of that give them regeneration. Two, I don't know how to feel about the regeneration. Like I said, in the plateau it is great. With the limited resources, everything becomes a threat that is however still manageable. Exit the plateau, and with that have a larger arsenal, infinite bombs, stronger variants and lizalfos who will constantly evade, and it turns from threatening into annoying. The further you progress, it turns from a harder mode to a more annoying mode. In the Master Sword trial, however, master mode makes it frustratingly difficult. Or rather, stage one is made frustratingly difficult. Because it does impressive things like putting 3 silver lizalfos against you in a 90% water arena when you have awful equipment. In the other stages, you never have an arena as awful as this again but also better equipment. So it... feels very unbalanced. I guess the Master Sword trial on its own would have been a nice and fine trial, but it's not like I can change difficulty mid-game.
Straying away from the poor Master Mode and the Master Sword trial which would have been nice were it not for master mode, there are new clothing pieces I really did not bother to collect and the Champions Ballad. Which is also a mixed bag. The beginning is nice, refreshing and challenging. Then you need to go back to all 4 main areas and do three tasks that are mostly repetetive. Oh, you also have 16 new shrines which are... fine? Nothing special? Then, you rematch every titan boss with limited equipment. Which was at first challenging because of master mode but then you figure out the trick and it becomes boring again.
The highlight is, for one, more time with Kass, as he appears multiple times (its a Ballad after all). And two, the end. Where you get a whole new dungeon and a completely unique boss. And as a reward, a fucking motorcycle. It is insane and makes no sense, but it is a nice thing to have in the endgame where you have nothing left to do.
Overall, this isn't really too good? Master Mode was not really worth it and the other two major additions are nice but nothing necessary, and the fact the Ballad just reuses bosses kind of nags at me too. But it did not worsen the game, either. And if it did, you can basically ignore all of it with the exception of those new Oktorok chests and the fucking Nintendo Switch t-shirt.
Master Mode is at first nice, especially on the plateau, and works as added challenge for the minibosses and Lynels, but became rather annoying otherwise. For one, I am unsure if it was a good idea to both increase every monsters level and on top of that give them regeneration. Two, I don't know how to feel about the regeneration. Like I said, in the plateau it is great. With the limited resources, everything becomes a threat that is however still manageable. Exit the plateau, and with that have a larger arsenal, infinite bombs, stronger variants and lizalfos who will constantly evade, and it turns from threatening into annoying. The further you progress, it turns from a harder mode to a more annoying mode. In the Master Sword trial, however, master mode makes it frustratingly difficult. Or rather, stage one is made frustratingly difficult. Because it does impressive things like putting 3 silver lizalfos against you in a 90% water arena when you have awful equipment. In the other stages, you never have an arena as awful as this again but also better equipment. So it... feels very unbalanced. I guess the Master Sword trial on its own would have been a nice and fine trial, but it's not like I can change difficulty mid-game.
Straying away from the poor Master Mode and the Master Sword trial which would have been nice were it not for master mode, there are new clothing pieces I really did not bother to collect and the Champions Ballad. Which is also a mixed bag. The beginning is nice, refreshing and challenging. Then you need to go back to all 4 main areas and do three tasks that are mostly repetetive. Oh, you also have 16 new shrines which are... fine? Nothing special? Then, you rematch every titan boss with limited equipment. Which was at first challenging because of master mode but then you figure out the trick and it becomes boring again.
The highlight is, for one, more time with Kass, as he appears multiple times (its a Ballad after all). And two, the end. Where you get a whole new dungeon and a completely unique boss. And as a reward, a fucking motorcycle. It is insane and makes no sense, but it is a nice thing to have in the endgame where you have nothing left to do.
Overall, this isn't really too good? Master Mode was not really worth it and the other two major additions are nice but nothing necessary, and the fact the Ballad just reuses bosses kind of nags at me too. But it did not worsen the game, either. And if it did, you can basically ignore all of it with the exception of those new Oktorok chests and the fucking Nintendo Switch t-shirt.
