The Weakest Link: Zelda: Breath of the Wild Review Part One

Intro: They say the beauty of gaming is that there’s so much to love, so many genres to choose from that, “it’s ok if you don’t like a game, there are others to play”. What if that game you don’t like is a classic, of the many that reinvented itself over the years to have fans drooling and proclaiming their love at the top of their lungs? Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a vast game that will have long time fans in ecstasy, while those who have no real attachment like myself feeling irritated, underwhelmed and slightly disappointed.

The 100 Year Nap: waking up from a 100 nap, Link, a beloved Hyrulian warrior and protector of princess Zelda needs to once again protect against the evils and help to seal away Ganon. The theme and concept of this game is straight forward, wake up from the best nap of your life, piece together your memory slowly throughout the game, and gain the aid of divine beasts to help in defeating Ganon once and for all. Link, our beloved hero who speaks in actions not words tell us all we need to know about him and the world around him. The base of everything this game has to offer is just that, its simplistic and everything is on the table in front of the player to consume. There are no abstract points to deep dive into, and that’s fine, a game doesn’t need to be deep to be good. But Breath of the Wild almost spoon feeds their players to a point of there being no real challenge present.

Tired Chaos: With this game creating a simplistic atmosphere with overly complex hoops to jump, it felt like i was waiting for the punchline during each integral moment. I was playing in a universe with amazing characters and a beautiful surrounding but an overly simplified plot, so to me it seemed like I was doing a lot for very little pay off and a very predictable story. Since I’m dividing this review into two parts, this review covers my experience with the first half of the game including the first boss. Going into this game I only had experience with two Zelda game previous, The Wind Waker, and Oracle of Seasons. Both of those games where integral parts of my childhood and created a sense of wonder and mystery in my child like developing brain. That’s why when going into this game I thought I was going to love it more than I did. Zeldas stories were always straight forward, but at least Wind Waker held some sort of mystery and certain points. In Breath of the Wild, so far, I feel like there’s no mystery and I know everything I need to do, what areas I need to cover and what goals need to be met in order to finish the game.

So Close to Being Good: The controls in this are truly incredible when they are broken down into their finite parts. Link can climb anywhere, you can visually see where you are setting a marker on the map and the utilization of the entirety of the switch is a mechanical dream comes true, from moving the body of the switch side to side to properly succeed in one of the shrines, or the utilization of the many runes at your disposal. This game’s main shining points are the controls and the characters. The character interactions are some of the sassiest, and well done that I’ve seen from Nintendo. Having as woman get mad at Link for damaging her flowers, then ACTUALLY doing damage to Link was quite funny. Other than some nice interactions and pretty surroundings, it leaves me with no interest to continue it other than finishing it for a review. Where the game really makes me question things is the weapon durability, how fast Links health drops and the stamina. Now as someone who loves souls' games and is no stranger to a good ol' stamina bar, I have to say this one is a joke. Even Dark Souls Remastered gives more running time than Link is given in Breath of the Wild… Even if Link bumps into the elbow of Water blight Ganon, he’s dead. Link, a strong Hyrulian warrior who dies by a single touch, that is not the arc I was expecting. Besides Links lack physical prowess, the weapons durability is upsetting. In a few hits the weapon is done, unless it’s a higher power weapon but even then weapons breaking in just a few hits is obscene, and I hope its fixed for Tears of The Kingdom.

To Be Continued: With completing the boss, Water Blight Ganon, and being halfway through the game I have the choice to fight Ganon and take on the divine beasts I didn’t confront first or confront them and not have to deal with them when I fight Ganon. This leaves the player with two ways to finish the game, and different choices on where to take their adventure. This is wise considering how big this game really is, and Tears of The Kingdom is even bigger. I feel as if games now a days that are built to be huge are just massive to be massive. I see no reason to have game be more than 10 hours. Unless you’re telling an intricate story that needs multiple characters, variances in plot, and exploration. But this game doesn't do that and is simple enough and to the point where you could theoretically finish this game in a couple of days if you know what you’re doing (for the main storyline not the side quests). I can say that I am underwhelmed and left wondering, if this were the first Zelda game to have been released would it get the praise it does without having the history of what it was to back it up?