The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Primary packaging artwork, depicting Link overlooking Hyrule's landscape
Developer(s)	Nintendo EPD
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Director(s)	Hidemaro Fujibayashi
Producer(s)	Eiji Aonuma
Programmer(s)	Takuhiro Dohta Kenji Matsutani Hiroshi Umemiya
Artist(s)	Satoru Takizawa
Writer(s)	Akihito Toda
Composer(s)	Manaka Kataoka Yasuaki Iwata
Series	The Legend of Zelda
Platforms	Nintendo Switch, Wii U
Release date(s)	WW: March 3, 2017
Genre(s)	Action-adventure
Mode(s)	Single-player

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is an open world action-adventure video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch and Wii U video game consoles. The game is a part of the The Legend of Zelda series, and follows amnesiac protagonist Link, who awakens from a 100-year slumber to a mysterious voice that guides him to defeat Calamity Ganon before he can destroy the kingdom of Hyrule.

The title's gameplay and mechanics constitute a departure from the series' usual conventions, featuring an open-world environment, a detailed physics engine, high-definition visuals, and voice acting. Announced in 2013, the game was initially planned for release as a Wii U exclusive in 2015, but was delayed twice prior to its release on March 3, 2017. Breath of the Wild was a launch title for the Switch, as well as the final Nintendo-produced game for the Wii U.

Breath of the Wild received universal critical acclaim from critics, who deemed it to be one of the greatest video games of all time. Critics praised the game's open-ended, physics-driven gameplay that encourages player experimentation and exploration, with many calling it a landmark title in open-world game design, although minor criticism was directed at the game's technical performance.

Gameplay

See also: Gameplay of The Legend of Zelda series

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild departs from most games in the The Legend of Zelda series, as it features an open-world environment which is twelve times larger than the overworld in Twilight Princess, with less emphasis on defined entrances and exits to areas. Similar to the original The Legend of Zelda, the player is placed into the game's world with very little instruction, and is allowed to explore freely at their own pace.

Taking control of Link, players are able to freely explore Hyrule, with actions such as running, climbing, swimming, and gliding with a paraglider using up stamina. Unlike other games where Link obtains specific key weapons for permanent use, the player must procure various items from the environment, including melee weapons, bows, and shields, which break after excessive use. Many items have multiple uses; for example, wooden weapons can be set alight to light fires and shields can be used as makeshift snowboards, a practice known in-game as shield surfing. Players can also obtain various food and materials, such as meat from hunted animals, monster parts from defeated enemies, and valuable gemstones from ore reserves. By cooking various combinations of food or materials, the player can create meals and elixirs that can replenish Link's health and stamina, or provide temporary status bonuses such as increased strength or resistance against cold environments. Near the start of the game, Link obtains multiple rune powers that are installed onto his Sheikah Slate, which can also be used to mark waypoints on a map and take pictures. These include remote bombs, which come in square and spherical forms; Magnesis, which can be used to manipulate metal objects; Cryonis, which forms ice blocks on watery surfaces; and Stasis, which temporarily stops objects in time, during which the player can build up kinetic energy which is released once time resumes. Players will need to be cautious of environmental climate and changes in the weather; for example, cold environments will damage Link unless he wears warm clothing or eats spicy food, while lightning will become attracted to metal objects during thunderstorms.

Littered throughout Hyrule's overworld are towers and shrines; activating either of which adds waypoints that the player may warp to at any time. Activating towers adds the surrounding territory to the player's map, although specific location names are not added until the player explores that area for themselves. Shrines replace the series' traditional dungeons, instead consisting of smaller challenges ranging from puzzle solving to battles against robotic opponents, with some shrines requiring a puzzle to be solved on the overworld to enter. Clearing these shrines earns Spirit Orbs, which can be traded in for additional heart containers or an expanded stamina wheel. Also scattered across the overworld are various small puzzles where Koroks are hiding. Solving these puzzles earns Korok Seeds, which can be traded in to expand inventory size for weapons, shields, and bows. Players may also scan Amiibo figures to add items into the game, including Link's horse Epona and Wolf Link from Twilight Princess. If the player fulfills certain conditions, they are able to unlock an alternative ending of the game.

