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"The Jet Gamer"Review:The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild
8 years ago
I’m sure you all saw this one coming.
Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Well here we go guys. After my last Zelda review, I’m sure you saw this one coming from a mile away. I’ve gotten my new Switch and it is time for me to take a look at the game everyone is eager to see and play. Yes, we have the new Zelda game, and for the first time, I got a Zelda game on release. Well, I’m sure you all want to know what I think of it, and we are going to hear from me what I thought of the game for the Switch that everyone wants. Let’s see if it lives up the hype shall we?
Gameplay
The basic gameplay of this Zelda game is somewhat unchanged, but fresh enough to where it feels like its own game. The big difference you will immediately notice is that this is a large, and I mean large, open world for you to roam around in as you please. If you see a mountain in the distance, you can go climb that. If you see some buildings coming up, you can explore that as well. Invisible walls and barriers don’t look to exist anywhere really. I’m sure there are some at the edge of the world, but the world is so large and open, that you aren’t likely to ever care. You can still do the normal Zelda game things, such as fighting enemies, roaming into towns, collecting rupees and working to end Ganon. That’s what Zelda is, and it still holds true here. The main difference being that you can do this stuff in any order you want. If you honestly want to assault Ganon right away, technically you can. You might get your butt kicked, but you can do it. What you usually want to do is roam around the world finding these small temples that give you little orbs that you can turn into for extra heart pieces, this being the main way you get more hearts, or to increase the stamina wheel. These temples are very important, as they are like mini dungeons, but they are also your fast travel points, so you want to find them if you can, as that extra health of stamina on the wheel is important and a life saver. And yes, the stamina wheel from the last game is here as well, and it is even more important here. You use stamina to run yes, but you also use it when climbing up mountains, and when gliding around on your hang glider. The less stamina you have the less you can climb or glide, but it can always be made to work, no matter how much or little you have. A big thing with this though is that there is a food and cooking system you can work with as well. You find random food and other edible munchies all around the world. You can scavenge for them in the wild. You can hunt down some meat as well from local animals. You can also buy the stuff, but you usually would want to save your money for other things, as money is harder to come by at times in this game. You find cooking pots either in towns or in random spots in the wild. You throw anywhere from two to five food items in there to get various results of how much they will heal you. Yet, you can also throw food with special effects in there to have food that will either restore your stamina, instant heal you and give you temporary extra hearts, raise your attack or defense, or even make you stealthier. Making use of this food and keeping a good stock on hand can get you out of many situations that arrive, such as about to run around of health obviously, but say you are high up and about to fall as your stamina is running out. You can eat some stamina restoring food and just keep climbing afterwards. I think you get the idea, but making use of the food throughout the game and cooking the food is a major element of this game and one you want to learn about fast. There are special recipes you can learn throughout the game if you wish to do so, but they aren’t essential. They are just something for you to enjoy if you wish, though these often do restore more than simple dishes. You also have a nice armor system in this game where you can buy or find various armors throughout the game, which do protect you, but also offer various effects at time as well. You have armor that might be weaker, but lets you survive hot and colder areas. Which is another quick thing to cover is that there is a temperature gauge in the game. If it is gets in the red or blue areas, then you are going to either start to get cold or overheat, and if you do that for too long, Link starts to take damage. Various armors and food can make you withstand this for longer periods of time though, so there are ways around them. You can improve your armor by finding the great fairy fountains and having her upgrade them for you, but this costs material, so it encourages you to scavenge for more material as you roam around. Your horse is unique as well in that you actually go out and catch your own horse and tame it yourself. You aren’t just given one. You see a wild horse and it is your job to go catch one and then ride it around for a while and comfort it until it trusts you and doesn’t want you to just get off of it. If you push them too hard too fast, they just might kick you off. That is unique in that you now get to pick what kind of horse you want, if you want one at all really. Most of the time, I would just roam around on foot instead of riding the horse around. However, if you want to get somewhere easily though, just let the horse get there for you, as the horse will roam the path’s and stay on them without you having to do anything if you want them to do so. Now, finally, you have the controversial system, and that’s the weapon system. I do like that you can pick and choose what kind of weapons you want, be that one handed or two handed weapons, and what kind of bows