The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild review

Reviewed on: Nintendo Switch

Adventure is one of the oldest and best-known genres in the video game industry. It is easy to look at some gameplay passages and identify that a game belongs to this group, and many times this is because it has characteristics inherited from other great games: those of the The Legend of Zelda series, whose first game is considered the father of this whole varied and admired style. Over the franchise’s 25 years, The Legend of Zelda has made countless experiments and introduced elements that became standard in video games… But, at the same time, it moved further and further away from the characteristic elements of its first game.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild arrives to close a cycle that has repeated for decades. There are no assistants, there is little narrative exposition, there is no specific order to follow… It isn’t an easy game, and perhaps not one for just anyone to enjoy – although it is definitely a work everyone should know.

Narrative: 10

In Breath of the Wild you control a new incarnation of the legendary hero Link, who awakens 100 years after being defeated when a great sleeping evil awoke. With no memory and without his equipment, Link needs to roam a fallen world that counts the days to its end, looking for a way to defeat Calamity Ganon and thus keep the whole world from being swallowed by darkness and destruction. This entire introduction is told in the first minutes of the game and, from there, the player writes their own story.

The only cutscene that advances the story after the game’s introduction is the game’s final sequence. There are countless cutscenes that can be watched to learn what happened 100 years ago, showing Link’s relationship with Princess Zelda and with some important figures of the time, culminating in the rebirth of the great evil and the defeat of our hero. Recovering these memories is one of the game’s challenges and is not a mandatory task. In fact there is nothing mandatory in this game and, if you are brave and skilled enough, you could go straight to the final battle right after starting the game.

In a sea of possibilities and choices, you may come across dozens of sidequests and characters with problems to solve in their lives. Breath of the Wild ends up becoming the story of a fallen hero who tries to make up for his failure and prepares to correct his mistake. But, again, each player writes their own story: you are under no obligation to help anyone, and a player may find and solve problems that others have never even heard of. The world is so vast and rich that only the most dedicated players are able to find and complete all the small sidequests hidden in every corner of the map.

Mechanics: 10

As in the Narrative aspect, the word that rules Breath of the Wild is Choice. Whether exploring the world, solving a problem or fighting monsters, there are always countless ways to reach your goal – of course some are better than others, and you are always encouraged to try something different if your approach doesn’t work.

There is a basic set of tools available from the start of the game, the Runes. These are introduced in the first hours of your adventure, and you only gain access to the world after obtaining them. The runes give you some very interesting powers:

• Round Remote Bomb: Lets you create (and detonate) a cubic bomb;
• Square Remote Bomb:Create (and detonate) a spherical bomb, much more mobile;
• Cryonis: Create a block of ice from a water surface;
• Stasis: Freeze time for a given target. All force applied during the freeze is released explosively, all at once, when time returns to normal;
• Magnesis: Lets you move any metallic object, like the X-Men’s Magneto.

Each of these abilities has endless uses, including things not even the developers could have foreseen… And that is the game’s greatest beauty: Breath of the Wild is your adventure, and you can express your play style in every little decision to be made.

Flexibility is the name of the game. You can complete the shrines in whatever order you like, hunt memories in whatever order you like, make the upgrades and improvements you want whenever you want… Or ignore everything the game offers and go straight to the final boss armed with a broom.

Audiovisual: 10

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a landmark for the series’ art style, being the culmination of years of visual and artistic evolution. The game perfectly balances the cartoonish style of The Wind Waker, the sobriety of Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess and the artistic cleanliness of Skyward Sword… and the result is a unique, unprecedented look that at the same time feels familiar and perfectly fitting for the game.

Nintendo Switch version