A week and a half within the two month blitz that I played through BotW. Glad I bought this while playing the game, and was able to find the chests and experience the story and trials throughout the game instead of afterwards. To go over each of them:
- Trial of the Sword was amazing, and gave a really challenging, interesting dungeon experience akin to Eventide, but massively more difficult. Really a different way to play the game, having to know which enemies were up in the next room and building up strategies. Definitely frustrating, and the middle chunk was probably the most difficult for me. Some of the bosses at the end in the final stages were much easier than the swarms of Lizalfos in other rooms. Super fun, and a showcase of what made BotW and its combat and basic mechanics so fun.
- Hero's Path, Travel Medallion, Ancient Horse Gear: all super useful to have, and I'm glad they included the former two as a base mechanic in TotK. Ancient Horse Gear was neat for the little while - until you got the Master Cycle.
- Korok Mask: A lifesaver. All the other outfits were cool, but this one made Korok hunting much more bearable. Was able to hunt down hundreds of those little poops with this on, would not have trekked everywhere to do so without it.
- Champions' Ballad: Already stated in my other review, but really brought the whole show together. Loved finding the extra shrines with their cool challenges, especially Mipha's sailing into the water. And hearing more of each champions' story and tragic end, as well as having to fight the bosses with their equipment, again shows off how good the core mechanics are of this game. Same with the One-shot weapon, and then leading into the Sheikah boss fight for the motorcycle (which also made traveling around and hunting Koroks way easier). The ending scene with Kass addressing Link directly will live on in my memory.
Master Mode: Only one I didn't do, but remains a perfect excuse for me to return to the game.
- Trial of the Sword was amazing, and gave a really challenging, interesting dungeon experience akin to Eventide, but massively more difficult. Really a different way to play the game, having to know which enemies were up in the next room and building up strategies. Definitely frustrating, and the middle chunk was probably the most difficult for me. Some of the bosses at the end in the final stages were much easier than the swarms of Lizalfos in other rooms. Super fun, and a showcase of what made BotW and its combat and basic mechanics so fun.
- Hero's Path, Travel Medallion, Ancient Horse Gear: all super useful to have, and I'm glad they included the former two as a base mechanic in TotK. Ancient Horse Gear was neat for the little while - until you got the Master Cycle.
- Korok Mask: A lifesaver. All the other outfits were cool, but this one made Korok hunting much more bearable. Was able to hunt down hundreds of those little poops with this on, would not have trekked everywhere to do so without it.
- Champions' Ballad: Already stated in my other review, but really brought the whole show together. Loved finding the extra shrines with their cool challenges, especially Mipha's sailing into the water. And hearing more of each champions' story and tragic end, as well as having to fight the bosses with their equipment, again shows off how good the core mechanics are of this game. Same with the One-shot weapon, and then leading into the Sheikah boss fight for the motorcycle (which also made traveling around and hunting Koroks way easier). The ending scene with Kass addressing Link directly will live on in my memory.
Master Mode: Only one I didn't do, but remains a perfect excuse for me to return to the game.
Finali cok keyifliyfi
I enjoyed BotW so much that I decided to immediately spring for the DLC. Though there are technically 2 DLC packs and a bonus you get for buying the season pass (Expansion Pass), there isn't actually a way to buy both DLC's individually anymore, so it's just $20 for the whole thing. I did everything in it and it took me about 15 or so hours.
