Switch Adventures #1: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Hello again after an extended hiatus. I have finally decided to return to the world of reviewing for a new series, obviously, this series is called Switch Adventures. The idea behind this is that I will be reviewing games that are playable on the Switch, regardless of if they were originally for the console or not. And what better game to review first than the critically acclaimed launch title, Breath of the Wild?

So, first off, is the story, which, compared to other previous Zelda games, is pretty open ended and a little shallow compared to the previous games. Now, that isn't to say it's bad, it's just a unique way to tell a story, where you start out waking up without any memories and have to explore the world of Hyrule to find out what happened and what you need to do to save the world from the evils of the Calamity Ganon. I enjoyed this way of storytelling in that it allowed me to explore the world at my own pace and didn't interfere with that exploration too much.

As for the gameplay itself, the game is similarly open ended, with Hyrule being a massive open world you can explore freely at whatever pace you so choose. I'd even go so far as to say that this game's main focus is exploration. I mean, in order to upgrade your health and stamina meters, you have to get spirit orbs from shrines scattered about the world.

The shrines and the divine beasts are where Breath of the Wild's answers to traditional Zelda dungeons come in. These are small structures, or in the case of the four divine beasts, large puzzle boxes, that are scattered across Hyrule that provide various challenges and puzzles that, when completed, reward you with a spirit orb, of which four can be traded in to upgrade your health and stamina, as mentioned earlier. These puzzles were often very fun to figure out, although I will admit some of them had pretty obvious solutions. Still, I would always go out of my way to find a new shrine and see what puzzle I would have to solve. As for the Divine Beasts, these are slightly more dungeon-like than a shrine, but, as mentioned earlier, play like giant puzzle boxes you can explore, with a boss as the final challenge of each. These were actually really fun and were a unique change of pace from a traditional Zelda dungeon experience.

Now, I know this game has received almost unanimous praise for its innovation and restructuring of the Zelda series, especially since Zelda games had been following the same formula since 1998's Ocarina of Time. I won't deny that the praise is deserved, but my opinions on it are a mixed bag. I love the open ended nature of the game that allows you more time to explore the world and figure things out at your own pace, bur at the same time, I feel the story suffers a little bit for this, as the main story is basically told through flashback, and I am sure many people probably wished that they could either play through the flashbacks or that the story would have a bit more integration with the present day outside of 'stop Ganon'.

Another issue I found to be quite annoying was the fact that weapons degenerate and break with use, meaning you constantly have to be looking for new weapons to replace those that broke. In my playthrough, this got very tedious after awhile, to the point where I would actively avoid enemies just so I could keep the weapons I had from breaking.

Overall, this game was actually a very fun time despite its flaws, which honestly do feel minor in the grand scheme of things. This is a game about exploring and uncovering the mysteries of a ruined world, and getting strong enough to destroy the evil that made the world ruined to begin with. It's definitely a different take on the Zelda story than before, but ultimately, I believe that is a good thing. If you like open world games and are a fan of Zelda yet feel like it does need a fresh storytelling and gameplay style, this is the game for you.

Next time, I will be playing a game that is a throwback to the earliest days of a popular platforming series, made by fans, for fans, and picked up by the original developer. That's right, we'll be looking at Sonic Mania next time on Switch Adventures.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mario Marathon Part 6: Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins

I have to say, Mario way back in the early days of gaming used to be so creative, and this game is no exception. I mean, just like its predecessor, it's very weird, but that's what makes it so charming and fun to play. As with the first Mario Land title, this game was released on the Game Boy, but for being a game on such a simple console, they did quite a lot with the visuals and world designs. In fact, I'd even go so far as to say that this game makes the first Super Mario Land look like a tech demo by comparison. The story is the usual flavor of weird that the first game had as well. Mario's castle that he just...has for some reason, has been taken over by the evil Wario and the door to the castle can only be unlocked by going to six zones and finding the golden coins that reside in each. Yeah, this game has a weird story. The six zones are really where the game shines, in my opinion. There is the tree zone, which is a grassland type area that takes place in a giant ...
Read more

Mario Marathon Part 4: Super Mario Land

Well, this was certainly a game, or at least, a good demonstration of one. This is one of the more bizarre Mario games out there, so let's talk about why that is. Super Mario Land was the first portable mainline Mario game, released for Nintendo's black and white Game Boy. So how did Mario on the go end up doing? Well, quite weirdly as mentioned earlier. While it is a 2D platformer like the other games reviewed so far, this game definitely tried to stand out in ways no other Mario game really has done before. The story follows Mario as he tries to save the kingdom of Sarasaland and its princess, Daisy, from the evil alien Tatanga. Already a departure from the norm for sure, but even the enemies are weird. For example, Koopas now turn into bombs when you jump on them instead of just hiding in their shells so you can kick them later on. The game plays like the first Mario game, but in black and white, with more bizarre enemies like the aforementioned Bombshell Koopas, and actual ...
Read more

Mario Marathon Part 1: Super Mario Bros

I like Mario, that much is clear from the random beginning of this specific marathon, but regardless, there has been so much Mario content that has come out over the last few years that a review of all the Mario games I consider important sounds like a no-brainer. Well, after a couple weeks of thinking about this, that's exactly what I am doing, and what better place than the game that started it all? That, of course, is Super Mario Bros. Now, this game is hardly the most complex thing out there. It's a sidescrolling platformer where you play as a plumber named Mario who has to save the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom from the villainous turtle dragon thing known as Bowser. But even this simple plot was revolutionary for gaming. You see, prior to this game, video games didn't have any sort of story to them and really were just things made to rack up high scores. This was the first game to really give a more fleshed out story than "Get as much points and then, I don...
Read more