Breath of the Wild Review

[Applause] a Link to the Past can shadow over the Zelda series and with good reason it's a great game its central hook is well fleshed out it's packed with enjoyable dungeons filled with brand-new items for link to utilize it places those items in dungeons so as to reveal them at an even pace its sparse story imparts a feeling of epicness as you advance it's got a memorable soundtrack nice visuals it's about as close to in arguably great as any game has ever gotten in fact it was so great it became the Zelda template for the following 20 years but in spite of all its positive qualities it's not a perfect embodiment of what made the original Legend of Zelda so enchanting a Link to the Past isn't a linear game but it does start out as one the opening moments show how priorities had shifted with players being railroaded into a story sequence at Hyrule Castle from there the first three dungeons must be completed in order only after arriving in the dark world is it possible to progress nonlinearly even at that point it may technically be completed in various orders but the environment is full of roadblocks which gate progress until certain items are acquired famously inspired by Shigeru Miyamoto's memories of a forest near his childhood home the original Legend of Zelda had a clear goal allow players to experience the joy of exploration this goal is so core to its design it takes only one second for it to come into focus the moment the first screen appears you're confronted with four choices each one leading to different outcomes keep in mind Nintendo could have easily started the game with a few linear screens and we know based on what they've said about world 1:1 and Super Mario Bros that a players first impression was a big deal to them even at the time Zelda could have started in a dead-end with an empty screen to learn movement one to give link a sword and one to introduce enemies before emerging into the world proper but instead you have to choose the very first thing you do in the Legend of Zelda before you even press a button on the controller is make a decision about which way to explore and so many years later Zelda restored to original form reawakens at the shrine of resurrection by which I mean link these days it would be an exceptionally bold move for a big-budget game to plop the player in the middle of a field soda shrine acts as a short introduction setting up the story and doling out the most basic of tutorials kept to a minimum this intro is completed in only three minutes after which you find yourself standing on the already iconic clear deciding where to go next breath of the wild summed up in one word would be freedom it sounds obvious but the level of commitment to this principle is what makes it remarkable when destroy Ganon appears after clearing the gray plateau that might as well be the designers and blazoning the game's philosophy on screen freedom taken to such a logical extreme you're told where to find the final boss right out of the tutorial apart from those opening moments on the gray plateau everything in breath of the wild is optional for completion this alone is a huge shift but more impressive is the ways that freedom has been built into smaller mechanics and situations spirit orbs being a clear example Hart pieces are such an ancient tradition it was hard to imagine them undergoing any kind of significant change maybe spirit orbs were just introduced on a whim but if we view it in terms of freedom it now makes perfect sense spirit orbs nudge the dial away from less freedom towards more freedom now you get to choose hearts or stamina a small decision but when repeated it can have serious ramifications without getting bogged down in number crunching or jargon low heart challenge runs make more sense than ever in breath of the wild because giving up a heart grants you something else in return that's freedom another example is cooking many games have taken a stab at this over the years but it's often a case of gathering ingredients for a proscribed recipe which is then chosen from a list instead link is free to select any five items which seem to make sense and toss them into a pot go off-script and you'll always be accommodated by a sensible result allowing for player driven discovery by not punishing trial and error too heavily again freedom almost everything in breath of the wild makes sense when you view it through this lens so rather than belabor the point instead we're going to focus on the ways it stresses this philosophy where it was pushed aside where it shines and where it fails being a step up from previous Zelda tutorials is faint praise but the grey plateau is so well disguised you might not even realize it is one until it's over often times tutorials seem like a sort of learning tax you have to pay before you get to experience the game proper breadth of the wild avoids that problem by turning lesson time into a miniature version of the real thing many features such as horses and towns are stripped out probably so first-timers aren't overwhelmed and to save some disco Riis for later but the core appeal is present immediately even though the first objective is to activate a tower the temple of time is placed in plain view distracting players just moments into the first quest it's an early indication that you're free to look around and do whatever you want whenever you feel like once the tower is up it's off - for starters shrines in any order of course it's nice that you're trusted to experiment Explorer talk to the old man pay attention and figure some things out for yourself but the real accomplishment is that non-linearity built into the very beginning since it's impossible to rush cannon right out of the gate it might be fair to call the grey plateau a compromise but at least it's a compromise which is true to the nonlinear spirit of the game as a whole it's during these early moments where the full functionality of the sheikah slate is introduced by themselves these generalized tools represent a clear step towards more engaging puzzle design since having multifaceted recurring abilities should make solutions less obvious however this is undermined by how compact and isolated shrines are in puzzles there's the signal and there's the noise in other words there are elements which are necessary for the puzzles completion and there's everything else shrines are almost all signal no noise which is a clean perfect way of designing them but if this game is anything to go by there is such a thing as too perfect it may sound like a cheap trick but adding some noise is actually desirable as demonstrated by one of the more difficult shrines here the player is intended to use cry ona's so a metal box can stay elevated enough for electricity to pass through before this point the player has to activate this node by completing a circuit through the water notice the water isn't necessary for this part of the puzzle to work it could just as easily have been built on the ground by submerging it instead what they've done has made the water in this room less conspicuous having used it once you're tempted to cross it off your mental checklist when there's no real reason why that should be the case it's just a bad puzzle solving habit which deserves to be punished other facets of the environment can play a role as well in a traditional dungeon the walls might be that of a cave patched with moss so a wooden platform wouldn't immediately scream boring me down there could be a stream flowing through a room which didn't serve any particular purpose or runs into another room in the same dungeon where it does serve a purpose not to mention a central gimmick which had its best might complicate every puzzle within that dungeon noise isn't about hiding puzzle elements it's just about getting players to really think about what they're looking at there needs to be plenty of wrong answers for the right answer to feel meaningful whatever gains were made by the more generalized magnetism cry onus and stasis runes this time around was cancelled out by how streamlined puzzle environments have become to their credit shrines can be broken in various ways another example of the freedom philosophy earlier Zelda puzzles were about making the player feel smart or in other words the coveted Eureka moment to that end they were rigidly designed to accept only one answer although of course there are some exceptions and glitches if you approach shrines with that mentality they offer more or less the same thing but breath of the wild allows you to view them another way as a problem to be overcome by whatever means you can manage at a glance this might seem to be poor design after all the goal of a level designer is to guide the player through a specific experience Nintendo have as usual done a great job of that maybe too good a job which means following the intended path is an easy course of action breaking shrines often remove some of the busy work involved in moving