Like a lot of folks, we have been anxiously awaiting the release of Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. That game officially released on Friday, and we have been loving it.  We’ll hopefully have a full review up soon.

But, as we said in our review of the Age of Calamity demo (which you can check out here), playing that game made us want to go back and play The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. So, while we waited for Age of Calamity to come out, that’s precisely what I did! And it is just as gorgeous and wonderful as I remember it being.

We bought Breath of the Wild shortly after it released in March 2017 for the Nintendo Switch and Wii U.  When we brought it home, we had a spot of trouble taking turns with the game. We were still in school at the time, so Michela and I would race to finish our homework to be able to play before the other person. We eventually worked out a system based around one-hour timers so that we could get a turn to play. Maybe we were a bit too obsessed.

A Timeless Hero

Breath of the Wild has one of the better (in my opinion best) stories for a Zelda title. Link awakens from what must have been a long slumber because most of his clothes have disappeared along with his memories. He hears a mysterious voice telling him to grab the Nintendo Switch . . . er . . . *checks notes* . . . “Sheikah Slate” that’s on a nearby pedestal, and then he heads outside to discover a world in ruins.

With the help of an aloof old man, Link learns the basics of his Sheikah Slate and the history of Hyrule, including how Link ended up in his current state. Turns out, the man is the ghost of the old King of Hyrule. His daughter, Zelda, is the owner of the mysterious voice that Link has been hearing. The King explains that 100 years ago, Calamity Ganon came to town. The Hylians had discovered some ancient technology that prophecy foretold would help them defeat Ganon, but Ganon turned the technology on them and ravaged the kingdom.

Princess Zelda used her powers to somehow lock Ganon up for a time, but he isn’t completely sealed away. Link was placed in a fancy cryogenics station and has been asleep for the past 100 years. The King pleads with Link to help Zelda. Link agrees, and the King tells him to seek out Impa, a Sheikah elder who was there 100 years ago, to get more information and figure out a plan.

The beauty of Breath of the Wild’s story is that it is a bicameral story. You are playing the events of the current day—seeking out Impa, taming the divine beasts, thwarting Ganon at every step. But in order to do that, you also need to seek out Link’s memories. If you interact with various locations in the game, it will trigger one of Link’s memories from 100 years ago. It will give you more information about what happened during the Calamity, who everybody was, and what Link and Zelda were doing way back then.

These flashbacks are a beautiful way to tell a story in an open-world game. Because you can go anywhere and do anything in just about any order, telling a strictly linear story (in either timeline) would be very difficult. By telling the story through these isolated memories and leaving the player to piece things together, the developers created a beautiful tale that involves the player more than most video game stories do.

You Can Do Anything . . . Until it Rains

There is just so much to do in Breath of the Wild. Rather than have seven or eight main dungeons and a few side quests that you must complete in a (more or less) specified order, Breath of the Wild is an open world game that you can explore at your leisure. There are 120 shrines that act as miniature dungeons, as well as four (five if you count Hyrule Castle) slightly larger dungeons called the Divine Beasts. Most of the shrines have unique puzzles to solve that are themed around the area you find them in. For some, the puzzle is finding the shrine, and inside you find a simple reward. Still others are pure combat shrines that pit you against increasingly powerful guardians to earn rewards.

I know that some people struggled to accept the transition from a few solid and expansive dungeons to these bite-sized shrines. And I can definitely appreciate that perspective. The dungeons and temples of previous installments were satisfying to play, and I loved them. And I will admit that I do wish the Divine Beasts were more extensive, even as much as I did enjoy them. 

But I also found immense satisfaction in conquering each new shrine, and I enjoyed that there were so many of them. I didn’t feel like any of them grew stale or repetitive, even the combat shrines. Michela specifically appreciated that they were short and manageable because her favorite part of Zelda has always been exploring the world.

And that’s what Breath of the Wild is about at its core: exploration. The map is massive and full of things to do and stuff to discover. There are plenty of interesting side quests to do, and tons of useful items, equipment, and collectibles to grab. You’re never at a loss for a new project. In fact, I frequently found that I had too many things on my “I want to do this before progressing with the story” list.

