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People will never be perfect. But that doesmean they shouldn’t strive to be the best person that they can be.
The same can be said about video games.
Since I started reviewing games for the Reno Gazette-Journal six or so years ago, I’ve never handed out a perfect score. That’s in the course of reviewing hundreds of games.
Part of it is because I feel that a perfect 10 is something you just don’t throw around. Admittedly, though, one other reason is that I feel a bit of trepidation about it. After all, I'm a firm believer that it's impossible to make a perfect game. There were times, for example,when I find myself leaning toward giving games like “Mass Effect 2” and “Batman: Arkham City” a 10, for example, only to find something to nitpick on and ultimately change my mind.
As I found myself playing “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild,” however, I found myself reassessing this particular sticking point that I have over what a perfect gaming score truly means.
It was a change that started slowly. Then again, Breath of the Wild is the kind ofgame that gradually and methodically reels you in before changing your mind. Many triple-A titles tend to emulate roller coasters, using several big moments as strategically placed peaks designed to generate buzz or excitement. Breath of the Wild, however, is different. I’d daresay one of the game’s biggest accomplishments is how it makes the little things seem so much bigger. It’s a perfect example of efficiency, where nary a moment feels wasted as you walk, run, gallop or glide across Hyrule.
The result is something akin to the holy grail of game design, which is to keep players engaged all the time. Breathe of the Wild does this by weaving multiple gameplay threads into one engaging tapestry. Storytelling, combat, exploration and creation all play into the game’s formula. This, of course, is nothing new in gaming. How Breath of the Wild uses those familiar ingredients, however, kept me coming back for seconds and asking for more.
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Granted, the first few hours of the game felt a bit too slow. There was one point when I actually found myself wondering what all the fuss over the game was about as I wandered around a space that felt more bare than what I expected. Once I got the paraglider and was able to leave the beginning area, however, Breath of the Wild’s whole world literally opened up to me. Like a spicy dish with a delayed kick, this is when my taste buds started to appreciate the game’s true flavor.
Gamers who have loyally dined on a steady diet of Legend of Zelda games through the years will immediately notice the switch to open-world and sandbox mechanics. This iteration of Hyrule is so vast, one part of the map can be experiencing torrential lightning storms while another basks under clear skies at the same time. I know because I tested this by teleporting to various locales to check it out. Spurring on and encouraging that kind of curiosity is something that Breath of the Wild excels at. While some games are content with simply adding a large landscape with not much to do between towns, this game does a great job in filling that wide expanse with all sorts of interesting things both hidden and in plain sight.
Climb on top of a rock face and you just might find a boulder hiding a mischievous Korok kid underneath. Run across a canyon and a fiery dragon could pass you by unannounced. Go off the beaten path and you can run into a trove of goodies or an NPC with an interesting story or side mission. In many games, roads are simply a means to a destination, which I felt was one of the few glaring weaknesses of the otherwise excellent “Twilight Princess.” In Breath of the Wild, the road is the destination, filled with all sorts of content for you to discover. Frequently, I couldn’t wait to get out of the game’s towns and explore.
Traveling on foot can especially be a chore in large games, including open-world ones that require you to have a car (or horse) to reasonably traverse massive areas. In Breath of the Wild, I sometimes just leave my horse in the barn because I don’t want to miss anything by speeding through the landscape. When I do ride to cover ground, I still find myself dismounting a lot because of something I notice along the way. One thing that also helps is the plethora of warp points you can unlock via towers and shrines, which further takes away from the laboriousness of travel. Knowing I could easily go from one area to another encouraged me to look around even more, not just for shrines that provide added flexibility in exploration (not to mention heart and stamina boosts) but for items and hidden locations. When I’m traveling in Breath of the Wild, it feels like I’m actually exploring instead of commuting, the latter being one of the two biggest pet peeves I often have with open world games.
My other open-world pet peeve? That would be lazy or nonsensical fetch quests that make me feel like an errand boy. Although Breath of the Wild has its share of side missions that task you with finding things, most side quests are done in a way that seems natural as opposed to, say, having the big bad commander get someone videos for movie night. For those that do require materials, it helps that I was typically able to find what I needed through the regular course of gathering or fighting foes, which made it less of a chore.