puzzle pieces around but it also usually takes more ingenuity not less it's rare to see this kind of open endedness in puzzle design and it seems to have struck a good balance between laying out a challenge while also allowing players enough freedom to forge their own more interesting paths one quibble with this setup is that lateral thinking has identical rewards to the standard approach motivation can be broken into two broad categories intrinsic and extrinsic the spirit orb at the end of each shrine is an extrinsic reward you obtain something concrete solving is drawing the wrong way as some kind of weird challenge to yourself as an intrinsic reward you gain nothing but a feeling of satisfaction that originates internally maybe it's just a simple desire to break the rules or to flex your intellect over those sheikah monks or maybe you just want to see what's possible within the constraints of the system getting the most from shrines relies on that kind of intrinsic motivation since either way you're receiving the same extrinsic rewards for your efforts a spirit orb and a chest this formula of predictable reward plus unpredictable reward seems like a winning one players know there's always at least a spirit orb and hopefully the other thing will be good too unfortunately it often isn't at best he'll find a new piece of armor with unique benefit but it's questionable whether that needed to be shackled to equipment on the one hand clothing sets tie into the temperature gauge this adds a nice coating of reality which enhances exploration by making the world both more believable and more mechanically rich at an early point during my first playthrough I was about to die from hypothermia until I tried equipping a fire sword which saved my life it's telling that I still remember that moment even after over a hundred hours of gameplay another way this is put to use is the ice cube side mission where moving between shaded areas becomes a necessity that said for the most part once you get the right clothing environmental temperatures pose nothing more than an annoyance which is overcome by opening the menu at that point the main benefit of tying warmth to clothing disappears Nintendo have always been good at giving people something they didn't know they wanted yet here's my attempt at that people think they don't want inconveniences but I think they do to a certain extent anyway every game has some kind of challenge to overcome otherwise they'd all be about noclipping to the end and one shutting the final boss struggle is a fundamental part of play before continuing that thought I just want to say that some streamlining is welcome for example shooting a boar and having them explode into meat may not literally make sense but it makes sense because once it's dead there's no decision to be made about what to do next you either want those resources or not that process may as well be done as quickly as possible so we can move on to the next decision to that end many previous time sinks have been dealt with walking into houses no longer incurs a loading screen spells acting on cooldown prevents players from becoming stuck without mana chests can be opened from any angle and needless to say I'm also incredibly thankful for how painless it is to pick up collectibles this time around there's still some room for improvement for example it'd be nice if bows and shields would auto equip when one breaks but overall breath of the wild is streamlined in many great ways which is a big win for a series where cumbersome interruptions have often been the problem streamlining can also be bad though being able to swap clothes at any time is handy but the survivalist aspects like building yourself a campfire to survive a cold desert night would have had more chances to occur if link was restricted to his current clothes until he rested in a bed either way you're forced to go into a menu and change outfit but the more restrictive version introduces a decision in other words it's not just the case of mindlessly swapping out once the temperature starts to change instead you be rewarded for thinking ahead about the surrounding terrain wearing light our heavy clothing in temperate areas could have come with a stamina penalty to discourage sticking with one set now there are some holes in that proposal since shrines offer abundant war points that can easily ferry players to and from towns but at the very least venturing into new areas would be more engaging that way because it would be a case of forming and executing a plan even as flawed as they are now warm and cool clothing are the best use of the equipment system because they need to be worn across large areas of Hyrule precluding the use of other armors within those spaces unless you have another way to moderate your temperature most other equipment is much worse there's nothing stopping you from swapping into the climber gear when you have a cliff to scale me fizz outfit once you reach a waterfall or even the rubber suit right before a lightning strike in a sense we could think of these situations as an even more cumbersome variant on the Zelda puzzles of old which could be overcome with a specific item some of these upgrades would have been better as innate enhancements to link handed out at the end of shrines that would cut down on menu use and gaining a permanent boost would provide a much better extrinsic motivation than the chests we have now here's a list with those and some other proposed rewards pause if you want to read it just as there are two broad categories of motivation extrinsic versus intrinsic players can be put into either of those two groups any split and opinion about breath of the wild probably Falls along that line in the beginning combat is encouraged by unlocking a chest which contains a higher value item if you're an extrinsic Lea motivated player these encounters can be rewarding because you'll likely walk away with more arrows weapons and money than before over time this balance starts to shift eventually you'll have full Quivers and magic swords which normal enemies don't carry at that point clearing an enemy camp eats into your resources instead of replenishing them and yet if you approach it with the right mentality waging war on bobgoblin's can still be enjoyable thanks to the level of freedom on offer don't get me wrong the melee attack options are disappointing in yet another twist on series tradition Lincoln wields several styles of weapon with the degradation system forcing players to adapt and get creative instead of sticking to a favorite to an extent this provides some nice variety but spreading the moveset across several types there's not many options for any single one and the problems don't stop there lock-on seems to value cinematic angles more than anything else not so bad when environments are enclosed our enemy counts are low but a recipe for disaster otherwise flurry rush also has weird activation windows and seems overly restrictive as with everything in breath of the wild it's worth pointing out that melee combat exists within a very broad context if link could freely move during flurry rush it might be abusable to break certain puzzles enemy encounters and who knows what else the more baseline systems you have the more complicated everyone's job becomes it's hard to come down on breadth of the wild for not including yet another globally active system like that when there are already so many still we can't ignore the fact that melee combat is pretty weak even just compared to Twilight Princess it's important to remember that close quarters is just one small part of the combat system though an ideal camp clearing might start out with a couple of stealth kills a long-range pickoff a spear toss a bomb and some swordplay to mop up the remnants even in a lyonel fight fire can be useful for its updraft weather and terrain can also affect tactics such as bomb arrows becoming unviable near Death Mountain and shock arrows gaining greater efficacy during rain although none of those things result in more interesting melee they're still valid examples of combat depth contextual actions have been minimized which means all of these abilities are available at any time cutting down on the number of buttons that can be used for each individual one considering the amount of options they've crammed on here it seems fair to say that this is the most impressive moves that link has ever had players are truly free to develop their own strategies and preferences such as scaling a nearby cliff terrain death from above these kinds of interactions simply couldn't happen if combat was broken into its own more complex control scheme ultimately breadth of the wild trades fancy swordplay for a greater sense of place and agency within the world because all of Link's actions remain available at all times if you're willing to engage with these systems just for the pleasure of doing so you can see that weak or even non-existent rewards aren't necessarily a flaw