But when is Zelda Wii U releasing?
Gameplay:
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild received wide acclaim at release and has largely remained as popular since then, as evidenced by how many “game of the decade” awards it received. While it is not my absolute favorite game of the 2010s, it is pretty close in-large part because of just how fun this game is. I can safely say it’s one of my most played games of all time; I’ve finished it seven times as of May 2023. And as one might expect, the main reason for all that praise, both from critics and myself, is because of the excellent gameplay.
The core concept of Breath of the Wild is that the player faces no barriers that cannot be overcome if they are willing to put in the time, resources, and creativity to pass them. A giant mountain or a big pit is in the way of where the player wants to go? They can just climb it or paraglide over it, assuming they have the stamina to do so. An enemy seems too powerful to defeat? Trying different types of weapons on them might reveal they have a specific weakness that makes them no trouble to beat. This design philosophy pervades every part of the game, making it one of the most liberating experiences I have ever come across in any video game. I can see why some might not like it; it can be overwhelming at times, and it is rather at odds with the old-school Zelda formula. Many “puzzles” are just the natural result of exploration and needing to find a way to get somewhere or get some sort of reward, so the solutions are similarly freeform.
Exploring the vast world of the game is not all there is to the gameplay, however. In fact, what makes the gameplay loop work so well are the various things scattered throughout the world. Enemy camps can be found all over, each offering at minimum whatever monster parts and weapons the denizens within have. There are also the Koroks, which can be found by solving small puzzles in the overworld. Each gives a Korok seed, which can be put towards expanding the capacity of Link’s inventory. There are sidequests, flora to gather and fauna to hunt, people to talk to, and a million other little things to occupy the player. The most important part of all, however, are the shrines. Each shrine is a small mini-dungeon, offering a short puzzle to solve. They also function as fast travel points once activated by Link and reward him with a Spirit Orb—when the player has four, they can be traded in for an extra heart or piece of the stamina wheel. Therein lies the genius of Breath of the Wild; exploring rewards the player with all sorts of new ways to continue exploring. Of course this sort of basic gameplay loop is not unique to this game, but the developers managed to distill it so perfectly that the game really just never gets old for all the time it takes to complete it. Even after having done everything there is to do, just running through Hyrule is a blast because the Breath of the Wild is just a fun game to play.
One thing I gestured to before but have not really mentioned too much is combat. Much like the rest of the gameplay, it is a very open system. There are three melee weapon types, as well as bows and shields. Each offers some interesting but relatively simple wrinkles to the combat. What makes it stand out is how all that interacts with Breath of the Wild’s robust physics engine, plus the four Sheikah Runes. Each rune is a special ability Link can use at any time: bombs can blow things up, stasis can freeze objects (and later enemies) in place to be smacked away with charged kinetic force, magnesis can move metal objects, and cryonis can create pillars of ice from water. Taking advantage of all the runes in conjunction with Link’s weapons gives a player near limitless ways to approach every combat.
As I wrote that last section, I realized just how much breadth there is to the game. I have not even touched on upgrading armor, or the dungeons, or towns, or the side quests, or a ton of other little things. There are some problems, like the dungeons (the Divine Beasts) being rather short and simple, or the enemy variety being somewhat lacking, but neither of those can take away from the fact that Breath of the Wild is just a fundamentally fun game.
Story/Characters:
Due to its highly open structure, Breath of the Wild does not have much of a traditional story. There are main quests to complete, but technically they’re all optional. If the player wants to, they can go fight the final boss right after finishing the tutorial area (which is exactly what I did on my most recent replay). While I appreciate the attempt at a nontraditional story, I do think that it falls flat in a lot of ways. It is mostly told through memories Link can experience, showing a bit of the relationship between Zelda, himself, and four of their allies known as the Champions. I like what is there, but honestly there just is not enough to tell a particularly compelling story. Zelda is the only character who gets any real development, and while it is good, it can still feel disjointed because every memory save for the last can be experienced in any order (since to watch them Link has to go to a specific location). And since I mentioned it in a lot of my other Zelda reviews, I also would like to mention that there is not nearly as much interesting subtext to the story in my opinion, which I find to be disappointing since that tends to be where Zelda stories shine.