Plot

Legends recorded the conflicts between Hyrule and Calamity Ganon, an ancient evil. Each time Ganon appeared, he was defeated by a princess descended from the Goddess Hylia alongside the hero who is her champion. One of these legends occurred long ago in ancient times. During these ancient times, Hyrule was at peace as an advanced civilization. Using their knowledge of technology, they decided to prepare themselves for Ganon's return by creating the four animal-like divine beasts and an army of autonomous mechanical soldiers they called guardians. Upon Ganon's return, the princess and her hero used the guardians and the divine beasts to launch a direct attack on him. The hero struck Ganon down with the sword that seals the darkness and the princess used her inherited power to seal Ganon away.

10,000 years later, the kingdom of Hyrule had reverted to a medieval state. Upon reading the prophecies their ancestors had left behind, they learned the signs of Ganon's return and recovered the divine beasts and guardians after excavating land throughout the kingdom. Key members of Hyrule's various races—Daruk, a warrior of the mountainous goron, Mipha, a princess of the aquatic zora, Revali, the most skilled archer among the bird-like rito, and Urbosa, the chief of the desert-dwelling gerudo—were assembled to pilot the divine beasts and were given the titles of champions as Princess Zelda attempted to stop the evil using the same strategy as her ancestors alongside her appointed knight Link. But Ganon appeared from beneath Hyrule Castle and took control of the guardians and divine beasts, turning them against Hyrule. In the "Great Calamity" which followed, the king, champions, and everyone in the Castle were killed, the castle town was destroyed, and Link was gravely wounded defending the princess; the entire kingdom was utterly devastated. But Zelda survived and, after having Link taken to safety, faced Ganon alone and used her magic to restrain him within the castle walls.

In the present day, 100 years later, an amnesiac Link awakens from within the Shrine of Resurrection. A mysterious female voice guides him to the now ruined kingdom of Hyrule and he meets an old man who, after helping Link adjust to the ruined world, reveals himself to be the restless spirit of King Rhoam, the last King of Hyrule. The king explains to Link that Ganon has been sealed in Hyrule Castle for one hundred years, and that his awakening was guided by Princess Zelda. But Ganon has continued to grow in power, and the king pleads for Link to defeat him before he breaks free and destroys the world.

Link goes to Zora's Domain, Goron City, Rito Village, and Gerudo Town, regaining his memories of the champions as each member of the respective races helps him board each of the divine beasts to purge the machines of the monsters that Ganon created to kill the champions. The champions' spirits are released along with their divine beasts and pilot them once again, preparing to attack Ganon once Link storms Hyrule Castle. As Link travels the world, he also comes across key areas that he and Zelda traveled to in the past, eventually regaining all his memories. After obtaining the Master Sword, the sword that seals the darkness, from the Lost Woods, Link defeats Ganon with help from the divine beasts. But Ganon survives and manifests himself in his true form as an ethereal monster of pure hatred and malice, Dark Beast Ganon. Using Light Arrows provided by Zelda, Link defeats Ganon and Zelda destroys him with the last of her divine power, restoring peace to Hyrule and allowing the spirits of King Rhoam and the champions to depart. In the epilogue, Zelda reveals that Ganon's defeat is only temporary and he will return in the future. She asks for Link's help in rebuilding Hyrule and he agrees.

Development

With Breath of the Wild, Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma sought to rethink series conventions.

On numerous occasions, The Legend of Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma has reiterated the development team's focus on "rethinking the conventions of Zelda", an idea that first prompted the change in the series' gameplay style to nonlinear, open-world, and objective-based gameplay in 2013's A Link Between Worlds, reminiscent of the original The Legend of Zelda. At E3 2014, Aonuma said one of the ways he wanted to alter the norms of Zelda was by reforming dungeons and puzzle solving, two major gameplay elements in the series. Aonuma also stated that the story of the game is entirely optional, and that it is possible for players to reach the end of the game without progressing through it.

Prior to creating the final game, which uses a modified version of the Havok physics engine, the developers designed a playable two-dimensional prototype similar to the original Zelda to experiment with physics- and chemistry-based puzzles. At the 2017 Game Developers Conference, Fujibayashi, technical director Takuhiro Dohta, and art director Satoru Takizawa held a presentation titled "Change and Constant – Breaking Conventions with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild", during which they demoed the prototype.

