Switch, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild (2017) game
Like most games in the 'Zelda' series come review time, it's difficult to know where to start, even more so for this entry since it's the first truly revolutionary game since arguably 'Ocarina of Time,' the first one in 3D. And yet I do feel conflicted about the fact it is at the same time one of the greatest, yet also very different to the traditions of one of the greatest Nintendo dynasties ever made, nor does it come without its issues and problems. It is undeniable in my eyes that this is a great game - it's a new way to play and has so many breaks with those traditions that it could have been unrecognisable, and yet it also stays very true in many ways. A game series has to develop in new directions or it would remain too similar to past experiences, especially when those who love a series have played so many iterations of it, and that creates the danger that you'll merely be redoing the same game or story with updated graphics, something innovator Nintendo is loathe to do, although they've become a lot less stringent over the years. Most of the 3D 'Zelda' titles have aped 'Ocarina' to a great degree, unsurprising since that was such an incredible new direction for the series, bringing its style and adventure into a more realistic approach and displaying a scale that was unprecedented at the time when 3D games were only just becoming the norm, from the tiniest bugs scurrying in the dust, to great mountains you could scale and a world map that truly felt like a world. And yet there were still limitations...
'Breath of The Wild' casts off almost all limitations, that's the first thing you come to realise: from the expertly choreographed first view of the world outside the cave in which you awake, approaching the cave mouth to see the distant image of a volcano rising out of the horizon across a vast landscape stretching away, to the moment you glide off the Plateau into lands unknown with practically all the main abilities thrust upon you, it's an awe-inspiring cornucopia of options staggering in its breadth. For the first time in a game, certainly a fully-3D, immersive environment where you're down at ground level, I felt the true call of adventure and complete freedom to tackle the world as I saw fit. It really is staggering - you have this immense world, so big that it stretches into the distant beyond and you can go in any direction, do whatever you like. The natural rules of progression so ingrained in 'Zelda' where you have a little training, earn your sword and shield, complete a simple first dungeon, are rewarded with another item of some kind and then have a tempered freedom, let out into the wider world to find out where you're meant to head next, are cast aside in favour of giving you all the skills in the training area and then pushing you off a cliff, literally! There's still an advised direction to go, but do you head right off for the stable past the Duelling Peaks, keeping strictly to the paths that are the equivalent of roads in this world, or do you indulge your curiosity and begin to edge out a little, do a little exploring in one direction or another: the choice is yours.
As is traditional with the series you only start with three hearts so you're very weak. This is compounded by the rags of clothing you wear which have next to no defensive value at all, so you soon find your first encounter with monsters in the big, wide world teaches you a healthy sense of respect that would have been almost unheard of in past 'Zelda,' especially for a veteran of the series who instantly recognises the majority of creatures, knows how to defeat them and has no difficulty in doing so. Enemy AI is one of the major overhauls here: they no longer simply rush at you when you come within their sphere of detection, but seemingly have lives of their own, whether it's Moblins chasing after some of the local wildlife, or sleeping round their campfire leaving their weapons open for the cautious thief to pilfer, they are proper denizens of this world that turns a mere mowing through an area as it used to be, into a truly tactical battle, especially in the early part of the game when you have so little health or strength. Even one of these little Bokoblins can be a worthy opponent to your low-level state and that, compounded with the vast freedom and scale of the lands, gives you a much stronger sense of threat and reward than a simple monster fight has any right to! Then we come to the next in a line of discomfiting or strange new ways that litter this game: breakable weapons.
