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

Reviewed on Mar 19, 2024


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