5/5 ★ – jordybgood's review of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

When I first started Breath of the Wild I was absolutely intimidated by the amount of freedom and lack of direction this game has right out of the gate. You’re given a good lead on where you’re suppose to go, but there’s no right or wrong way of getting there. This was something I struggled with for years because if I’m given too much freedom in a game I get serious ADD and only play around for a few hours before I have to leave and do something else. Breath of the Wild took a serious backseat for me these last two years as I could just never find the time to sit down and play it. Due to the amount of time I had from lockdown I finally said screw it and turned it back on. After about a week/55 hours of gameplay, I finally defeated Ganon and completed my very first Zelda game! People are right, this games purty good! I saw a video recently from a YouTuber named Houston Productions where he basically compared the world of the game to the concept of Disney’s Magic Kingdom. I’ll just plug that in here because you should check him out! https://youtu.be/3SYkb7KSNQE I really liked this analogy because it describes how diverse and full of character Hyrule is in this incarnation. You’re not given full view of the map you have to explore every corner via Shekiah towers which act as guides or cornerstones for the fast travel feature. Before I even thought about fighting the divine beasts I wanted to find all these towers so I could get full control of the map. It makes you realize how organized the world is and how unique each landscape acts when it comes to the enemy types and varying conditions. To use that Disney analogy, every corner is a new immersive world. There’s a desert, a volcano, a tropical jungle, a kingdom surrounded by water, everything has a story and a theme behind it. Much like in Disney there’s a western land, a future land, and a fantasyland. Let’s not forget there’s a castle at the center as a landmark icon in both Breath of the Wild and Disney. It’s hard not to imagine this analogy when you break it down this way. I can’t really explain it better than Huston can but I just wanted to share his video because it’s quite good! This set up of the open world mechanics not only forced me to explore at my own pace, but figure out all the things I wanted to do along the way. How do I find better gear? Better weapons? How do I make more money? The game has no limits to what you do or how you do it, to the point where it becomes addicting as hell. I would literally dream of this game at night. Thinking about what I wanted to do next. There’s an infectious charm to it where you just can’t stop thinking about the next time you play it. Which is honestly the first time I ever felt that way about a Nintendo title. The other major draw for me was how everything came with some sort of reward or achievement. Anywhere you explored had something of value. I never felt like I wasted my time going somewhere. A shrine, a cave, a jungle. There was always something I found when it came to gear or weapons etc. One of the mechanics that grew on me the most was the durability feature of weapons. At first I HATED this and felt that I could never hold a weapon for more than 5 minutes without losing it. It grew on me because it just becomes another example of how you have to micromanage your inventory and prepare for certain situations. The game doesn’t hold your hand on what you should and shouldn’t be using. You have to figure out what weapons you save and what you use. I would save the more secret weapons for boss fights and the typical low level ones for mindless foes. It came to the point where I felt overly prepared when I finally faced Ganon. I spent so much time accumulating weapons that I had it nailed down to a science and schooled that dude! The master sword quest felt so fulfilling too that was just an epic set piece I loved the mystery and build up to that. There’s not much else I could say that hasn’t been said. Zelda works so well even after all these years because the story of Link stepping up to become the hero is so universal for everyone. There’s no alienation of the audience it all just feels so welcoming. Especially with the amount of times and variations this story has been told. Nintendo just knows how to shake up the formula with every new generation and they totally nailed it once again! Breath of the Wild isn’t just good as an rpg, it’s an experience that only Nintendo has been able to achieve so far. The story is straightforward, but the gameplay is full of depth and complex mechanics it just adds hours and hours worth of material. There’s really no game like it. I understand the hype now!!