https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvTVIjmTBv4
I’m in an enclosed cave in the heart of the steep cliffs. It’s cold outside; it has been snowing for quite a while, and as far as the eye can see, everything is blanketed in shimmering white, fluffy snow. It’s so cold, that just outside the cave is a frozen Lizalfos, that I left undisturbed. There’s little respite in the cave I am in; the blizzard still rages, making my movement difficult, and the only way I have to go is up those cliffs. I check my supplies: I have a small assortment of clothes to keep me warm, some pieces of wood, some flint, a couple of bows and some arrows, and maybe three swords, one of which is about to break. Ah! I can make a bonfire! And so I do, and, feeling the warmth of the flame, and protected from the elements outside, I take a better look at the rest of my inventory. I have some fruits, and some meats, so I can make a meal – if I can find a pot, that is – but they can help sustain my energy on my way up. I have a couple of elixirs … ah, yes! I can drink one of them to keep me warm, but the effect only lasts a few minutes. I then question myself: am I prepared to scale the rest of the mountain? Should I go back somewhere safer, collect better supplies, and try again? I’ve made it all the way up here, but I lost a lot of supplies. Do I have enough left? What if I encounter harder enemies? What if the rest of my swords break? I will be helpless! What if I run out of food? Yes, I can get some berries on the way – if I happen across them – but what is the guarantee?
I decide to take the risk. So I rest at the bonfire until the next morning, and head out of the cave to brave the world. Welcome to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
In the vast, open world of Hyrule, these are the persisting questions that you ponder every single day, whenever you’re venturing into uncharted territory. You don’t play as Link; in all things that matter, you ARE Link. You’re an adventurer, and Hyrule is your playground. You wake up from years of slumber, and, without any hand-holding, you emerge into a vast, beautiful world for you to explore and discover. Yes, in traditional Zelda fashion, there’s a main story for you to focus on, but for all intents and purposes, Breath of the Wild is an adventure game to the core. Open world games have thriven in recent years, with each game promising to be bigger than the one before it, with more objectives and things to do. Where they fall short, though, is in their complexity, making the open world feel less like an adventure, and more of a job list. The closest to a true adventure in recent years was Skyrim – after the introduction to the game mechanics, you’re off to the wild to explore at your own will.
To describe the mechanics of Breath of the Wild is to spoil it. The biggest joy in the game is to discover how you interact with the world around you in surprising ways. You’re given the core tools necessary for your tasks early on in the game – the tools you need to solve the puzzles, such as the ability to form ice pillars from water, or to move metallic object via a magnet, or to freeze objects in motion. This is as far as hand-holding as Nintendo goes to explain the mechanics of how your tools work, but everything else is up for discovery. How do you cook? How do you make a bonfire? What do you do with harvested fruits and monster parts? How do you collect weapons? Where do you get clothes that help you fight off the cold, or heat? How do you make potions? What potions can you make? How far can you climb? Can you increase your stamina? An overwhelming number of questions that can only be answered through discovery. And when you do finally figure out how to make a bonfire, or how to melt ice, or how to navigate through the Thunder Plateau, or how to make effective meals … all of these are your rewards for exploring and for giving yourself the time and patience.
There are very few things about Breath of the Wild that are traditional Zelda – mechanically speaking – yet it is unmistakably a Zelda game. It has the charming characters, the simple, yet effective, narrative, a cheesy sense of humour and side quests that you actually care about. It has simple mechanics to understand yet take the entire game to master. It has elements combined from previous games that I won’t spoil here, but are a delight to see when you come across them.
Previous titles had an “open world” of sorts; the maps are usually multi-layered and interconnected, but how you interact with the environment is limited as you progress. Previously, you’d have to obtain a tool, clear a dungeon that focuses on the use of that tool, before you can progress through the game and then use that tool to clear out previously closed off areas in the over world map. Breath of the Wild is simply a gigantic open map, and you’re free to roam everywhere, provided you have enough physical strength and supplies. Dungeons have been discarded completely; the tools are given to you from the onset, with “trials” that make use of the tool for you to understand their mechanic. Once you’re off to the big wild world, you’ll come across innumerable such “trials”, in the form of shrines, that test your prowess of the game mechanics. It’s important to complete these shrines – not only do they offer some respite from adventuring, but they often reward you with gear and Spirit Orbs, which, without spoiling what they do (you will have to figure it out) will prove essential to expanding your capabilities for venturing.
In a sense, there are four main “dungeons” that you could pursue, though they’re less of dungeons and more of an intricate and elaborate shrine with very confusing puzzle mechanics. Finishing these four big puzzle pieces are not necessary for completing the main story, but pursuing them rewards you with story elements, more side quests, and a better chance to help you in the late-game segments (which, if you’re brave enough, you can head to at any point).
Breath of the Wild is the greatest departure to the Zelda games you have known for three decades. It’s also the best Zelda game ever made, and the greatest game for a very long time to come. There is so much to do, see, explore, and uncover, that even after some 50 hours poured into the game, I am hardly done with half the exploration, and every day there is something new to discover. Zelda changes the open world genre by making it about discovery, not about missions that take place in different areas. All you need to do is simply exist in Hyrule, and everything takes its course. You interact with the world around you, but you’re always at the mercy of its elements, the supplies you have, and the skills you’ve attained. You never feel too powerful, never well-prepared, never with enough knowledge and never with enough arsenal to know for certain you can overcome the obstacles ahead of you.
Like a true adventurer, you simply exist, and the only thing you do possess for certain is your bravery to set foot into this bold, difficult, beautiful world that will take your breath away.
