Nintendo dropped a bombshell on us in the form of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. We knew that this new Zelda game was in development, but none of us realized how much this title would break the established Zelda traditions. From new mechanics to changing the entire game’s design philosophy, this game has a myriad of new details which Nintendo showed off in just under 7 hours of gameplay footage.
Kicking things off is voice acting; Not grunts or groans, but full voice acting. Granted, the only voice we heard actually speak was a mysterious woman’s voice who wakes Link up from his cryogenic-looking slumber. We have no clue as to who the woman is as of yet or if there will be other moments of voice acting, but the fact that it opens up with such a departure from the series makes us believe that there will be much more. Other dialogue is delivered through the traditional text box or text fading on screen.
One thing to note about the woman’s voice is that she explicitly says Link’s name. We wonder if this will be the first Zelda game to not feature a customizable name for Link. I don’t ever change Link’s name when I play the games personally, but I know a ton of people who do. So we’re curious as to how file management will work, if there is even support for more than one save file.
Immediately after taking control of Link, we were presented with the Sheikah Slate, new movement options, and clothing (he wakes up nearly naked).
The Sheikah Slate is like an 7” NFC enabled tablet. Link is seen tapping the Slate to various pedestals to cause some effect to the world around him like opening doors or unlocking things. Along with Near Field Communication, the Sheikah Slate features several apps like Google Maps, 4GB of RAM, and a Snapdragon 820 processor. Just kidding — mostly.
There is a map app (mapp?) which displays Link’s current position, waypoints, and the option to place up to five differently colored markers which appear on the minimap. Players can zoom in and out of the map and pan around revealing unexplored sections. On a side note, the entire map looks ginormous. This scale of map is unprecedented in the Zelda series by far. The only thing that was lit up on the entire map was the Great Plateau area, but we’re certain that was the case due to Link starting there and not yet visiting any other areas.
Link will dock the Slate on specific pedestals in Shrines (which we will get to shortly) to “upgrade” the device with new apps (officially called Runes). These Runes act as the traditional weapons/items that you would receive from dungeons. However, unlike most traditional items, they are infinite use and only have a cooldown timer to disallow players from spamming them. The currently known Runes are as follows:
- Remote Bomb (Sphere)
- These are like the traditional bombs previously found in Zelda titles. They are rounded and are affected by slopes. The new addition here is that they will detonate on enemy’s touch or by the player’s button command.
- Remote Bomb (Cube)
- Similar to the round bomb but instead are cube-like which allows them to be placed on spot and remain in one location, even if there are slopes. Also similar to the new feature of the sphere bombs, they will detonate on enemy’s touch or by the player’s button command.
- Magnesis
- Players can manipulate metallic objects using magnetism. Once an object is locked onto, you can swing it around, push and pull, or even launch it into the air. It’s very similar to the Zero Point Energy Field Manipulator, or more commonly known as the Gravity Gun, from Half-Life. A cool note however is that Magnesis can grab things high above Link or even underwater, including metal chests.
- Stasis
- This is my personal favorite new Rune. Stasis can freeze objects (still or moving) in place. This makes some platforming puzzles very simple to accomplish as players can lock moving platforms in place. Though the coolest feature of frozen objects is that they will gain potential energy if struck. The lock on objects only lasts a few seconds, so when the lock disarms the object launches in the direction it was struck and the velocity equivalent to how many times (and potentially how hard) it was hit. It’s cool. It’s science.
- Cryonis
- Cryonis creates a pillar of ice from a water surface. It seems that there can only be 2 or 3 pillars of ice created at a time. These pillars can act as obstacles to enemies, be used in puzzles to push things, and even be climbed by Link. Very useful.
There is also a Rune slot with the amiibo logo in it. We assume that this enables players to tap an amiibo to the Wii U Gamepad when this is selected. Speaking of which, there are new amiibos that were announced for the game (Archer Link, Horseback Link, and Guardian) as well as a reveal that the Wolf Link (bundled with physical copies of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD) amiibo is supported. When the Wolf Link amiibo is tapped, Wolf Link actually appears as a helper to the player. Wolf Link can attack enemies and find items. He has his own health meter and will disappear when it runs out. Wolf Link can only be spawned once every 24 hours. There were no specifics as to what the other newly announced amiibo will do.
