Legend of Zelda -- Breath of the Wild

Hey now everybody, hope you're having a great day, and welcome to my review of Zelda, Breath of the Wild! Growing up I always had a Nintendo gaming console in my house and I loved to play games. One of my favorite memories from gaming back then was playing the extremely well done Zelda games that came out on every new console. I played every Zelda that was released right up to The Twilight Princess for the Gamecube, but then I stopped buying Nintendo games and moved on to other consoles that had more adult themed titles on them. Since then it's been at least 10 years since I've played a new Zelda game, and I must admit I've missed this franchise. Now that I have a Nintendo Switch one of the first things I bought for it was Breath Of The Wild, and I can't wait to finally talk about it.

First of all I'd just like to say what a joy it's been to be able to play a brand new Zelda game on a brand new console. It's brought me back to when I was a kid playing Ocarina Of Time on the Nintendo 64. Giving me that feeling of excitement and wonder is something that becomes harder and harder as we get older, and now that I'm in my thirties it's almost non existent. One of the only things that brings me back to a more innocent time is playing video games, and that's exactly what happened to me when I started playing Breath of the Wild. This game pulled me in and completely immersed me in it's massive open world, and oh boy what a game it is.
The Legend of Zelda, Breath of the Wild is an action adventure game developed by Nintendo for the Switch and the Wii U. It was released earlier this year on March 3rd, 2017 and has been met with overwhelmingly positive critical praise. As the game begins the protagonist, Link, awakens from a 100 year slumber, being called out to by a disembodied voice. When he awakes he soon realizes that he's completely lost all of his memories and can't remember a thing about himself or anybody else. The voice tells him that a dark and dangerous creature, Calamity Ganon, has also awoken and Link is the only one that can stop this demon for good. So you enter a strange new world completely unprepared for the mighty task at hand.

Right off the bat as soon as I started the game I was blown away by the sheer size and scope of this new world. Not only is it massive and beautiful, but the entire map is open to you right from the start. Everywhere you look your eye gets drawn to some sort of landmark or interesting structure and of course you want to go there and explore it. This game gives you complete freedom to do what you want when you want, and pretty much never pulls you back to the main quest. You could run around aimlessly for hours just checking it all out before doing any of the main objectives. There are enemy camps to raid where you can find new weapons and equipment, there are towers to climb that help you map the landscape, and tons of puzzles hidden in plain sight just waiting to be discovered.
The massive game world is beautifully diverse giving you everything from lush grassy fields, dark forests, snowy mountains, dry arid deserts, and beaches all with their own distinct wildlife and vegetation. The part that surprised me the most though was the realistic way the world behaves and how you interact with it. Trees bear fruit that is specific to their location, dry grass will catch on fire if you're not careful with an open flame. Every region has it's own types of wildlife that behave in the way wild animals would, if you get too close they will run away, but if you sneak up on them you might be able to catch one and use it for something good. I really didn't expect such an in depth, realistic living world to explore in a Zelda game, but it does an amazing job of immersing you in it.

Another aspect of Breath of the Wild that is more realistic than I thought it would be is the fact that if you decide to climb a mountain, the higher you get the more the temperature drops just like in real life. Or if you venture out into the desert the temperature will rise and either way Link will start to die if he stays in these extreme conditions for too long. To counteract this you can find certain clothes that give you protection from these elements, or create potions that will give you timed resistance, but will run out eventually. This is a mechanic of the game that gives the world more depth, and makes you plan out your journey into such harsh environments more carefully.
One thing about the realistic nature of the game that I thought would be annoying at first is the fact that weapons will break on you after prolonged use. Not only weapons, but bows and shields as well. If you're using a tree branch for a sword it's only going to allow for a few hits before it crumbles in your hands, but if you find a well crafted sword it will let you take down ten enemies before breaking. I know this sounds like a nuisance, but you find weapons, bows, and shields all over the place so you're never really in danger of running out of these things. It actually makes the game more fun in my opinion because you're constantly getting and trying out new things, instead of just finding a good sword and keeping it for the rest of the game. Anyone who's played games like Dead Rising, or Dying Light will be used to the system in Breath of the Wild, where you can't get too attached to your equipment.

