Everything to Know about The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

While there were a lot of exciting new games being shown off at yesterday's E3, perhaps the show stopper (even if it didn't make grown men cry) was when Nintendo finally took to the stage and presented their mysterious new Legend of Zelda game to a crowd of hundreds of eager fans--The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

Check out the rather generous three-minute trailer:


 

Step into a world of discovery, exploration and adventure in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, a boundary-breaking new game in the acclaimed series. Travel across fields, through forests and to mountain peaks as you discover what has become of the ruined kingdom of Hyrule in this stunning open-air adventure.

To call this a departure from traditional Zelda games would be an over simplification, but it's actually not surprising to see Nintendo break from tradition. The Legend of Zelda: TriForce Warriors and Link Between Worlds both deviated from 'standard' Legend of Zelda gameplay, although not so dramatically as Breath of the Wild seems too.

While the video certainly hints at many of the changes, it was the E3 demo that really cemented all the differences between this and earlier games in the series. And while I wasn't there to report on them first hand, Nintendo has been extremely generous with supplying gameplay videos that show off the game's features and additions.



But if you don't feel like sitting through half a dozen ten-minute plus videos, let me summarize. The game does, in fact, have a more open-world feel. No longer are you bound to wear the same green tunic and wield a sword and shield, now, weapon and armor can deteriorate, and new ones can be salvaged from areas and fallen enemies, which means you'll have to pick the right weapon for the right situation, and occasionally steal new weapons from fallen foes. They also all have their own stats, so while some weapons might be stronger, others may be more versatile, or last longer in battle. Some clothes, too, offer more protection, while others will help keep you warm in colder weather, preventing you from losing health. In that way, it's similar to what Wind Waker did, although it seems far more comprehensive.

And yes, something like crafting is in this game as well. While we don't know much, we do know that in order to heal damage, you can't just start cutting at weeds--you have to cook your own food using ingredients and campfires.

The environment, too, seems to play a bigger role, with Link able to manipulate it to attack enemies, start wildfires, tame or hunt animals, as well as change the very shape of the earth. He accomplishes this with a special tool called a Sheikah Slate, which also acts as a map, a place to craft, and a menu to arm yourself from. According to Eiji Aonuma, the game will dabble far more with technology than magic. Seems this is the closest we'll get to a Sci-Fi Zelda game, for the time being.



But that wasn't all he spoke on. Talking with Kotaku, Eiji Aonuma also took the time to address why, despite the earlier confusion and excitement, this Link was, and would remain, male.
 

“My intention was to say this isn’t done and there may be changes coming to that. I in no way had intention of leading people into believing Link was female. You know there’s the idea of the Triforce in the Zelda games we make... The Triforce is made up of Princess Zelda, Ganon and Link. Princess Zelda is obviously female. If we made Link a female we thought that would mess with the balance of the Triforce. That’s why we decided not to do it.”

...So ... the Triforce would lose balance if it had two women and one man rather than two men and one woman. That... is... extremely stupid reasoning, for a number of reasons. Not only is there nothing more inherently 'balanced' about having two men, but if the gender ratio is so damn important, you could just make Zelda a dude. Or, Ganon could be a woman. Hell, looking at the lore of the series, considering the Triforce was made by three goddesses, having all three holders also being women KIND of makes more sense!

Bah. Whatever. Have another video.



But Nintendo didn't stop with showing off the game itself: it also took some time to show off all the exciting new Amibos that would be coming with the game. It's worth note that all the videos and the demo were done on the Wii U version of the game, even though we know an NX version is, in fact, also planned. So if Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is to have Amibo functionality, then we can safely assume (but not ABSOLUTELY assume) that the NX will have it, too.

Regardless. We'll be getting three new Amibos with the game's launch: A horse-riding Link, an archer Link, and one of those tentacled guardians you see littering the ground that was in the very first trailer. While we don't know what those will do QUITE yet, we have seen in the video above that using the Wolf Link Amibo will give Link an AI-controlled wolf companion to help attack enemies. Useful, I imagine, if not as useful as dropping boulders on their heads.

Regardless! This is a very, very exciting announcement. While we learned a lot about it and we got lots of hours of gameplay footage to enjoy, there are still mysteries abound... and I can't wait to discover them all!