you want as well. The tricky part is that most of the weapons after using them for a bit, end up breaking. When they break, they disappear and you have to use another weapon. Yes, this can happen at any time, and you will end up having to adapt on the go as to what weapon you use next. This means constantly gathering weapons and being ready for when the weapon you are using is going to break. Yes, sometimes it feels like weapons break too easily, and sometimes they do, but it does make you have to constantly be on your toes and change what you are using from time to time. That’s the basic idea of what the gameplay is like in this new Zelda game. I must say it is a unique system and it really does encourage you to explore the wide open world you have been thrown into. Yes, there are times where you will feel you are in an empty world, but that’s the point at times. This is a wild world you are roaming around in at most time. In many areas, all you are going to find is wildlife and monsters. Villages are out there, but there are only so many of them, as the world has been under assault in the past. So yeah, as long as you like exploring and doing lots of it, you will enjoy this game. If you are looking for something that is nonstop action though, this Zelda game isn’t for you.
Story
Oh wow, yes, there is an actual story in a Nintendo game. I know I’ve been complaining for a while about some of these Nintendo games not having great stories to go along with them, but Zelda does seem to be one of the few exceptions out there. This game has a very deep story, that I’ll try and give some info about, but I’m not going to try and spoil things for you if possible. Basically, it would appear that Link originally lost his battle with Ganon and had to go into a long term healing chamber that has healed him over a hundred years. In that time, Ganon’s influence has been felt, but not as bad as it could have been, as Zelda has been holding him off all this time from just running around Hyrule like crazy. His minions have spread around for sure, but the worst of it is being held back. Link’s memories of the past have been wiped and now he has to relearn what happened to him and Zelda all those years ago and if there is a way to stop Ganon this time, to avenge all that he has done. However, it won’t be easy, as there are loads of mechanical guardians spread around that Ganon has taken control of, as well as the protectors that each major village had protecting them. Link has to figure out how to stop these guardians and find a way to not only take out Ganon, but bring the various village guardians back to his side as well. I don’t want to spoil anything for you, but you do get to experience Link’s adventures as he works to restore his memories and help the people of Hyrule around him. There are flashbacks that happen every now and then as you watch Link remember the past, and also as he works to find that way to stop Ganon. It’s hard to explain this all without giving out all the little secrets of the game, but that’s what makes a good story. It keeps you guessing about what has happened in various parts of the world throughout the years Link has been gone. Really, the only complaint I have is that the game does sort of come to an abrupt halt at the end of it. The ending is okay, but it just seems like it just stops. It feels like there is more out there and that it should keep going. Really, other than that, I’m impressed with the story, at least what I can tell you, as I don’t want to spoil it all for you.
Graphics
You would have to be kidding yourself if you didn’t think this game looks great. It looks like a living world, as everything looks like a natural living world that has been under some stress yes, but has also been recovering slowly over time. It feels like you are out in nature roaming around, seeing wildlife and finding various food items here and there, as well as small monster bases, towns, and other temples spread about here and there. You will occasionally see people roaming and traveling from town to town, and when you get to towns, you see people going about their day to day lives at various times of the day. Yes, the game naturally transitions throughout the day and night cycle and has an active weather system. It does rain, and even storms on occasion as well. Storms can actually be dangerous, as not only is it raining hard, which like normal rain makes climbing basically impossible, there is also lightning striking around you. You will see it hit the ground and catch things on fire, but you have to beware. If you are equipped with metal items, you will start to attract the lightning. If you get hit by it, you can pretty much say goodbye. You have to keep this in mind and either have alternatives, or be willing to de-equip your items until the storm passes. The enemies look good, and Link moves wonderfully and looks very realistic. I can’t begin to explain how impressed I am with how this game looks. If you see that item way off in the distance that really is there and is someplace you can go. There is no, oh that’s just background you can’t ever get to. No, if you see it, as long as it isn’t outside the massive world of Hyrule, you can go to it and explore it. The game has that Zelda style to it, so it feels like it fits in the Zelda world, while just expanding on top of it to make it all the more great. So yes, believe me, I can’t really find anything to complain about. Lag was down to a bare minimum, with me barely seeing any at all. I might have seen maybe one or two spots that had some iffy moments, but other than that, everything really looks good. Yes, there are the little fine details that could still use some work, but that would just be nitpicking on an already well-polished product.