for many titles I'd argue exactly the opposite cluttering a game with unnecessary pickups can cloud its true value which is surely in the moments to moments playing not the shiny bauble at the end of the tunnel players can easily get caught up on the collectible losing sight of everything in between even games which seem to have few extrinsic motivations are actually often driven by at least one the story aside from a heart container completing a dungeon in the original Zelda only Awards a Triforce shard which is of no direct use to the player but it promises narrative progress towards a conclusion our princess may be in another dungeon but at least I puts us one dungeon closer to the princess since it's possible to kill Ganon almost immediately breath of the wild lacks that build-up so the question becomes whether that trade-off was worth it my answer is yes rewards are nice and all but the amount of completeness is even better something breath of the wild executes very well in order to maximize freedom and early Ganon kill had to be possible looking at it this way the grey plateau actually becomes the game's biggest flaw you're arbitrarily restricted from leaving it too soon presumably so players don't get themselves stuck without the right tools there's ways to solve that problem for example shrine contents could be based on number rather than location so that the first four shrines entered end up being the tutorials that choice comes with its own pros and cons so the developers may have already considered and rejected it either way introducing the rune so quickly for sakes the Link to the Past paradigm because it allows link to solve any problem immediately this eliminates the need for backtracking but it also means there are a few rewards left to string players along with probably the biggest missed opportunity on this front was not capitalizing enough on the backstory outside of main quests at first glance The Forgotten temple is exactly the kind of overworld discovery you want to find a surprise Guardian nest which takes some tact to traverse without eating a ton of damage it was worth its inclusion even if only for the moment you first wander in and all the lasers suddenly appear clearing it out is a satisfying challenge but when you get a shrine as your awards the whole area is retro actively tainted a little as though you only did all that for a spirit orb like it or not you've been put on the treadmill at the very least there could have been some kind of mural covering the back wall which visually explained another facet of the world there was just an excuse to show a flashback Zelda herself could have chimed in more often if we discovered a notable relic of Hyrule's history one benefit to including voice acting is that could now be done without interrupting player control a reduced emphasis on narrative is right move considering how simplistic Zelda saris tend to be but that still leaves plenty of room for environmental storytelling to its benefit breath of the wild sheds many of the more obnoxious open-world contrivances quest markers are nonspecific often pointing back to their origin rather than their destination this meant clues needed to be embedded in dialogue and terrain rather than relying on a player to stare at a mini-map instead you could say it guards against the worst inclinations of designers and players encouraging more engaging quest design and forcing participants to fully partake the map itself is just a generic terrain overview with place names only appearing after they've been visited leaving plenty of room for surprises again discards against lazy developers and players from a lying on a map as guidance these two decisions are small but extremely significant tiny things can make big differences despite this vigilance to re-examine everything about open-world design one destructive trend managed to sneak in entering an area causes its name to appear in the bottom-left corner which seems innocuous but isn't let me put it this way if the temple of time didn't say temple of time down here how would you know it was the temple of time before you refer to the nice piano motif keep in mind that also plays in other locations is non-diegetic and relies on knowledge from previous games anyway unless there's some piece of dialogue I've overlooked link could only discover this is the temple of time by opening the sheikah slate map there's nothing visually about this building any of the items in it or anything around it which even hints that it was somehow related to time in other words it's actually not a temple of time it's just a generic Cathedral with a name attached ocarina of time had this problem as well but it seems reasonable to expect more progress on that front by now to be fair there are tons of details scattered throughout the world big and small you can tell these bow couplings have been practicing their archery more spent arrows a Kakariko hinted leader aboard villager or something more sinister these guys are delighted to have found some durians and they live happily ever after reduce and seal plushies wordlessly convey her immaturity Robbie's lab used to be a lighthouse the three he knocks holding the keys the dish Ryan couldn't possibly have been alive when the Sheik erected the hint tablet but they also happened to live inside massive rib cages which were the actual Giants referred to in the text many NPCs have quirks and moments to be discovered such as cocoa struggling to stay awake so she can protect her sister and of course there's the incredible realization that you haven't been imagining the banana thing they really are bananas for bananas all of this is just a small taste of the Karen into certain facets of the world but overall Hyrule suffers from a sense that there's not much definitive history to be found maybe highlighting an exception is the best way to get the point across next to Hatton o village there's a dilapidated horseback archery course a nearby house holds some arrows which presumably would have been sold to customers and even its position on the main road makes sense for a business all of these things paint a picture of better times where the owner would solicit passing travelers riding a horse through it while picking off a few neglected target cells the post-apocalyptic setting because it tells a story and even allows the player to become part of that story in their own way considering how effective this was it's surprising there aren't more minigame style ruins to come across most relics of the past just seemed like generic stone structures are burnt-out houses and while it makes sense they're not everywhere would be important enough to be meaningful some places that clearly should be aren't lake hylia's bridges bookended by two towers complete with arrow slits and battlements but there's nowhere for guards to enter them there's no doors no interior and thus no sense that this was ever actually in use Linnea promenade the Colosseum and the Carla Citadel give off a similarly hollow impression Guardian husks are well utilized in a couple of places most notably fort hat no but they crop up a bit too often for their own good rubbing them of some importance maybe this highlights an underlying problem and how all of these ruins ultimately stem from a single event leaving you little to learn about their downfall considering the focus on exploration archaeology seems like a fitting inclusion so some decorative artifacts could have still been lying around in a few places waiting to be sold off or displayed in links home Nintendo's family-friendly slants might also explain the lack of human corpses in the overworld even though they could be used a great effect for world building purposes flashbacks voiceovers murals architecture corpses spirits artifacts all of these avenues for fleshing out the world remain largely underutilized probably because of the extra resources it would take but maybe also because the area text engine some complacency about how severe this problem was of course it's the temple of time it says so right there if discovery is a reward for exploration then another detrimental trend is the reuse of Hyrule you don't need to be a Zelda expert to look out on that forest horizon identify Death Mountain and figure that's probably where the gorons are assuming you played the series chronologically dial your mind back to that first ocarina of time playthrough if you can gowron's were a new addition in that title and wandering into their domain resulted in a bunch of discoveries about them they can roll around they eat rocks they live inside the mountain they have a chieftain they're having troubles when link arrives and they have a unique culture to experience what were once surprises in ocarina of time are now anticipated well beforehand the only way to replicate the experience of discovering something new is to give us something equally new to be clear these renditions of familiar faces are superb in their execution Zoras