The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch) review "Longer lasting flavor"

Take a franchise like Zelda and strip its set order of progression. Gone is the requisite sequence dungeons must be completed. Gone is the involved mathematical equation that must be applied for gathering tools and accumulating skills. Remember how you had to engage in global trade to snag the Biggoron sword in Ocarina of Time or the boomerang in Link’s Awakening? We don’t need any of that here, and it’s because that formulaic system of experiencing events in pre-defined succession has gotten quite frankly cumbersome. If you want a bastard sword or a boomerang to toss around, you should be able to look for one as it suits you, happily nabbing whatever worthwhile loot you happen to stumble upon across the way.

Challenges should also be open for attempting at any point in time. What I wouldn’t give to turn back the clock like it was 1998 but apply modern open-world gaming conventions to experience the Forest Temple without ever having to leave the Lost Woods. To me that would have been more than a matter of personal convenience, it would have been striking off the beaten path despite everyone’s warning that perhaps this would be a challenge too great for kid Link. But at least I could know what he’s made of before having to wait for him to grow up.

Link comes of age . . . a hundred years later.

So let’s talk about Breath of the Wild and why it’s such a breath of fresh air for a series that has felt stagnant for a while. After being in a deep sleep for a hundred years, Link awakens with little more than the shirt on his back. Not the most auspicious start for a hero whose reputation precedes him. It would be reasonable to believe that he won’t be able to do much thanks to his perceived lack of abilities and implied muscular atrophy.

Looks are deceiving! Link can go just about anywhere at once. See those mountains off in the distance? Link can go there. Big rocky wall staring him in the face? No big deal, scale its edifice by pushing up on the L-stick. A stamina wheel will clearly display how much grip remains, providing a visual aid to strategically scale even the most seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Oh sure, there are more hazardous environs that will punish Link for stepping foot in their confines unprepared. He will need the help of elemental armor or potions if he hopes to stay on the livelier side of dead, but then no one ever said adventuring is easy. There’s a risk to reward ratio that Breath of the Wild employs masterfully.

Nintendo seems to have taken a page out of their playbook and realized there is value to taking the Zelda series back to its beginning, at least as far as open world freedom goes. Do away with the linearity, the clever though limiting barriers to exploration, and put it in one vast and varied world. There are so many treasures to collect and corners to explore. Link can deploy an arsenal. From swords to axes to spears to bows to boomerangs to magic wands. These weapons break down over time – it seems almost unfair at first – but fallen foes often drop new armaments and weapons are never that hard to find.



It’s so nice being required to use multiple different weapon sets, each of which have their own feel and finesse. I’m not one to prefer donning heavy-hitting hammers, but there were times in Breath of the Wild where I had to have Link use them if he had any hope of besting the foes at hand. On my file, Link has a nice assortment of flaming swords, electrical tridents, punishing cudgels, and soft-glowing electric blue blades. He can choose from a bow that can fire three shots at once at 20 damage each or one that can fire five shots at once for 15 damage each. It’s nice to have so much variety on how to kill things.

Of course, combat isn’t what makes Zelda games as fun as they are. Breath of the Wild’s crown achievement is exploration and this is no more apparent than in the 120 mini dungeons scattered across the land. Toting a special “Sheikah Slate” that allows him to unlock these shrines (it also doubles as a compendium / inventory management interface), Link is compelled to delve into trials of puzzle-solving and combat in order to gain spiritual orbs that can be cashed in for permanent increases to his stamina meter and heart containers.

At first it seemed a little disappointing that, in a franchise known for its dungeons, the shrines here are relatively short. Most can be bested in a few minutes. But that’s OK because, again, Breath of the Wild is all about pacing and fulfilling a sense of wonder. And when there are 120 of these mini-dungeons to potentially explore, you begin to understand why you don’t want each one to take an hour or more to get through.

The very first shrines Link must tackle offer up some of the most important loot available in the form of runes, handy techniques that can be employed at any time in almost any type of situation. Link is no longer bound to a finite supply of bombs or limiting magic meter. Conjure up as many bombs as you want (they come in round and square sizes, joy!). Can’t move the pesky rubble blocking your path with a well-placed explosion? Try to move the debris with magnetism or build-up kinetic energy by stopping time. Freeze water if you’d rather stand than swim.