The title was originally built and demonstrated with touchscreen features for the Wii U, but the developers found that looking away from the main screen distracted from the game. The features were removed when the game moved to tandem development across the Wii U and Nintendo Switch. The Wii U GamePad also affected the game's animations. Though the series protagonist Link is canonically left-handed, he is right-handed in the game to match the GamePad's control scheme, which has its sword-swinging buttons on its right side. The Switch version performs better than the Wii U release when docked to a television, though when undocked, both run at the same resolution. The Switch version also has higher-quality environmental sounds. On the game's art style and direction, Aonuma stated that it was inspired by gouache and en plein air art to help identify the vast world. Monolith Soft, the developer of the similarly open-world Xenoblade Chronicles series, assisted with the game's topographical level design, which was based on Kyoto, the hometown of game director Hidemaro Fujibayashi.

The game marks the first time that cutscene voice acting appears in a main Zelda title, although Link remains voiceless. Aonuma was affected by the first time he heard a character with a human voice in-game, and wanted to leave a similar impression on players. The team decided to record voiceovers for all cutscenes instead of only the key scenes, as originally planned. Nintendo provided voiceovers and subtitles in nine languages, though players are not able to mix and match, for instance, Japanese voiceover with English subtitles.

The game's original score was composed by Manaka Kataoka, who had previously worked on the series with The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, and Yasuaki Iwata, a relative newcomer at Nintendo who had only worked on two previous games for the company. The soundtrack was primarily written by and based around the piano, with an ambient focus in mind instead of a more melodic one, which was a first for the series. According to sound director Hajime Wakai, this helped add "authenticity" to the game's environments and scenery, and was taken on as a challenge by the sound team.

After a development period of five years, the game went gold on February 3, 2017, with Nintendo holding an event celebrating it.

Promotion and release

The booth for the game at Gamescom 2016

Aonuma announced a new entry for Nintendo's Wii U console in January 2013 during the company's regular online presentation. The game, he continued, would challenge the series' conventions, such as the requirement that players complete dungeons in a set order. The next year, Nintendo introduced the game's high-definition, cel-shaded visual style with in-game footage at its June 2014 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) press event. Once planned for release in 2015, the title was delayed early in the year and did not show at that year's E3. Zelda series creator Shigeru Miyamoto reaffirmed that the title was still set for release on the Wii U, despite the development of the console that would be called the Nintendo Switch. The title received another delay in April 2016 due to issues with its physics engine. With its new 2017 release date, the game would launch for both the Wii U and Switch consoles simultaneously. Nintendo let attendees play the game's Wii U version at E3 2016, where they also announced its subtitle, Breath of the Wild.

At a Nintendo Switch presentation in January 2017, Nintendo provided a new trailer announcing that the game would be released as a launch title for the Switch on March 3, 2017. The Switch version of the game was available in limited "Special Edition" and "Master Edition" bundles, which both included a Sheikah Eye coin, a Calamity Ganon tapestry with world map, a soundtrack CD, and a themed carrying case for the Switch. The Master Edition also included a figurine based on the Master Sword. Fils-Aimé told Polygon that the game would be the final first-party title released for the Wii U. In February 2017, Nintendo announced that the game would support downloadable content (DLC), with two packs being set for release later in 2017. The first pack, set to be released in mid 2017, will include a "Hard Mode" difficulty setting, a new "Cave of Trials" challenge, and an "additional map feature"; the second pack, set for release in late 2017, will include a new dungeon and original story. The packs cannot be purchase separately, and those that purchased the expansion pack would get three treasure chests, one of which contains an exclusive Nintendo Switch shirt.

Reception

Reception
Aggregate score Aggregator Score Metacritic (NS) 97/100 (Wii U) 96/100 Review scores Publication Score Destructoid 10/10 Edge 10/10 EGM 9.5/10 Eurogamer Famitsu 40/40 Game Informer 10/10 Game Revolution GameSpot 10/10 GamesRadar Giant Bomb IGN 10/10 Nintendo Life Nintendo World Report 9.5/10 Polygon 10/10 VideoGamer.com 9/10

Pre-release

The game's announcement was met with praise by fans and critics alike. CNET said that the showing of the game at the convention would "take your breath away". IGN called the game "the open world Zelda we've always wanted", and Engadget called it "Nintendo's next classic". Sam Machkovech of Ars Technica praised the game's renewed emphasis on open-world exploration. John Linneman of Eurogamer deemed it "Nintendo's most technologically ambitious project to date", but acknowledged that the Wii U's hardware sometimes had difficulty maintaining the targeted 30 frames per second during the game's E3 demo. According to Brandwatch, a social media monitoring platform, Breath of the Wild was the most talked-about E3 2016 game on social media.

