For years, the Legend of Zelda series has been one of the most successful franchises in video games. These games have been as closely associated with Nintendo as the Super Mario franchise. Many people are amazed at how well this new game plays, they are even going as far to say that it is just as good as the Ocarina of Time game for the Nintendo 64. The main reason this game is supposed be so good is because it returns to its roots.
The original reason these Zelda games were so popular back during the NES and SNES periods were because those games focused more on exploration rather than the more linear direction we saw in many of the other later games. We see Breath of the Wild return that to this formula of exploration because of its great expanded open world in which you can go in any direction you choose. Plus, the fact that you can conquer each dungeon in any order you choose proves that you can play this game in your own way. Although, it seems as if for Nintendo to make this game, they had to borrow many ideas from other video games.
There are several new mechanics to this game that are new for this series, but many of us have seen them used in other games. For instance, there is a much-expanded assortment of items that you can collect in Breath of the Wild when you’re doing things like fighting monsters, hunting animals, or pillaging a town. We see many other RPG’s like Skyrim or The Witcher 3 use this mechanic for many of their various gameplay features.
Another way this game is like other RPG’s is how you can start several side quests at the same time, regardless of what phase of the main quest you are on, though there are a few times when Zelda takes many of these familiar mechanics and gives it an original spin. For example, there is a part where you go about exploring by climbing a tall tower to reveal a large section of the map, similar to what they do in the Assassin’s Creed games. In Breath of the Wild, even though much of the map is discovered this way, most of the landmarks do not actually become revealed until you get closer to their location.
You could say that Nintendo is going out of its way to keep up with what is trendy in gaming these days. But regardless of how much this games’ functions change, you can still tell that it is the same Legend of Zelda that we have known for the last 30 years or so. We could not have found a better launch title for the new Nintendo Switch console that was released this year. Only time will tell if Nintendo will be able to make more impressive games like this in the future.