As previously mentioned there are new movement options with climbing being the biggest of them all. Link can now scale seemingly any wall or slope (except ones found in Shrines, which yes I promise we are getting to). Mountain and cliff faces? Sure! Sides of a building or ruins? Absolutely! The side of the aforementioned ice pillar? You got it! Climbing is integral to exploring the world of Breath of the Wild as it appears that most of the level design, while being very spread out, has major height differences. That being said, the stamina gauge returns from The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Sprinting and scaling walls seems to deplete your stamina. Along with climbing we now have paragliding and shield surfing. Paragliding is very reminiscent of Skyward Sword’s sailcloth where it slowed your falling to a soft landing. However now you can also fly around the map and even ride updrafts of wind from heat. As for shield surfing, remember the section of Twilight Princess where you snowboarded down the mountain? Do you want that to be a movement option literally any time you want it to be while on snow? Perfect. Shield surfing is for you then. Link jumps on his equipped shield and rides it down hills and slopes on button command. It was only shown while Link was in the snowy, mountainous region, but we have a hunch that it may work on sand dunes as well.
Anyone with eyeballs can notice that in all of the promotional artwork and gameplay footage shown, Link isn’t wearing his traditional green tunic. The green garb remained absent from the entire 7 hours worth of footage as well, though we don’t think it will be missing from the game as a whole. While Link isn’t clothed in the forest coloured tunic, players now have the ability to change what he is wearing. Now, this isn’t new for the Zelda series, as we’ve seen tunic changing in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. But we haven’t seen the choice of tops and bottoms for Link which also change his defense stat. “Wait! Defense stat!?”, I hear you cry out. Yes, defense stat. Link now has an attack, defense and temperature stat (potentially even more!). Each article of top and bottom clothing, and the aforementioned equipped shield has a unique defense stat which add together to represent enemy attack resistance. The higher it is the less damage Link takes.
A knight’s uniform, similar to the one that Link wears in Hyrule Warriors, was shown making us believe that there will be a vast number of clothing for Link to sport. In addition, Link was seen wearing winter boots potentially implying that his footwear is also swappable. That wasn’t confirmed however, so that may be just a single item like the Iron Boots.
I mentioned before that Link starts out basically nude. It would appear that you could play the entire game staying in his undergarmented state; but there are adverse weather climates which would make that run very difficult. Breath of the Wild features a dynamically changing weather system as well as areas (like mountains and deserts) which have extreme climates. For example, if Link isn’t wearing the appropriate clothing in freezing cold, he will take damage over time. Though players are able to keep Link warm using fire pits, torches and some spicy foods or elixirs which can modify his temperature stat. Also it can randomly rain which makes Link cold (and thus take damage) if he stays in it too long. On a side note, this wasn’t directly shown, but it was stated that lightning in storms can be attracted to any metal objects Link might be using, so it is possible that Link can be struck by lightning if players aren’t careful.
I haven’t made any mention to weapons aside from the Runes yet. I have mentioned the attack stat now though, so it’s high time that we discuss melee weapons. Like the clothing articles, players can switch Link’s useable melee weapon at free will. The chosen weapon has a unique attack stat which directly influences Link’s damage output. That being said, it appears that every weapon has durability, meaning that they can and will break after repeated use. All of the weapons found during the gameplay segments were found naturally through picking them up from exploring the world, stealing them from enemies, or finding them in chests including but not limited to:
- Axe found in a tree stump
- Stolen clubs or spears from Bokoblins
- Swords of various kinds
- Bows
- Tree branches
- Korok fan
- Farmer’s Pitchfork
- Stalfos Arm? wat
The axe can not only be used as a weapon, but also be used to chop down trees which can create bridges to cross gaps or water or even be chopped further to make firewood for fire pits (if you have a flint). We believe that the Master Sword and Hylian Shield will not be able to break when they are obtained though, as they are pivotal items in the Zelda lore. An interesting new attack mechanic called the “Flurry Rush” was shown when Link wielded any weapon which is like a bullet time-esque dilation of action where the player can mash the Y button to get a plethora of hits on the enemy. It appears to activate when Link jumps towards an enemy who is also jumping towards him.
What a better segue from talking about destroying enemies, to talking about the enemies themselves? Enemies now appear in groups as opposed to individually like before. For example. Bokoblins have camps or bases set up, some with food roasting over a fire pit. It’s like small Bokoblin tribes! All enemies are now smarter in that they can use their surroundings to attack or even dodge Link’s attacks. A fantastic new mechanic is a small noise indicator, which plays into the “smarter enemy AI” thing. Link’s sounds created by movement and interacting with the environment is visualized in this small indicator and can alert enemies of his presence. It will be used for stealthing around enemies, but players will have to be wise as walking through grass will create more noise than walking on a barren rock surface. Unrelated, enemies and bosses now have a numerical health bar, which is first for the Zelda series. Attacking any enemy will make the bar appear above their heads while initiating combat with a boss, or mini boss, will make the boss’s name appear along with a Dark Souls-esque health bar as we saw in the battle with Steppe Talus.