It adds like 20 or so treasures to go and find that are new tools like a teleportation node you can place yourself, a super saddle for your horse that lets you summon it anywhere, and a Korok Mask that starts to rattle when you're near an undiscovered Korok. You can also find new, fun armor that references older Zelda games (like a Tingle costume, Zant's helmet, or armor like the phantoms wear in the DS games). All of them are hidden through riddles, and only the location of the riddles are given to you. Most of them were pretty easy to find for me, but there were a couple I had to look up :P . They're neat, but given that the armor isn't upgradable, it's really only gonna be any actual use to you game-wise if you go for it around the time you start the game (the Phantom armor especially is basically tier-2 Berserker Armor but way easier to find, so that would've been a REALLY big one at the start of the game for me). Definitely an element of the DLC that you probably won't get that much mileage out of if you'd already gotten all 120 shrines and beaten the game like I had :P
The other elements are the Trails of the Sword, which are a set of 3 progressively harder gauntlets centered entirely around combat that, if cleared, will power up your Master Sword to 60-power level all the time (not just around Guardians), and the Ballad of Champions. The Ballad of Champions is a new bit of story that is 16 new shrines and a little event you go through to unlock each of them, some harder re-fights of each of the original 4 bosses, 5 new memory cutscenes, and a whole new Divine Beast-style dungeon to go through complete with its own new boss enemy to fight at the end. I really liked this stuff. The Trials of the Sword need to be done only with equipment found within the trial, so they're probably some of the toughest actual combat in the game given that you can't even use your Champion abilities within them, let alone stock up on food beforehand. The Champion's Ballad is also a really well done set of new trials, with all the trials being longer, more challenging ones than a lot of the main game's original 120. The new music, of what there is, is also really good. I think the new boss' music track may be my favorite music track in the entire game <3
Verdict: Recommended. If you liked Breath of the Wild and want more of it, then the Expansion Pass is a safe bet for you. For the amount of content it offers proportional to the main game's, I gotta say that the cost is a little steep at $20, especially if you aren't a fan of the combat (therefore won't like Trials of the Sword) and mainly want the Champion's Ballad stuff. If you're someone who wanted all new lands to explore out of their BotW DLC, you won't find that here. But if you just want MORE BotW, then you'll probably be very pleased with what you find here :D
It adds like 20 or so treasures to go and find that are new tools like a teleportation node you can place yourself, a super saddle for your horse that lets you summon it anywhere, and a Korok Mask that starts to rattle when you're near an undiscovered Korok. You can also find new, fun armor that references older Zelda games (like a Tingle costume, Zant's helmet, or armor like the phantoms wear in the DS games). All of them are hidden through riddles, and only the location of the riddles are given to you. Most of them were pretty easy to find for me, but there were a couple I had to look up :P . They're neat, but given that the armor isn't upgradable, it's really only gonna be any actual use to you game-wise if you go for it around the time you start the game (the Phantom armor especially is basically tier-2 Berserker Armor but way easier to find, so that would've been a REALLY big one at the start of the game for me). Definitely an element of the DLC that you probably won't get that much mileage out of if you'd already gotten all 120 shrines and beaten the game like I had :P
The other elements are the Trails of the Sword, which are a set of 3 progressively harder gauntlets centered entirely around combat that, if cleared, will power up your Master Sword to 60-power level all the time (not just around Guardians), and the Ballad of Champions. The Ballad of Champions is a new bit of story that is 16 new shrines and a little event you go through to unlock each of them, some harder re-fights of each of the original 4 bosses, 5 new memory cutscenes, and a whole new Divine Beast-style dungeon to go through complete with its own new boss enemy to fight at the end. I really liked this stuff. The Trials of the Sword need to be done only with equipment found within the trial, so they're probably some of the toughest actual combat in the game given that you can't even use your Champion abilities within them, let alone stock up on food beforehand. The Champion's Ballad is also a really well done set of new trials, with all the trials being longer, more challenging ones than a lot of the main game's original 120. The new music, of what there is, is also really good. I think the new boss' music track may be my favorite music track in the entire game <3
Verdict: Recommended. If you liked Breath of the Wild and want more of it, then the Expansion Pass is a safe bet for you. For the amount of content it offers proportional to the main game's, I gotta say that the cost is a little steep at $20, especially if you aren't a fan of the combat (therefore won't like Trials of the Sword) and mainly want the Champion's Ballad stuff. If you're someone who wanted all new lands to explore out of their BotW DLC, you won't find that here. But if you just want MORE BotW, then you'll probably be very pleased with what you find here :D
Not as much of a problem when playing with this content from the start of the game, but the Master Trials are NOT balanced for Hero Mode at all which is mad frustrating
Contained content that should have been in the base game - regardless, the new dungeon in Champion's Ballad, the new boss fight, and the Master Sword Trials are phenomenal.