domain looks beautiful Corrick forest is more lush than it ever has been and the rito bird nest is literally an inspired design Nintendo went above and beyond crafting unique assets for these places like the differing signage you'll see next to each in even how to know has a different one compared to Kakariko fantasy races are often homogenized with the implied excuse being that they have some subtle ways to tell each other apart that were not primed to see as humans but here each race has tons of variation in body types facial structure accessories and animations nobody looks like they were just spit out by an algorithm instead they're more like lovingly crafted pieces of a diorama it's all great to behold but imagine how much more rewarding it would be if these were brand new creatures towns and cultures to stumble upon given what a big undertaking this project must have been one reason to reuse races is to cut down on design workload but a better compromise would have been to use some lesser-known ones such as Magma's or sub-regions instead a conventional Hyrule setting severely hampers the ability to present surprising lower and creatures which tend to enhance the joy of exploration some might say those things aren't extrinsic rewards because they don't progress the current plot and while I disagree it's still a good example of how the delineation between intrinsic and extrinsic isn't always clear it's possible that years of being bombarded by cutscenes has conditioned players to feel as though the moment they experienced first hand are somehow less meaningful when if anything they should be more meaningful thanks to their interactivity most of us would probably agree that stumbling upon aedra is improved because apart from a brief cutscene at the start it all takes place through gameplay not only is it interactive but it's completely unconstrained you're free to use all the same tools and controls as usual some games would struggle to craft a moment disengaging with a bunch of preamble gimmicks and restrictions thrown into the mix the fact that this happens in the middle of a sprawling open-world with the player entirely at the helm is what makes it great this is only the most obvious example of a moment being its own reward though visit Satori mountain at the right time and you'll run into this spectral deer which can even be rode around for a while sometimes it seems like the only thing link can't mount is MIFA does this count as a reward or not well if you care about flashing at the Compendium then the answer is obvious but for everyone else not so much there's no advantage to be gained by taming this ghost maybe because if there was it would end up replacing many players horses the poorly considered ancient saddle is the only evidence necessary to show how utility can invalidate any alternatives this should have been a whistle instead in Japanese Satori means enlightenment hinting that linking at a glimpse of something special there but it's also worth noting that an enlightened point of view would be content just to experience unique event without needing to reap a material benefit from having done so perhaps removing most are all rewards could snap everyone out of the treadmill mentality but games of this scale can be made from passion alone it takes large sums of money to picking battles is important which is why I'm going to gloss over the subpar English voice acting as a necessary concession to broaden appeal with that in mind a few simple moments for their own sake are welcomed but there may be other cases that could be reworked to have both intrinsic and extrinsic appeal without sacrificing anything important one reason the Dragon seems much more obviously meaningful is because it causes a permanent change even though that change isn't really beneficial to the player either if not for the Blood Moon clearing enemy camps might be rewarding for the same reason the satisfaction of taking back Hyrule presumably this isn't possible because of a technical constraint or so as to ensure the world remains filled with combat encounters and resources no matter how long a player continues to explore if it's the latter then it's self-defeating because players who extrinsic motivation will just start avoiding these camps all together if they felt their actions were making a difference to Hyrule that might be enough to motivate them instead resulting in more combat engagement not less surely it's that same sense of completion ISM which drives some people to find and tackle every shrine the power of permanence really can't be overstated mechanically the Tarrytown sidequest is weak it involves talking to NPCs until you find the right one then gathering wood repeat five times now it's kind of nice to have one quest about chopping down trees it gives them more purpose and for a little while it's relaxing to work towards the completion of a town and the more mundane way than as usual for a Zelda title that's all well and good but it repeats this process too many times becoming a genuine chore to slog through by the end despite that it is overall and net positive because the end result is an entirely new village springing up thanks to Link's actions many will look back on Tarrytown fondly for that reason other side quests have varying levels of quality but even at their worst they at least benefit from a sense that something has definitively changed not that developers should rely on such a superficial distinction to make content feel meaningful but it's a powerful tool so powerful it's capable of backfiring even though there's 900 Couric's to find a nonzero amount of players actually bothered to collect them all basically torturing themselves in the process maybe Nintendo were delusional about how valuable these little guys were but I think the reason there's so many is just so players are guaranteed to stumble across a reasonable amount during a typical playthrough thankfully there are some standout areas and moments which are easy to appreciate even if they lack permanence or distinct rewards Thai flow forests reduced visibility is a nice little challenge The Lost Woods presents the customary entry puzzle three well-rounded distinct side quests a cave of ordeals and the most lively realization of a forest town yet the Jaeger clan hideout has enforced stealth plus a unique boss and there's also a vent eyed but will circle back around to that one in a while all these moments have one thing in common their restrictive here's something you might have a hard time coming to terms with breadth of the wild isn't a great game because you can climb and parasail anywhere it's a great game in spite of that you need only look at the road to Zoras domain to see how more restrictive gameplay can lead to more memorable outcomes since it rains here in it's a mountainous region the most reasonable option for progress is to follow the path which happens to lead the player into several enemy encounters given the choice you might fight these guys just for the sake of it but if you're the type of player who would normally go around placing them directly in your path makes them more of a threat which encourages you to take them on here's the crucial thing to understand with a few relatively minor changes to the overworld and towers even drastically nerfed parasailing and climbing wouldn't impinge on the players freedom you would still be able to visit any area at any time you just might have to take a more circuitous route to get there I actually missed this intro to Zoras domain on my first playthrough because I came at the town from a different angle if the rest of the game was like that absolute freedom would still be preserved but certain choke points could be seated with enemy encounters or other content this is one of the few ways the original Zelda still outshines its revival it's open but screens are constrained with terrain hazards and enemies so that it's not always the optimal course of action to just run past them all getting through some places can be a struggle but it can always be done capturing that same balance in a huge 3d world is much more difficult but there's no reason to think it isn't possible hopefully a Nintendo will answer that challenge by iterating on this design but I can't imagine it'll ever work as long as link can continue to effortlessly glide over so much terrain if the parasail worked more like Skyward Sword where it could be used to break Falls it would still provide a fast way to descend without being so easily abusable shield surfing would then gain much more utility as a way of covering distance by speeding down slopes on paper that seems like a more balanced engaging system than the current one people think they want complete control over their experience when what they really want is to cut down trees to cross ravines something they'll never actually do if they have complete control over their experience another way of fostering more engagement is more threatening enemies