or in Japan they might call it…
get it?
no?… see it was a very specific reference to how only Japan tagged “Super Mario Bros. 4” onto the title of Super Mario World, and technically this is the 4th article I’ve got out of one mighty exciting day at the Nintendo UK Switch Premiere. >>FYI: JAPANESE SUPER MARIO WORLD BOXART<<
With that bit of mediocre yet educational humour out the way, let’s get into this!!
Announced in 2014, expected in 2015, and then bumped on to the current March 3rd 2017 worldwide release date.
We’re now FINALLY nearing that moment when we can default in to a childlike sense of excitement whilst we eagerly bust open jiffy bags/ boxes in the mail, or dash over to a local store to hopefully nab a copy from a shelf/ or pick up pre-orders and embrace that new game box in our hands.
For some March 3rd is going to be a beautiful farewell to their WiiU. That long awaited original Zelda title we’ve all been waiting for since the WiiU landed back in 2012.
For others March 3rd is the start of a new era. The beginning of “Switch”. In several years time many us will be thinking back to the excitement and early days of getting ‘new toy fever’ over the console, and Breath of the Wild will be synced with those memories.
So on to my thoughts on the game itself…
Zelda was the very first Switch title I played at the Nintendo event, and even though I headed straight towards it when the ropes were lifted for attendees to go play, I still ended up in a 25~ minute queue. It was evident this was a highly sought after experience Though that only got worse from then onwards throughout the day, and this was the game that had the most dedicated Switch units running too.
Once I was sat at a console I was handed a controller, the “joy-con grip” setup to be more precise. Thankfully I had a decent rep for Nintendo talking me over the game, one who knew his stuff, and within a minute the conversation between us felt like it went from a formal one to just 2 fans having an exuberant Zelda conversation. As he proceeded to talk me through the buttons for the game, I was rotating the Joy-Con grip around. Taking in every button or port I could see on it and simultaneously getting a feel for the weight of it and warming to just how comfortable this setup was in hand (again, first moments touching a controller here, so it was exciting).
I was given 2 options when it came to my Zelda hands-on time. Option 1 was to begin the story and learn more about what’s going on in this iteration of Zelda. Option 2 was to just skip over that and get a tiny bit further into the game so as to get a better idea of the controls, the early in-game environment, and the actual combat and the general gameplay mechanics.
I went for Option 2, as to me that made the most sense. Zelda is one of my all time favourite franchises, and I’ve come all this way in life without ever reading too much into a game before playing it. Given we’re all now aware the release date is almost in reaching distance I figured I’d save myself the story for when I’m kicking off my own save file.
Plus this was my first time playing Breath of the Wild and I was excited to be able to feel what the game was going to play like. Watching cinematics and reading text wouldn’t of painted much of a picture for that aspect.
Pictured above is the iconic view you’ll find yourself coming across in the early steps of your play through. I’ve seen this image in screenshot form and video form on a number of occasions but seeing it happen in front of me, controlled by my own hands was undoubtedly the best way I’ve taken it in.
In fact let me just get the visuals out the way now…
They look superb! Screenshots and trailers just can’t quite do the game the same justice as seeing it in motion does.
Sure enough it’s worth noting to some that the Switch won’t ever be outdoing the rival consoles when it comes to visual performance, but by no means does that mean things aren’t pretty here, and I definitely wouldn’t worry about any future Switch games being limited to anything that could be considered as ugly (unless any game developers make a mess of that).
Breath of the Wild’s use of a softer art style (similar to Skyward Sword) works very much to the games advantage. It makes everything in the world look better than it would do had it been gritty and realistic. Enemies like Bokoblins were very expressive and fun to watch, think similar to how Wind Waker made great use of reactive emotions. I hear the game looks great in portable mode too, although I didn’t get the option to check that out in my own play session.
After wiggling the camera around and taking in the views for myself I was guided (by my rep) to a nearby solitary enemy. I picked up either a primitive sword or stick en route and then proceeded to test out the attack tips given to me (by my rep). As I neared the Bokoblin (enemy) he spotted me, and quite clearly expressed that we must now fight.
As I’m familiar with previous Zelda games the core concepts to combat are ingrained in me. Once I had him targeted I tried to bait out an attack from him by edging closer to within his range, and when it did so I’d either choose to backflip or jump to the side to evade his attack and then land a counter.
It felt similar to Wind Waker, albeit a little bit harder (as this game wasn’t offering any sort of over the top queues to let me know when to dodge). Another neat touch is that the dodging now has a sweet spot for timing. If you move too early you’ll simply evade the attack as planned, however if you time it just right you’ll go into a nice little slow motion effect and give yourself the optimal chance to counter attack most effectively.
Once I satisfyingly took care of the first guy, I now had a thirst for more action. So my rep pointed me in the direction of where more enemies usually are (plus some better weapons). Interestingly the path to get there wasn’t a straight forward walk, so it was at this point I did a little bit of running, swimming, and climbing.
Similar to Skyward Sword this game uses a stamina meter. If you happened to be swimming or climbing and ran out of stamina, you could die. Also I believe certain melee attacks used stamina too, so you’d want to be cautious about your stamina within a multi-enemy fight situation too.
I could see the stamina meter being something that can possibly be extended throughout the game too, that way certain areas that were slightly out of climbing reach earlier in the game may become much more accessible later on (with or without any other items assisting you). Either way the system makes sense and is clear to understand.