 But that’s part of what makes the adventure so much fun. There are so many ways to tackle different situations and customize your own journey through the game. Sometimes, you might tackle a horde of enemies head on. Other times, you might sneak into their camp and steal their stuff without them ever knowing. You can customize your approach to the story and the gameplay for a totally bespoke experience.

For all of its virtues, Breath of the Wild is not a perfect game. The enemy variety is admittedly a little lacking. Even with the addition of the Yiga clan and guardians, many fan favorites from the series’s past don’t make a return. Don’t get me wrong—the ones that do come back are incredible. But there could be more variety. 

I also know that many found the weapon system a little frustrating. Rather than having a single weapon that Link uses to banish evil, you pick up several different kinds of weapons to shake up the combat a little. There are regular swords, spears, huge two-handed weapons, boomerangs, and cuccos to choose from. (And yes, that’s right, you can sick cuccos on the enemy if you trick them into hitting one of your ferocious, feathery friends.)

The variety is fantastic, and I like having different options to choose from. The catch is that they all break after a certain point because apparently the only weapon forger left is that one Goron who built the giant’s knife in Ocarina of Time. This rubbed some folks the wrong way. I personally saw it as a fun challenge in resource management, especially at the beginning when you haven’t expanded your weapon slots to be able to carry more equipment. Nevertheless, you’ve been warned.

And, finally, the rain really dampens the whole experience (ba-dum-ts). You can climb literally anything in this game, which makes exploration an exciting prospect because nothing is out of bounds. But when it rains, you slip and run out of stamina very quickly. That makes it hard to explore. And it rains far, far too often for some folks’ liking. I understand the desire for a bit more realism on the developer’s part, but the rain is not always a fun addition. Though, even with the rain, some virtue remains: Michela loves the fact that during thunderstorms, you can fry your enemies if you trick them into picking up a metal weapon.

But Wait, There’s More!

Breath of the Wild also has two DLC packs that I thoroughly recommend. Each pack introduced a new set of challenges that were just delightful. On the one hand, we got Master Mode and the addition of the Trial of the Sword. Master Mode amps up the difficulty by making enemies regain health if you take too long fighting them, increasing the level of all the existing enemies, and adding tons of enemies all over the place.

My third playthrough of the game has been on Master Mode, and I’ll say that it’s fun, but not anything I would necessarily buy on its own. The combat wasn’t necessarily built around enemies that regain their health, so even lowly bokoblins get really annoying—not because they’re suddenly beefy, but because I keep accidentally knocking them super far away and by the time I get over to beat them up again, they’ve regained a bunch of health. It feels a little tedious.

But the Trial of the Sword is phenomenal. You have to battle your way through a series of enclosed environments using only the items and weapons you can find in them and your sheikah slate. Even if I wish the ultimate reward for completing the trials were a bit better, the satisfaction and fun of beating the challenging task is one hundred percent worth it.

The DLC also introduced several new shrines, some additional backstory for the champions, and a new divine beast that was just a little meatier than the main ones. I enjoyed these challenges too (especially the divine beast), and I do recommend you play the DLC if you enjoyed the base game. If you already have Breath of the Wild, you can purchase the DLC here.

Who to Play With

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is rated E10+. I’d say that’s pretty good guidance, but I also might say kids as young as 8 could enjoy and handle it, depending on the child. The monsters you fight are generally not too intense—they’re cartoon goblins or giant lizards for the most part. Though, everyone should have an extra set of pants on hand for your first lynel fight.

The fights and cutscenes with Ganon or his iterations in the divine beasts could be frightening or intense for young children, so maybe preview those to see how your kids might react. You may also want to keep an eye open for the great fairies. They emit some suggestive undertones when they upgrade Link’s armor. Nothing over the top—they just give him smooches that grow increasingly . . . intense as the armor reaches higher levels.

Other than that, the game is really good and clean. No swears, and the combat is never gory (defeated enemies just disappear in a puff of smoke). And, fortunately, the game is just as delightful to watch as it is to play. So, even though it’s a single-player experience, it can still be fun for everyone to participate.

If you haven’t yet played Breath of the Wild, we highly recommend that you do. You can grab a copy on Amazon, or pretty much wherever you get your electronics.