lizalfos seem to have been designed with this in mind because they're exceptionally good at closing distance but unfortunately they usually seem to whiff their attack if you just keep moving away from them there come off large is also too easy to notice but ambush tactics are exactly what such a wide open world needs to keep players on their toes so many others have similar tricks octorok style Koblenz to choose minor talus and liga Klan member are all capable of ambushing link in their own way at their worst these can feel like random encounters but the real problem is how easy it is to run even after they reveal themselves Lionel's guardians and mounted bobgoblin's are the only real cases where fleeing might result in death all of which can be easily circumvented beforehand a truly dangerous enemy is some kind of overlap between those two types basic Boca blends wear out their welcome over the course of a full playthrough but enemy variety is also slightly better than it might first appear Deku scrub stowed on gos and like-likes are missing but also present because octorok variants accomplish much the same thing presumably with more development time these would have been remodeled into the enemies they really are so as to cut down on visual repetition it's tempting to list off enemy types and compare the number to earlier games but that's a good lesson in two dangers of seemingly objective information while cobble ins are present too many Zelda's but saying that the ones in breath of the wild are somehow equivalent to previous versions is misleading the number of possible interactions these guys are capable of far outstrips any prior creature in the series probably several times over they sit around and talk to one another dynamically hijack horses hunt boars throw stones investigate suspicious activity call for help react to environmental dangers seek nearby weapons if empty-handed can wield anything including bows and even stuff they never normally carry like Korek leaves they eat they sleep and they're yet another object for the chemistry system to react with if you're feeling sadistic you can freeze one and blow it off a cliff for a drop a metal weapon as bait for a lightning strike I'm not saying these interactions are used that their fullest potential but they exist and lead to exactly the kind of freeform game play Nintendo must have envisioned one way players are encouraged to engage in these behaviors is by expressive character design while Koblenz with their huge round heads snub noses and massive ears have a childlike quality which contrasts with their endless aggression to gray comedic effect NABBA Boko Club and watch as its owner petulantly freaks out creeped up on them and you might catch one skillfully hunting a boar by helicoptering a spear it's cartoonish in all the right ways the perfect bumbling test subject for an open-world sandbox lizalfos are just as good they're painfully arched back gives off an awkward appearance but their upturned mouth looks like perpetual smirk Wiz robes are the most ridiculous of all maybe you never consciously realized it but these guys seem to be some kind of bizarre anthropomorphic shark with impossibly stubby legs wrapped in ill-fitting robes questionably reasonable he doesn't care at all in fact he seems to be having a pretty good time I know the Zelda series always strives to reinvent and improve itself but if we don't get at least one more game with these designs Nintendo is dead to me there's pushing yourself and then there's being needlessly wasteful just as long as we can't still headshot Wiz robes to death we're golden apart from how easy it is to avoid them enemies are well fleshed out especially Lionel's which remain engaging from start to finish arguments about the quantity of content on offer are never particularly convincing because it's always possible to ask for one more thing in an idyllic universe even a map of this size could have a unique enemy type for every single encampment at some point enough is enough but there isn't any logical argument to arrive there it has to be felt before coming to a conclusion on this topic there are some subtleties worth considering wolves quickly distinguish themselves from other fauna by actively hunting link if these were remodeled to be more exaggerated even just a couple of attacks and behaviors would be enough to classify them as wolf Oaks instead there's no solid line between enemy and wildlife which is a nice little dose of reality but there's no doubt wolf folks would give a much better impression than wolves I have no idea how many animals you have to trade in order to get one more enemy probably more than you'd suspect but maybe it would have been worth sacrificing a few to elevate some others on the bright side at least all these creatures afford players the chance to play photographer approached with the right mentality there is something addictive about trying to grab that perfect shot but obviously this has Nisha appeal maybe wolf owes didn't make the cut since they don't hold weapons several of the most recurring types come equipped with differing load outs to increase variety it helps but in spite of those efforts I think it's clear that breadth of the wild it doesn't have enough variation given its size so a couple more mini bosses and enemies to fill different niches would go a long way considering how much time is spent scaling mountains the most obvious emissions seem to be tektites and skull chillers this is another reason why the game would be better without such an emphasis on climbing there aren't any related obstacles other than rain and stamina sailing through the Wind Waker was also one of true Civ but occasionally rupee barrels would pop up giving players at ask to focus on climbing and gliding could have benefit from some similar gimmicks or enemies to break up monotony there's a certain satisfaction to scaling a new peak especially since this is a feature other developers haven't begun replicating yet but separated from that context and mechanics are pretty dull by themselves most inclinations can be traversed in more or less a straight line even without stacking stamina potions being able to open a menu and choke a remedy at any time is another example of poor streamlining which is only exacerbated by how large the inventory is event ID acts as an exception with limited resources on the island players value every piece of equipment and food they can obtain same goes for the grey plateau and Master Sword trials certain strategies become much more desirable when equipment is scarce this is the best argument in favor of a more restrictive backpack but that would come with its own problems one reason these moments are enjoyable is because you're never required to drop anything if you could only carry ten food items you'd regularly discard or eat them as you stumbled across better replacements suddenly although streamlining efforts would be wasted as many usage could double triple or even worse how well this problem could be addressed depends on how fundamentally you want to rethink everything else the simplest solution is to make dropping and using items as painless as possible since Nintendo is known for their unique hardware maybe one day they'll release a controller with a touchscreen that can be used to quickly manage resources link even as a tablet of his own so be a perfect fit the matically one can only wonder how much the lack of such a controller affected this game's design regardless other avenues for improvement still exist for example holding the interact button could cause link to immediately eat an apple rather than pocketing it maybe a certain button could drop shields and bows from the quick select menu maybe that menu could be radial instead of linear whatever the case a huge freely accessible inventory undermines many other systems so it's worth putting under a spotlight on the one hand this allows players to tweaked a difficulty level for themselves you might decide never to heal during a fight but still allow yourself to upgrade armor maybe that happens to strike the right balance for you someone else might forego both of those but still grab a ferry from time to time while others will take it another step further and disable me fizz grace or sell all their hearts for rupees it's commendable that those options even exist there's an endless common of difficulties to choose from but it takes an intrinsic mindset and the necessary willpower to stick with self-imposed rules no matter how committed you are to your chosen difficulty modifiers you can never really erase the knowledge that an invulnerable trip through the menu can easily restore all your hearts at any given time this is a reasonable enough concession to accommodate players across a wide range of skill levels but Master mode is a missed opportunity to placate those of us who want something more concrete there are many aspects which could be tweaked to provide a more engaging challenging