I don't think that's strange on its own, I believe as far back as 'Wind Waker' you could pick up enemy weapons, though I don't recall whether they broke up after use, you just couldn't store them in your inventory. Here, you can pick up just about anything lying around, be it a tree branch, a ladle, pitchfork, broom, or, more sensibly, actual weapons of war! They cause different levels of damage and naturally the better equipment is more hard to find than the average bat or mallet. But there's nothing to stop you from getting some of the best weaponry in the game early on if you're willing to sneak about and explore - nothing except your own extreme puniness. It can be quite irritating early on to find that something you've discovered, whether it was stuck in the ground or hidden in a treasure chest, will only last so long before it shatters, it really takes some getting used to after the old ways of gaining a great sword from the start and occasional other weaponry that marks the notches of progress. It's a real culture shock to find you don't get to keep what you pick up in that regard, be it hand weapons, shields or bows. And to begin with you're hampered by having few storage slots for these things so you're constantly worried about running out of fighting tools at the wrong moment. Eventually you come to see the world is stashed full of weaponry and you don't have to look far for one if you need it, plus you're never without some form of attack as even if you break everything in your armoury you have an inexhaustible supply of Ancient bombs at your disposal in both round and square varieties.
At the same time, removing a strong sense of progression is one of the negative marks against it. It's not that it's a bad decision, just a very different mindset, and while it's incredible to be able to simply exist in this fully realised world, bursting with delights, puzzles, flora and fauna of all description, there is something to be said for the satisfaction of seeing somewhere or something you can't yet reach and then earning the right to it, moving the story along. In that sense it's about as far from 'Zeldas' past as can be and I would say is one of the weakest elements, if it can be called weak when in reality it's simply a stylistic choice - would it have been fine for Nintendo to release yet another entry that apes 'Ocarina' with a few new items, maybe the odd new race, and shinier graphics? Yes, but they chose to be daring with one of their most important game series' and I strongly applaud their desire to innovate instead of sitting on past laurels. Open worlds aren't a new thing - perhaps the oldest fully-3D example I played was 'Spider-Man 2' on GameCube in which you had the entirety of New York as your playground, modelled from the ground up to the tallest skyscrapers, and within which you could take on any petty crime or challenge in any order whenever you wanted, or simply enjoy swinging and climbing, being Spider-Man. But the technical limitations of the machine meant as strong a concept as it was, it would become repetitive sooner or later and as in 'BOTW' the story could be progressed any time of choosing which had the disadvantage of making it less integral to the experience as a whole.
The same issue exists here where the narrative drive is severely lessened, relying mostly on little modular sections where you take on a mission to defeat and free a mechanical monstrosity in the form of a giant animal in the four corners of the land. There are forgotten memories to be recovered, of a century ago from whence you came, slumbering in peaceful ignorance until you awake at the start of the game. The sense of being tied to a time period many years before isn't as strong because of this lack of reliance on story to carry the game, you’re very much in the now, unlike the dual time periods of ‘Ocarina,’ so while it has the flavour of 'Zelda' it doesn't have the strength and power story gives. But it's not something to complain about when you're having so much fun simply roaming the land, I just noticed the absence of a strong driving narrative. Also, because the world is so huge, the little bits of story that do exist are largely lost in the overwhelming scale. It's as if they created the environment first and populated it with all kinds of creatures and tasks, then added a story afterwards. But there's always going to be some kind of criticism of a 'Zelda' game simply because they're so accomplished in sound, vision and immersion that any inconsistency will stand out and no game can be perfect. The previous title, 'Skyward Sword' on Wii, garnered much criticism for being shorter than expected, and having too little land mass as you flew from island to island in the sky - again, they were attempting to do something different and it was less successful (in terms of engagement, I don't know about financially), but with 'BOTW' you can tell they listened to the complaints and acted accordingly. In this case it’s less of a story, more of a living, breathing, immersive world.
