Short Breaths (Part 2)

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Final Hour Count: ~55h

It’s been some time since I’ve written about Breath of the Wild. I ended up putting about 55 hours into the game over the course of 4 months. I hit a moment while I was progressing that I decided I was going to see it through to the end and be done with it. I had a great time with it and below are some reasons why. I’ll try to stay spoiler free in case you have not yet finished and want to.

Highlights

Death Mountain

Death Mountain was a ton of fun. I did not expect that from the area considering I had to baby sit my fire resistant potions. Of course, you quickly gain a method to bypass that altogether. All I want to say about why I had fun is mine carts and cannons.

Divine Beasts

I enjoyed completing the Divine Beasts and ended up completing all 4. The rewards for these were pretty good and made it seem worth while. There were some puzzles that I ended up looking up and felt real dumb for not getting them.

Shrines

If I ever go back to Breath of the Wild it will be to do more shrines. They were fun little mini dungeons to find and complete. They lend themselves well to the “I’ve got 15-20 minutes to play” method. Get in, feel accomplished.

Combat

As I got deeper into the combat system, I had fun with it. I ended up utilizing different types of weapons. Never really found one style I stuck with. Spears, swords, boomerangs, all was great.

Physics/Systems

For me, Half-Life 2 was a turning point for physics in games. It gave me a baseline of what I expect from games where I embody a character in a well realized world. Breath of the Wild ticked that box in so many ways. I continued to be able to execute on my ponderings. Few games give you the sense of mobility and ability to affect the world and at the same time give you the feeling like there’s always more out there to explore.

Hyrule Castle

Hyrule castle was a lot of fun. I almost wish I didn’t decided to complete the game before visiting. I felt like there was a lot of it I missed out on because I had a singular focus of destroying Ganon.

State of the World

There’s much in the world I left unfinished. A lot of side stories. I never did find that poor girl who wanted to play hide and seek… oops. I highly doubt I’ll go back since I tend to abandon a game once I decide I’m done with it. I did enjoy my time there though.