Quite possibly the greatest Nintendo game of the modern-era a masterpiece
It’s hard to put into words a good way of expressing how I feel after playing The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. This is the latest game in The Legend of Zelda gaming series by Nintendo, and one I have personally been looking forward to for a long time.
Originally musings of a new Zelda game coming for Nintendo’s previous home console, the Wii U, go all the way back to January 2013 when Mr Aonuma, series producer revealed the philosophy that would be the foundation for this new title.
Mr Aonuma and team had decided early on in the development of this title, to focus on making sure this game would be stray from the usual formula that most Zelda games, since Ocarina of Time, have followed. The mission statement for the new Zelda, was to “rethink the conventions of Zelda”. This concepts purpose was to look at the series as a whole to find out what the essence of Zelda is, and to discover what changes are required to be made to prevent the series from becoming stale or past it’s prime.
Unfortunately, one of the areas of criticism concerning the more recent 3D titles, have critiqued Zelda for resting on it’s laurels and being afraid of shaking up the formula, preferring to remain comfortable with the formula developed during Link’s first outing on Nintendo 64. After 5 3D mainline Zelda games, there has been a concern if Nintendo is no longer able to produce a title quite on the scale of their very best, and if this is something now beyond their reach.
Skyward Sword was originally developed with a similar train of thought, in re-thinking the conventions of Zelda. That particular game asked the player to revisit a dungeon they had already completed and encouraged players to interact with towns people to build rapport and be rewarded, much like in Majora’s Mask. With it’s new impressionist artstyle, and upgrading system similar to games such as Monster Hunter, Skyward Sword attempted to distance itself from being seen as an Ocarina of Time clone. Something which many players today still feel Twilight Princess represents.
It is fair to say the 3D Zelda games carry a legacy all of their own, and while Majora’s Mask didn’t receive such a welcoming reception and adoration upon release as it now enjoys, I think we can all agree these games have been good to excellent titles. Another incredible title, The Wind Waker, unfortunately suffered from many issues that later games would attempt to rectify, such as removing the hindrance many found sailing to be, providing more land for Link to explore, a preferable mode of transport, and larger, more fulfilling dungeons. The game’s biggest misstep, in my opinion, was a smattering feeling that the game was perhaps a bit rushed, and this is very evident in the second half of the game.
But what does the history of the 3D Zelda series have to do with Breath of the Wild? Isn’t this the game this review should be focusing on? Well, yes, actually the history of the Zelda franchise is important. Nintendo, specifically Mr Aonuma, was responsible for working on each of the titles I have mentioned in this review. Additionally, he has also been responsible for the various remakes and remasters of each 3D Zelda game (minus any revision of Skyward Sword, which as of typing this, does not yet exist). Because Mr Aonuma has had the valuable experience of re-visiting these titles, and making alterations to each of them along the way for various quality of life improvements, he has been able to re-discover these games in new ways. Not only does he have the experience of long ago creating these gems, but he has now dissected each, and has been able to look at them objectively and reject what is no longer considered acceptable, and provide the players with definitive versions. This isn’t to say those games are perfect, however the breadth of information he has obtained during this process, has enabled him to approach Breath of the Wild in a unique way.
In January 2013, Eiji Aonuma defined re-thinking Zelda’s conventions as, “complete the dungeons in a certain order” and “play by yourself”. The former became the central theme to the eventual game we would receive. That is to say, the very concept of player freedom itself, which has not been present in the series in any substantial way, since the original Legend of Zelda on NES. But this was merely an idea where they wanted to take the new Zelda at this stage, it wouldn’t be until the following year when we would find out what this concept had evolved into.
In June 2014, Nintendo fans and the press were finally shown a visual for what the new Legend of Zelda game for Wii U could be. However, to preface this, Eiji Aonuma introduced the unveiling by first referencing the original 1986 title. It was clear at this stage, that “completing dungeons in a certain order” had evolved into something spanning the very core of the title itself. Instead of limiting the player to make a decision of which dungeon they wanted to tackle first, the producer now wanted players to imagine the game world as a sandbox, with the ability to approach any given task, any location, in any way they want, with full 360 degree access to all the world’s terrain and locales.
At the time, the wording… didn’t make too much sense. We are so used to open worlds with contained areas, corridors, invisible walls; elements which make admittedly large worlds, a bit smaller. These games, are not entirely open.
