The legend of Zelda Breath Of The Wild

Platform: Nintendo Switch Pegi rating: 12

As a huge Zelda fan, I can’t help but make a review for The Legend Of Zelda Breath Of The Wild. The newest official Zelda game..... released 3 years ago. Despite this, it stands it’s ground as one of the best Zelda games to play.

What a game. It’s the only game I’ve ever played that’s made me clock up over 200 hours of gameplay. For me, that’s a lot. I play a lot of games ok. It’s not that tragic.

Anyway.........

This is the first Zelda game to be open world, which did make me a little apprehensive when I first heard about it. I’ve been playing Zelda ever since I was really small, so I’m use to the linear worlds of older Zelda games, which by older I mean Ocarina Of Time, Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword, all of which I will review in the future.

I played it fully for the first time last year, almost three years after it’s release, but honestly it quickly became one of my all time ultimate favourite games.

The scenery, oh the scenery. I don’t believe there is any game that is anywhere near as beautiful as this game. It’s so delicately made that it feels like they’re real places put into the game. Each area feels different from the last and it just gives you the sense of exploration. My favourite area is definitely the Akkala Region, with it’s large open expanse of grassy fields and seaside views, it’s definitely my go to place if I just want to have a bit of fun on the game. Akkala feels like it’s filled with all different secrets, some bigger than others, like the secret goddess statue or the secret shrine quests.

I do really love the shrines in botw, even though it is a little different than I’m use to. They differ from difficulty to difficulty and some are more fun than others but I do absolutely love finding them and doing them. Completing all the shrines is a difficult task but I think it’s worth it for the Green Tunic of the Wild, especially since I made it my quest to get every single piece of clothing in the game I could.

The story is brilliant in this game, if occasionally feeling a little nonexistent. Sometimes you get so caught up with catching a horse to try and get it to climb up Mount Lanayru, you just forget that the whole point of the game is to go and help Zelda who’s holding back Calamity Ganon. Going searching for the memories can get frustrating, especially if you’re very forgetful and haven’t collected the whole map yet, but it’s worth it in the end when you can piece together Link and Zelda’s backstory.

I have to be honest, at first the voice acting takes a while to get use to. After a while, I didn’t really mind it. Though, for the first few weeks, I found myself turning down the sound whenever a syllable was heard. I really don’t like the voice of Zelda, the attempt to make a British accent just didn’t work (I’m British and let me tell you, no one, and I mean no one, sounds like that here.) I appreciate the work that’s gone into voicing her, and sometimes it does sound really good, I just seemed to find myself cringing more times than I was enjoying it.

There’s a lot of characters in this game, though not many talking enemies. The only villain that actually speaks is Master Kohga but even he doesn’t have voice acting and he’s not particularly despicable, he’s just kind of stupid. There’s plenty of monsters to fight but I couldn’t help feeling like there was ample opportunity for there to be more villains in there, which is why I was quite happy to find out that Astor was a new villain in Hyrule Warriors Age Of Calamity, even though they didn’t do that much with him.

Although Calamity Ganon gave a constant reminder of destruction, he didn’t actually do much and even when you fight him at the end, it just felt too easy. The whole idea of the game is that the calamity is a dangerous and never ending threat that no one can defeat. But when you complete it within half an hour, you can’t help but feel just a little disappointed.

All the different outfits for Link was definitely one of my favourite things about the game. I love the Hylian Tunic with the Hylian Trousers and Hylian Hood. Although it’s one of the more simple outfits, it remained my favourite throughout.

The music is great and I love the array that there is. Everywhere seems to have its own theme and the music makes the areas feel just that bit more special.

My favourite things about the game:

1. The exploration. You can literally go anywhere and climb anything with your bare hands, even blocks of ice. Cool.

2. The array of outfits. You could do a fashion show with the amount of clothes there are for Link in the game!

3. The characters. There are so many characters that affect the story in many ways, giving it a unique way of storytelling through characters you meet along the way.

4. The music. The music and sounds are just brilliant, there’s so many things to listen to and it just makes the world more vibrant.

Things I dislike about the game:

1. The voice acting. I know it takes a lot of work to do and I’m appreciative of the work they’ve done but it’s just not for me.

2. The lack of main villains. Although Calamity Ganon does seem to be very bad, a more talkative villain might have given just that little more.

3. Easiness of the final boss. For a boss that’s supposed to be the most destructive and difficult creature to grace the land..... you shouldn’t be able to complete it within an hour.

4. Not enough of the story. I personally love the story for breath of the wild and I can’t help but wish you spent more time with the story. I love a good cutscene and there just didn’t seem to be enough of them. More memories and quests would make the game even more fun.

I would definitely rate this game 9.0 stars, it’s one of my favourite games, although lacking some certain aspects. Definitely worth a play for most Zelda fans, especially those who are up for change. And Bokoblins. Lots and lots of bokoblins.

Charlie