Review: Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is perhaps the greatest deviation from the standard formula in the franchise's history, simultaneously going back to the franchise's less linear roots while adding innovation of its own. Originality is generally a welcome thing, but it's also a risky decision, so does it pay off? The answer is less clear than it seems, hence why I introduced the "conditional recommendation" before I published this review.

Story

The story begins with Link(one of many heroes of Hyrule with the same name) awakening after 100 years. Hyrule lies in ruin, menaced by a being known as Calamity Ganon and hordes of monsters, and Link has forgotten much of what happened. Link sets out to explore Hyrule, with his ultimate goal being to defeat Calamity Ganon and save Zelda.

Much of the plot involves Link discovering what happened 100 years ago, with the story being told through various flashback sequences that show the story of Link, Zelda and the four Champions who fought alongside them in the war with Calamity Ganon.

Exploring and Dungeons

Exploration is the bread and butter of the Zelda universe, and this game offers you more freedom and less guidance than ever.

You may notice that compared to previous Zelda games, Link's repertoire of tools is rather limited. Unlike previous games, in which Link gradually unlocks additional items with various purposes that allow him to explore and solve puzzles(for example, the bombs destroy obstacles, while the hookshot allows him to pull himself to distant places), Link gets most of his primary tools- four runes with various effects and a paraglider- fairly early on in the game. In order to earn the glider, Link must explore all over the Great Plateau, activate the first tower(which serves as a vantage point and can be teleported to), and complete the first four shrines, which involves learning how to use the runes. The runes, which allow Link to set bombs, freeze water, magnetically control metal and hold objects in place to build up force over time, allow for a good variety of puzzles. Unfortunately, this also means that there's less room for the game to up the ante and introduce more complex puzzles and boss encounters over time.

In theory, it's possible for speedrunners or impatient people to head directly to Hyrule Castle to fight Calamity Ganon after completing the Great Plateau. The castle is near the middle of the map(unlike many games, in which the final dungeon is at the opposite end of the map from the starting location), and there are no barriers to getting inside apart from the dangerous terrain and powerful monsters. That said, both of those will be more than enough to keep first-time players out.

Naturally, it makes more sense to explore the rest of the world first and build your inventory and knowledge o fthe game over time, but there are other barriers to exploration. Some areas are bitterly cold or intensely hot, requiring you to protect yourself from the elements if you want to survive more than a couple minutes in there; unfortunately, Death Mountain exposes you to temperatures that set Link ablaze before you can unlock the armor that protects against fire, unless you stop by an easily missable potion shop. Enemy encounters can be frequent and difficult, which I will discuss in more detail below, so being hounded by your enemies makes your freedom to explore significantly less enjoyable.

There are dozens of shrines for Link to explore, each with puzzles to solve, and for many of them, finding them is the challenge. Completing each one allows Link to gain an orb, and four orbs can be traded in for a health or stamina upgrade; the former is self-explanatory, while the latter is used for climbing, paragliding and other special moves.

There are four Divine Beasts- large animal-shaped machines that were used to combat Calamity Ganon but were corrupted by him- that Link must explore, the rough equivalent of the dungeons. They're somewhat less linear than other dungeons in the franchise, but end with a boss fight against a part of Calamity Ganon, and reward you with the powers of one of the Champions once you're victorious. They're technically optional, but for each one you complete, Calamity Ganon is weakened significantly, making the final battle more manageable.

Combat

Combat has some of the same fundamentals as the 3D games, but with some highly significant and immediately noticeable differences. Unlike most Zelda games, in which Link upgrades his weapon two or three times over the course of the game, there are countless weapons in the game. They range from one-handed shortswords that are swung quickly to cumbersome yet powerful axes, from the humble Bokoblin clubs to the legendary Master Sword, but all of them break sooner or later. This presents a problem, as it's entirely likely that at the end of the battle, you've worn down your weapons and have little to show for it.

Of course, what I just described is a best-case scenario, as the enemies are deadlier than ever in this game. You can encounter enemies that can kill you in one hit before you even leave the Great Plateau, and things only get worse as you go out into the world. It doesn't help that there's relatively little indication as to where you should go first or whether an area is too dangerous for you.

Item Crafting

Breath of the Wild allows players to craft various items to help them on their quest, in a rather novel addition to the series.

If Link sets a fire under a pan, he can combine ingredients to make a dish that can help him, with the ingredients determining the dishes' effects. For example, if Link combines a pepper with some meat, he can make a dish that allows him to resist the cold, and by adding more meat or using higher-quality meat, he can restore more health. 

Link can also make armor that serves various purposes, but the process involves collecting large amounts of materials, which can be tedious. Somewhat disappointingly, there's no option to actually make his own weapons.

Nonlinearity's Shortcomings

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is more of an open-world game than previous entries, but while one might imagine that would be a good thing, it also involves sacrifices.

The first thing to be sacrificed is knowing where to go next, since apart from running into too dangerous enemies, it's not always clear what you're supposed to do. Compare Ocarina of Time; after Link meets up and meets Navi, he is told to go to the Great Deku Tree. On his way there, Mido stops him and demands that he get a sword and a shield first. After Link complies, he goes to the Great Deku Tree, which asks him to defeat a monster inside him. Once Link has defeated the monster, Link receives the Kokiri Spiritual Stone from the dying Deku Tree, then sets out to Hyrule Castle to find Zelda. Some games that give the player too many hints get accused of handholding, but there's nothing wrong with giving unambiguous guidance of what the player is supposed to do, especially in cases in which the protagonists discuss their next moves.

The second shortcoming relates to the story. While Breath of the Wild has excellent worldbuilding, there also isn't much of a storyline, which usually requires the player to go certain places at specific times.  This means that there are few cases of being told to go to certain places to see story scenes, all while waiting for the next time you can fight or do dungeon crawling, but also relatively little in the way of plot or character development. Not all games need a deep or interesting story, but a story can provide incentive to keep playing so you can find out what happens next.

The last shortcoming, as I mentioned above, is the difficulty curve. There's relatively little indication as to which places are safe for you to explore given your current level of strength or what equipment you have, unlike RPGs, in which the levels of various enemies or other mechanics(e.g. in the Tales series, party members will talk confidently about fighting low-level enemies and be worried about high-level ones) give you some idea of where you should go. As a result, you end up wandering the world, trying to find the next place that will advance your quest and is reasonably safe, which can be a difficult prospect in a game as challenging as Breath of the Wild.

In short, Breath of the Wild gains a highly nonlinear experience with many places to explore and a great deal of room for experimentation and different playstyles, at the cost of its storytelling, difficulty curve and other elements that make the experience user-friendly for players.

Conclusion

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a highly nonstandard Zelda game that appeals to fans of open world RPGs more than it does long-time fans. Because of that, I give a conditional recommendation to this game, and only advise playing it if you favor the former type of game over the latter.