Sound
The sound of this game is pretty good. There is one big thing I wasn’t expecting, and it is something I so want Nintendo to go back to doing more often, and that is that this game has voice acting on most major events of the story. The voice acting scenes sound great and really do stress the emotion that they wish to express. While yes, most of the game is still in text boxes, which you expect really. However, the fact they went that extra mile to add voice acting, that I do feel is very needed in these games, it just shows the effort they went to on this game. The game music, when it is there, sounds great and has that orchestra feeling that you now expect Zelda games to offer. However, really my only real complaint about the sound of this game is that at times it is very barren on the sounds. Yes, you are in nature and you want the nature sounds, but you sort of expect maybe some very soft music in the background to break any sort of silence. This isn’t always the case, and really at times, the game is just very quiet. I get that it is a wild world, but you just don’t want to feel like the game is very quiet with the only sounds you have are the sounds of link running around doing his thing. Other than that though, all the voices sound great and naturally, and music that is there, is beyond wonderful.
Control
The controls in this game are alright and do well at doing what they do, but I will say there is definitely a learning curve for this game. In the beginning, you are going to be struggling to learn all the moves you can do, but by the end, you are going to be impressing people with the moves you can do and the little tricks to dodge that you can pull off. Do you want link to go rushing in slashing like crazy, or would you prefer he have his shield up and you block more. I will say, that controlling Link isn’t that hard once you get the hang of it though. You are going to be messing up at first, and the little tricky dodges come with time. If you know how to jump and dodge at the right timing, you can get free hits on the enemies where time slows down and link rushes in for free hits. The more you do this, you will be encountering impressive battles where Link will be doing backflips and dodging to the sides and hitting enemies in impressive sword battles and bow battles. Just be prepared to learn the controls though, or else it will come back to bite you in the butt later on when you get to encounter harder enemies.
Replay Value
If you don’t think this game embodies what a replayable game is all about, you have to be kidding yourself. When you are basically let loose in an open world and you are able to do whatever you want in any order you want, using whatever techniques you want, you are given so many different possibilities on how to get things done. If you want to rush right in, you can. If you want to uncover every little thing, you can. If you want to do things in different ways each time you play through, you are more than welcome to do so. Do you get the special weapons and use them, or no? Do you do all the side quests, none at all, or some? That’s up to you. This is one of those games that is more than easy to replay as many times as you want. If you run out of things to do, that just means you need to come back to it again one day and do it in a different order or in a different way. Believe me, this will be one of those games you will come back to many times to in the future for sure.
Overall, I must say that I am impressed with what Nintendo has done with the new Zelda game, and it really does live up to the hype that has been building with the game for all these years. It really was worth the wait, and is definitely a system seller for the Nintendo Switch to keep you busy until more games eventually come out for it. Other than small little things with the sound, and the controls being something you need to learn to get the full experience out of them, there is very little else I can say that is negative about this game. Nintendo picked a great game to be one of the last on the WiiU and the opening day game for their new Switch. Believe me, there is a reason everyone is getting a switch and getting this game at the same time.
Overall, in my opinion at least, I give Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild a nine out of ten.