You couldn't get a much vaster environment to explore, nor a more grounded, physical experience. I suspect you could probably fit every other game in the series within the land mass of this Hyrule, which is to say how truly huge the place is, impressively humongous. It would take literally hours to circumnavigate the entire world, travelling at the very edge and in terms of game hours there's never been a longer 'Zelda.' Simultaneously the biggest in the series, yet also the most bite-sized with 100+ mini dungeons rather than eight full-size ones. I wish it kept track of game time because I'd love to know how long I spent there: it took a good four months to reach a point where I felt I was ready to effectively end it by defeating Ganon, even though, as in past 'Zeldas' you can always go back and finish collecting the collectables. It was meant to be my Christmas game, though 'SSX3' overran through the festive period so I didn't give my full attention to this at first, which is an irony considering I could have started this on day one of my holiday, played it all day, every day, and it still would have lasted for many weeks after. As it was, I spent more time on this than any other pursuit in the months after, racking up many hours a week because it was simply so much fun to explore and there was so much to uncover and achieve. And yet, while being the vastest example of the series by some magnitude, it's also one of the most accessible since there is so little structure it’s easy to pop back in for a few minutes just to explore one little copse or climb this hill, do that mini dungeon, take on this enemy camp... Or you can settle in for the long haul and spend hours in one sitting.
Then there's the greatest part of the game which is a true game-changer and which I haven't even mentioned yet: the simple ability to climb just about any surface. It's almost ridiculous to mention it, you wouldn't think rock-climbing would ever be likely to become an integral part of the 'Zelda' experience, yet it is. Right from the moment I first walked out of the cave and found myself sticking to the trunk of a tree or the wall of the cliff and discovered I could climb it was a huge revelation: in the past all you could ascend were vines or certain fences, put there for the intrepid to discover and explore, but now to be able to clamber any surface... It's truly liberating in the implications: 'Zelda' was all about preventing you from reaching certain areas until later on when you'd earned the right, you could come back and exercise this newfound freedom, but this game gives you that right off the bat which means an entirely new way of doing and being came into existence that's hard to grasp. It's not simply the size and scope of the land, it's how you can interact with it that changes everything and is the single greatest part of the game in my eyes. Sensibly, there have to be some restrictions, completely unbridled freedom isn't necessarily as enjoyable as when you want something but can't have it. In this case you're held back by your stamina meter which allows you a limited amount of energy to run or climb and when depleted will mean you drop like a stone or can barely walk. It's a good system because it cleverly allows you so much latitude while also (early on), meaning you have to be cunning and plan out what you want to do and where to climb.
The other impediment is the weather itself which plays a significant part in this world - the rain is the killer and one of the most frustrating things of all because as soon as it starts pattering down you know you'll barely get your own height up before sliding back down. You can see what the weather's going to be for the next few minutes, but I still found it incredibly annoying to have my exploration curtailed by a change in the weather. But it does add to the realism, whether that be snowstorms in the wintry mountains or the oncoming lightning storm where your metallic weapons act like lightning rods. Wooden items can burst into flame if you're in a hot place so even the marshalling of your inventory becomes a tactical exercise, impressively. Back to the climbing: the only limit to this skill are the apparently ultra smooth surfaces of Ancient architecture that don't allow any grip whatsoever, but this niggle is essential to the puzzles encountered in the mini dungeons. What is less acceptable is that when you do end up at the far reaches of the continent, as they say, your way is sometimes barred by an invisible wall and a message that you can't go any further. This was a bit of a clanger as Nintendo are usually so good at ensuring a sense of fairness in their created worlds and this seemed like a technical issue where they couldn't come up with a better solution so simply slapped down an artificial barrier. Some areas are bordered by sheer drops into the void which somehow seems more acceptable and I can understand they needed to have some way of ending the land and don't know what solution would have been best, but it is a bit of a cop-out, more creativity needed.
It is only one little annoyance or discordant note in proceedings, but it's surprisingly not the only one. There are, shock horror, little technical issues that crop up: the worst is slow-down where you're fighting some of the larger enemies such as big Moblins, the game stuttering and juddering occasionally, a real surprise in a first-party title from such a perfectionist company using such a powerful console, if understandable considering what they were able to pull off with it. There's also noticeable pop-up of creatures and items as you get closer. Neither of these really affect enjoyment, but they did stand out as rare examples of problems within such an incredible achievement. Something else very surprising, not so much an issue as another choice that goes against every 'Zelda' ever: there isn't a single proper dungeon! It's almost inconceivable that you don't get a big, brain-busting puzzle and skills challenge, a standard component of the series, but again, can you simply do another forest-themed dungeon, or fire, or water, or whatever? It's the same issue the platform genre suffered from: you can't just keep churning out the same environments and yet it's tough to come up with a new theme that's as enjoyable to play as the well-worn natural ones. So they didn't bother and instead you have tens and tens of mini dungeons (they call Shrines), that either dot the landscape, are hidden away, or can be activated by doing certain things. It's yet another aspect that takes some adjustment to your mindset.
