Day 25: Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

It was the swan song for the Wii U and the warm welcome for the Switch, this is The Legend of Zelda: The Breath of the Wild, the first Zelda game to take on a sort of survival style gameplay, and probably the biggest Zelda game to date.

100 years after Calamity Ganon's return, our hero Link awakes to find himself with a case of amnesia. He comes across the spirit of King Rhoam, the former King of Hyrule, who tells him that he needs to defeat Ganon before the world sufferes any further damage. Now Link must travel the vast wasteland that once was Hyrule in search of the Devine Beasts needed to defeat Calamity Ganon, as well as learn about his past.

Let me just start by reiterating that this game is big! Probably the biggest Zelda game we've gotten so far. This game offers so much that it's nearly impossible to get bored. This game is filled to the brim with side content like the shrines which have you go through a physical or mental trial that will net you a spirit orb which you can use to increase your heart containers or stamina wheel, do tons of side quests, raid enemy bases to get whatever treasure they're guarding, collect Korok seeds to expand the number of weapons and shields you can carry, take on the Guardians in the area and use their parts to make better weapons and armor, tame wild horses or bears, or just screw around and scavenge for ingredients and weapons.

Yeah, While Kingdom Hearts 3 also had a cooking simulator to increase your stats, Breath of the Wild was not only the one of the two games to do it first, but they honestly do it better. You can combine ingredients to get whatever dish you concoct. Some will boost your strength, boost your health, boost your defense, or will actually prove to do more harm than good if you are a terrible cook. Also I really like the jingle that plays when you're cooking the food.

Weapons and shields have a rather interesting mechanic. If used too much, they'll eventually break and you'll lose them forever (When you get the Master Sword doesn't necessarily break it just needs to recharge), so this game encourages you to use your weapons wisely, giving this game a bit of strategy.

Among a vast variety of weapons and shields, we also have a vast amount of armor that also has its perks. Some armor gives Link better defense, better stealth, and they can even help Link endure certain weather conditions without taking damage. The weather is another interesting element that hammers the survival gameplay this game is trying to build. Link will slowly loose health if but in an area that's too hot or too cold unless he has the necessary armor, if there's a thunderstorm Link will get struck by lightning if he has anything metal on him, and the cliffs are too slippery to climb when it's raining. I don't mind this too much as, again, it really hammers in the point that you're trying to survive in what is basically the wilderness.

One thing I really like about Breath of the Wild is how it encourages you to choose your own adventure. There's no rush to do everything needed in the main story as you can just screw around and do whatever you want, but when you do decide to tackle the main story, you can tackle the dungeons in any order you want. Hell, you can even face the final boss as soon as you finish the tutorial area with no more than three hearts, sticks and stones for weapons, and in your freaking underwear.

On the subject of the dungeons, they're all really fun mixes of puzzle solving and combat and I enjoy going through them quite a bit, and the bosses are all pretty fun too.

Upon beating each boss, you get an ability that's significant to each champion that'll help you on your journey. The Zora Champion Mipha will give you Mipha's Grace which will protect you from death. The Goron Champion Daruk will give you Daruk's protection which will protect you from any attack for at least three times. The Gerudo Champion Urbosa will give you Urbosa's Fury which will send out a shockwave that'll damage any enemies in the blast radius. And finally there's the Rito Champion Revali who gives you Revali's Gale which gives you and updraft of air that'll give Link some extra height when climbing or flying on his glider. All of these are very helpful on your quest, and that's a great thing too because this game can be surprisingly hard at points.

By far, what I like the most about this game is how a certain mission will require you to recollect memories from Link's past and we get to see the bond he had with this game's iteration of Zelda, as well as the Four Champions of Hyrule. All of these cutscenes are really nice to watch, I really like the chemistry Link and Zelda share here, and all these cutscenes lead up to where the game began. Also, just saying, some of these cutscenes get really sad when you watch them all in order and you will feel for this game's version of Zelda by the end of it.

Breath of the Wild is a game so great and filled to brim with so much to do and discover, that it's no wonder why it won Game of the Year 2017. If you own a Wii U or a Switch and you haven't played this game yet, please do. This is game is a wild adventure from beginning to end, and I am so looking forward to this game's sequel.