Gameplay: 10
Story: 9
Graphics: 10
Sound: 8
Control: 8
Replay Value: 10
Overall: 9
Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Well here we go guys. After my last Zelda review, I’m sure you saw this one coming from a mile away. I’ve gotten my new Switch and it is time for me to take a look at the game everyone is eager to see and play. Yes, we have the new Zelda game, and for the first time, I got a Zelda game on release. Well, I’m sure you all want to know what I think of it, and we are going to hear from me what I thought of the game for the Switch that everyone wants. Let’s see if it lives up the hype shall we?
Gameplay
The basic gameplay of this Zelda game is somewhat unchanged, but fresh enough to where it feels like its own game. The big difference you will immediately notice is that this is a large, and I mean large, open world for you to roam around in as you please. If you see a mountain in the distance, you can go climb that. If you see some buildings coming up, you can explore that as well. Invisible walls and barriers don’t look to exist anywhere really. I’m sure there are some at the edge of the world, but the world is so large and open, that you aren’t likely to ever care. You can still do the normal Zelda game things, such as fighting enemies, roaming into towns, collecting rupees and working to end Ganon. That’s what Zelda is, and it still holds true here. The main difference being that you can do this stuff in any order you want. If you honestly want to assault Ganon right away, technically you can. You might get your butt kicked, but you can do it. What you usually want to do is roam around the world finding these small temples that give you little orbs that you can turn into for extra heart pieces, this being the main way you get more hearts, or to increase the stamina wheel. These temples are very important, as they are like mini dungeons, but they are also your fast travel points, so you want to find them if you can, as that extra health of stamina on the wheel is important and a life saver. And yes, the stamina wheel from the last game is here as well, and it is even more important here. You use stamina to run yes, but you also use it when climbing up mountains, and when gliding around on your hang glider. The less stamina you have the less you can climb or glide, but it can always be made to work, no matter how much or little you have. A big thing with this though is that there is a food and cooking system you can work with as well. You find random food and other edible munchies all around the world. You can scavenge for them in the wild. You can hunt down some meat as well from local animals. You can also buy the stuff, but you usually would want to save your money for other things, as money is harder to come by at times in this game. You find cooking pots either in towns or in random spots in the wild. You throw anywhere from two to five food items in there to get various results of how much they will heal you. Yet, you can also throw food with special effects in there to have food that will either restore your stamina, instant heal you and give you temporary extra hearts, raise your attack or defense, or even make you stealthier. Making use of this food and keeping a good stock on hand can get you out of many situations that arrive, such as about to run around of health obviously, but say you are high up and about to fall as your stamina is running out. You can eat some stamina restoring food and just keep climbing afterwards. I think you get the idea, but making use of the food throughout the game and cooking the food is a major element of this game and one you want to learn about fast. There are special recipes you can learn throughout the game if you wish to do so, but they aren’t essential. They are just something for you to enjoy if you wish, though these often do restore more than simple dishes. You also have a nice armor system in this game where you can buy or find various armors throughout the game, which do protect you, but also offer various effects at time as well. You have armor that might be weaker, but lets you survive hot and colder areas. Which is another quick thing to cover is that there is a temperature gauge in the game. If it is gets in the red or blue areas, then you are going to either start to get cold or overheat, and if you do that for too long, Link starts to take damage. Various armors and food can make you withstand this for longer periods of time though, so there are ways around them. You can improve your armor by finding the great fairy fountains and having her upgrade them for you, but this costs material, so it encourages you to scavenge for more material as you roam around. Your horse is unique as well in that you actually go out and catch your own horse and tame it yourself. You aren’t just given one. You see a wild horse and it is your job to go catch one and then ride it around for a while and comfort it until it trusts you and doesn’t want you to just get off of it. If you push them too hard too fast, they just might kick you off. That is unique in that you now get to pick what kind of horse you want, if you want one at all really. Most of the time, I would just roam around on foot instead of riding the horse around. However, if you want to get somewhere easily though, just let the horse get there for you, as the horse will roam the path’s and stay on them without you having to do anything if you want them to do so. Now, finally, you have the controversial system, and that’s the weapon system. I do like that you can pick and choose what kind of weapons you want, be that one handed or two handed weapons, and what kind of bows you want as well. The tricky part is that most of