The closest we get to a traditional dungeon are the mechanical beasts that were once protectors of Hyrule but were turned by Ganon's evil machinations. Even these aren't anywhere near the size of proper dungeons of old, though they have those same kind of large environmental puzzles and a boss fight at the end, followed by an additional heart container as reward. No, the closest we get is Hyrule Castle itself, a maze-like collection of rooms and corridors on multiple levels, full of monsters to fight and Ganon waiting at the top. There are treasure chests, but no more maps and compasses to collect, no more finding the essential object of the dungeon, and the boss battles I found rather easy. Even Ganon himself was shockingly easy to defeat as long as you had plenty of food to replenish hearts with, I beat him on my first or second attempt. Weirdly, the actual 'low level' combats with single or groups of monsters in the game world were tougher, specifically the Lynels, half-zebra, half-lion beasts with hulking weaponry which took many attempts to defeat, by far the toughest thing in the game to take on. This only adds to the impression that the world itself was the main focus and the story and it's Big Bad were almost an afterthought, which is another very strange direction for the series. You could almost view it in two ways, as a 'Zelda' game and as a generic adventure game. It has all the lore and traditional trappings the series always had, yet it's almost more of a platformer in the sense that the joy of movement and physical freedom, and collecting, too, is paramount compared to story and character and I do wonder how much replay value it will have, especially with sequel ‘Tears of The Kingdom’ taking place in the same game world.
Yet another weird aspect that stands out compared with previous 'Zelda' is the addition of the Ancient technology, a way of justifying and incorporating something more akin to sci-fi than fantasy. There's no reason why not and it certainly means you can do all kinds of things that would have been out of place before, at the same time it is strange for Link to be carrying around what amounts to an iPad, to face robot machines, yet also allows for a new aesthetic to proceedings. I wouldn't even say it's out of place, it's just very... different. Still, so much is the same or an enhancement of the same you can't be too put out. While it would have been more involving to have a new generation Water Temple that fries the brain, dealing with one or two mini-puzzles is fine. It's an odd juxtaposition to have such a gargantuan and complex world and yet the dungeoneering side of things be so relatively simplistic, but I suppose you can't have everything. It's also unsettling that you're not able to swim underwater (I was anticipating this being the special gift I’d earn defeating the Zora beast rather than a useful, if relatively disappointing, temporary heart recovery and extension upon death), and so frustrating you instantly drown if you fall into water when your stamina meter is empty, but you have to have some restrictions or there'd be no threat. Another missing piece is that there are no caves as 'Zelda' veterans know them: you might have a cleft in a rock or a small enclave hidden by breakable boulders, but there aren't any true underground sections where you venture down into the earth. Perhaps this was another stylistic choice (I know the sequel features the addition of an elaborate underground system), and they preferred players to be above ground taking in the sights and sounds of this living place.
It's hard to describe the sensation of having so much opportunity to interact. For example, ever since 'Ocarina' with its few straggled trees I imagined what it would be like to have actual forests of 3D trees rather than walled areas with texture-mapped faux-trees. 'Majora's Mask' took it a bit further, but only with this game do we have proper forests, woods and copses, trees, bushes, leaves, plants. A real environment you can use to your advantage: climb a tree and you might find a bird's nest with eggs to take, climb the tallest and you can perch at the top and take the time to look around, search the horizon, find your way. For many trees you can swing an axe and chop it down, scattering any bounty to the ground. Use a sword and you'll blunt it, but choose the right tool for the job and it'll last longer, there's a real sense of... sense. Smash the resultant fallen trunk and you'll get bundles of wood with which you can start a fire. A fire allows you to skip to a different time of day which will change the environment or the weather or who's about. It all has its purpose. You can see the giant's shoulders upon which this game is standing, such as the day-night system pioneered in 'Ocarina' or the cycle of daily life the denizens of the world live out as in 'Majora' - every good 'Zelda' has elements from past iterations and this is no different except it's not reliant of standing on those shoulders any more, it's charting its own unique path.