experience even if we only factor changes that could be done with minimal effort here's a list with a few ideas maybe this comes across as pointless griping considering this is by far the most hardcore zelda in a long time but it's not even about difficulty per se it's about one aspect of the mechanics making others redundant it's hard to spend that in a positive way and it stops the game from reaching its full potential which is immense and it's best when resources are low breath of the wild imparts a sense that everything could be useful from the grass to the trees to the rocks many games suffer from a sense that most of what you see is just set dressing cardboard cutouts that cause collisions but little else rather than being solely decoration these are all gameplay objects to one degree or another which might just be the defining feature of an already fascinating game stasis and Magnus's are brilliant inclusions because they take objects which would otherwise be irrelevant thanks to their mass and turn them into more toys to play with beside that physic system sits it's equally important chemistry equivalent which has been described by its developers as a state calculator with elements like fire creating zones of state changing behavior this simple explanation belies just how complex a problem that is but the end result looks effortless the first time you drop an apple next to a campfire and watches it transmogrifies into a baked apple you can't help but wonder why every game doesn't already work this way everything around us carries the potential to change state if the conditions are right that's just as much a fact of life as gravity but until now games have been far more concerned with the latter than the former this might seem like breadth of the wilds greatest revelation but Zelda have actually been building toward this longer than anyone realized Ocarina of times torches could burn spider webs which seems meagre now but was genuinely impressive at release back in the windwaker days shigeru miyamoto used to repeat a phrase to the development team which seems especially relevant now he would say zelda is a game that values reality over realism the distinction is this crafting graphics that look increasingly like real life is realism whereas making an experience feel real no matter what it looks like is reality of course realism and reality can coexist to some degree breath of the wild pushes way more polygons than Ocarina of Time but it clearly opts for simplified visuals compared to its contemporaries it may not literally copy Impressionists tiles away Skyward Sword did but in a sense it's still the computer game equivalent of Impressionism at first glance the art direction might seem like an unremarkable middle ground between previous instalments but it's actually a crucial component state changes call for more assets which becomes more practical when polygon counts are reasonable and textures more simplistic other components benefit to real life doesn't have wind trails but games of no sense of touch so an exaggerated visual effect compensates allowing the air to become a fully-fledged gameplay mechanic focus on realism and lightning will strike without warning but an impressionist approach it can spark metal objects first becoming yet another new toy if the goal was some sense of reality than it's a resounding success hyrule feels alive in a way so few are the worlds do and I think this is because many different systems combine to imparted with a sense of motion grass and trees sway in the breeze water ripples birds flock insects skitter dust clouds fog and ghosts sweep through the air while shadows rotate along the ground even if you don't consciously know that games are typically calling anything not in screen space you probably have a sense of it on some level which is why allowing unseen clouds to occlude the Sun is such a simple but powerful trick it single-handedly implies that everything is still alive even if it's out of view stand in one place doing nothing and each frame turns out subtly different regardless it's no wonder why they settled on this title when the entire world seems to breathe the way it does special thanks must be given to Pro Mode which hands much more of that valuable screen space over to the beautifully realized world it's true that this option simply hides some menu items but there's more to it than that a few other elements seem to have been designed with it mind a blast of frost briefly covers the periphery when temperature dips below the threshold champions speak when their abilities come off cooldown map pins are visible through the scope and it's possible to tell how loud link is just by listening some details are useful for both modes elemental weapons recharge in an intuitive way and links cuivre visually depletes the one disappointment is that weapon durability messages still appear which might be understandable if not for the crunchy shatter effect which is more than enough to convey what's happening sound design is great across the board with appropriate emphasis given to the wind and how it interacts with nearby objects critters and birds can be heard from all directions again fleshing out unseen areas these tranquil sights and sounds were clearly a priority because even the soundtrack stays out of their way in a series known for its triumphant melodic filled themes breath of the wild instead settles for some gentle piano accompaniment this might just be the best indication that Nintendo really were rethinking everything from the ground up striving to craft each component with the larger work in mind no doubt this will strike some longtime fans the wrong way but it really shouldn't majora's mask soundtrack isn't great because termina field does the typical overworld motif it's great because it captures and strengthens the right emotions at the right times clock towns denial and the foreboding final few hours those are the important notes to hit on fort breadth of the wilds music allows the world to speak for itself giving plenty of space between chords for the wind to make itself known on horseback to rhythm Bob's back and forth by alternating high-low mimicking the up-down motion in the saddle with that connection established the twinkling Keys evoke the footfalls of a galloping horse in the lost woods piano volume sharply rises and falls as though the answer is darting in and out of reach tarry towns instrumentation grows as more residents arrive until they're all playing in harmony together casas theme is a more traditionally catchy Zelda tunic into the song of storms but it also plays a crucial gameplay function by making these riddles more likely to be discovered mal Duga prince side on master yoga Hyrule Castle the list goes on and on including several wonderful town themes which transitions seamlessly between day and night versions most of a typical playthrough will be spent listening to subdued field music but while it's important for a soundtrack to step up when needed it's equally important to know when to step down at worst there's an argument to be made that some work went into the wrong areas such as divine beasts which each have a unique escalating theme despite the fact that players will spend far more collective time in shrines which all share the same music as for divine beasts themselves their breath of the wilds most frustrating stumble because in so many ways they demonstrate an understanding of what makes for a great Selda dungeon their size and position builds them up hours in advance of setting foot inside they transcend from being just a bunch of connected rooms by asking players to think on a larger scale and conquering them solves a problem for a nearby town the main ingredients are present but each one turns out to be quite short visually repetitive and devoid of substance to be fair divine beasts aren't exactly dungeons and as such they accomplish a couple of things better than dungeons ever have their presence in the larger world has clearly felt since the rest of Hyrule remains in view the whole time the assault sequences are among the most impressive set pieces the series has ever seen and even their internal structure once again embodies the idea of freedom there are no keys or unnecessary roadblocks just puzzles to solve in any order they were unquestionably designed to accent this games to finding features that alone is worth commanding that said comparisons to older Zelda dungeons are inevitable especially considering they're such as elders staple they were even present in original although granted they were more combat focused back then maybe the problem lies more with shrines since if they were amalgamated they could easily make up enough content to satisfy any dungeon cravings allowing beasts to be judged more for what they are but there's a problem presumably Nintendo were able to create so many shrines precisely because of their blocky test chamber simplicity and how independent they are of one another