GAMING | 'The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild' Review
‘The Legend of Zelda’, one of Nintendo’s longest running and most successful franchises is back once again - this time with a few new tricks up its sleeve.
‘The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’ is a single-player action-adventure video game developed for Nintendo’s two most recent consoles: the Wii U and Switch.
Remaining in line with its predecessors, ‘Breath of the Wild’ follows the ever-silent protagonist, Link, on his quest to rid the kingdom of Hyrule of the evil entity, Ganon.
‘The Legend of Zelda’ is often praised on its story, unusual and vibrant characters, vast world and intriguing puzzles - and this installment is no exception. Although ‘BotW’ maintains the essence of Zelda, Nintendo have made some new additions and alterations to the series that may persuade even the most prevalent nay-sayers of the series to give it a go.
Positioned as an open world video game, ‘Breath of the Wild’ does not disappoint. The world is vast and there are many opportunities for gamers to clock up hundreds of hours without the game becoming cumbersome.
Remaining in line with a focus on exploration, ‘Breath of the Wild’ adopts the similar open world mechanic of slowly revealing the world map. Visibility of the map is increased when players climb and activate towers; this mechanic, although quite new to the ‘Zelda’ franchise works well at remaining in line with Nintendo’s key focus of exploration and discovery.
Survival and exploration are definitely the main focus, with an open world feel and a surprisingly large focus on cooking gameplay. Cooking can assist in many ways, including adding limited status effects on Link, increasing maximum hearts or for standard healing.
The cooking mechanic has replaced healing and status boost potions from the previous games. Along with cooking meals, Link can also create ‘elixirs’ for special status effects. Returning gamers will be relieved that there is no longer the need to carry around empty bottles for potions, but may find the cooking mechanic time consuming.
True to any ‘Zelda’ title, puzzles, obstacles and real-time combat play a major role in the gameplay. It is with great relief that the puzzles are more challenging and versatile in comparison to the most recent ‘Zelda’ installments.
Within the game there are optional trials players can complete; these trials are represented as shrines scattered throughout the land. The more trials players complete the more they can increase Link’s stats - this will either select to improve their maximum stamina or health; this function provides the option for players to unlock tens of more hours of game time while rewarding the players for their dedication.
The gameplay, although polished, can be a little unintuitive for XBOX and PlayStation players. The controls are vastly different to the default controls on other AAA titles with even the jump button defaulting to a less than common button. The joysticks can be quite sensitive with the possibility of accidentally causing Link to crouch while in the middle of combat. For maximum enjoyment, it is highly recommended to use the pro controller, as the joy cons can feel a little awkward in a player’s hand for long periods of time.
Although sophisticated in its design, it is not without its faults - its biggest downfall being its musical score and voice acting.
Unlike previous installments of the ‘Zelda’ franchise, the musical score appears to be lacking for the most part. The score trickles in and out of the game, with many of the famous scores from previous games missing or altered.
Along with a mediocre music score, Nintendo have included the addition of voice acting within the main cut scenes. In previous ‘Zelda’ installments, voice acting has been absent or minimal; however, this installment is an exception. In this instance, Nintendo may have bitten more than they can chew with many of the actor’s accents sounding forced and unnatural.
‘Breath of the Wild’ has taken some risks to reinvent the ‘Zelda’ franchise, with both some successes and failures. Visually, the game is a standout with Nintendo adopting a mixture of cel shading and photorealistic rending.
The game has much to offer with a vast and versatile landscape to explore along with many optional puzzles and trials to complete; however, as much as the game is a standout, the lacklustre voice acting and music score may result in the occasional loss of immersion.
Nintendo have delivered a great standalone game that can be enjoyed by not only loyal fans but newcomers as well.
‘Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’ is out now on Nintendo’s Wii U and Switch.
Comments