the weapons after using them for a bit, end up breaking. When they break, they disappear and you have to use another weapon. Yes, this can happen at any time, and you will end up having to adapt on the go as to what weapon you use next. This means constantly gathering weapons and being ready for when the weapon you are using is going to break. Yes, sometimes it feels like weapons break too easily, and sometimes they do, but it does make you have to constantly be on your toes and change what you are using from time to time. That’s the basic idea of what the gameplay is like in this new Zelda game. I must say it is a unique system and it really does encourage you to explore the wide open world you have been thrown into. Yes, there are times where you will feel you are in an empty world, but that’s the point at times. This is a wild world you are roaming around in at most time. In many areas, all you are going to find is wildlife and monsters. Villages are out there, but there are only so many of them, as the world has been under assault in the past. So yeah, as long as you like exploring and doing lots of it, you will enjoy this game. If you are looking for something that is nonstop action though, this Zelda game isn’t for you.
Story
Oh wow, yes, there is an actual story in a Nintendo game. I know I’ve been complaining for a while about some of these Nintendo games not having great stories to go along with them, but Zelda does seem to be one of the few exceptions out there. This game has a very deep story, that I’ll try and give some info about, but I’m not going to try and spoil things for you if possible. Basically, it would appear that Link originally lost his battle with Ganon and had to go into a long term healing chamber that has healed him over a hundred years. In that time, Ganon’s influence has been felt, but not as bad as it could have been, as Zelda has been holding him off all this time from just running around Hyrule like crazy. His minions have spread around for sure, but the worst of it is being held back. Link’s memories of the past have been wiped and now he has to relearn what happened to him and Zelda all those years ago and if there is a way to stop Ganon this time, to avenge all that he has done. However, it won’t be easy, as there are loads of mechanical guardians spread around that Ganon has taken control of, as well as the protectors that each major village had protecting them. Link has to figure out how to stop these guardians and find a way to not only take out Ganon, but bring the various village guardians back to his side as well. I don’t want to spoil anything for you, but you do get to experience Link’s adventures as he works to restore his memories and help the people of Hyrule around him. There are flashbacks that happen every now and then as you watch Link remember the past, and also as he works to find that way to stop Ganon. It’s hard to explain this all without giving out all the little secrets of the game, but that’s what makes a good story. It keeps you guessing about what has happened in various parts of the world throughout the years Link has been gone. Really, the only complaint I have is that the game does sort of come to an abrupt halt at the end of it. The ending is okay, but it just seems like it just stops. It feels like there is more out there and that it should keep going. Really, other than that, I’m impressed with the story, at least what I can tell you, as I don’t want to spoil it all for you.
Graphics
You would have to be kidding yourself if you didn’t think this game looks great. It looks like a living world, as everything looks like a natural living world that has been under some stress yes, but has also been recovering slowly over time. It feels like you are out in nature roaming around, seeing wildlife and finding various food items here and there, as well as small monster bases, towns, and other temples spread about here and there. You will occasionally see people roaming and traveling from town to town, and when you get to towns, you see people going about their day to day lives at various times of the day. Yes, the game naturally transitions throughout the day and night cycle and has an active weather system. It does rain, and even storms on occasion as well. Storms can actually be dangerous, as not only is it raining hard, which like normal rain makes climbing basically impossible, there is also lightning striking around you. You will see it hit the ground and catch things on fire, but you have to beware. If you are equipped with metal items, you will start to attract the lightning. If you get hit by it, you can pretty much say goodbye. You have to keep this in mind and either have alternatives, or be willing to de-equip your items until the storm passes. The enemies look good, and Link moves wonderfully and looks very realistic. I can’t begin to explain how impressed I am with how this game looks. If you see that item way off in the distance that really is there and is someplace you can go. There is no, oh that’s just background you can’t ever get to. No, if you see it, as long as it isn’t outside the massive world of Hyrule, you can go to it and explore it. The game has that Zelda style to it, so it feels like it fits in the Zelda world, while just expanding on top of it to make it all the more great. So yes, believe me, I can’t really find anything to complain about. Lag was down to a bare minimum, with me barely seeing any at all. I might have seen maybe one or two spots that had some iffy moments, but other than that, everything really looks good. Yes, there are the little fine details that could still use some work, but that would just be nitpicking on an already well-polished product.