Though the main story is ultimately just okay, I do think that the environmental storytelling of Breath of the Wild deserves praise. The Great Calamity 100 years before the story ravaged most of the land, and it is visible through the various ruins that can be found. I appreciate how there are also some much older ruins too, like those of ancient Hyrule and the Zonai. It gives Hyrule a very lived-in feeling that just makes it that much more fun to explore.
Presentation:
Breath of the Wild has some of the most stunning visuals of any game I have ever played. I know it’s a bit trite to say at this point, but it really feels like playing a Studio Ghibli movie. So far it is my favorite in the series, and I am honestly not sure that will ever change; I just love the more anime-ish look that still retains mostly realistic proportions. Even though the actual textures are generally quite simple, the way everything comes together is nothing less than stunning. My only real critique is that the game sometimes looks a little bit too washed out, but honestly it’s not usually noticeable enough to bother me. The technical aspects are pretty standard for a game of its scale on the Switch, I believe it’s 720p 30fps but it maintains that pretty consistently outside of a few rare exceptions (mostly dense forest areas are where the frames drop a bit).
The legendary, bombastic soundtracks of the series also disappeared with Breath of the Wild, replaced by one which I feel suits the game much better. Most music is rather subdued, and often when exploring it is hardly noticeable at all. That is not to say all the music is like that; each town has a great theme that sells the atmosphere of the locale perfectly, and I think that is generally what makes the game’s music work so well.
Conclusion:
When Breath of the Wild released, the general sentiment seemed to be that this game had “redefined” the open world genre—thus, future open world games would mostly follow Zelda’s format. However, that never happened. Hardly any Breath of the Wild clones were made, and even general inspiration seems to be relatively uncommon. I used to find that baffling, but lately it has made more sense to me. The reason why almost no one has copied Breath of the Wild is because matching its level of quality is nearly impossible. Everything fits together so seamlessly that it seems effortless, but the reality is of course that it took years and years of hundreds of highly talented people working together to make it. Lifting elements from it and just dumping them in another game would not automatically make a good game because of all the hard work that went into Breath of the Wild. All of that is to say that this game is excellent. I don’t think I have ever played another strictly single-player game so much, and even now I find myself learning new things about it. Maybe Tears of the Kingdom will make it wholly obsolete, but even if that is the case, I can say I have gotten far more out of it than almost any other game I have ever played.
Score: 94/100
Gameplay:
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild received wide acclaim at release and has largely remained as popular since then, as evidenced by how many “game of the decade” awards it received. While it is not my absolute favorite game of the 2010s, it is pretty close in-large part because of just how fun this game is. I can safely say it’s one of my most played games of all time; I’ve finished it seven times as of May 2023. And as one might expect, the main reason for all that praise, both from critics and myself, is because of the excellent gameplay.
The core concept of Breath of the Wild is that the player faces no barriers that cannot be overcome if they are willing to put in the time, resources, and creativity to pass them. A giant mountain or a big pit is in the way of where the player wants to go? They can just climb it or paraglide over it, assuming they have the stamina to do so. An enemy seems too powerful to defeat? Trying different types of weapons on them might reveal they have a specific weakness that makes them no trouble to beat. This design philosophy pervades every part of the game, making it one of the most liberating experiences I have ever come across in any video game. I can see why some might not like it; it can be overwhelming at times, and it is rather at odds with the old-school Zelda formula. Many “puzzles” are just the natural result of exploration and needing to find a way to get somewhere or get some sort of reward, so the solutions are similarly freeform.
Exploring the vast world of the game is not all there is to the gameplay, however. In fact, what makes the gameplay loop work so well are the various things scattered throughout the world. Enemy camps can be found all over, each offering at minimum whatever monster parts and weapons the denizens within have. There are also the Koroks, which can be found by solving small puzzles in the overworld. Each gives a Korok seed, which can be put towards expanding the capacity of Link’s inventory. There are sidequests, flora to gather and fauna to hunt, people to talk to, and a million other little things to occupy the player. The most important part of all, however, are the shrines. Each shrine is a small mini-dungeon, offering a short puzzle to solve. They also function as fast travel points once activated by Link and reward him with a Spirit Orb—when the player has four, they can be traded in for an extra heart or piece of the stamina wheel. Therein lies the genius of Breath of the Wild; exploring rewards the player with all sorts of new ways to continue exploring. Of course this sort of basic gameplay loop is not unique to this game, but the developers managed to distill it so perfectly that the game really just never gets old for all the time it takes to complete it. Even after having done everything there is to do, just running through Hyrule is a blast because the Breath of the Wild is just a fun game to play.
