Breath of the Wild Review
Breath of the Wild Review
Does it live up to the hype?
I know I'm late to reviewing this game but I think you are now ready... ready to hear what I think of this game! Critics and fans alike call it a masterpiece and even go so far as to say one of the best games ever made, but is it? And even if it is, is it for you? Lest find out! But before we start let me note, whenever you see big red letters saying SPOILERS!!! that is where if you havn't played it yet and don't want spoilers is where you should skip. Now lets start exploring!
Story **Minor Spoilers!!!**
The story isn't as big as say, skyward sword but there is some story in here. If you want to go in blind I'd recommend skipping this section. So Link wakes up and has no idea what's ahead of him. Well Link, welcome to the apocalypse! Oh, and guess what... your the only one who can save hyrule from Calamity Ganon! Good Luck! Then there are divine beasts and I'm not going to go into detail right here but the story is well designed and fun to learn about the characters and go through the epic quest. There are also memories through the world to remember because Link has lost his memory and they can be done in any order. And most of them are good, its fun to see Zelda's and Link's relationship grow. Honestly that's all I can tell you without talking about the Champions and heavy spoilers such as the final boss! So onward!
**End of spoilers!!!**
Controls
In order to cover the controls I have to get into the gamplay a little, but don't worry, I'll get into more detail later! Alright so Link contols really well and is the most flexable he's ever been! Oh, and guess what! He can jump! You can also climb, crouch, walk, run, shield surf, later have a paraglider and use runes and more. And the controls for combat are really good too! You can lock onto enemies, block with your shield, do a perfect block to knock them off balance, While locked you can do side jumps, backflips, jump attack and more. You can also open your inventory and switch out items, eat food (comes in handy!) and more! You can even shoot arrows in the air to aim in slow motion. My only issue is in water you don't control super good but its a small complaint. All in all, the contols are really good and thankfully the game constantly reminds you how to do stuff, because there is a lot to remember.
Gameplay
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| Adventure is out there! |
Oh boy, here we go! Where to even begin? I'll have to break it into sections to cover it all and it not seeming like gibberish. So I will do, the great plateau, exploring, fighting, hunting and cooking, Inventory and breakable wepions, bosses and divine beasts, and the final boss. Get ready!
The Great Plateau
Alright so in my opinion this is one of the best tutorial levels ever! I'm just going to throw that out there. It first starts off pretty linear and is teaching you about the world, your controls and how to interact with the world. It lets you do shrines, lets you do your first hunt, teaches you how to sneak, find new points of interest and the basics that you need to know. Its like a mini version of breath of the wild. At first the great plateau feels big, but once your off you realize just how small it is. The great Plateau is a masterpiece and yes, even the best tutorial level.
Exploring
This game is all about exploring and experimenting. If you can think it, chances are you can do it. You can go anywhere, anytime. Heck, right after the great plateau you can head straight to the final boss! The nice thing is from what I've seen the world levels up with you! After you've beaten a divine beast harder enemies start showing up. And in this game you can just do so much! Its really hard to stay focused in this game because the world is filled with stuff to do and see. Every inch! The nice thing is it rewards you for exploring. See something out of place, there's a chest there! See some weird coliseum? There's a fun but challenging boss to face there! Curious about that weird tree stump, and than it rewards you with a Korok seed. Korok seeds are both a blessing and a curse. They are fun to find most of the time but if that's all that's left to do, than it becomes both annoying and overwhelming because of how massive the world is, its like look for a needle in a ten haystack pile! But, thankfully, Korak seeds are worth it since they give you more space in your inventory. There is SOOOO much to find in this game! From the seeds, to taking pictures of everything, to finding mini bosses, to doing side quests, to finding all the shrines, to finding weapons, arrows and more! Speaking of shrines there are over 100 to find! They are like mini dungeons, most of the time featuring a puzzle or two, and maybe a boss trial. There fun to do but also makes me miss the old dungeons. There are also plenty of enemies to find, and with the simplified moveset you'd think they would be less interest right? Right? Wrong! There may be less moves for you to unlease on foes, but it makes up for it with the veriaty of HOW you fight them. You can sneak up on them, wait till there asleep and steal there stuff, throw yourself at them, shoot them from above, roll boulders on them, set them on fire, hit them on horseback, use your runes on them, and much more! Well guys, exploring is another major win for breath of the wild!
Hunting and Cooking
Okay, so first off I'll start with hunting. So there is a wide variety of ways to kill animals, animals to kill and more. The best way is to sneak up on them and shoot them, but if you're looking for a challenge, you can run at them with your weapon, run at them and shoot and more. And what you can hunt or collect is just as wide as this game. There are like 10 kinds of mushrooms, herbs, flowers, and more. And there are apples, peppers, deer, boar, goat, fish, yak, birds, foxes and even bears, each with there own species. And as for cooking it is always fun to find a really good recipe. Once again, its all about experimentation. You can try cooking food or frogs with monster parts, you can try a bunch of mushrooms or fish, there are just so many possibilities and its fun to mess around with.