Sound
The sound of this game is pretty good. There is one big thing I wasn’t expecting, and it is something I so want Nintendo to go back to doing more often, and that is that this game has voice acting on most major events of the story. The voice acting scenes sound great and really do stress the emotion that they wish to express. While yes, most of the game is still in text boxes, which you expect really. However, the fact they went that extra mile to add voice acting, that I do feel is very needed in these games, it just shows the effort they went to on this game. The game music, when it is there, sounds great and has that orchestra feeling that you now expect Zelda games to offer. However, really my only real complaint about the sound of this game is that at times it is very barren on the sounds. Yes, you are in nature and you want the nature sounds, but you sort of expect maybe some very soft music in the background to break any sort of silence. This isn’t always the case, and really at times, the game is just very quiet. I get that it is a wild world, but you just don’t want to feel like the game is very quiet with the only sounds you have are the sounds of link running around doing his thing. Other than that though, all the voices sound great and naturally, and music that is there, is beyond wonderful.
Control
The controls in this game are alright and do well at doing what they do, but I will say there is definitely a learning curve for this game. In the beginning, you are going to be struggling to learn all the moves you can do, but by the end, you are going to be impressing people with the moves you can do and the little tricks to dodge that you can pull off. Do you want link to go rushing in slashing like crazy, or would you prefer he have his shield up and you block more. I will say, that controlling Link isn’t that hard once you get the hang of it though. You are going to be messing up at first, and the little tricky dodges come with time. If you know how to jump and dodge at the right timing, you can get free hits on the enemies where time slows down and link rushes in for free hits. The more you do this, you will be encountering impressive battles where Link will be doing backflips and dodging to the sides and hitting enemies in impressive sword battles and bow battles. Just be prepared to learn the controls though, or else it will come back to bite you in the butt later on when you get to encounter harder enemies.
Replay Value
If you don’t think this game embodies what a replayable game is all about, you have to be kidding yourself. When you are basically let loose in an open world and you are able to do whatever you want in any order you want, using whatever techniques you want, you are given so many different possibilities on how to get things done. If you want to rush right in, you can. If you want to uncover every little thing, you can. If you want to do things in different ways each time you play through, you are more than welcome to do so. Do you get the special weapons and use them, or no? Do you do all the side quests, none at all, or some? That’s up to you. This is one of those games that is more than easy to replay as many times as you want. If you run out of things to do, that just means you need to come back to it again one day and do it in a different order or in a different way. Believe me, this will be one of those games you will come back to many times to in the future for sure.
Overall, I must say that I am impressed with what Nintendo has done with the new Zelda game, and it really does live up to the hype that has been building with the game for all these years. It really was worth the wait, and is definitely a system seller for the Nintendo Switch to keep you busy until more games eventually come out for it. Other than small little things with the sound, and the controls being something you need to learn to get the full experience out of them, there is very little else I can say that is negative about this game. Nintendo picked a great game to be one of the last on the WiiU and the opening day game for their new Switch. Believe me, there is a reason everyone is getting a switch and getting this game at the same time.
Overall, in my opinion at least, I give Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild a nine out of ten.
Gameplay: 10
Story: 9
Graphics: 10
Sound: 8
Control: 8
Replay Value: 10
Overall: 9