After multiple delays, E3 2016 was dedicated to showing people what the future of the Zelda series could look like, and Breath of the Wild provided something both familiar and very fresh. This “freshness” was the inspiration for the title. A breath of fresh air, a new experience, and Link to explore this giant wild world. The idea of discoveries being out there, and it’s up to you to find them. The title of the game communicates a lot in this case, and it should have given some long time Zelda players a piece of what they may have been craving for.
Nintendo used this time to demonstrate Aonuma’s idea of puzzle-solving beginning from the moment you decide which direction you want to explore. The response to this is providing a world that is very interactive, and being a character in it’s own right. The player is no longer running across a flat plain with a grass texture called a field, but a play ground with opportunity to experiment, find alternative ways of doing something ordinary, and to become creative with a greater toolset available to them than before, thanks to a larger focus on a robust physics engine, and yes, it’s chemistry engine.
The game is a game of questions. “If I try this, will this work?” and “I expect this to do this” and “I can’t believe that worked”. The game responds to the player with a resounding “yes”, to almost each question asked of it. The opening section to the game is possibly the greatest “tutorial” area, I have ever played in a game. In this section, the player arrives into the world quite literally naked (except for Link’s shorts). Your character is entirely a blank slate, and it is up to the player to proceed through this area, lightly guided towards a goal. The goal is to be able to escape the area, and explore the interesting vast world which you can see all around you, as you explore the Great Plateau.
The Great Plateau incentives the player to explore and complete the area, with the reward being the chains removed and the player being allowed to do any thing, any time, go any where, and tackle any thing they want to, or explore as little of it as they so choose. Think of The Great Plateau area, as any other 3D Zelda game. A contained area, with walls, and the game telling you that you cannot proceed in that direction. The Great Plateau represents something which we are familiar with, and what we are trying to get away from. We no longer wish to be restricted, and we want to explore. Each of the previous games provided glimpses of areas we wanted to explore, but we were never allowed off of our leash. The Great Plateau provides an introduction to the core mechanics we will be experiencing over the course of the game, but just as importantly, the promise of freedom. It isn’t given to you upon starting the game, but is the reward given to the player upon completing this area. The very thought process of obtaining your glider, climbing a tower, and flying off the Great Plateau, is leaving all those restrictions behind. Link finally lands, and it’s up to you. No, not the narrative. It’s up to you which way you go, how you will approach this game, where you will go, what you will discover, and what you will see and do. The Great Plateau provided you with the basics, now you’re on your own.
And I was, I was totally alone. I can’t remember the last time a Nintendo game dropped me in a place and told me “just play”. I didn’t have a companion character telling me where to go, or what I was supposed to be doing. The Great Plateau provided some story context and a motivation for the player, but I could choose to ignore it if I wanted to. Alternatively, I could follow the story, or I could have a very minimal run and just skip a large chunk of the content of the game. I could even decide to run straight to the final boss of the game, after leaving the Plateau. At last a Zelda game has finally delivered on the promise from the original NES title, and actually beating it at it’s own game. This is the most open a Zelda game has ever been. This also provides the player with decisions that are entirely unique to each player, as every player will see the world in an entirely different way.
The level of freedom offered isn’t just down to which quests you tackle, which dungeons you approach or the order you approach them, which mini-dungeons or shrines you will tackle, and what loot you will discover, but an actual feeling of discovery which cannot be understated. You will find yourself running across fields and leaving your horse, your form of vehicular transport in this game, at home in the stables. Instead you will opt to see what’s over that hill, what’s on top of that mountain, what fell from the sky, what is glowing in the water, or what’s flying over head. In addition, the game is packed full of smaller discoveries. I can tell you every time I explore this world, I find something I hadn’t seen before. My Switch tells me I have played “120 hours or more”. To have this amount of content… is staggering. However do not let the volume of content put you off. Yes there is a lot to do, but it’s really more a lot you can-do, not what you need to do. As mentioned before, the amount of content you discover is up to you.
While there are only a few main dungeons in this game, they are accessed through interactions with settlements which further emphasise the feeling of loss and despair, and ruin in this world. The dungeons are accessed via exposition scenes and characters, some of which have received voice acting. Fortunately, Zelda herself is good, and many of the male characters are decent. Link remains silent, but his personality is expressed now and again via other characters, or in texts you find in the world. The quality of the voice acting is subjective, but I don’t find them to be unpleasant. A few of the character voices could have been re-considered and re-cast however, but overall the quality here is acceptable.