Once I had a few opportunities to come across groups of enemies though, that was when Breath of the Wild really surpassed my already high expectations. Most notable is the enemy AI. Past Zelda games have had a tendency for most enemies to just head towards you and attack. In Breath of the Wild however I had instances were enemies would behave independently from one another. One of them might hop about trying to wait for a chance to attack me when my guard was down whilst another tried to position to hit me at a distance with an arrow or projectile. One enemy could be trying to distract me and continuously sit blocking my attacks whilst another would try to sneak up behind me.
Mishandling a situation could very easily lead to an early game over if you don’t carefully plan and observe what you’re getting into. To your own advantage though you don’t simply need to handle everything by Sword or Bow & Arrow anymore.
The whole idea of weapons has been built upon further for this game. At least in the earliest part of the game you’re without any sort of usual go-to weapons that you’d normally expect. Now, in a system not too unlike Dead Rising’s, you’ll find yourself picking up a variety of items and having to keep an eye on the durability of them before they break.
I had a fun occasion were I was down to just a stick for a weapon, not only that I could see that it was about to break on me. So instead of getting in that last melee hit with it I choose the option to throw it at another enemy who was coming at me with a spear, this disarmed him, we both ran for the weapon, I got it first, and proceeded to get the kill as he turned to retreat in fear.
Breath of the Wild introduces a whole stealth mechanic to your repertoire too. Giving you the ability to sneak up on guards and potentially clear out a camp site of guards without ever causing a ruckus is not only rewarding, but it’s something that could prove to be your only option on occasions were you find yourself short on supplies. With the introduction of stealth, plus a slew of different weapon types you can come across, I see it being easy to find yourself being creative with how you approach each encounter.
Physics come into play better than ever before too. You have environmental things like pushing boulders downhill towards enemies, causing fires were enemies are, and I believe I even witnessed an enemy accidentally hitting one of it’s own with an arrow too.
Oh, and speaking of arrows, aiming with the motion controls of the Joy-Cons in the grip controller was the best they’ve ever been.
This is without a doubt the best Zelda for combat to date. Importantly though, it had to be. When you think of the vast size of the game mixed with the plethora of different enemies you’ll surely face along the way, you kind of needed each encounter to have a chance of becoming memorable to prevent you getting tired of playing.
It’s not just weapons that have had a bump in variety in Breath of the Wild either. The game comes with a new crafting system. In my sampler session with the game I was picking up all sorts of materials whilst on my travels, from fallen enemies, dotted around the world, or in vacated properties or ruins.
A lot of these pickups went over my head in terms of their utility (aside from obvious food items which could be used to heal), so I’ll definitely look forward into how that whole system factors into the final game.
Past Zelda traditions have certainly been shaken up, my rep told me that you can’t just cut at bushes in hopes of finding hearts to heal anymore, so carrying food items is important. If the same can be said about how you’ll find money, then perhaps we’ll be selling a lot of these items to fill our wallets in-game.
Given how huge the game world is reported to be, and how much fun that can be had with the menial tasks and optional fights within it. I’m wholeheartedly ready for the game now.
This isn’t merely another token Zelda installment that we’ve come to expect, this is a huge step (I’m talking a “Link to the Past” to “Ocarina of Time” kind of step).
Let’s take a brief moment to think of traditional Zelda series elements that make the games stand out…
The unique characters and races, the distinctive regions that will one day be as locked in our memories as the ones from Zelda past are, the gradual empowerment you get as you collect more heart containers and come across new key items or weapon upgrades, figuring out and overcoming the dungeons, epic boss fights, and all that to the tune of a brand new soundtrack.
If Breath of the Wild is knocking it out of the park on those traditional elements similar to how it’s hitting home runs on combat, exploration, and discovery. Then this could be the perfect Zelda game. A must-buy/ system seller tier game regardless of if you go for the WiiU version or the Switch.
March 3rd cannot come soon enough.
Looking to the future…
Given this is a day 1 title on Switch, we can safely assume we’ll have a brand new Zelda game designed from the ground up with the Nintendo Switch in mind to look forward to.
Potentially utilising more of the Switch’s unique hardware capabilities, such as; the multi-touch screen, HD rumble, precision motion controls. All those things could certainly be used for puzzles within dungeons/ shrines, or specifically relate to special items in-game.
The Zelda team at Nintendo will have learned a tremendous amount of things in the making of Breath of the Wild. Every improved upon, or brand new feature in BotW will have had a domino effect on some other design aspects. For instance how improved enemy AI requires better combat options (and vice versa), or how the giant open world will have required a lot of careful planning and points of interest laid to ensure you don’t tire of exploring or lose motivation.
It’s no wonder Breath of the Wild hit some delays, though thankfully that will have lead to it being a better game, plus creating a wealth of knowledge and leftover ideas to carry forward for the betterment of Zelda series future.
P.S.
Seeing as motion controls are back and better than ever with the Joy-Cons, I would be willing to bank on the fact we’ll at some point in the not too distant future see “Zelda: Skyward Sword HD” remaster on the Nintendo Switch. Nintendo would’ve had a harder time selling that on the WiiU given not everyone who owned that console had WiiMotion+ controllers (which the game requires).
It’s an easy filler title to ensure fans don’t have to go too long between the next original entry (which as you can imagine will take a lot of time).
Expect it!