Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild Review

The Fable of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a fantastic video game. Indeed, for all intents and purposes the game is perfect. It delivers an exhilarant alloy of open up-globe adventuring, tight and mechanically slick combat and, something few games ever manage, a wonderful existent sense of time and place. It is a combination of decades worth of the best bits from past The Legend of Zelda titles and, if you have a Nintendo Switch OLED, a Nintendo Switch, a Nintendo Switch Lite - or even a Wii U - it is an ESSENTIAL purchase.

But, you and anyone else with half an understanding of video games knew that already, correct? The crucial reasons as to why follow.

Before we get into the review proper, however, why non check out The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild's epic launch trailer, as it not only manages to set the scene and give a basic introduction to the game's plot and characters, but also shows off one of the game's central strengths, its massive and beautifully realised open up world.

Exploration and adventure

Indeed, if you were to state one thing to a higher place all others that The Fable of Zelda: Jiff of the Wild delivers, it is its wondrous and far-reaching open globe. By The Fable of Zelda games take always had some caste of open world, with players typically using a central map globe hub to unlock and then reach game-progressing dungeons, still hither in 2017, this has well and truly been transformed by Nintendo.

If you want an idea every bit to the size of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild's map then recollect more than games like The Witcher 3: Wild Chase and less The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. The earth Link wakes up to in Breath of the Wild is just HUGE, with seemingly endless vistas on bear witness in well-nigh every direction. The mural changes too and varies dramatically, with snowy tundras and icy peaks giving way into lush jungle wood, windswept heath lands, brutally hot and barren deserts and even, at the edge of the earth, tropical ocean-lined beaches.

Needless to say that if you lot ready out on foot in The Legend of Zelda: Jiff of the Wild, it takes yous a LONG time to get anywhere, allow alone reach 1 side of the map from the other. Which is why Nintendo very smartly gives the player ii incredibly useful tools to assistance their adventuring, a glider and - once defenseless in the wild and tamed - a horse.

Partner these with Link'southward ability to climb near any surface, even vertical cliffs (more on this later, as it relies on stamina), and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is packed with moments where you see a place and, almost magically, tin can make your way there, no matter how inaccessible at first it looks. There are no invisible barriers stopping y'all climbing Hyrule's tallest mountains in Jiff of the Wild, which are unique challenges in their ain right, and no strict funneling by the programmers. Your skill permitting, you can go anywhere you lot like, and that is incredibly empowering.

Gainsay and characters

And y'all will need skill to survive in The Legend of Zelda: Jiff of the Wild. The game is by no ways incredibly difficult or unfair, in fact its gainsay mechanics are typically Zelda tight and refined, however what you will have to go used to is Link taking big damage from about all hits. At first, with the odd blow by an enemy creeping through your rusty defenses, it can seem harsh, nonetheless when y'all get into the rhythm of the game'south gainsay and, crucially, beginning making use of your weapons and items in the correct manner, suddenly it all seems incredibly fair and well balanced.

Weapons come up in a wide-diversity of types, styles and power, however about every single weapon is degradable upon usage. Think the Giant'southward Knife from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, which after a certain amount of blows would break and need to be repaired again for total-ability apply. Every bit such, weapon and inventory management (you can simply hold a sure corporeality of weapons, shields, and bows at any one time; this can be upgraded and expanded nevertheless) is crucial to succeeding at The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild's combat, equally you need to react to enemies by identifying their weaknesses and then exploiting them.

Weapons can exist attained by beating enemies - if you knock 1 downwardly, forcing it to driblet its weapon, y'all can even choice information technology up earlier they get a chance to, disarming them - found in the game world, received from NPCs, acquired via merchants or gifted past beating difficult bosses and dungeons. Weapons can be handheld (like swords, spears and axes), ranged (like bows), or both, with about weapons directly throwable by Link as an alternate assail. Manifestly, unless you are using a boomerang, you lot practice then take to go and pick said weapon back up if thrown.

Naturally, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild'due south iteration of Hyrule is accented ram-packed with unique and, quite often, crazy characters for you to detect, with many nods to past titles included too for the long-term fan. Staple races like the aquatic Zora, rock-loving Goron and stealthy, sand-dwelling Gerudo are all present, equally likewise their distinctive habitats and cultures.

Mechanics and magic

Mechanically The Legend of Zelda: Jiff of the Wild - despite the huge open up world - works remarkably like to past Zelda games. In that location are cadre - story progressing - "dungeons" that need conquering in the form of the game's Divine Beasts, which typically grant Link new powers, weapons and items to help him defeat the game'south large bad (good old Ganon returns again), as well as a dump truck load of well-crafted side quests, collectibles and puzzles that can be optionally taken upwardly if desired.

The Fable of Zelda: Breath of the Wild does introduce 2 new-ish mechanics to the game though, shrines and Shiekah Towers. Shiekah Towers are big, climbable towers that are dotted throughout Hyrule's various lands and, when climbed by Link and activated via a pinnacle-mounted pedestal, lite up and illuminate the region on the actor'south map. The mechanic works exactly like climbing synchronization points does in the Assassin's Creed series, even going to the extent that once activated the player is treated to a 360-degree panning shot.

