Zelda has been a staple of our entertainment for decades, and the newest instalment has blown everyone away in every way. Many gamers, both old and new to the Zelda series, consider Breath of the Wild to be the series’ pinnacle since its debut in early 2017. There have been countless video games released and cancelled since then, but this Nintendo classic stands head and shoulders above the rest.
There must be a lot of quality in Breath of the Wild for it to convince thousands of people to buy a new system. While a lot of people enjoy this because of fond memories, for others it has deeper meaning. You don’t have to be a die-hard fan of the brand to gain hours of enjoyment out of this game, and doing so helps, but the game still stands on its own merits.
1. The riddles seen in Zelda games’ shrines are adapted to work well with the game’s open world design:
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild still features dungeons, with a total of four to explore. With a globe this size, the four dungeons don’t exactly cut it in the puzzle category, but they nevertheless offer some of the best and most thought-provoking challenges in the whole game.
Shrines serve this purpose. Each one is a miniature dungeon in its own right, with a puzzle or two to be solved and a spirit orb waiting at the end. Discovering shrines is not just for the challenge, as these orbs may be traded for stat increases to your health and stamina.
2. Obtaining all the runes at the start gives players instant access to the world
Gathering your stuff from one dungeon at a time would have caused for an off-kilter rhythm and progression in Breath of the Wild due to the game’s open, non-linear nature. Rather, you begin the game with four runes—bombs, Crynosis, Stasis, and Magnesis—and the ability to use them in the Great Plateau. Each and every one of the game’s puzzles, as well as the discovery of the game’s environment, relies on them.
3. Increased Vitality and Feeling in the Narrative
Once you exit the huge plateau, the story is told in whichever sequence you wish it to be. Because Link has been asleep for 100 years the majority of the story is delivered through flashbacks. Maintaining a steady pace while gradually revealing the secrets of how Hyrule fell back under Ganon’s dominion is a key feature.
Breath of the Wild is also the first Zelda title to feature voice acting. The majority of the interaction is still presented through text, but crucial scenes receive a bit more showmanship, digging into characters in a way that brings the entire universe to life further.
4. The Series Regains Its Original Sense of Danger Due to the Reintroduction of Challenging Tasks
The Legend of Zelda games have traditionally been made to be beaten without too much of a struggle. They haven’t been truly challenging since the days of the original title and its follow-up, The Adventure of Link. Meanwhile, there are a number of occasions in Breath of the Wild where you will be tested to your very limits. Because of how fragile your weapons are, you never know when you’ll be completely defenceless against a certain enemy.
5. Climbing allows Link to access previously inaccessible areas of Breath of the Wild:
He has impressive athletic abilities, including the ability to sprint, paraglide, and climb. You won’t be particularly nimble early on, but increasing your stamina bar will make climbing much less of a chore.
The act of climbing drastically alters one’s perspective of the world. Everything you see in the distance that rises into the clouds is now within your grasp. With Hyrule’s verticality, you’ll have to go out of your way to find everything it has to offer.
6. Feeling of Unlimited Possibility, Even When Merely Ambling:
Brilliant design decisions made in Hyrule’s open world encourage exploration without becoming overbearing. Discovering something new is as simple as getting out and exploring the world. The plot gives you four options for where to go, and then it’s up to you to decide. Breath of the Wild’s open world encourages exploration for a variety of reasons.
7. Any strategy you can conceive of for fighting is, more often than not, a viable option:
Swinging a sword, blocking with a shield, and flipping backwards are all outdated methods of combat. Just about every strategy you might imagine for eliminating your adversaries is plausible. Drop explosives from a paraglider onto a group of Bokoblins below. Hit them with a boulder. Throw them into the air like ragdolls after lighting an explosive barrel. Drop a crate on their heads by tying balloons to it.
8. To say that this is a massive game is an understatement:
The sheer scale is reflected on the map. Compared to previous Legend of Zelda games, it’s massive, being over 360 times the size of Ocarina of Time. For comparison, the size of the game is nine times that of the popular action RPG Skyrim. Even the popular Elder Scrolls game’s bleak wasteland doesn’t compare to the scope of Breath of the Wild.
For the first time in a game like this, the player is forced to pay attention to the scenery, which is both artistic and gorgeous, and this is exploited to great purpose, as many players will quickly discover.
9. The cooking system in Breath of the Wild rewards players for real-world expertise and punishes them for ludicrous notions.
Surprisingly, Breath of the Wild doesn’t provide any guidance for the game’s major crafting system, which allows players to create everything from health-restoring food to beneficial potions.
You will not receive any assistance from the game, and it will not discourage you from attempting unappetizing dishes or forgetting to save your progress. This encourages creative cooking by rewarding the use of ingredients common in real-world cooking while punishing the use of monster parts or incompatible components with a heap of questionable fare.
10. This game’s physics system is so realistic that it takes your breath away
In earlier Zelda games, the only true physics we had to work with was the game’s coding for things like gravity, jumping, and climbing. However, Breath of the Wild takes things a step further, or rather several leaps beyond, with its stunningly realistic physics. If you’re in need of wood early in the game, you can use a weapon to chop it down, but only if it’s made of metal. This is just one small detail that adds realism to the game.
