The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Where Did My Weekend Go?

After 110+ hours, I’ve finally finished the main story for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Now that the completion percentage is available on the in-game map, I can see just how little I’ve accomplished. I blame the 900 Koroks and their weird seeds. Haven’t even cracked the 200 mark on collecting those golden nuggets with a “distinctive smell”. Then there’s side quests, hidden shrines, and enough grinding for armor upgrade materials to turn anyone into a hermit. Damnit, Link! I have other games I need to play! I guess I’m just glad there isn’t a way of tracking all of the discovered cooking recipes or I’d be hunting down exotic ingredients from across the globe for the next episode of Hyrule Kitchen.

Back in 2010, some critics were calling Darksiders the Zelda game that Nintendo would never make. It feels like someone at Nintendo took that to heart and then played Skyrim for a couple hundred hours. Breath of the Wild takes off the kid gloves and gives fans who’ve grown up playing Zelda games something mature and challenging. Maybe they’ve realized that players of a 30 year old franchise might be looking for something with a bit more meat? So far, nobody from Nintendo has reached out to us to comment. (Probably because we haven’t actually asked them.) Regardless, this is at once the Zelda of your childhood (for those as old as myself) and a hardcore adventure game where getting one-shot is a real possibility if you don’t learn the mechanics.

I’ve managed to find my way to the majority of the shrines in Breath of the Wild. There are 120 of these mini-dungeons scattered liberally around the world map just begging to be found. I’m not too proud to say that after making a bad 99 shrines joke to my partner, I resorted to an interactive map to point me in the direction of the remaining 21. I didn’t use a guide to spoil how to open or complete the shrines, but showing me what part of the massive map to search became a necessity. Even Indiana Jones needed a map to find the Lost Arc, so I don’t feel bad about not hunting them all down on my own.

Combat is the cornerstone of Breath of the Wild. I’m still terrible at reflecting attacks with my shield, but I’ve gotten the dodge timing down against most enemies. Silver Lynels can die in a fire (if I could ever hit them), but those fuckers are harder to kill than Ganon was. As with all things, I’m sure I’ll eventually get the hang of them. That’s the beauty of this game; it demands and rewards skill and practice. It also rewards looking under every single rock, but the jury is still out on how I feel about the Koroks. I don’t need to find all of them and I’ve stumbled across enough that inventory space is no longer an issue. I was initially put off by the weapon-breaking mechanic, but eventually it became second nature. There are so many weapons just lying around that I don’t feel the loss of any single one of them. Knowing a weapon is about to break signals to me that it’s time to throw it for bonus damage. It’s become another part of my combat strategy and I love it.

I can’t think of the last time I’ve enjoyed a Zelda game this much. It’s one of those rare titles that I’d recommend to anyone that likes having fun. Of course, I’ve only played it on the Switch and so can’t comment on how good the Wii U version is. Over the last couple months, I’ve been dragging my Switch along with me virtually everywhere. As it happens, a cross-country flight is made significantly more bearable by bringing a game console along. Sure, friends give a bit of stinkeye about me breaking out a handheld while hanging out, but that all changes when they see it’s Zelda. There’s something nearly universal about the Zelda franchise. It seems that everyone has an opinion about which one is the best. (Hint: It’s Breath of the Wild.) If you get a chance to buy a Switch, only do so if you can buy Breath of the Wild at the same time.