puzzle design gets more complex when players can take a key from one area to use in another or smuggle an item intended for one room into the next shrines also accomplish something better than dungeons they more consistently reward exploration well some are in plain sight many are tucked away as surprises you might not realize just how often this is the case if you weren't looking for it at the time but a significant percentage of shrines are explicitly placed in crevices or other locations which makes them difficult to spot from a distance try climbing a few towers and Counting how many shrines are visible it's not many only a fraction of the total this plays a large part in ensuring all those hours spent wandering Hyrule gradually reveals more and more content if they were lumped together there would be much longer stretches of time between each one where players could grow restless then again maybe that's the best argument in favor of a smaller map dungeons had been in need of a shake-up for some time but while divine beasts and shrines suit this games larger goals there's also the sense that Nintendo pushed themselves on too many fronts at once even if we ignore the problems raised by sectioning puzzles into their own to perfect environments disappearing into sci-fi cube caverns doesn't have the same appeal as solving puzzles in the overworld or even just as part of a larger structure divine beasts are separate from Hyrule but at least the valiant effort was made to make them seem like they aren't shrines are the exact opposite and while some change of scenery is refreshing for the eyes it's just not worth all the downsides technical limitations were probably a big factor in all of this the load screen between each shrine might annoy you but I'm sure it annoys the engineers much more if a programmers goal is to become invisible then excuses only go so far but it's telling that at least some of that tech cost can be traced back to Link's mobility those cavernous bottomless pits are a necessary evil to combat the parasail and smooth wall textures are required to explain Link's inability to scale them this is the third and final strike again climbing it's one of the biggest obstacles to integrating puzzles into a larger world in the same way Nintendo defied conventions with breath of the wild I'm hopeful they'll be willing to defy conventions from breath of the wild when the time comes at the very least that climb anywhere approach needs some reconsideration even if only to throw some more obstacles in the way letting go of old concepts might be what led us to the new version of Hyrule Castle it's tempting to think of this as a dungeon but terminology can be limiting it doesn't really matter whether it qualifies as a dungeon or not what matters is that it makes for a suitable climax thanks to an abundance of turrets it's one of the few areas where climbing can be genuinely dangerous some routes avoid that problem but even so it's an excellent capstone to the experience designed with freedom of approach in mind but still threatening enough to ward players off at first a few nice tidbits and high end gear properly incentivized exploration and the oppressive atmosphere works as a build-up from every angle of course it's the players decision how much of the story they'll experience before trying their hand at Ganon amnesia is a cliche plot device but at least in this case it serves as a way of presenting events nonlinearly with each of the 12 major memories unlockable at any time only one is gated behind the others it's easy to forget just how quickly factorials explode there are technically 479 million different orders these memories could be unlocked in everyone gets an identical cutscene at each location so the exact sequences of questionable importance but it can make some difference having cleared Val meadow as my first divine beast I expected the order three champions to be at least a little belligerent a link but it turned out Ravalli is the exception likewise some players will first see Zelda as she geeks out over a frog while others will meet her at her most aloof maybe you can imagine why if you were in charge of these cutscenes it might be scary to leave that order up to chance it's not as though this somehow makes the story better but that's not really the point it's about once again honoring the players freedom of choice as for the memories themselves they present a more fleshed-out version of Zelda than most for once the Triforce of wisdom appears properly manifested by intellectual curiosity it might be giving the story too much credit but it's possible to interpret her failure as another reminder of the importance of freedom the implication seems to be that if she had been able to pursue things that were really important to her she probably would have awakened to her power naturally by forcing her down a certain path the King inadvertently doomed them even so Zelda must bear some responsibility for what happened but if Ganon's defeat is supposed to be her Redemption arc that doesn't really land one thing this series has always done well from a narrative standpoint is not shying away from some harsher moments there's a fair bit of bitter sweetness to be found throughout these titles and breath of the wild is mostly no exception the champions don't get a cop-out they're dead from start to finish but Zelda gets restored to form a hundred years later seemingly no worse for the wear this is a fair ending for her considering how much she'd suffered already but I think it would have been more true to the narrative and themes if she had reappeared as an old woman or even just faded away we're left with the assumption that she once again takes the lead with link happy to tag along but that Rob's players of their final opportunity to decide for themselves what becomes of him in all likelihood the next entry in the series won't have as much freedom as this one so it's a shame that they ended on that kind of note this time around either way the final confrontation leaves something to be desired awakening the divine beasts just skips through most phases which seems like an uninspired choice this is one occasion where leaning back into old habits might have been beneficial since all the major runes are mandatory they might as well have some application in this fight ideally just in an optional capacity some of the Canon lights walk this line well we're good rune usage can be used for free damage at times but they're rarely if ever mandatory avoiding the predictable pattern previous bosses fell into to my knowledge the final forum only presents one such opportunity with the rest of it playing out more like a close quarters encounter it's nice that players are expected to master perfect dodges or Perry's to disable the shield but this doesn't exactly represent the combat system at its finest instead it probably would have been more satisfying if the beasts each activated a new part of the arena which link could take advantage of for example a shallow pool of water covering the floor for Crona shields a periodic gust of wind or a lightning rod as it is now a full playthrough sets cannon up to be a letdown at least bringing the final form into Hyrule Field for the finale is one tradition which is kept and wicked cause it's the last chance to integrate a grander moment back into the wonderful overworld unfortunately it plays out as a glorified cutscene with less challenged and even too divine beast assaults but it's still a valiant effort to wrap the whole thing up in an appropriate way and I suppose that speaks to the experience as a whole there's an admirable commitment to its larger picture even if some individual pirates suffer as a result a Link to the Past shadow has been dispelled by a paradigm shift towards greater freedom with so many drastic changes to a successful formula a few problems were inevitable puzzles suffer from being broken up so much combat is easy to avoid outright and some areas of the overworld are too devoid of meaningful content most of these flaws are obvious but the less obvious thing is that they all stem from the same source a singular commitment to freedom this is a series rediscovering itself returning to the core appeal of its roots and for the very first time eclipsing the defining feature of the original thanks to an unflinching vision with impressive execution that magic of exploration is stronger than it ever has been and much of the series long-standing baggage has been jettisoned in the process it's smoother less patronizing less obtrusive and more punishing it may not be in arguably great but it's sometimes scales a peak much higher than that two moments of perfection where it's systems align and elegant are surprising ways even its scripted content benefits from the context the more vibrant engrossing world provides much like that world itself there are traces of the past to be found but most has been reclaimed and the air is more fresh than ever before

