The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was the biggest game at E3. When the show floor opened the final day, the line was closed three minutes after the show opened. It was a struggle to get in, and we even contemplated some dubious tactics just to get in. But through all the tears and bloodshed, Spazzy, Neo Zeo and myself were all able to try out the newest Zelda. So, is the hype warranted?
The demo was split into a free exploration demo and then a more linear story focused demo. In the beginning, you are given a bow and some other items and let loose in the world. I began but just going forward and seeing all I can see. I found a boar early on and tested my bow, which uses the gyro control like in Splatoon. Throughout my adventures, I met multiple bokoblin camps, defeated them, and even plundered there gear. While you could commandeer weapons in other titles like The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, it’s a more prominent feature in this game. In the first demo, I used their bow when I ran out of my own arrows. In the second demo, I fell down a cliff and lost half of my health. Thankfully, the enemies were ever so kind as to let me have their meat which brought me back to full health. Throughout the exploration demo, I swam (and drowned), ran from tough enemies, and even defeated some foes to unlock a skull chest….only for the demo to end soon after.
The story demo brought more of these features together. In this demo, you found items and equipment at a more structured pace. This helped to bring all the mechanics together and made it make more sense. You start in the Chamber of Resurrection, and receive the Sheikhian Slate, and adventure out into the world. The demo slowly introduces you to equipping items, changing weapons and presents different weapons to you. You then meet an old man and the mysterious voice leads you to a tower. Eventually, you make it to the shrine which is more akin to a typical dungeon. You get a unique power to move metallic objects. Unfortunately, my demo ended here. Talking to Jared from Nintendo World Report and Neo Zero, the demo will end once you get the treasure,and trade it for the paraglide. Neo Zero’s demo ended early because he skipped the cutscene and plowed through the story. I took my time, fought enemies, and collected objects. Based off this, your play time in this game will vary with what you do.
What made the game shine was how everyone’s adventure was different. I often used my bow to fight enemies, but Spazzy used his bombs a lot. I also saw another player using a broadsword. Neo Zero was even able to locate the Fire Rod. The most interesting example was when it came to the skull rock shown in a trailer, I thought “Oh, I will just shoot the lantern and blow it up. When it fell, nothing happened. No worries, I’ll just fight the foes inside. Except he was super powerful and killed me in one shot. While I had to run from the enemies in the skull rock, the guy next to me was able to blow up the room. But the big bad in the room was only at half health. It was an intense fight to watch known its strength. It’s a big reason as to why this game is interesting since the game is nowhere near as structured as the other Zelda games. Even my story of falling and taking the meat from the bokoblins feels unique to me. If this game is truly as free as we played, it will be amazing.
The controls work well, but there are a lot of buttons. It was easy to keep track of what button did what, but it is slightly daunting. The game uses every button for something. Changing weapons is a bit of a pain as you have to press the D pad and then move the cursor with the right control stick. Once you get the hang of that, it works fine, but it is difficult in to learn in the 25 minute demo. The gamepad wasn’t used demo outside of the game’s controls and the gyro controls mentioned above.
Stamina returns from The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, and it’s used for almost everything. Swimming, climbing, running, and even your sword spin all use stamina. It can be annoying. When running, I jumped into the water, and because I didn’t have full stamina, I drowned. It wasn’t too much of an issue in the demo, but it may be more frustrating in the final game, especially when all it does is imped your movement. If you can permanently improve your stamina, it would be fine and more interesting. Right now, it just seems like a restrictive mechanic the game doesn’t need.
Also, it the graphics seem a bit weak. When comparing it to the trailer, it didn’t look as good. This may be because the footage we saw, which looked great, was on the NX rather than the Wii U. That said, the art style works well and was interesting. The little bit of music we heard was cool. The game’s setting is interesting. The world feels like one where civilization has long passed, but shrines have a otherworldly, technological theme to them.
To put it simply, the game is great. It is the one that had a lasting impression. The more I played it, the more enjoyable it was. More so, there are tons of things in this game I didn’t get to try, such as cooking. While I’m still wary about some things in the game, it was an awesome and enjoyable experience. Let’s just say that I ecstatic to play the full game.
“Right now, it just seems like a restrictive mechanic the game doesn’t need.”
That would kind of be the point. Without it there would be even less than the little structure it does have. It is a more subtle way to limit your early exploration. You just have to learn to manage it like any other resource.
Also, you probably should have proofed this.