Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild – Nintendo Switch

Romping around the great Hyrule Field, with seemingly endless grassland all around you, it’s easy to forget that you’re just in your living room. Breath of the Wild is a literal breath of fresh air to the Zelda franchise and provides a break from the nostalgia of the past.

Unlike in previous Zelda releases, in Breath of the Wild, you are more or less left to figure everything out for yourself. Every element of the game is left for you to discover through experimentation or trial and error.

This makes Breath of the Wild feel like a real adventure, not just a set of objectives to meet.

Sew Your (Korok) Seeds…

When you awake for the first time, you find yourself in the boundless Great Plateau. One thing Zelda games are known for is their size, but Breath of the Wild is vast. In fact, it’s huge, massive, immense, gargantuan, colossal, elephantine, and vast, all rolled into one. There really aren’t enough synonyms for big to describe it. Even the starting area seems huge, and it’s only a tiny portion of the map.

Instead of a map, players are given more of a blank canvas to explore and unlock themselves. This drives the discovery and exploration as you’re constantly wanting to discover everything you can, always hungry for more. Part of the reason you don’t get the whole map in one is so that you aren’t overwhelmed, as even the blank spaces are intimidating.

Unlocking the map tiles provides fast travel as well as a more in-depth depiction of your surroundings.

… Reap the Rewards

This mahoosive map allows Breath of the Wild to break away from some of the repetitiveness of previous games in the franchise. You are still given objectives in Breath of the Wild, it’s just if you want to ignore them you can. If you don’t want to bother with the main storyline, there is nothing stopping you. In fact, the game encourages you to just let loose and explore. From a bank of side and shrine quests, along with the stack of main ones, you will never be bored, and that’s not counting the 900 Korok seeds hidden away for you to find.

This is where I find my only nit-pick with Breath of the Wild. With the array of things to do, it can be a little hard to decide what to start with. Also, unless you play religiously for hours on end, you will likely not find every hidden gem. This is more a shame than a negative point as it means players may miss out on some aspects of the game.

Awesome Action-Adventure

Each of the regions around the map is intricately detailed and packed with content. The attention to detail is exquisite, from the wildlife to the weather, everything just fits. Even down to the fact that you struggle to climb in the rain or can get struck by lightning if you’re carrying something metal. This attention to detail makes Breath of the Wild feel like it’s about seven different game maps stitched together working in perfect harmony. And if this isn’t enough for you, there’s more coming. Originally planning just an expansion pass, Nintendo claims that there was so much content for the expansion that they’re creating a sequel. This is due to be released sometime in 2021 but as of this review, no details have been confirmed.

This brings me on to my outright favourite aspect of Breath of the Wild: the graphics. I am a sucker for good graphics and my gosh does this game knock it clean out of the park. Breath of the Wild is one of the most impressive and damn-right awe-inspiring games I have ever seen. From the biggest quirky animal to the smallest flower petal, everything impresses.  Breath of the Wild has set the bar for what a video game can do when it comes to graphics and it is going to be a hard one to beat for a very long time to come. 

Hyrule Heroics

Breath of the Wild is a classic action-adventure game. It’s loaded with a huge amount of combat potential if you are that way inclined. For gamers who prefer a more violence driven story, the prequel to Breath of the Wild, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is the one for you. For fans of the more cerebral things in life, however, Breath of the Wild has you covered.

Throughout gameplay, players enhance their HP and stamina by finding and completing shrine quests. These hidden gems provide fast-travel points and are scattered all over. Each one containing a puzzle you need to solve. This may be battling a Guardian, solving a riddle, or simply finding the shrine itself. These provide a real challenge and are just great fun to sink your teeth into.

These are the cherry on the top of a ginormous, delicious Zelda themed cake for me. You can practically feel how much time and effort has gone into designing each and every shrine so that they’re the right amount of difficult.

Compendium Completed

It is difficult to summarise the best aspects of Breath of the Wild as it is such an incredible creation.

Breath of the Wild is a once-a-generation masterpiece that I cannot recommend enough. With the boundless possibilities for exploration and some of the more stunning graphics I have ever encountered, this is a game that will impress pretty much anyone who plays. With the perfect balance of combat, problem-solving, and exploration, Breath of the Wild is a sensational piece of art.

Admittedly, this behemothic game may be a little too daunting for some, especially newbies. However, I urge everyone to try it and I’m sure you will love it.