Channel: Matthewmatosis

Views: 856,014

Keywords:

Id: LRA1QTTAxys

Length: 54min 45sec (3285 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 27 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/LinkToSomething68]

I see his point about how restricting your world-traversal options just a little bit would make things a bit better and more engaging, which I would agree with, it's way too easy to just go around any imaginable obstacle, but I hope they keep climbing and paragliding in in some form, because it's just so much fun. I especially used BOTW as a mountaineering simulator almost as much as a fantasy adventure. I feel like this really ties into the "intrinsic motivation" point.

My idea would be to take the climbing system currently in place but nerf paragliding, at least at the start, to make it more like his idea of having it be more of a parachute, then give out the full paraglide as an upgrade late-game.

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[u/[deleted]]

When this game came out I loved it and considered it to be my favourite game of all time, sharing a spot with Majora‘s Mask, but the ‚backlash‘ afterwards made me rethink that position quite often. Because, objectively speaking, the game has quite a number of remarkable flaws, yet those seemed to matter to me only in retrospect and not while playing; or, in other words, in thinking about the game ‚intellectually‘ rather than ‚emotionally.‘

So Matt‘s points (and thesis, basically) on how this game excels at providing so much intrinsic motivation and seems to actively devalue extrinsic factors to the point of seemingly intentionally downplaying or even discouraging them is amazing to me, and quite eye-opening. This difference is exactly what made this game so special for me. Not, for example, the chest you got at the end of a shrine, or the intended way of beating it, but thinking of ways to beat it that stray from the intended path; to decide for myself what a point of interest would be, plan out a path to that point and get distracted a dozen times along the way.

I don‘t think this ‚magic‘ can ever be recaptured in a repeated playthrough since the ‚intellectual‘ way of experiencing the game will now always come more into play than it did in the first, almost purely ‚emotional‘ playthrough, but man were those some memorable hours.

[u/Galaxy40k]

I adore BOTW (its probably my favorite game of all time), but this video really helped me understand why a lot of people just couldn't get into it. The most common criticism lobbed against this game is that the world is big, but "there's nothing to find other than Korok Seeds, Shrines, and breakable weapons, which makes exploration pointless." I could never get into that sentiment, because for me the act of exploring itself and engaging in the sandbox was rewarding in-and-of itself, and the little breadcrumbs were just that: breadcrumbs.

The reason for this big difference in perspective has to do with the whole "intrinsic vs extrinsic reward" system discussed throughout the video. I'm intrinsically motivated and play games for the act of playing the game, but a lot of people were "trained on" and enjoy extrinsic rewards. Its why I never could understand why every multiplayer shooter nowadays has to have some sort of progression system with skins, weapon unlocks, etc, when "back in the day" I would boot up Unreal Tournament or Halo and just play for hours on end without any of that stuff. Its the same deal here.

[u/SuuLoliForm]

I usually don't typically like these long form videos, but that comment about how the only thing link can't seem to mount is Mipha was probably the best thing i've heard this year so far on youtube.

[u/sylinmino]

This is a fantastic review, and Matthewmatosis once again lives up to his standard of long form reviewing.

So many long form reviewers that get views on YouTube aren't even that good at it--most seem to just fall into the pitfall of "the more I speak, the smarter I sound." And so many of them devolve into nitpicking and measuring those nitpicks to be much bigger than they are by talking about them for longer.

What I loved about this review was that Matt wasn't afraid to critique the game where he felt it fell short, but he contextualized those critiques around what they might have stemmed from, or from the very understandable fact that several of them were gameplay design-based tradeoffs that were potentially inevitable (at least as a starting point).

Also, I love how he talked about the quantity of content thing not being a super legitimate critique if the quality is there. You can always ask for more, and it's pointless to compare enemy variety to past Zeldas when the depth of interactivity with each enemy is vastly higher than in any past Zelda.

[u/Mr_Ivysaur]

I simply love Matthewmatosis. His reviews are fucking dense. One hour non stop of pure information. No overwhelming negativity, no time fillers, no jokes, no bullshit. Fucking one hour of quality content.

It is like the best wine of the world that took millions of grapes to produce a single bottle. But instead of giving you a glass, they give you the whole barrel.

[u/[deleted]]

Well shit. I didn't know if he'd ever do it, let alone so (relatively) soon.

EDIT: Having finished it now, I'm quite pleased with how this turned out. I think the point about the music is most appreciated. Of all the many takes on Breath of the Wild "no good music/not enough music" is always the one I've never been able to stand.

[u/[deleted]]

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