It’s a beautiful Nintendo take on a mechanic that so easily becomes a chore elsewhere.Īs a long-term fan, it’s a treat to see Nintendo take its gift for problem solving outside of the Zelda comfort zone - a place the series has arguably inhabited since Ocarina of Time. It asks you to do just enough to prove you have the survival chops, but refuses to let stress get in the way of the fun.
Link chugs elixirs to endure extreme hot or cold, but once in those regions you will soon find clothing that negates those concerns. It adds a hint of the survival sandbox, but is never so intrusive that it brings that genre’s misery. With health-replenishing hearts removed from the world you depend on cooking to whip up healing meals and buffs. If a soup ladle won’t give the Master Sword any restless nights, it does at least reflect Link’s new culinary bent. That could be a bladed boomerang (in a great touch you have to catch them with a timed button prod) it could be, and for me often was, a broom or soup ladle. Then you have to contend with weapon degradation, asking you to really cherish what you have and master whatever ends up in your hands. One lucky find - a rare halberd with 20 points more damage and added durability, say - can give you the foothold you’ve been looking for in an area with harder enemies. Defining Link’s stats by equipment rather than levelling is smart, as you’re only as strong as the goods you carry. In fact, throughout Breath of the Wild you sense Nintendo gleefully taking apart action-RPG conventions. Could the paraglider bridge that peak and that plateau? Will it rain halfway up and doom the expedition? After years of glitching Geralt and Dovahkiin up mountains they were never meant to climb, Link’s flexibility is a revelation. As you plot snaking routes up daunting cliffs you wonder if you’ve got the grip to make it between footholds. More than this, the use of a quickly draining stamina meter transforms every surface into a puzzle. Scrambling up surfaces makes you intensely aware of the world above you and invites designers to hide secrets in the weirdest places. It manages the difficult trick of giving you the broad strokes of the epic - the mountainous skyline, 300 foot waterfalls, the odd ribcage of some continent-sized beast - but, unlike Xenoblade, delivers nuance up close.Ĭlimbing is Breath of the Wild’s secret weapon. Bionis’ towering architecture is a clear touchstone for Hyrule, from the vast stone mushrooms of the Thundra Plateau to the surprise arrival of a tropical paradise nesting behind seemingly barren cliffs. It collaborated with Monolith Soft, makers of Xenoblade Chronicles, and the resulting world comes as no surprise. The open world delivers scale and detailįor the Zelda team’s first ‘true’ open world this is a staggering achievement. Here’s hoping I eventually find a chest containing some Rennie. That this is the first Zelda you can win by exploiting barbecued meats is a glorious thing. If this involves tanking your way to Ganon with 100 bomb arrows and a knapsack packed with health-restoring steaks, then so be it. It’s in pushing into untouched territories, solving their mysteries to unlock their artefacts, that you can carve your own route to the final boss.
If you were to stick to the story you’d only visit half the regions available on the map, and see only a sliver of those to boot.
Even these linear scenes are open to interpretation, with key destinations you can tackle in any order.