The dungeons themselves are typical fair, but each has some method of manipulating the environment to transform the shape of the area you are exploring. While providing a traditional dungeon experience, it’s welcome to see something as old as the series itself being given a slight makeover. The dungeons vary in difficulty. Unfortunately this means they range from easy, to difficult and confusing. While I prefer Zelda games which offer a sense of getting lost inside a labyrinth, the easiest dungeon is near to insulting. Where the game had provided a lack of hand-holding until now, this variance in difficulty found in the dungeons, suggest there’s at least part of the old mindset in here working against the new. Nintendo seemingly do want you to travel to areas in a certain order, and sometimes the immediate opportunity to investigate an area doesn’t always coincide with the challenges faced there.
The boss fights are something that feel perhaps a little underdeveloped, which is a shame considering the many memorable boss fights in nearly all past games. That isn’t to say the boss encounters are bad, but they could have been much more interesting. They aren’t a total misstep, but something that I feel is worth mentioning.
A polarising opinion is in regards to the game’s soundtrack. Breath of the Wild’s soundtrack is very… ambient. There are less heroic tunes, and exciting splashing across the seas or plucking through the fields of Hyrule with sounds to make you feel content. No, all of this has been stripped away. You will be walking through a forest, listening to the sounds of birds rustling through the trees or singing to one another, hearing sea gulls above while the seas crash around the sand beneath, listening to the sounds of deep footsteps as you slowly navigate the snowy mountains, and study the sounds of tropical life in the jungle. But every so often, a piano note will play, and some light music will softly place itself on top of those ambient sounds. The sounds are relaxing, and they are satisfying. This is the soundtrack to this world. In areas where there are settlements and towns, the hustle and bustle is reflected in the music that plays in these areas. A dynamic soundtrack provides a shift between a day theme, and a night theme in these areas. When travelling on horseback, a different tune will play depending on the time of day. And mixed in with all this are classic Zelda tracks, and original music providing some of the old with some of the new. The music played in the shrines is bizarre, but in-keeping with dungeons from other Zelda games. The main theme of this game reflects hope, but also the sense of loss, in a world that narratively speaks this to the player across the entirety of Hyrule. In a word, the music is beautiful in many ways. However there is less here, than what you’d find typically in a 3D Zelda. However it does feel intentional and serves it’s purpose in furthering the feeling of immersion in the world itself. In places music where it needs to be. It’s there, and in areas when you are hunting or surviving in the world, the appropriate sounds are placed.
In closing, it’s hard to fully sum up this game. As I previously mentioned, each player will experience this game in a totally different way. This therefore alters perception in some way, as one player may experience something ground braking, while another does not. But I applaud the efforts made here, to not tailor the experience in a way that is most beneficial to the developer itself. What I mean by this is developing a very large body of content, and being afraid of the player missing and not exploring all of it. This is an issue littered in so many video games, and not just open world games. The amount of time it takes to create an area of a game is unfathomable, and the efforts required of the designers, programmers and artists alike must be immense. The taboo of forcing a player to see everything the developers put into this game is unfamiliar, but this exemplifies the core concept behind this game in a truly incredible way. Freedom. Absolute, freedom. And the valuable experience from Mr Aonuma's experience with the recent re-masters, has allowed the team to tackle the majority of the criticisms of those past titles. No longer is Zelda linear, no longer are you interrupted by a companion, and no longer do you follow the story in a straight path.
I haven’t been hooked to a video game quite like this since Ocarina of Time on the Nintendo 64. It’s taken nearly 20 years to find an experience I had when I was 10 years old. I truly didn’t believe it was possible, and it was my mindset telling me I wasn’t enjoying games the way I used to. I realise now I was wrong. Nintendo are still capable of making games that belong among their very best classics, and I can experience those feelings of bliss that I had mistaken to be merely nostalgia. Only this isn’t nostalgia, this is a new game, with new ideas, and a breath, no, a burst of fresh air. This is the re-invention of The Legend of Zelda. This is Nintendo’s greatest achievement of the modern era, and a blue print for many to follow. Where Nintendo take Zelda next is probably, for the first time in a long time, the most curious and exciting question upon completing this game. But I am extremely excited for what they come up with next. Although this game is not perfect, I still have trouble imagining how they are going to significantly top this one.
The wait was worth it.
I give it 10 posts before this turns into a BotW thread.
yes
opencritic.com
