by Emily Raine
A black screen covers the screen of a video game console. Then, a gleam of light and a soft, gentle, female voice urging someone to wake up fills the space of the once black, empty screen. The light then transitions to blue lights glowing on a ceiling. In a pool of bright, glowing water, a young boy with blond hair blinks his eyes sleepily as the voice in his head tells him to wake up, calling him Link. The water drains away and Link, clad in nothing but dark blue underwear, sits up in the now empty pool. The screen cuts to what looks like a holding chamber, bathed in blue light. Link then crawls out of the pool and stands up, water dripping from his body, staring at the strange designs covering the chamber. He has no memory of who he was or how he got there.
Still wearing nothing but underwear, Link walks to a strange pedestal, also emitting blue light. In the center of the pedestal sits a strange tablet. The surface of the pedestal rises, turns in a circle, and flips over the tablet. A strange eye is seen on it. The soft female voice says it is a “Sheikah Slate” and it will help guide Link. The pedestal then turns again and locks in place, opening the door. Sheikah Slate in hand, Link goes into the next room which has boxes, barrels, and two chests in it. Link opens the chests to find a worn-out shirt and trousers. Putting them on, Link goes further into the room to find another pedestal. This one has a circular eye on it. As instructed, Link touches the Sheikah Slate to the pedestal. An even bigger door with an eye logo on it opens, light streaming in to fill the dark space. The voice tells him that he is the light “that must shine upon Hyrule once again.” Link then goes up some stairs and climbs a small ledge, leading to a green landscape.
He runs out of the cave to an overlook, ignoring the trees and the rocks. Standing on the edge, he sees a big world staring back at him. From a volcano to the outline of a castle, a multitude of landscapes lay before him. With an entire world to explore, Link set off to find a certain location the Sheikah Slate wanted him to go to (Scott).
This is the introduction that greets players who are playing Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for the first time. The game was first announced in the summer of 2014 at E3, a technology exposition where creators and companies such as Nintendo showcase new video games, new technology, and other digital media that they are currently working on that is not yet available to the public. It is held every year in Los Angeles during the month of June(E3).
In an announcement video broadcasted live on YouTube around the same time as E3 2014, the producer of the original Legend of Zelda series (also director of Nintendo Corporation) (Gombos, 238), Eiji Aonuma talked about the next installment of the Legend of Zelda series. He wanted to make the next Legend of Zelda game more like the older games in which the players explored a box like world while fighting monsters. However, the world still had boundaries as well as the other Legend of Zelda games, where players had to follow a single path for missions. Breath of the Wild would remove those boundaries so players could explore freely and travel to destinations in any direction they wished to travel from. The announcement then cut to a small scene in which Link is riding his horse escaping from a monster that is shooting laser beams at the duo. Explosions surround the pair as they run for their dear lives. Just as it looks like the monster is about to win, Link pulls out his bow and arrow and begins shooting the monster, eventually killing it. The screen then fades to white and the year 2015 is written in black in the center (“Play Nintendo”).
While Breath of the Wild was going to be released on the WiiU Nintendo console in 2015, it was not released for another two years until early 2017, the same year the Nintendo Switch was released. The main reason for the delay in the game’s release was the physics engine which is used to simulate physical interactions that happen such as a collision between two characters in a fight scene (Jones). While other games such as Halo and Half-Life 2 had been using the physics engine before Breath of the Wild was ever mentioned, Nintendo had rarely used a physics engine and applying it to a world like Breath of the Wild was an enormous task for them. Rather than trying to rush the development of the game so it could come out on time, they decided to delay the release to fix the problems with the game (Perry).
One of the biggest differences between Breath of the Wild and other Legend of Zelda games is that there is no single path that must be followed to complete missions. In the past games, players had to complete certain missions in order and could not access certain areas till they completed the specified mission. No matter the storyline or new enemies that were introduced in each game, it was the same game mechanics repeatedly. Breath of the Wild however takes those rules that the other games followed and chucks them out the window. Once players are finally able to leave the Great Plateau area with the paraglider, they can go anywhere they desire, completely ignoring the main quests. This does not mean they are invincible as monsters roam the open world as well. One can expect to be wrapped up in side quests such as having to defeat monsters on the beach to get sheep back or buying goat butter from a shop to help someone cook dinner.
A more minute difference that separates Breath of the Wild from the other Legend of Zelda games is that it is placed at the bottom of the official Legend of Zelda timeline (Fekete). Every game in the Legend of Zelda series that has a story has been put in a place on a complex timeline that splits three ways after Ocarina of Time or is at the beginning before the split of the timelines. By looking at the Japanese version of the official Legend of Zelda website, one can infer that Breath of the Wild is the game that all three timelines eventually lead to (Nintendo). Whether it is the end of the Legend of Zelda series franchise is unknown, but many are hopeful that Breath of the Wild allows for a new timeline of games to follow (Fekete).
