As a fan who mostly enjoys the 2D Zelda games, Breath of the Wild (BotW) is a breath of fresh air for the 3D Zelda formula. Some technical and gameplay hiccups may occasionally inconvenience the player’s journey, but no problem ever made me want to put down the joycons.
Story
There’s not much to say here. If you’ve played any 3D Zelda game, besides Majora’s Mask, you already know the overarching narrative in BotW. Ganon has risen and turned Hyrule’s greatest weapons against them. Link must seek out the tools necessary to put this calamity to rest.
Hyrule has seen better days, but you can choose when to clear it out!
Gameplay
The amount of options available for exploration. If one wishes to traverse a mountain, one can try to find a path, set fire to the grass and create an updraft on which to hover, or just climb up the rock face provided they have the stamina necessary. This sense of freedom means that almost everyone’s journey to Hyrule’s rescue will be truly different instead of the typically advertised freedom which amounts to a different weapon skin or slightly different line of dialogue.
Combat can be tactical or downright barbaric
Combat is free of restrictions in the typical Zelda sense. Link can sneak up on an enemy for a surprise attack, snipe from afar, roll boulders onto enemies, drop bombs while paragliding through the sky, and so many other methods. The basic weapon combat mechanics are okay, but there are games that I believe accomplish better third person action combat. That never discouraged me from taking down the enemies across Hyrule. The different tactics, enemy variety, and terrain variety always left me satisfied after my enemies fell, or ready to try again when I was struck down.
The weather can be aggravating, as the climbing mechanics are affected by rain and angles. This means if Link is halfway up a mountain when rain hits, the best bet is either to wait in place until the rain subsides or give up on climbing until later. Thunderstorms limits the player’s weapon usage to bone and wooden weapons as lightning is attracted to metallic objects, even if they’re on the player. This was never very difficult for me, except on a particular island, but I believe that added to the challenge and overall satisfaction from overcoming my little survival adventure.
Dungeons, Puzzles, and Bosses
The environment itself provides small puzzles, such as sunken chests you can raise.
For many the meat of Zelda is its dungeons and their puzzles, for them BotW might be a mixed bag. Most of the puzzles are physics based and revolve around tools given to the player in the tutorial. The way the game builds upon them is done really well. Almost every puzzle has multiple answers, even ones that don’t seem fully intended from the developers. There is more freedom in these puzzles than I’ve seen in most games I’ve ever played including many dedicated puzzle games.
Dungeons on the other hand are a bit of a disappointment. Pretty much all of the dungeons have some sort of physics based secret to them that is usually interesting at first, but for a few it becomes stale. The bosses can be difficult or easy, almost entirely dependent on when the player chooses to tackle them. Overall I enjoyed almost every one of these experiences, but if there is one thing The Legend of Zelda can do better than this, it’s the dungeons.
The Issues
I cannot attest to the Wii U version, but with the Switch there were areas and instances that suffered from consistent frame drops both in and out of combat. This is unfortunate, especially for a title that tries to push the Switch and Wii U hardware so far. Luckily, a recent patch fixed many of these areas, and the overall experience has never been less enjoyable for the initial problems.
Voice acting in BotW, is mostly subpar. It is a first for the series, but it is immersion breaking at times. Zelda’s voice sounds overacted in almost every single line she has in the game. I’m sure the voice actors/actresses all tried hard, but something just went wrong here.
I almost always detest weapon degradation systems. In most games, such as Dead Island, the system seems to be there simply as a method to delay combat or encourage running away. Weapons do break incredibly fast in this game, probably faster than any game I’ve ever played, but surprisingly it never ruined my enjoyment of the combat. The options always outweighed the restrictions in combat. By destroying my extremely strong weapon during a boss fight, I had to outsmart and outmaneuver it instead of just running around looking for a machete to run back to the fight.
Final Thoughts
Screenshot says it all!
Breath of the Wild rises above its 3D predecessors and its own problems for one of the most amazing experiences in gaming. If you have a Switch or Wii U, you owe it to yourself to own this game. The technical and gameplay issues are present and may deter some players, and that is perfectly fine. As for me, I have played very few open world games that gave me this true of a sense of adventure. This is 3D Zelda in its finest form.
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