Every new Zelda game comes with a lot of hype around it. I remember seeing people cry at the first footage of Twilight Princess and people hating the animated style of Wind Waker. I like all the major Zelda games at least to an extent. Zelda 2 is kinda meh to me but it's still a fine game. And really Breath of the Wild reminds me of Zelda 1 and 2 in many ways. It's a true open world like the first one and has the difficulty of the second. This game reminds me of the first time I played Ocarina of Time and I had this "I didn't know this was possible" feeling. Ocarina of Time has long been my favorite game of all time but this game made me rethink that!
First off, I want to say that I played this game on the Nintendo Switch and haven't played the Wii U version.
So I'm 30 years old and I've played a good bit of open world games but this one is the most impressive open worlds I've ever seen this side of GTA V. It feels like you would think Hyrule would feel! It has this sense of adventure but also the sense of danger when seeing a group of moblins that can kill you, especially at the start of the game. It's not so much an open world that has blimps on the radar of things to do all over the place but instead lets you discover those side quests and towns on your own. You climb towers to have fast travel spots and each one has a mini puzzle to solve with how to climb it or get to it so you can. You can place symbols on the map to mark things so you can easily find things like fairy fountains and pots to cook. I didn't think I would like doing that but it's very satisfying!
This game is not easy...at all! It's not Dark Souls level hard but it's the hardest Zelda game I've ever played and I died the better part of 60-70 times during my play through. An aspect of what makes this game so tough is that weapons and shields have durability and some have pretty low durability and break only after a few swings. It never becomes an issue as far as running out of weapons but you just can't always use your most powerful weapons all the time and that's such a change. The Master Sword is in the game but I won't spoil anything about it. You also have to worry about weather conditions like areas being too cold or hot. You have to have the right clothes or cook something so you can deal with it. It also ends up not being a big deal but it's cool to see systems like this in a Zelda game.
The story is pretty simple but this is the first Zelda game that has voice acting and it's used so well! All the major characters have cutscenes with them speaking, outside of Link and Ganon, and they're all fairly good. Most of the voice acting is told through flashbacks as Link is trying to get his memory back after being asleep for 100 years. The storytelling reminds me of Metal Gear Solid 5 with how there isn't a ton of cutscenes telling what is going on. It instead tells things with world building and exploring and you finding out stuff on your own through observation. Even though there aren't many cutscenes, when there is one its very important and they do a marvelous job. This is the most interesting Princess Zelda we've even gotten and I hope they expand on her in the DLC later this year.
There are only four traditional dungeons in this game and even those aren't like they usually are. I won't spoil what they are but they aren't the whole "get the item and fight the boss with it" that all other Zelda games have been. You actually get all the items you need for the entire game within the first hour or so. I really liked the different feel cause there are over 100 shrines in the game and they are mini puzzles or combat scenarios that you complete and get spirt orbs. With four spirit orbs you use those to upgrade heart containers and stamina and no, there aren't heart pieces scattered throughout the open world. I do wish that heart containers could be found like normal because they could've made finding some of those amazing in this world but it's fine how it is.
I did want to address a few problems I have with it amongst all the praise. The frame rate isn't amazing. It doesn't dip below 30 much but certain sections it chugs pretty bad and it's very noticeable. The inventory system feels a bit clumsy as well for as much as you're in there. It's fine but it just doesn't feel as good as it should sorting though all the food when needing to cook. I would've liked to see it keep up with recipes and have a quick make option. You need korok seeds to expand your inventory and that felt tacked on in my opinion. They're scattered all over the place but I would've liked something more interesting or mainstream to expand inventory space.
This is one of the best games I've ever played and can't recommend this it enough! I can't say I'd recommend going out and buying a Switch just to play it but the Switch is a super interesting console. You can easily put around 100 hours into this game if you want to do/see everything so if you want to get a Switch just for this know that this game has loads of content and a hard mode coming this summer. It is on Wii U and if you have one I've heard that version is on par with the Switch version. My favorite thing about this game is that you can literally go straight to Ganon and fight him about an hour into the game if you want to. He's very tough even when you complete everything but the fact that you can fight him whenever you want it so great and lives up to their promise when first talking about this game.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is the best Zelda game ever made!
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