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Dragonborn Reviews- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

    • 1467 posts
    April 10, 2018 10:14 AM EDT

    So, some background information (or time for Dragonborn to talk like he's an old man reminiscing about 'The good old days') before I drop into 'reviewing' this game. My earliest gaming memory, despite the fact that I grew up with a controller/mouse in hand, was playing through random saves of my parent's copy of Ocarina of Time. Sure I had my own game, but that was boring and I got stuck on the Deku Tree (I was like 4, gimme a break) and there was something fascinating about exploring the open fields of Hyrule and running into the Gerudo Desert because the idea of the 'flags meaning something' meant nothing to mini-DB. Since then my exposure to The Legend of Zelda has been spotty at best. I've played Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess and a bit of Skyward Sword, but until Breath of the Wild I'd never just sat down and let myself get absorbed into the world of Hyrule. It's the first Legend of Zelda game that I've completed and probably the only game since Wii Sports that my entire family has gotten involved in.

    That's right, recently my mum's been off work sick with that and with hours upon hours of spare time, she came to me for a game to play. I figured, eh, honestly she'd rather play Breath of the Wild than Bloodborne and shoved my Wii U (yep, you read that correctly) into her hands, taught her the basic controls and let her go wild. Two weeks later, one of my brothers has finished the game and the other (aged 10) has...well he's having fun and that's what's important. 

    Warning ----- SPOILERS DAMN IT

    The ONE THING I wanted more of in Breath of the Wild

    So let's get into the 'important stuff' of this review...thingy. It's not really a review but more a combination of me raving about the game, ranting about something I didn't like (or did like but wanted more of) or really any singular topic that I want to discuss. Trust me, I tried once to write an ESO review and the damn thing was about 5000 words and it was only about half complete. So let me start this off by saying, Breath of the Wild is a phenomenal open world game, the world design borders on perfect, the enemies all feel unique (at least separating them each into groups), the puzzles are pretty much, mostly all fun and fuck Lynel's...Uh, right I've forgotten one aspect of the game that I truly love, but at the same time have a lot of resentment for. The story of Breath of the Wild is interesting beyond any of my previous experiences in Zelda games. It's interesting, simplistic in nature but still interesting and what I know of the general 'formula' of Zelda makes me enjoy the idea of the story all the more. The idea of the Memories is just absolutely perfect and I quite like the voice actors for Zelda, Mipha, Daruk, Urbosa and Dickhead...Uh I mean Rivali...I don't like Rivali...Anyway, the point is that I think when the story is actually progressing it's really well done, even the little bits in the villages with the descendants of the Four Champions are all pretty great. Now let's stop raving...The problem with Breath of the Wild, in my opinion, is that it needs more story. Now let's be clear, I think the idea of separating everything into segments works rather well, but I think that the game realllly needed to expand each of the 'arcs' of the story. So let me ramble about what I would've loved to see.

    So essentially the game is broken into six different chapters. The Zora, Goron, Rito and Gerudo arcs are the main chunks of the game with the Great Plateau and Castle Hyrule chapters operating as the Introduction and Conclusion. Now you could probably also place the 'Master Sword/Memory Collection arc somewhere in the middle, but really that's more of an intermission than anything else. But god damn, these arcs are really only like...what 3 hours long? If you were really pushing yourself (and as a casual gamer, not someone speedrunning it or who's a bloody wizard at the game) you could rather easily get from where you meet Prince Sidon all the way to fighting the Divine Beast of the Zora. And the Rito 'Quest'? Uh, that's even easier. The Gerudo is the exception because just getting around the desert could take a while and technically that questline sorta starts at the Bazaar rather than Gerudo Town, but anyway... The point is that the arcs are very...short, and I think that it was a huge missed opportunity for the game to be just that little bit better. What's almost worse, is that the characters (bar Rivali...fucking Rivali is such a dick) are all sort of amazing. Zelda's progression and arc over the story through the memories are just a joy to experience, every time I think of the game I remember the memory where she's presenting a frog to Link and just cackle a bit in my head. Daruk is a pretty basic, but fun little character and there's something really interesting and cool about Urbosa. Then you have Tebo, Sidon, Yunobo and Riju are just sorts of fun characters that I really would've loved to see more of. And that's where my ideas really come into play.

    Imagine that the story of Breath of the Wild was altered a little bit, I mean the core is still there and honestly nothing much changes other than the fact that each of the arcs is much longer than they were in-game. I imagine them to be about 10-15 hours, maybe even a bit longer and instead of essentially being a single quest and then fighting the Divine Beast, would be much more interesting, plotted affairs. First, is that you actually have to prove yourself to the four races rather than showing up with a (definitely not a gamepad) fancy tablet thingy and being called a Hero. He has to do some random quests, maybe even just helping out around town with the quests already in each area, but that all has to happen before you can defeat the Divine Beast. Then you do, and 'Oh No' there's nobody who can pilot it...but wait, there are four characters who are already perfect candidates. That's right, Sidon, Tebo, Riju and Yunobo are the new pilots of the Divine Beasts rather than the...uh Spirits of the Champions. The third part of each new arc (there's now; The First Arc  - proving your worth. The Second Arc - Fighting the Divine Beast and The Third Arc - Helping the New Champions) are a bit more plot/character oriented, designed to slow down everything a bit and get you invested in the character. It doesn't have to be something epic, like...leading up to choosing one of them to save and Ganon will kill the other three, but the added investment in the story, the added character moments, the focus on characters for even part of the overall story. To me, that's the only missing piece of Breath of the Wild, something to keep me (a story oriented player) interested in the game for longer. 

    Closing Notes

    But ah well, that's my Breath of the Wild...not really a Review, but sorta? I dunno, if you want a meaningless number, take an 8/10 for an enjoyable experience. Ultimately though, this was just a fun little bit for me to write, and it's something I aim to do every week (roughly). I might not get to it, but I love games so I just like the idea of sharing some thoughts in pretty in-depth ways. If you guys wanted to leave suggestions for games for me to comment on, feel free to do so (but I might not have played it). 

    • 33 posts
    December 10, 2020 4:56 PM EST

    I liked the kind of, not really review, Revali is not for everyone, sure he can come off as a jackass but if you read the journals (assuming you downloaded the 'champion's ballad' DLC) the Rito champion only wants to be seen as a hero in his own right by his tribe and gets 'hot under the feathers' because a 'weak kid' (his words not mine) gets chosen to defeat ganon instead of him. I would highly recommend the DLC as it further fleshes out all four champions' backstory.

    I really liked Breath of the Wild as a whole. I still have yet to complete the shrine and side quests but I completed the main game and I loved it more the Skyward Sword. The other zelda games I loved besides BOTW are Twilight Princess (midna being my favorite companion.) LOZ: TP has the best story aside from Breath of the Wild. I also liked Majora's mask. The zelda game with the weakest story, in my opinion is Ocarina of Time. I am a story oriented player as well. 


    This post was edited by Hasir at December 12, 2020 8:55 PM EST