The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (VGR)

Overview

The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild has become a game known the world over for its inventive and creative look at the Zelda series. From surfing boulders to wandering the vast mountains, there’s no end to the amount of gameplay that this game has to offer, but how does it stand up to the other video games on this channel. I’m here to judge The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on story, gameplay, immersion, music, art, plot, and replay value.

Story

The story of Breath of the Wild is pretty open to start out with. Basically, without spoiling too much about the game’s plot. Link wakes up from a long sleep and you are immediately thrown into the mix of the vast open world. The way that you seek to proceed from there is up to you. If you decide to follow the main story of Breath of the Wild, you will find yourself on a mission to save the world from the monstrous Calamity Ganon. However, the way that you progress with that story is completely up to you and you can even choose to tackle the main story in any way you see fit. Once you get off the plateau, you can even head straight for Ganon himself if you feel brave enough.

Gameplay

Many players may be turned off by the limited number of abilities the game gives you to start off with. The abilities that you get at the beginning of the game will take you through the rest of the story with relative ease. However, depending on how you play through the game you may find more abilities and tools to help you along your way. The game does a very good job of letting you play the game in your own way and your own style. To the creative player, Breath of the Wild creates massive opportunities for adventure and discovery. I still find the Nintendo Switch’s control scheme to be a bit strange and it does take a bit of getting used to, but it plays relatively well once you get used to it.

Immersion

The game is highly immersive, allowing the player to literally create the story that they would like to see. You could play this game for hours on end without getting bored. You can cook, you can ride horses, you can search the vast recesses of the world for forgotten tales, or you can kill a vast horde of monsters and collect their treasures until you have enough money to tackle anything in your way. The conversation choices also add a huge amount of depth to the way the player decides to play the game.

Music

The music of the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild tends to focus on either calming or dramatic. When you’re walking through villages, the music adapts to a calming and relaxing tone. When you’re fighting in battle, the music kicks up the beat to be more action oriented. They make good use of wind instruments in this game, which helps create its ambience. I wouldn’t exactly consider the music in the game to be anything that spectacular either. It drives the game forward and creates the setting, but it doesn’t really make me feel much more than that.

Art

The art style of the Breath of the Wild is absolutely breathtaking. You can tell that there’s definitely been a huge jump in graphics quality from the Wii to the Switch as soon as you get into Breath of the Wild. The Breath of the Wild mainly focuses on its 3 main colors, which the Zelda series always has, lush red, vibrant green, and deep blue, red representing power and typically Gannon, blue representing wisdom and typically Zelda, and green representing courage and one of our most famous silent protagonists Link. I could go on all day about color theory and how this plays into the Zelda series but I think I’ll leave it at that. Just know that the visuals in the Legend of Zelda are amazing as though they were painted in to the video game itself.

Plot

The plot of the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is very simple, but also quite complex. In the Breath of the Wild, the plot is really what you make it out to be. Do you explore the hot volcanic regions of Death Mountain or do you travel to a rain forest by the sea to start your adventure. This flexibility flows into the main story as well because the game will allow you to defeat the Divine Beasts in any way that you want if at all. To say the least, Breath of the Wild is one of the most flexible games out there when it comes to plotline and story development.

Replay Value

Breath of the Wild is a game worth coming back to again and again due to it’s massive world and innovative adaptable plotline. Choice is no small object in the Breath of the Wild and it definitely allows for hours of replay. You can do so much in this game that’s it’s very hard to put into exact words, but you will miss a lot on your first playthrough depending on how much you choose to explore. The DLC of this game allows for even more creativity, which allows for even greater replay value.

Overall

The Breath of the Wild is a creative game that focuses on innovation, creativity, and adventure. The game brings new challenges to video game creators trying to get one up on Nintendo and it definitely holds its own against other games. However, I do believe that the music of the game does hold it back from reaching it’s fullest potential.

This is why I fully believe that the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild earns:

An expected value of 100%

An average value of 86%

And

An overall value of 93%