Breath of the Wild is a great game for people that are new or familiar with the Legend of Zelda series, but have not really played many of the games extensively or any at all. It follows a simple storyline of how a kingdom fell to ruin one hundred years ago and the hero known as Link must save Hyrule Kingdom from the evil that is Calamity Ganon. Along the way, players learn details about the events surrounding what happened one hundred years ago. While the game does not teach players, everything needed to survive in the world of Hyrule, it gives tips to players while the game is loading and tips in game such as when the player needs to change their equipment. Having a vast open world also gives new players the chance to explore places that often show up in other Legend of Zelda games such as Kakariko Village and recurring characters such as Beedle, the wandering salesman. The game also gives flexibility to new players to become stronger in the game instead of pushing them to complete the main missions.
The vast open wilderness of the game draws players in to want to explore, despite the risks of possibly getting killed by monsters or sometimes other people (the Yiga clan). The geography of the world has a volcano, beaches, snowy mountains, forests, plains, and all kinds of different environments. From riding a horse across a bridge with a bright green dragon circling overhead slowly to a double rainbow appearing after a rainstorm, the game never ceases to appeal to the eyes. It is like the game is whispering to the player, “Come and explore me.” The grass is textured rather than just a flat green surface and the trees look like they have actual leaves on them. At sunset and sunrise, the sky changes colors such as purple, orange, yellow, blue, red, and pink just like in real life.
While exploring, players must pay attention to Link’s body temperature in certain areas. To help keep Link’s body temperature stable, there are certain foods, clothing, and potions that allow Link to explore an area safely for a certain period. For example, if Link is exploring a cold region such as Mount Lanayru, eating food with spicy peppers in it or wearing the warm doublet allows the body temperature to stabilize and resist the cold air for a few minutes at a time. Just make sure to stock up on ingredients and clothes that resist extreme temperatures!
At a small secluded women’s college in the middle of Amherst, Virginia, I sit on my bed surrounded by obscure figurines and stuffed animals from different anime and video games I have loved over the years. In my hand is a Nintendo Switch console with red and blue controls attached to it. I grit my teeth as I push on the left joystick, guiding Link up a snowy mountain in my game, worried that the cold resistance food I had Link eat beforehand will not last long enough before he starts to take damage. Just in time, he makes it to the top of the snowy mountain only to find a small angel statue made of stone and a purple dragon sitting at the top. I freak out when the angel statue asks Link to free the dragon from a great evil possessing it. Never had I fought a dragon in the game. Accepting the task nervously, I had Link aim his bow and arrow at the big, bright orange eye with a black slit for a pupil on the dragon’s head. The dragon moves to the top of the mountain and circles around it mindlessly as if waiting for me to bring Link to the top.
I set the bow and arrow to aim for one of the smaller, orange eyes after climbing to the peak. After a few misses, I manage to hit the eye. The dragon moves again to a lower elevation. Using the paraglider, an old man on the Great Plateau gave Link, I pressed the x button to fall. The paraglider caught the fast winds the dragon created on the snowy scene below. With the winds guiding Link towards the dragon, I see the next eye I must aim for. Again, I aim and miss a couple of times before hitting the eye. The dragon moves to an even lower elevation. I knew this was the final stage of the battle. With time until the cold resistance wore off running dangerously low and a shortage of arrows, I had only a few chances left to perfect the final strike.
An arrow finally pierced the last eye, setting free the evil that had once cursed the dragon. I cheered as I had thought I would not be able to defeat the dragon. As a reward, I was given a frostspear which could freeze enemies. Knowing the countdown to cold resistance was near zero, I had Link jump off the mountain once more, the paraglider carrying him off to a much more stable climate.
Sources
“About E3.” E3 Expo, Entertainment Software Association, www.e3expo.com/about.
Fekete, Bob. “Where Does ‘Breath of the Wild’ Fit in the ‘Zelda’ Timeline?” Newsweek, Newsweek, 6 Aug. 2018, www.newsweek.com/legend-zelda-timeline-updated-breath-wild-placement-revealed-1058496.
Gombos, Michael, et al. The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia. Dark Horse Books, 2013.
“HISTORY | ゼルダの伝説ポータル| Nintendo.” 任天堂ホームページ, Nintendo, www.nintendo.co.jp/character/zelda/history/index.html.
Jones, M. Tim. “Open Source Physics Engines.” IBM – United States, IBM, 7 July 2011, www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/os-physicsengines/index.html.
Nintendo, director. Play Nintendo- Nintendo E3 Digital Event. YouTube, YouTube, 10 June 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=GisRY6h100U.
Perry, Alex. “Why the New ‘Zelda’ Game Is Taking So Long to Come Out.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 21 June 2016, www.businessinsider.com/why-the-legend-of-zelda-was-delayed-2016-6.
Scott, Zack, director. The Legend of Zelda- Breath of the Wild Gameplay Part 1- Link Awakens! (Nintendo Switch). YouTube, YouTube, 2 Mar. 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1P7d2JNCtX4.