And then of course there are vast and varied healing items, buffs, and raw materials used for cooking and crafting. None of these inclusions are complex. Link cannot fish in Breath of the Wild, a fact that initially surprised me. Well, he can fish with bombs or by running up to a fish and pressing a button fast enough before the fish swims away. But he is given no rod to use. That’s fine. This Zelda isn’t trying to ape Final Fantasy XV’s excellent fishing mini-game, and it doesn’t want you to stand around waiting for the fish to bite anyway. Instead, it wants you to collect fish as streamlined as possible, forage for mushrooms and veggies, slay game for meat, and collect an assortment of monster parts and minerals to fulfill all sorts of recipes and elixirs.

As a whole, Breath of the Wild is vast, varied, and quite a joy to behold. It lets you do whatever you want however you want! That’s great!

Now let’s talk about why all this is a problem.



In Breath of the Wild, the focus is really wherever you deem appropriate. If you want to go across the land and devote Link’s time and energy to finding all 900 Korok seeds to max out Link’s inventory slots, by all means, scour the land. Or, if you want to farm rare components for making powerful arrows or to upgrade Link’s unique armor sets to max stats, then by all means, do that! Maybe you just want to take a leisurely stroll and take on challenges as you stumble upon them. It’s nice to do what you want when you want how you want. But it also takes the prerogative off of paying attention to the main quest’s storyline. Scarcely has a Zelda game’s main game ever felt like such a chore.

Zelda games rarely deviate from their tried and true formula of “bad guy rises, go save the land”. It’s no different in Breath of the Wild, but it is disappointing that the storyline can be neglected to the point of irrelevance. Hyrule is supposed to be amok with danger, and I suppose it is, but Link has to go to the danger. The danger doesn’t come to him, and don’t let the random bat migration or ninja bandit try and convince you otherwise.

Ganon is once more the center of all the problems in Hyrule. This time is so-called calamitous form! But he doesn’t do anything other than menacingly swirl around Hyrule Castle. He’s such an after-thought that there are still inns in operation within sight of his gaze and wandering merchants crisscrossing the land. There’s an economy still at work, a society still functioning, and an array of cultures still living in their own lands relatively unscathed from all the action channeled on the center of the map. Here, there’s no rush to fight against the evil plaguing the land. Go at it at your own pace, Link, and get to it when it suits you.

Contrast that to a game like Far Cry 5 that forces you to progress through the main game, even if you are having too much fun liberating outposts and exploring wild Montana. Periodically, the main quest will interrupt what you’re doing to remind you that there is a sense of urgency to experiencing the plot unfold. Here’s a story sequence and a mission you must complete. This is something that Breath of the Wild should have employed somehow, some way, to give actual context to what’s happening behind the scenes while Link’s busy paragliding from one scenic vista to another.

Is it a crippling fault to the game? Not at all. But I shouldn’t have to play a game a certain way to max out its potential. I had droves of enjoyment doing all the things that Breath of the Wild allows Link to experience. There would be more value to have if the main quest wasn’t so lackluster. Compare the open world shown here to the ones presented in other franchises. Zelda should be able to employ the imaginative mythological fantasy of a Skyrim, the complex historical context of an Assassin’s Creed, and the ruthless back and forth struggle of a Far Cry 5. It succeeds as a comparison to one, does an OK job at another, and totally fails on the last.

Instead of simply throwing more! more! more! into Breath of the Wild, Nintendo should have looked to include meaningful content to its main game rather than the shoehorned effort seen here. I won’t remember Link collecting more than a handful of the first 322 Korok seeds he finds. And you’re telling me I’m barely a third of the way there? On the flip side, the supporting characters, their atrocious script and lackluster voice acting, the ham-handed plot progression, and criminally short main dungeons are strikes to keep Breath of the Wild from being the absolute best Zelda game in the franchise. As it stands, it’s merely very good thanks to its sound mechanics, gorgeous graphics, and compelling world exploration in spite of its uninspired primary campaign.

Give Link a quest worthy of his time, Nintendo. A hundred years is a long time to wait.

Featured community review by Fiddlesticks (April 18, 2018) A bio for this contributor is currently unavailable, but check back soon to see if that changes. If you are the author of this review, you can update your bio from the Settings page.