In The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Link awakens in a mysterious place with a strangers voice calling out to him. After retrieving an ancient artifact known as a “Sheikah Slate” and some duds that are a little too tight for him, Link wanders out into the open world of Hyrule. With a little help from an old man, Link's adventure begins and the game starts to live up to it's name.
I say it lives up to it's name in that the game really is a breath of fresh air for the franchise and even the open world genre in general. Once players learn how to play the game and earn the paraglider on the Great Plateau, players are free to go about their business in practically anyway they see fit in order to defeat Ganon. There isn't a mountain Link can't climb or a beast he cannot conquer, even with the weakest of weapons at his disposable as the Sheikah Slate offers plenty of tricks to Link's arsenal.
Bombs using up inventory space are a thing of the past as the Sheikah Slate can spawn an endless supply, manipulate metal objects, temporarily freeze objects in time or even create small columns of ice in water for a multitude of purposes. These abilities do come with a trade off though as bombs don't hit very hard and Stasis has a longer cooldown the longer it hold an object in space. You can upgrade them however, they don't make for good replacements in combat than they do as distractions. A well placed bomb can send a group of enemies into the sky and Stasis can freeze a walking Guardian tank in it's tracks for a second and interrupt it's devastating lasers.
Link will also come across many weapons and different sets of armor at his disposal. While I was partial to the classic sword and shield combo, Breath of the Wild is host to a variety of weapons such as spears, boomerangs and even magic rods. Each weapon has it's own perks, spears might not do a whole lot of damage but they're fast and give Link the reach he needs to keep his distance. Boomerangs can be used like a single handed weapon but also are the only weapon Link can throw and it will return to him or be caught by a certain type of enemy. Weapons will also begin to break after so many uses and while it might be frustrating in the beginning, you'll find it isn't such an issue later into the game after you earn a few upgrades and especially as you begin to think outside of the box during your encounters.
Why not cast stasis on a boulder and use it's kinetic energy you've built up to hurl it into a group of bokoblins? A specific set of armor will make Link stealthier allowing you to sneak up from behind and deal massive damage with a Sneak Strike. Elemental weapons will outright kill any enemy of the opposite nature. I once hit an ice Wizrobe onto a fire I made to thaw out a shrine. It was totally unintended and I learned a very important lesson about clashing elements which was very helpful in the later areas I explored. If you're not up for a fight, you can always go around it or flee. The choice is totally up to you how approach each situation.
As I've stated before, players are free to explore from pretty much the get-go. After a rather short introduction to Shrines and how the Spirit Orbs work, players can jump from the Great Plateau and proceed to approach the main goal in any manner they want. Breath of the Wild has 120 Shrines for Link to seek out and claim their rewards. Some are just out in the open for Link to spot and others require a bit of searching and inventive thinking to discover. Most of them require Link to overcome some sort of challenge like solving a few puzzles or fighting an ancient guardian. Others will simply reward you for discovering them.
Gone are the days of heart pieces as Link now must rely on Spirit Orbs to get more heart containers as well as defeating the bosses inside of the 4 dungeons in the game. Outside of hearts, players can also increase Links stamina wheel which allow him to sprint longer, swim farther and climb higher. Outside of traversal, the stamina wheel will also drain when Link fires his bow in the air, slowing time as he lines up his shot or he attempts to tame a horse in the wild. It'll also allow Link to charge up his attacks for massive damage.
Those who explore will discover all the small details that really make the land of Hyrule feel like a living and breathing world. Hyrule is a home to hazardous environments like hot deserts, frozen snow capped mountains and Death Mountain is aptly named. While the fire and brimstone of Death Mountain requires a bit more to survive in, certain armor sets will protect Link from the heat and cold. If you don't have them yet, specially cooked foods or a fire and ice sword may also suffice. Eastern Hyrule is victim to frequent rains, making climbing more hazardous as vertical surfaces become slick and bolts of lightning will be attracted to Link's metallic gear. Thankfully there's a neat little indicator to let players know they're not safe in a lightning storm. To put is simply, there's just a whole lot of carefully crafted details that went into the game, and it's quite a joy to discover them. Fires create updrafts, rain puts out fire arrows and at a little hit to a shields durability, Link can ride down a hill or mountaintop in style.
The first time I came across a certain entity that resides in Hyrule, it rose up out of the water as a lightning storm rolled across the land. I kept my distance because I had no idea what it would do. After unequipped all my metallic equipment, I sat there as bolts of lightning struck the ground, lighting fire to the grass and illuminating the skies as I watched the creature do it's thing. It was a rather serene and beautiful moment as I sat perched on the cliff.
For as massive as Breath of the Wild is, it does have it's trade off. As I mentioned before, the durability system may seem bothersome at first, especially in the beginning when Link's inventory is so small. While there are a metric ton of shrines to find and solve, there's only 4 big dungeons to crawl through and none of them are very long or thought provoking. Each of the dungeons has the same objective too. Find the map, activate the terminals, fight the boss. The bosses are pretty fun to fight however, if not easily beaten once Link's obtained a specific weapon.
Graphically, Breath of the Wild is a marvelous looking game. The environments are gorgeous with leaves blowing on the wind, water running down surfaces while it rains and clouds rolling over fields, it's a spectacle to behold and a good show of what the Nintendo Switch can do. It's unfortunate however, that the framerate stumbles while the Switch is docked. I thankfully played the game in handheld mode but watching the wife play it at the house on our TV was hard as the framerate dipped all over in places I never experienced an issue. It's a very noticeable difference.
Another new entry into the Zelda series is voice acting. Many of the key characters have fully voiced cutscenes, aside from Link who remains ever silent. Thankfully, many of the scenes require a bit of searching so unless you seek out each one, then you probably won't really notice how subpar the voice acting is. Some scenes are unavoidable though so, have fun with those! That being said, everything else sounds great so it more than makes up for the poor voice acting, especially since there isn't a whole lot to put up with.
To put it simply, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a reinvention done right. Not only does it reinvigorate the Zelda franchise, it helps to push the boundaries set by the Open World genre. While Breath of the Wild does have it's short comings, the adventure you'll go on more than makes them seem so minuscule they don't really hurt the game in anyway. It's the first game that really made me want to climb every mountain and solve every riddle so I could share my experiences with my friends. We all approached something differently and it was fun to hear how they handled certain situations. I've always liked Zelda games but this is the first time I've ever fallen completely in love with it and I have to say that the future looks very bright for the franchise if they can continue on this new path.