One thing I gestured to before but have not really mentioned too much is combat. Much like the rest of the gameplay, it is a very open system. There are three melee weapon types, as well as bows and shields. Each offers some interesting but relatively simple wrinkles to the combat. What makes it stand out is how all that interacts with Breath of the Wild’s robust physics engine, plus the four Sheikah Runes. Each rune is a special ability Link can use at any time: bombs can blow things up, stasis can freeze objects (and later enemies) in place to be smacked away with charged kinetic force, magnesis can move metal objects, and cryonis can create pillars of ice from water. Taking advantage of all the runes in conjunction with Link’s weapons gives a player near limitless ways to approach every combat.
As I wrote that last section, I realized just how much breadth there is to the game. I have not even touched on upgrading armor, or the dungeons, or towns, or the side quests, or a ton of other little things. There are some problems, like the dungeons (the Divine Beasts) being rather short and simple, or the enemy variety being somewhat lacking, but neither of those can take away from the fact that Breath of the Wild is just a fundamentally fun game.
Story/Characters:
Due to its highly open structure, Breath of the Wild does not have much of a traditional story. There are main quests to complete, but technically they’re all optional. If the player wants to, they can go fight the final boss right after finishing the tutorial area (which is exactly what I did on my most recent replay). While I appreciate the attempt at a nontraditional story, I do think that it falls flat in a lot of ways. It is mostly told through memories Link can experience, showing a bit of the relationship between Zelda, himself, and four of their allies known as the Champions. I like what is there, but honestly there just is not enough to tell a particularly compelling story. Zelda is the only character who gets any real development, and while it is good, it can still feel disjointed because every memory save for the last can be experienced in any order (since to watch them Link has to go to a specific location). And since I mentioned it in a lot of my other Zelda reviews, I also would like to mention that there is not nearly as much interesting subtext to the story in my opinion, which I find to be disappointing since that tends to be where Zelda stories shine.
Though the main story is ultimately just okay, I do think that the environmental storytelling of Breath of the Wild deserves praise. The Great Calamity 100 years before the story ravaged most of the land, and it is visible through the various ruins that can be found. I appreciate how there are also some much older ruins too, like those of ancient Hyrule and the Zonai. It gives Hyrule a very lived-in feeling that just makes it that much more fun to explore.
Presentation:
Breath of the Wild has some of the most stunning visuals of any game I have ever played. I know it’s a bit trite to say at this point, but it really feels like playing a Studio Ghibli movie. So far it is my favorite in the series, and I am honestly not sure that will ever change; I just love the more anime-ish look that still retains mostly realistic proportions. Even though the actual textures are generally quite simple, the way everything comes together is nothing less than stunning. My only real critique is that the game sometimes looks a little bit too washed out, but honestly it’s not usually noticeable enough to bother me. The technical aspects are pretty standard for a game of its scale on the Switch, I believe it’s 720p 30fps but it maintains that pretty consistently outside of a few rare exceptions (mostly dense forest areas are where the frames drop a bit).
The legendary, bombastic soundtracks of the series also disappeared with Breath of the Wild, replaced by one which I feel suits the game much better. Most music is rather subdued, and often when exploring it is hardly noticeable at all. That is not to say all the music is like that; each town has a great theme that sells the atmosphere of the locale perfectly, and I think that is generally what makes the game’s music work so well.
Conclusion:
When Breath of the Wild released, the general sentiment seemed to be that this game had “redefined” the open world genre—thus, future open world games would mostly follow Zelda’s format. However, that never happened. Hardly any Breath of the Wild clones were made, and even general inspiration seems to be relatively uncommon. I used to find that baffling, but lately it has made more sense to me. The reason why almost no one has copied Breath of the Wild is because matching its level of quality is nearly impossible. Everything fits together so seamlessly that it seems effortless, but the reality is of course that it took years and years of hundreds of highly talented people working together to make it. Lifting elements from it and just dumping them in another game would not automatically make a good game because of all the hard work that went into Breath of the Wild. All of that is to say that this game is excellent. I don’t think I have ever played another strictly single-player game so much, and even now I find myself learning new things about it. Maybe Tears of the Kingdom will make it wholly obsolete, but even if that is the case, I can say I have gotten far more out of it than almost any other game I have ever played.
Score: 94/100