Inventory
Bosses and Divine Beasts
Alright, here's where things get a little less good. First I'll start with the Inventory. How it works is you can press plus to head into the inventory and eat food, put on armor, hold things and change weapons. You can also use the arrows on the left joy con and hold them down to change shield, bows, arrows and melee weapons. For the most part it was good, but mid battle the pause to eat food makes the tension die a little and sometimes I pause at the wrong moment and when I get back in I'm instantly hit and it was impossible to dodge, a minor complaint but a complaint. Now for the weapon durability. So what happens is when you use a melee weapon, bow or shield too much it breaks. And I think that that's good, it adds inventory management, strategy and more weapon verity. However, its hard to tell how far along it is too breaking unless its about to break. I think in the inventory screen, each wepion should have a health meter, I also think some of the later wepions should have a little more durability, but once again only a minor complaint.
Bosses and Divine Beasts
***Spoilers!!!***
***HEAVY SPOILERS!!!***
Final Boss and Ending
Okay, this is it! We are finally going to face Ganon, and I must say, the building tension to this moment is perfect! But did the Boss hold up to the rising tension level of greatness? Lets find out! So, as soon as you set foot in castle town, the music that everyone was complaining about not being in the game is here, great, heroic, and you might even hear the original legend of Zelda theme! It diffidently rises the tension even farther. Then you have to watch out for Gardions, face a Lynal or two and you are there! This its it. Then you face Calamity Ganon! Oh man! I must say, him looking like a spider really through me off guard, but his first and second phase were quite good, using your skills that you learned throuout the game to take him down! (Plus the help of the champions, of course!) Then comes ganon's final stage and he's HUGE! But as they say, the bigger they are, the harder they fall! And sadly, his final stage goes down quickly and easily, especially if you choose to ride your horse! (I fought him on foot.) And while it was still awesome, there could have been so much more! There could have been a phase where you face Ganondorph, and a stage where you have to climb him shadow of the colossus style! THAT, would have been cool! And I havn't unlocked the true ending yet, but the other ending was kind of a letdown. And then I decided to stick around for the credits, exspecting a song to play that would make me remember my whole, grand, epic journey, like Mario games do... nope, Kokeriko Village. The final boss is my biggest complaint, but it was still good overall. I also love how the main theme of breath of the wild plays especially because I was like, are they ever going to play that song?
***End of Spoilers!***
Music and Voice Acting
From the divine beast cutsceanes, to the memories, most of the voice acting is well done. However, some characters *cough, cough, Zelda!* are a bit more cringy. But what games aren't? I can't go into specific characters because of spoilers, but there are some better than others.
The music in this game is beautiful, ambient songs with elegant piano, violins, Erhu and more. And some people complain about this but it diffidently fits and I enjoy it. When your in a battle, there are songs more fit for battle and the boss music is quite good, with dramatic tunes with a choir in some. And the final bosses music is amazing, so is some other music near the end of the game. I honestly have zero complaints on the music.
Graphics
Now, if you couldn't tell from the pictures, this game looks amazing! The gorgeous sunsets, the grass rustling in the wind, the water gently going down a stream, this game looks SO good! You can even see every hair on every NPC's head, and the texture of there fabric! After Link goes into the water, for a while he's wet and dripping. It almost looks anime, but it looks just as good as any Studio Gibli film.
Replay Value
Incase you haven't realized yet, Breath of the Wild is packed to the brim with stuff to do. If you don't want to start a new game, there is still SOOO much to do after you beat the game. Do every sidequest, mess with the cooking, fight bosses that you missed, take pictures of things, collect Korok seeds, see where NPC's go, explore every nook and cranny, complete every shrine and if that's still not enough, buy the DLC! There is almost too much to do in this game. And if you do want to start over, you can try to beat shrines and things and do things in order that you didn't do last time, you can choose not to do any divine beasts to make the final boss harder, you can choose not to get any heart containers, you can choose not to have anywhere on your map, there is so much replay value in this game!
Conclusion
The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild, while not perfect, is one of the greatest games ever made. Period! Whether your a Zelda, Nintendo or video game fan, you HAVE to at least try it for a few hours and I promise you, that if you play it in your play style, you will realize that this game is special.
9.5/10
the bad
- The final boss was a bit disappointing
- the divine beasts were too short
- Some of the voice acting wasn't the best
- Some wepions broke a little too easily
The Good
- Exploring is amazing and so fun!
- So much to do and replay value
- A lot of variety
- Great music
- Gorgeous graphics
- And lots more!
so what did you think of my review? What else should I review? Tell us in the comments. Before you go, don't forget to subscribe so that you can stay up to date with NintendosView! Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go play Breath of the Wild!
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