The other, more significant introduction, is that of 100 shrines throughout the game world. These human action as micro-dungeons, typically only taking five-15 minutes to complete, and chore the player with a variety of challenges ranging from physics-fashion puzzles to out and out combat. By completing these shrines successfully, the role player is rewarded with a spirit orb which, one time four are collected, can be traded in for either an extra heart in Link'south health bar, or an extra segment in his stamina bar.

And, it is the stamina bar that should arguably be improved starting time in our stance, every bit it determines how long Link tin can climb and how long he can fly with his glider. Doesn't sound that important, right? Wrong! Every bit we mentioned at the beginning of this review, exploration is largely cardinal to progressing in this game - later on all, yous have to even notice Link's Master Sword rather than it existence handed to you on a plate, and exploration is helped MASSIVELY by climbing and flying. Indeed, with a big fat extended stamina bar Link can climb Sheikah Towers more than easily, therefore revealing more of the map's locations of interest, or tin can glide for miles surveying the world's most challenging locations for a proficient place to attack and win the day.

Trials and titans

While the 100 shrines in the game are built for short applications of lateral thought and controls mastery, with Link'southward various powers such as Stasis (the ability to halt fourth dimension's flow on sure objects; bank check out the halting of the rock ball in the above picture), where the game slips more back into The Legend of Zelda's traditional longer-course dungeons is with the game'south plot-critical Divine Beasts, huge titan-like machines that while in one case created to vanquish Ganon, accept now been taken over past him and are causing chaos in Hyrule's various regions.

These Divine Beasts, mechanically, are broken into iii stages, with a get-go stage of getting onto the brute, a 2d phase of taking dorsum control of it within by activating a series of terminals, and a final phase where Link has to face off against a boss character. While each Divine Animate being is different, this basic structure holds, tasking the histrion each time to overcome movement, combat and mental challenges to progress and gratuitous the animate being from Ganon'south control. Once the Divine Beast is freed, not but is Link granted with new powers and items that can help the player best Ganon, just the Divine Brute itself also adds its power to the end fight, making the cease game easier.

Interestingly, although T3 didn't attempt this, according to Nintendo the player can technically get and face up Ganon whenever they want, without freeing any of the Divine Beasts or fifty-fifty really exploring the game world and powering up. While the vast majority of players will never attempt this, it is really quite absurd that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is programmed this way, as information technology empowers the player to an even greater degree to play the game their manner - no doubt the Zelda speed run community will absolutely admire it.

Indeed, the feature highlights another of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild'south major strengths - the actor is free to not only undertake challenges set by Nintendo, just also create challenges for themselves on the fly. For case, while a path may lead up to a Sheikah Tower, lined with a serial of enemies that would need to be overcome in guild to go there, maybe the player could use parts of the landscape, their mastery of cookery (which allows y'all to create food and stat-buffing elixirs) and specific items to reach the elevation without any gainsay taking place at all.

Lore and legend

Artistically, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is not only consequent with past titles, only also absolutely stunning. The world of Hyrule has never been so well-realised, with the game's bright cell-shaded graphics, vibrant character, location and object designs, also every bit beautiful musical score and ambience sound effects creating a superb sense of place. When the wind blows grasses rustle and sway in the breeze, when rain and lighting sweep in the landscape and Link are transformed past the downpour soaking everything though, and when the sun rises in a higher place Hyrule Castle, illuminating the Studio Ghibli-mode flora and beast, the views are simply breathtaking.

This wonderful sense of in-game place is partnered with a very clear idea of in-game time also. Various NPCs introduce the game's story to the player throughout their time playing it, retelling an ballsy tale that began 100 years previous and one that is laced with sadness and regret. This story adds genuine gravitas to the events that the histrion undertakes in the present and, at times, is genuinely mature in its tone. Tears are shed, uncertainty laid bare and, despite the colourful and vibrant earth Link adventures in, a this-is-a-last-roll-of-the-dice darkness pervades The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

Indeed, the game manages to communicate that the tale you are enacting is non only eternal, part of the the never ending flux between yin and yang, light and night, and expert and evil, simply ane that is truly legendary. Equally Rex Arthur pulling the sword from the stone has passed into legend, and so too have, are and volition be the actions of the Hero of Time.

Sword and stone

Which, in a long way round, brings the states onto the finale and the oh so of import question of where this game ranks in the pantheon of The Legend of Zelda games. Has Jiff of the Wild go a legend in its own correct?

For many gamers, due to the fact the start game in a series someone plays is oftentimes their favorite, a phenomenon wrapped up in the golden days of babyhood and, at present, huge swathes of nostalgia for simpler, more innocent times, we think that despite them finding The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild an incredibly enjoyable, impressive and playable game, the call of classics such equally The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Fourth dimension will prove too much, finding Breath of the Wild enter a tiptop three list but not take the summit spot.

However, from the virtually objective perspective we could muster here at T3 Towers - and trust us, when you've played titles such equally The Fable of Zelda: A Link to the By during your formative years, that is an incredibly hard matter to do - we feel it is quite evident that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is, by quite a distance, the best The Legend of Zelda game ever fabricated. And, what's more, for those people for who Jiff of the Wild will be their beginning foray into the wonderful earth of Hyrule, Zelda and Link, it is going to absolutely blow their minds.

The Legend of Zelda: Jiff of the Wild is available at present in both a regular and special edition on Nintendo Switch , as well as on Wii U . For more information about each edition check out Nintendo's official website .