You can ride a horse, not only that, you can 'store' up to five of them at the stables ready to be recalled from any stable visited, which is useful, although I found my preferred method of travel was on foot since you could root out everything that way and there wasn't so much you could do from the back of a horse. I wanted to traverse the landscape in any direction I chose, so horses, as lovely as it was to hark back to the old days, in this case even naming them, were a little redundant and I mostly stuck to myself since you can quickly warp to any activated dungeon or map tower. This also highlights another very unique aspect of the game: a true sense of being out in a wild landscape, isolated from everything. You can stand on the brow of a hill watching the sunset, bathing the horizon in a golden glow. You can perch serenely on a clifftop and see the sparkling ocean stretch away into the distance as clouds roll over, and the sun or moon crosses the sky. You can hear the wind whistling through the trees or over barren hills giving you goosebumps as you just stop and listen in lonely, far-off places, a genuinely haunting and beautiful experience at times. This is why there isn't much actual music in the game. Music was one of the weaker parts, I'm used to strong themes for each area, but most of the time you are out in the wilds and unless you're riding a horse, you mostly hear natural sounds. This has the advantage of drawing you in even further, absorbing you into the environment, but it's also yet another aspect requiring adjustment from 'Zelda' preconceptions.
Even the title screen is devoid of that triumphal 'Zelda' theme and atmospheric intro sequence, which is a big omission as first impression. As is the lack of an instruction booklet, so often an anticipatory preamble to play, and an essential part of the buildup. There's not even a death counter to keep track of how many times you died. So many of these standard traditions are missing that it does take you out of it, at least at first, but you have a new learning to take on: what 'Zelda' can be. Those old games still exist and you can go back to them, but this is a different experience. My own path was unique as everyone's will be, that's the beauty of the game being so open. For me, once I'd completed the Plateau tasks I did follow the prescribed route up until I got to Kakariko Village, then I broke off and ended up heading round the coast for endless days discovering how to play the game, how I could play it, not needing to follow a specific direction, just relishing the exploration and immersion, never knowing what you’d find over the next hill. Eventually you realise it’s time to do something more constructive and maybe take on the odd side quest which soon mount up the more people you talk to. For me, things didn’t get going properly until I tackled a map tower and realised the ugly black world map with its blue lines wasn’t the finished article: reaching the top of these towers and activating them filled in your map of that area and that became my main impetus for some time giving me a clear focus to unlock every region of the map.
It wasn’t until I finally tackled my first mechanical beast, the Rito’s bird machine, that I really felt I was progressing, winning both my first heart container, increasing my meagre health by a third, along with the extremely useful ability to launch into the air on a column of thermal current which was a great boon for climbing. The reason it took so long for me to get a fourth heart was the fact you had to pray to idols in order to increase hearts or stamina which felt like a line I wasn’t comfortable crossing. It could be asked why I would be okay with killing in games, but not the seemingly innocuous exercise of prayer, but killing in a game isn’t like real life, no one dies, but in real life people do pray to idols which aren’t real, so you’re effectively doing the same in-game. I’m sure it doesn’t really matter all that much in the grand scheme of things, and there’s always been elements of the supernatural and magic in the series since these are a staple of the fantasy genre, so you’d always had witches and wizards, generally cartoonish versions of such, or the story of Hyrule’s creation by goddesses, but it turned a corner with ‘Skyward Sword’ where they had a demon living under the main town who’s really just a nice guy which I was also unhappy with, and this game took it the next step where it’s something you’re actually doing yourself, so my real issue is where it leads to - will they eventually have real occult practices involved? I would hope not, but Nintendo’s jealously guarded family image has been diluted in recent decades as they’ve sought wider appeal so I hope this isn’t a sign of the direction of travel, yet I can’t help but feel it is.