I’ve made mention to fire pits and food several times now, but why? Well a big shocker is the decision to cut random heart drops. I just heard your stomach sink. Don’t worry, Nintendo has replaced all of the restoration of health using food and cooking. It’s not The Legend of Cooking Mama though, so don’t fret. Cooking is done either by placing gathered or foraged resources on a fire pit or in scattered pots. We aren’t sure if the pots can be crafted or purchased as they appeared throughout the Great Plateau. Link can cook with up to five ingredients and cooking them on a fire pit will yield a different meal than if cooked in a pot. The only example shown was when a Steak was cooked on the fire pit, which gave a Seared Steak, versus cooked in the pot, which gave Steak Skewers. Interestingly too, it appears that meals made in the pot will heal more than meals cooked on the fire pit, which of course heals more than a raw ingredient. Steak Skewers (heals two hearts) > Seared Steak (heals one and a half hearts) > Steak (heals one heart).
Some foods will actually restore more than just health. Extra stamina, the previously mentioned temperature stat, and reinforced hearts, which act as extra health beyond what Link’s full capacity are just a few perks Link can gain through cooked food, though there will likely be more buffs than just that. We compiled a list of all the meals the members of Treehouse made during their gameplay segments:
- Baked Apple
- 1x Apple
- Cooked on Fire Pit
- Restores three quarters of a heart
- Seared Steak
- 1x Steak
- Cooked on Fire Pit
- Restores one and a half hearts
- Steak Skewer
- 1x Steak
- Cooked in pot
- Restores two hearts
- Hearty Meat & Mushroom Skewer
- 1x Steak, 3x Hearty Truffle,
- Cooked in pot
- Full recovery + 3 reinforced hearts
- Energizing Elixir
- 1x Bokoblin Horn, 1x Restless Cricket
- Cooked in pot
- Restores some stamina
- Spicy Elixir
- 1x Bokoblin Fang, 2x Hylian Shroom, 1x Sizzlewing Butterfly, 1x Bird Meat
- Cooked in pot
- Restores three hearts and gives cold resistance for 9:50
- Spicy Sauteed Peppers
- 5x Spicy Peppers
- Cooked in pot
- Restores five hearts and gives double cold resistance for 10 minutes
- Spicy Pepper Steak
- 2x Spicy Peppers, 2x Hylian Shrooms, 1x Steak
- Cooked in pot
- Restores six hearts and gives double cold resistance for 5:30
They did intentionally make a dud meal by combining things that would obviously never be paired together and it created the Dubious Food which restores one heart. We think that this is the default “mess up meal” when the ingredients prepared together don’t result in an actual combination of recipes. Also, we’re unsure if cooked meals can be used again in other recipes.
You didn’t think I’ve forgotten about the Shrines, did you? The Shrines are like mini dungeons, of which over 100 are scattered throughout Hyrule in Breath of the Wild, with four being in the Great Plateau alone (or so the members of Treehouse confirmed). The mini dungeon part of the Shrine involves a couple puzzles revolving around a mechanic. The mechanic, from what we saw of the couple shown, uses the Runes of the Sheikah Slate, but if Link doesn’t have the appropriate Rune, there is a pedestal which will unlock it for you. Each of the Shrines are uniquely named after an acolyte of Hylia who reside in the Shrine at the end of the puzzles. The acolyte will give you a Spirit Orb, which apparently are important to the story of the game.
On that note, nothing regarding the story was revealed. In fact, they purposely removed towns and most NPCs from the game for the E3 build. Speaking of NPCs, the only two characters we see aside from enemies and Hylia’s acolytes are an old man who reminds us of Kaepora Gaebora from past Zelda titles and the return of the Korok, who was seen in The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. We did find out from the acolytes that Ganon is the (main?) villain and needs to be stopped. We also see the Temple of Time almost immediately, which looks strikingly similar to the version of it found in Ocarina of Time, however it is in complete ruins. Does this imply that Breath of the Wild takes place during the Wind Waker timeline potentially before the Great Flood? We will have to wait and find out from the story of the game to try and fit it into the Zelda timeline.
And finally for a little bit of clean up; things that we want to mention but didn’t really fit anywhere else.
There is a day and night cycle which is represented by a clock on the HUD (and by the rising and setting sun and moon, duh). The addition of the clock makes us wonder if we will see the return of time based events and quests from NPCs as seen in The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask.
Absolutely no rupees were seen in the gameplay demo, however rupees are mentioned in some item descriptions in that they are worth quite a bit. We wonder if Link needs to first acquire a wallet before being able to collect currency or if they were removed entirely from the E3 build.
And last but not least, the Treehouse members confirmed that the entire 7 hours of gameplay footage taking place on the Great Plateau is, and I quote, “less than 2% of what we can expect from the entire game”. If this is actually the case you’d better be ready to put aside an entire week to 100% this game, because that is mind blowingly huge.
What did you think about the full reveal of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild? Is there anything you’re excited about in particular? Do you like the direction Nintendo is taking with the Zelda franchise here? Let us know below!
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