The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Review

A breath of fresh air?

What’s up Spawnyaard fam this review will consist of the following: Graphics & art style,  performance, gameplay and fun factor

All these 4 elements will be rated and the final score will be the following: Worth your time or not. If it’s worth you time then it will be split into 2 categories: buy full price or buy it discounted.

All right now you understand the review system, please enjoy the future game nitpick reviews that will exclusively drop on this site so make sure you bookmark it!

Is the hype still warranted 8 years later? Are you missing out if you didn’t play it? What was the impact that left in its wake?

Is the DLC worth it?

Let’s start with the DLC, is it essential to get it to fully enjoy the game? I would say no. It’s an enhancement but not necessary. It is not story DLC, even though you will get more quests and enhancements to the gameplay elements. The motorcycle is locked until you finish most of the story in the original game, so you cannot get that when you start the game, also the challenge rounds for master sword is the same, it is an enhancement to the sword improving it’s damage and durability. If you don’t need the costumes, the extra quests and the bike that the DLC provides, you can skip it without any hesitation, you are not missing much.

Let’s get into the big boy, the main course of the review. Is it a perfect game? No! Is it near perfection? absolutely.

Text review was updated with the latest Nintendo Switch 2 upgrades,

the video below is for the initial release on the Nintendo Switch, check it out for additional gameplay scenes!

Breath of the Wild - Review

I play games very weirdly, almost like a game tester. I don’t take the road, I go into the trenches and explore the ditches around the map. Most open world games even though they are open world, the fastest way to arrive at an objective is if you take the road (I’m thinking of the Witcher 3 where that horse was mega confused whenever you didn’t gallop on the road.) Now don’t get me wrong, horses in Breath of the Wild are so unwieldy that honestly you are better off without them, the horse cannot jump on command and if you wanna go up the stairs, forget about it. Riding on an open field is a joy, but if you are exploring the mountains, better go on foot.

Initial Impressions

So I wanted to test link’s prowess, and basically explored my way. Walking, running, climbing and gliding is intuitive and easy. Link already knows all the combat skills since you emerge from your sleep, you just have to discover how to use them. The only skills you can level up is the Sheikah slate, an exterior accessory that helps link with his adventure, but he himself, is already a fine tuned machine.

There are no XP bars, no grinding for levels and mastering skills. Link is already a boss monster, you just have to get used to him being that.

The whole motif of this game is discovery. It is really a nice change of pace from the typical games that puts XP bars for everything, I guess that is the curse of Skyrim. The anxiety of seeing a recommended level when you enter a zone in the map, the horror of dying again and again to a boss enemy just because you didn’t unlock a specific skill to breeze through. All that extra nonsense is out of the window in the game. Technically if you find yourself a good weapon, you can go and challenge the baddest enemy in Breath of the Wild, Lynels with few hearts. The hearts and stamina represent much active you can be in a span of time, the more you have, the more you can do. The more hearts you have the more hits you can take, the more stamina rings you have, the more slow motion attacks you can dish out. This is why this game resonated with a lot of gamers out there, the HUD (heads up display) is minimal with essential information. No distractions, just you against the world.

World Exploration

Speaking of world, the environment reacts to you! Every swing of the blade has consequence, if you swing your sword in the grass the grass is cut, if you swing your sword at a tree that tree will be cut (although there is a problem with consistency, not all trees can be cut, most probably because of Wii U hardware limitations since this game was a cross generational game). And not only your actions change the landscape, enemies can light up the grass and set you up on fire, taking damage, when they swing their lance the grass is cut. It was really hard to go back to games that their environments don’t react to your action. It really makes a difference. It makes you think that you actually exist and can interact with the world in a meaningful everlasting way that not all games can replicate.

There is also the feeling of being small, in previous Zelda games, the size of avatar of link was bigger, more zoomed in, the screen was focused on the back of Link and his actions, now, in Breath of the Wild, Link feels smaller, his anatomy feels smaller as well, giving off a more boyish, teen size than the previous games. The is no FOV (field of view) slider, you can play around with the camera stick and make use of your environment to bring the camera closer to link, but it’s more distanced than the previous Zelda games.

Freedom, that is the main characteristic of Breath of the Wild, while The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Skyward Sword were linear story focused games, Majora's Mask is an underrated experiment of making side quests focus of the game. Breath of the Wild doesn’t care what you want to do, when you wanna do it and how are you doing it as long as you complete the main objective: KILL GANON.

Simple yet so complex, I didn’t attempt to go directly to Ganon but there are YouTubers out there who tried the challenge and it is doable. Let go back to our topic. I LOVE THIS. The freedom to do anything you want. You don’t like story? Don’t seek Link’s memories. You don’t like traversing the map? THERE IS FAST TRAVEL! Also horses, reindeers and bikes (the bike is only included with the DLC)

Gameplay

Gameplay is king in this game, the difficulty while is there, the fact that your weapon brakes it gives casual gamers too much anxiety. Look, I also like to play with a couple of weapons most of the game but the way that the game forces you to change your strategy, to make use of what you can harvest from the wild is a brave mechanic. I think that this weapon breaking mechanic is the only negative thing people have argued with this game. Me personally, I’m neutral, I get it, don’t seek it and can be refined, because I love some of the weapons in the game, but knowing that some of them will break and it's a pain to find them again, I rarely use them, especially the amiibo exclusive weapons.