Other side missions are worth doing just because of the story behind them. I don’t even know how many times I started a quest that seemed trivial and adorable at first, only for it to turn into one that revealed a story that almost made me cry. Many games treat NPCs like simple placeholders for words. Breath of the Wild does a great job in providing supporting characters with personality, complete with memorable body language and expressions. Whether it be scientist Purah’s hilarious mannerisms or Kakariko child Koko’s expressions of surprise when realizing she’s missing a key ingredient for her cooking subquest, the NPCs in this game can be a delight and feel like actual living members of the world. The way Breath of the Wild manages to mix levity and poignancy in a natural way encourages me to actually talk to every person I meet instead of just skipping past them as I do in many other games.
The NPC side stories also complement the main quest’s tale, which features some touching moments of its own. I was left teary-eyed by the narrative involving one of the Four Champions, for example, due to that character’s personal connection with Link as well as the deep love and affection felt by the surviving old citizens from that champion’s city. I won’t reveal any more details to avoid spoilers but that particular story arc made me feel joy, sadness and anger all at once, which I usually take as a sign of a story well told (I’m sure most folks who played the game can guess who I’m talking about). Admittedly, none of Breath of the Wild’s main characters quite get the same development as Twilight Princess’ Midna, who still remains one of the most memorable characters in a Zelda game. Nintendo games usually don’t slap you in the face with tons of exposition after all. Given Nintendo’s typical minimalist, less-is-more approach to storytelling, however, the assortment of side stories from regular NPCs helps elevate the main story overall — at least in terms of showing the horrifying impact of Calamity Ganon on Hyrule’s citizens.
Freedom is another key component of Breath of the Wild. One thing I really like about the game is how there’s no one way to approach a problem. Heavily guarded towers, for example, can be scaled multiple ways and certain shrine puzzles can be solved with different solutions. Heck, the whole world can act like some physics experiment of sorts given the way things can interact with each other. I’ve had wooden bows and shields burn and bomb arrows explode in my face while traveling near a volcano. I’ve even seen a poor animal literally turn into a nice cut of raw meat after getting struck by lightning as I was unequipping all my metal gear during a storm. I’ve also tied bombs to balloons on a whim and sent them over to enemies. Although the loss of the hookshot is lamentable, you can still do all sorts of crazy things with skills like Magnesis, including some pretty extreme levitation via experimentation.
Even cooking provides you great flexibility in how ingredients work and their resulting meals. As long as you know the principle behind ingredient types, you can conjure up meals with a mix of healing and buffs, including raised attack, defense, stealthiness or a temporary boost in hit points and stamina.
It’s this encouragement of discovery and not hewing to a set path that raises Breath of the Wild as an excellent open-world standard. As I picked, poked and prodded across Hyrule’s world, the game would surprise me over and over. One time, I was ambushed by blue Chu-chus after running out of weapons so I ended up hitting them with my precious few lightning arrows. Instead of getting regular blue gel, their remains turned to yellow gel. Hmmmm…. Then later in the game, I was woefully short of white Chu-chu jelly for upgrading one of my armor sets. Then I remembered the lightning arrow experience but didn’t want to use my ice arrows to hunt Chu-chu. That’s when I decided to warp to the Hebra region, find a cold body of water and drop some of the bazillion blue gels I acquired in the course of playing the game. Lo and behold, they turned to white jelly.
Such instances combined with the incredible amount of freedom that the game gives you truly made me appreciate Breath of the Wild’s living, breathing world. This extends to many decisions you can make in the game. When using points earned from clearing shrines, for example, you’re free to invest in either health or stamina, depending on your build or needs. Heck, you’re even free to head straight to final boss Calamity Ganon with just three hearts, a pair of shorts and your own technical skill after the beginning area without clearing the other main quests. The game really puts a lot of decision-making in your hands instead of telling you what to do.
Speaking of combat, Breath of the Wild uses an updated rendition of Zelda’s familiar sword, shield and bow mechanic. In a sense, it’s more simplified than Twilight Princess and relies a lot on doing last-second dodges to perform more damaging counter strikes. Although the ability to get extra hearts, spam healing and buffing items, and even bring 11 resurrecting fairies into battle can make the game easier, you also have to deal with breaking weapons. That and foes that can take off multiple hearts in one blow even with your various armors maxed out. In some cases, midboss-type monsters like Lynels can actually be harder than the main bosses, leading to Dark Souls-type levels of counter-strafing. That being said, I felt combat wasn’t quite as satisfying as Twilight Princess. At the same time, it does hew to that whole sense of freedom I mention because depending on how you prepare, even the game’s toughest encounters can turn into cakewalks. Champion abilities, for example, make the final boss fight a lot easier. Upgrading your time-freezing ability also makes even the toughest Yagi vagrants a joke. This isn’t necessarily bad, however, as it allows folks of different skill levels to access the game as it pretty much can be as easy or challenging as you want it to be.