I didn’t take a definite stance on the practice of praying to these idols at first, in fact I wasn’t even sure that was how hearts and stamina were enhanced, though I guessed early on since that was the only thing I’d avoided. It did concern me to think this could be the first ‘Zelda’ I’d be denied from completing due to content, but I was enjoying the pleasure of exploration so much that even this didn’t deter me from getting as much as I could from the experience and though it made life tougher this in no way detracted from the experience - if anything it enhanced it for the caution needed to protect myself, increasing my involvement and investment in the game. And there were temporary fixes that could be applied through cooking which enabled more hearts or stamina, so I wasn’t completely devoid of assistance. The other hope came from one of the hints that popped up during the loading screen which told of a being known as the Granter of Boons who lived in the ‘far reaches of the continent’ and traded in just the heart containers and stamina vessels I needed, so I was always on the lookout for this guy, as you can imagine, assuming this meant the Hebra mountainous region as this was as far as you could go. But just the addition of that first new heart gave me a surprising boost having survived for so long on so little - it really did inject new heart! From there I gradually traversed all regions, gaining new clothing and items as I went.
The clothing side of the game was essential, while at first I’d assumed it was more of an aesthetic choice to give players more personal style in their attire (for example, you could go to a dye shop to change the colour), a bit like the tunics in ‘Ocarina,’ but they turned out to be more like the masks of ‘Majora’ which gave you new abilities. By far the most useful to me was the climbing gear, and towards the end of the game when I’d tracked down all three parts of the set which gave a boost to stamina I was given a new level of freedom, springing up sheer rock-faces like a monkey. The barbarian outfit was also useful for its enhanced attack in battle, and there were various other items of clothing or bonus wear that were fun to collect, but had less impact such as the monster masks which allowed you to waltz right by whatever type of monster’s face you were wearing. The glow-in-the-dark suit would have been useful for tackling one of the game’s little missions stumbled upon in my travels: an island of complete darkness in which you need to use fire to light your way (alas I found the glow suit after I’d already done this section!). These mini-adventures were among the best parts of the game, my favourite being the island where all your items are temporarily stripped away from you on alighting and you’re forced to survive like Robinson Crusoe, making do with anything you can scavenge. The time you’re supposed to scale the pinnacle of a hill in order to see a white bird is another memorable moment - I spent quite some time up there before I realised it wasn’t one of actual birds flying around that I was looking for, but a shape in the landscape…
And what about all that hunting? It adds a whole other level to your survival that you need to hunt animals for their meat and becomes like a mini-game in itself as you learn to creep up, improve your aim and accuracy, or try other tricks like swooping down from above, truly making you feel like an apex predator (until you meet a Lynel, of course… though I think the grizzly bear you stumble upon in some woods is quite a shock, too). Some animals will fight back when surprised which throws in a level of realism that impresses, and it’s the animal life that truly helps it feel like a real world. Not all creatures are conventional - sometimes you’ll find something downright weird, such as the blupees, glowing blue rabbity creatures that drop rupees whenever they’re shot (I couldn’t help thinking of Father Bloopy from ‘Maid Marian & Her Merry Men’ even though Prince John didn’t have much in common with a creature that gives money away…), or the Lord of The Mountain, a glowing blue horse that with enough stamina you can mount and tame, though you sadly can’t keep it as one of your horses - same with the Stalhorses that only come out at night. These are all freebies, you don’t buy them, but the money system is more in evidence despite the lack of rupees under every bush: most side quests or tasks earn you these rather than in the old days when it was all about heart pieces or special equipment. With seemingly no limit to how much you can earn (I hit 50,000 towards the end!), and easy money to be made by selling what you forage does mean there’s less care needed about how much you’ve got in the kitty, even if some items are expensive to buy. You guessed it: takes getting used to.