The stamina bar which ties to the traversal capabilities of our beloved hero recharges fast, can be augmented with some potions and the fact that you can basically climb anything that is not between 140 and 180 degrees is mind-blowing. I want this mechanic to be present in all games, not just this one, I still remember playing Oblivion and Skyrim activating cheats (god mode) just to go over the mountains (granted I clipped through them and it was not a pleasant experience) now in Breath of the Wild I find mushrooms on the side of the mountains and sometimes enemies and even ruins. It is wonderful for explorers such as myself that hate beaten paths.

Breath of the Wild respects me as a gamer and trusts the fact that I know how to play games. The feeling of discovery is present in shrine puzzles and while there are 120 shrines, there are varied in scope and difficulty. Completing the shrines are again, not necessary, but if you want to have that sweet traditional green Zelda outfit, better get a move on, ah and also you will get some hearts and more stamina, that’s a plus I guess.

Things that I didn’t like that much is the collection aspect of the game, yes I am talking about the Korok seeds. Now I get it, we need more storage to have weapons and shields, and you have a big map filled with basically nature, what better way to incentivise the player to search every nook and cranny to upgrade that sweet inventory. Well, given the fact that you cannot keep any weapon and shield, you don’t NEED to find all the mischievous Koroks, but it is a chore, because you don’t have a chest at your house to transfer all the junk weapons that you loot from your dead enemies. The motion puzzles while you are playing in portable feels very wrong, I just realised now but just disconnect the joycons and rotate them instead of the whole console when you do the annoying torch puzzles, if you know you know.

Story & Narrative

Breath of the Wild’s story is truly a narrative told through gameplay, there are no cutscenes, no hour long dialogues and expositions, even the memories which are entirely optional, they don’t last for long and only offer a behind the scenes of things that were happening before you slept.

I will not spoil the story even though is a 8 year old game because with this one it is already a timeless classic and I want you to experience the story for yourself, and the other reason is that the story isn't much to be honest, can be summarised in a couple of sentences.

Analysing & grading the Game

All right now let’s touch on the 4 elements we will grade the game

Graphics & Art Style are charming, the scope of the map with the physics engine that glues the whole thing to perfection. Yes it is annoying when it rains and you basically cannot climb mountains, yes it has annoying ragdoll if you blow yourself off the mountain (is funny tho) but those elements are what makes the world feel alive and believable. The art style is between The Legend of Zelda Wind Waker and Ocarina of Time, cell shaded. I love how anatomy proportions of characters are portrayed and it feels consistent throughout the game whether is the chunky Gorons, feathery Rito or tall Zoras.

For performance, I had no issues regarding frame rate dips throughout my gameplay, I have to mention but I exclusively played this game in portable mode and aside from the Korok Forest, everything else was smooth. I am not digital foundry so I cannot provide an accurate assessment for resolution but if you play this game on the OLED version, it is the definitive way to play. The vistas are breathtaking! Now with the Nintendo Switch 2 upgrades, the frame rate will be more consistent and smooth, also the loading times are reduced thus less waiting, more playing! Check out this video below if you are curious about the comparison. I personally don't see a lot of differences except for the performance aspect.

Gameplay is just plain legendary. I mentioned the physics engine in art direction and I will touch a little bit here, sometimes the loot may fly away from you if the wind is blowing, the realism sometimes is too much but it is entertaining to blast away enemies with bombs. Don’t forget when you play about the full functionalities and gimmicks of the game, use stasis when you feel overwhelmed, use magnesis rune at the start to scout any potential metals, you can even steal their weapons so the they fight you by throwing rocks at you lol. Bombs are you friend and don’t forget that you have 2 instances of bombs you don’t be afraid to create some mayhem and traps. I sometimes just forgot about these and got foolishly terminated by enemies.

And last but not least, is it fun? The fun factor doesn’t come from how the story is presented like God of War or The Last of Us games, or even Ocarina of Time. The fun element comes from exploration and discovery. And I don’t want to get emotional but when I played Breath of the Wild I was in a pivotal period in my life when I thought that playing games is not fun anymore, it was not worth to waste my time immersing myself in a game just to be disappointed. Yet playing this game cured me from that fatigue, and I am confident that if you suffer from the same affliction, the effects can be the same.

Final Impressions

The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild really is a breath of fresh air for letting Hyrule become my playbox and let me discover every nook and cranny of the world at my own pace, my way. It invigorated me and gave me hope that gameplay is indeed king in gaming and will be till the end of time.

The game is worth your time and money, buy it full price or if you can you can buy it discounted from various brick and mortar shops like GameStop or other ones in your country. Nintendo recently did a digital 33% off discount to Breath of the Wild game and its DLC. Even if you get it full priced, it’s worth the money. Now I have to interject with the Nintendo Switch 2 pricing fiasco, just beware that the Nintendo Switch 2 edition the DLC is not included in that package, only the game and the upgrade pack.

Since I care about you, I have to tell you that there are ways to get this game cheaper: buy the standard Switch 1 game (physical or digital) + the upgrade (or if you have Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion pack that upgrade is included so no need for additional purchase) + the DLC for the full Zelda Breath of the Wild experience.

Rating and Verdict

Now onto the grades, cuz people like it when you give scores, so let’s see:

Graphics & Art style - 9
Performance - 8
Gameplay - 10
Fun - 10

Overall the score for the Legend of Zelda, Breath of the Wild is a 95/100, very close to perfection. The final score is not an average of the separate reviewed elements but the game as a whole package. A gift wrapped nicely by the developers for us, gamers.

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About the Author
Tim loves games. His gaming hobby comprises of RTS, RPG, Strategy, JRPG and Action Adventure games so if you are a fellow fan, or you never heard of these genres before, he hopes that through his writing, he can make you at least curious to try these amazing games that we all love and enjoy.

Tim