Following its E3 demonstration, the game received several accolades from the Game Critics Awards, as well as from IGN and Destructoid. It was also listed among the best games at E3 by Eurogamer, GameSpot, and GamesRadar. In late 2016, Breath of the Wild received two awards at Gamescom, and won the award for Most Anticipated Game at The Game Awards 2016.

A week prior to release, Peter Brown of GameSpot deemed Breath of the Wild "a strong contender" for the best Zelda game. Several reviewers noted the game's difficulty, with Arthur Gies of Polygon considering it the most challenging title in the series.

Post-release

Critics universally acclaimed Breath of the Wild upon its release, quickly considered it a "masterpiece" and one of the greatest video games of all time, where it holds the largest number of perfect reviews of any game on review aggregator Metacritic. The game broke Nintendo's launch title sales records in multiple regions. The game competed with the open-world title Horizon Zero Dawn in its launch week, which it outsold in Japan (around 200,000 copies). It was the third largest Zelda series release in the United Kingdom, behind Wind Waker and Twilight Princess. Nintendo reported that Breath of the Wild sold more than 1.3 million copies in the United States in March 2017, 925,000 copies of which were for the Switch version, attaining a 100% attach rate for the console. In its year-end report for the 2016 fiscal year which ended on March 31, 2017, Nintendo reported it had sold 3.76 million copies of Breath of the Wild worldwide. The Wii U version sold 1.08 million units and the Switch version sold 2.74 million units, matching the latter console's global sales of 2.74 million for the same period. Nintendo's president Tatsumi Kimishima said that the attach rate of Breath of the Wild to the Switch was "unprecedented", and that "this momentum may lead to a new sell-through record for the entire The Legend of Zelda series".

Jose Otero of IGN praised the game's combat and open world by calling it "a masterclass in open-world design", and "a wonderful sandbox full of mystery, dangling dozens upon dozens of tantalizing things in front of you that just beg to be explored." GameSpot called it "the most impressive game" Nintendo had ever made, appreciating the way that it "takes designs and mechanics perfected in other games and reworks them for its own purposes to create something wholly new, but also something that still feels quintessentially like a Zelda game." The review declared that the game is "both a return to form and a leap into uncharted territory, and it exceeds expectations on both fronts." Edge stated that "the magic of being given all the tools in the opening hour is the knowledge that the solution to any problem is already at your disposal, and you can always change tack." The publication praised the game world, saying that it is "an absolute, and unremitting, pleasure to get lost in". The publication awarded the game a perfect score, making it the 29th game (including retrospective perfect scores) to earn that score from the publication. Breath of the Wild became the 24th game to receive a perfect score from Famitsu. Entertainment Weekly stated that they thought Breath of the Wild was the best Zelda game of all time, also calling it "arguably Nintendo's greatest triumph". Ars Technica praised the open world of the game, stating "After spending a week utterly immersed in Nintendo's open-world reimagining of the tried-and-true Zelda formula, it's hard to return to the more formulaic entries of the franchise's past."

Reviewers lauded the game's sense of detail and immersion. Kotaku recommended playing the game without its on-screen minimap and indicators, in praise of the indirect cues that contextually indicate the same information, such as Link shivering when it's cold or waypoints visually appearing in the distance when using the scope. Journalists commented on unexpected permutations of interactions between Link, villagers, pets, and enemies, as well as a tribute to former Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, who died during the game's development. These serendipitous moments proved popular on social media, according to Chris Plante of The Verge. He predicted that more open world games would abandon linear tasks in favor of Breath of the Wild's format, as game publishers would appreciate the free marketing. Gaming journalist Jim Sterling was more critical of the game than most, giving it a 7/10 score. He criticized the difficulty, weapon durability, and general level design, though praised the game's variety of content and open-world mechanics.

The game's success sparked an increased interest in the Wii U emulator Cemu, as the emulator's developers rapidly updated the software to run the game at a smooth frame rate within weeks of its release.

Accolades

List of pre-release awards and nominations

Year	Awards	Category	Result	Ref
2016	IGN's Best of E3	Best Adventure Game	Won
		Best Wii U Game	Won
		Game of the Show	Won
	Destructoid's Best of E3	Best Action/Adventure Game	Won
		Best of Show	Won
		Best Wii U Game	Won
	Game Critics Awards	Best Action/Adventure Game	Won
		Best Console Game	Won
		Best of Show	Won
	Gamescom 2016	Best of Gamescom	Won
		Best Wii U Game	Won
	The Game Awards 2016	Most Anticipated Game	Won