Dungeons, meanwhile, are present with a vengeance, at least in terms of pure numbers. In addition to the four main dungeons, you also get 120 shrines to search for and raid. Granted, difficulty in solving the shrines can range from intellectually entertaining to comically easy. Some certainly can feel like filler but they serve a nice role, overall. The four main dungeons, however, are well done and exude that classic Zelda feelthanks to their use of rotating rooms, hidden switchesand other puzzle elements.
Admittedly, as much as I love the game, it still does have its share of niggles. At the top of my list is just how easily weapons break. Although I certainly appreciate the weapon variety that Breath of the Wild affords you, I wish that weapons had about 50 percent more durability than they do now. For example, my first bout with a Lynel early in the game quickly went south after the darn thing remained alive after I broke every weapon I had with me while attacking it. It felt demoralizing to get that far against it, only to run out of the tools I needed to defeat it.
I also wish the game had a weapon crafting and repair system that was as comprehensive as its cooking mechanics. This would have worked really well with the weapon-breaking mechanic while also allowing people to keep gear that they really liked.
Speaking of cooking, while creating dishes can be a lot of fun, I wish the game had a quick recipe list to speed things up, at least for things you’ve already made. I understand that the cooking system is designed to be a bit more open-ended and that there are a ton of recipe possibilities to write up. At the same time, I sometimes forget recipes I’ve made, especially after I’ve used up a certain dish and don’t have it in my inventory to check its recipe.
Lastly, although I appreciate the ability to save anywhere, I’ve also had times where items and even NPCs would disappear if I saved in the middle of a scenario or subquest. I had to reload a save after a fight with a Yiga clan member near Kakariko Village, for example, because I failed to pick up his sword. When I reloaded the save I made right before the battle, however, the NPC that triggered that fight disappeared. Fortunately, I had an older autosave, but it meant I had to redo the subquest from the very beginning. I also had occasional issues with targeting and wonky camera placement during boss fights, which can be annoying.
Then again, all my complaints about the game are minor quibbles given the many things that this game does so well. I’ve just found myself so hooked by Breath of the Wild’s many optional offerings that I have to constantly remind myself to get back to the main game so I could write up this review. Otherwise, I’d just take my time finding Korok Nuts and shrines, gathering materials, or playing Snowball Bowling (which, by the way, provides multiple solutions, once again, for getting strikes).
Admittedly, games such as Arkham City (one of my Game of the Year picks in the last six years) have done the whole open-world design with towers for unlocking maps and even the ability to glide. Breath of the Wild, however, does its own spin on that formula with greater variety in the things you can do while adding little touches that further enrich the experience. I still remember heading toward a horse stable during a thunderstorm and seeing NPCs come running in to seek shelter from the rain. I also remember one time I was getting annoyed by a Yiga opponent that kept dashing backward, which was made doubly annoying by the slow weapons I had in my inventory at the time. Then I saw him backdash just behind my black-and-white tamed horse, Oreo, who quickly eyed the Yiga and proceeded to donkey kick him to the ground. This allowed me to close the gap and take out the Yigawhile going bananas with laughter.
It’s the kind of attention to detail that I actually appreciate because it makes the world feel much more real and alive. Breath of the Wild is filled with many such moments and more. I’m sure I can load up the game tonight, wander around and stumble across something that would surprise me again. And I just love that. In an industry where you've seen everything, it's nice to play a game that manages to constantly surprise you in a good way. Having experienced the things it has to offer, I can confidently say that Breath of the Wild is not just one of the best games I’ve played in the last year. It’s easily one of the best games I’ve ever played, period.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Looking back at the games I loved most since the NES era, every single one had their imperfections. If I were to rate those few select titles just based on the pure joy I felt while playing them, however, I'd give those games a 10. Just like those beloved titles, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is not a perfect game. Ask me just how much I enjoyed playing it, though, and I would say it deserves the highest rating I could bestow as a critic. In the end, that's all that truly matters.
Rating: 10 out of 10
Cost: $59.99; Switch (reviewed), Wii U