It’s not all perfection, however. Along with the issues already highlighted I found, of all things, the controls had their difficulties. The revolutionary auto-jump pioneered in ‘Ocarina’ is gone (another element that makes it feel much more in the platform genre than ever before), and not since the Game Boy games do I recall having a jump button (Roc’s Feather). I miss rolling into trees to knock things out of them, an example of the physical and environmental developments of the past. There could be real irritation at times, such as in those moments you’re forced to flee from the great Hinox cyclops beasts that will chase after you and bat entire trees away as they come - it’s easy to run into a tree or wall in confusion and you’ll automatically grip it and start to climb. Not helpful. On occasion I’d be trying to escape a monster and in the confusion accidentally press down the analogue stick which makes you crouch and waddle slowly along at the most inopportune moment. Worst of all, it wasn’t possible to use both an inverted view for the third-person camera and standard for your first-person bow view, you had to stick with one or the other whether in third-person or first unless you changed options every time you wanted to fire an arrow, which was criminal. I had to learn to make do with the inverted bow view moving left to turn right and vice versa because I prefer a third-person camera view be inverted as if I’m turning it around Link. It made shooting more of a challenge… I grant that part of it is getting used to a different controller (this being only the second Switch game I’d played), but I was using the Pro Controller, not the Mini-Cons which are really far too small for anyone other than a child! I’m not used to feeling clumsy, extra-specially in a Nintendo game, usually another source of perfection for them, so it was most disconcerting, and there are a lot of controls to remember (too many times I took a screenshot when trying to view the map), not to mention frequently having to jump into the inventory to eat something, select a weapon or change clothing (something that can happen a lot depending on where you are - in the desert you must switch between warm clothes at night and cool ones for the daytime), but you do get used to such constant chopping and changing eventually. Another adjustment.
Like any game, once you’re bedded in and understand its mechanics the experience takes off, and those of this game are continually, satisfyingly compelling: unlocking the map, which in turn gives you a better grasp of the landscape and locations, searching out the Korok seeds with which you increase your weapons, bow and shield stashes, solving the mini dungeons, including the optional secondary puzzles of how to get to the treasure chests, and hoovering up all manner of flora and fauna, equipment and clothing, you’re constantly barraged with things to do to the extent you almost don’t know where to turn, and that’s what gives it an addictive quality that stands apart from previous iterations. In a way it’s hard to know when to bring it to a close. For me I did all the side quests and Shrine quests except for the ones that required the Master Sword, the key weapon that would have been a great asset as the only unbreakable weapon in the game (as far as I’m aware - it’s such a huge world there must be many secrets I never even got close to), but which required more hearts than I could garner from defeating mechanical beasts in order to pull it from the stone. Indeed, if I had found myself barred from completing the game due to my stance towards the goddess statues I’d definitely have marked it down a point despite its undeniable qualities as a gaming revolution. As it was, I never could find the Granter of Boons despite a painstaking search all along the boundary cliff edges dropping down into abysses, from East to West, suspecting a cave might be hidden just over the edge, but to no avail and I had to take the chance of facing Ganon without the mythical blade - it turned out to be a fairly comfortable end, so I will give it full marks, for all its problems are by far outweighed with delights and great satisfaction, one of the most absorbing, rewarding and detailed adventures I’ve had in a long while. Yes, Zelda is overly precocious and emotional compared with the regal character we know from past titles, but I suppose she is a teenager… And I did have the nagging impression the game overstays its welcome eventually once you’ve got the measure of it, to the extent I felt almost overly generous in my rating. But ultimately I could imagine going back to find a few more Korok seeds (I finished with 472 and 113 dungeons), or simply to run around in that world since playing almost became a way of life. But I think I’ll leave it a while before I tackle ‘Tears of The Kingdom’…
*****
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