One of the best parts about Breath of the Wild is that if you see something up above you or off in the distance, chances are you can get there somehow. At the beginning of the game you earn yourself a paraglider that allows you to jump off of any high place and gradually float around down to the ground. It can be very useful for getting to hard to reach spots in a hurry, or running away from tough enemies. There is a stamina gauge that determines how long you can glide for though before Link runs out of energy, at which point you'll fall straight down. This stamina gauge also comes up when you're climbing, so keep that in mind as well. Almost any vertical surface can be climbed, but Link has a limited amount of stamina he can use before letting go and falling to his death, so be careful and plan ahead.
There are ways of giving Link a bigger stamina gauge, as well as more heart containers for your life meter. These are invaluable things that will make your journey much easier and allow you to take on tougher obstacles in the future. All over the map there are loads of Shrines, little buildings with an orange light coursing through them. Finding these Shrines is key in your survival and progression of the game. Once you locate a Shrine you must enter it and complete the puzzle inside to earn yourself a Spirit Orb. Once you have four Spirit Orbs you can cash them in and either upgrade your stamina bar or get another heart for your life meter. These Shrines are littered all over the map and can be completed in any order you wish.

To complete a Shrine you will most likely have to use one or all of Link's special abilities. You get Bombs that never run out, but after using one you have to wait for a timer to count down before using another. All special abilities use this same timer. Then you get Magnesis, a power to pick up and move around anything that's made of metal, Stasis the power to stop the flow of time and use kinetic energy to manipulate objects, and finally Cryonis the power to create pillars of ice from any water you find. All these powers are essential to completing the Shrines, and they have many practical uses out in the game world as well. But not all Shrines are puzzle ones, some are a test of strength and require you to defeat a guardian boss, so be prepared when entering one of these.
Another game mechanic that is a lot of fun to experiment with is the ability to cook at any place you find an open flame with an iron pan on it. These are located all over the place so you'll have many chances to try it out. Every item you collect from fallen foes, every fish you grab out of the water, every fruit you pick from a tree can all be used to cook various dishes and elixirs that give you not only health, but loads of different status buffs that can be extremely useful for many situations. Whenever you find one of these cooking stations make sure you try out new combinations of the items you've collected throughout your journey, you never know what you might create or what effect it will have. This was so much fun I would stay there cooking things for way too long sometimes, forgetting what I was supposed to be doing.

There's a pretty wide variety of enemies to combat with all over the map, depending on what type of environment you're in they will change. Some are fairly easy to take down, but some are much tougher acting as random mini bosses that you should be careful of. Taking down these larger bad guys will earn you much better rewards though. You can lock onto an enemy by holding the left trigger, and then you're able to dodge from side to side or backwards. Getting the hang of this might take a little while, but it's very fun and makes the combat a little deeper.
In addition to the main quests that you have, you can take on all manor of side quests as well. There are small villages, stables, and campsites all over the place with NPC's that will give you these side missions. This just adds another layer to the game on top of it's already enormous world. All this can seem overwhelming at first, but there's no need to rush to complete anything, just go at your own pace and enjoy interacting with everyone. Nothing is timed so you wont lose your opportunity for the quest.
This game is so incredibly massive and has so much to talk about I'm sure there's something that I've overlooked in my review here, but the best thing I can say is just get the game and try it for yourself. I thought the reviews I was seeing were exaggerating how good Zelda is just because it's new and for a new console, but after actually playing it I can see that they're not. This game is as close to a masterpiece as you can get, and well worth your money. I've gotten so many hours of enjoyment from playing this and there's still so much to do that it's far from over. If you have a Switch or a Wii U, then definitely go out and pick this up, it's one of the best games I've ever played. I give The Legend Of Zelda, Breath Of The Wild a...........................................

100