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Staff Writer: Aidan Danforth

Email: adanforth@umassd.edu

Zelda fans only blinked once, and now Breath of the Wild (BOTW) is 8 years old.

Breath of the Wild was nothing short of a big revelation in the Zelda series. This game introduced the concept of an open world and the ability to choose your own path within the series. 

It appears the open world style is the future of all Zelda games, as the ones following BOTW borrowed similar concepts by letting the player have control of their quest. 

Let’s look back and take a journey as this obsessed Zelda fan covers the impact BOTW had on the Zelda series and why it still resonates with fans 8 years later. 

A Change in the Zelda Formula 

If you were to ask any Zelda fan before 2017 what the standard Zelda formula was, they’d say each adventure is linear, with a clear order to each dungeon along with side content. 

Breath of the Wild flips this concept on its head by giving the player the power to decide what to do. The Great Plateau acts as a tutorial area, giving all the tools to succeed and then throwing Link into the open world of Hyrule. 

Zelda games typically place items in the dungeons, adding progressively harder areas throughout the game. BOTW, however, lets the player decide whether they want to follow the game’s main story, go out and see the world, or even fight the final boss.

This amount of freedom has never been seen before in the series. It’s something you’d find in a game like Skyrim, not in a Zelda game. 

Another aspect changed in BOTW is the story. In a Zelda game such as Ocarina of Time, the player receives bits and pieces that tell more and more about the story as the game progresses. This gives them an incentive to keep playing. 

This is where fans had mixed feelings. Many enjoyed the idea of learning the story/lore as the game progressed. BOTW introduces memories, which the player can learn in any order. 

This leads players to missing pieces of the puzzle. Say they get the eighth memory before seeing the fifth. This can be both good and bad. It gives them a motive to find the missing pieces, however, Zelda games aren’t known for nonlinear storytelling. 

Someone can even skip out on all the memories and go right to the final boss. BOTW, though, still gives the player that same feeling of growing with the story with Link, it’s just not done in a chronological order. 

The Zelda games that followed borrowed a lot of open world and non-linear storytelling. Being a sequel to BOTW, Tears of the Kingdom did everything the previous game did with a new story and a bigger world.  

Echoes of Wisdom also had the open world concept but brought back the more linear storytelling fans missed. 

Despite all these changes, BOTW still included many ideas borrowed from previous Zelda games. These include memorable characters, side quests, villages, as well as enhancing other aspects. 

One of them being the visuals. BOTW is by far one of the most visually stunning Zelda games to date. Someone can just stand at the end of a cliff and overlook the breathtaking view of this world and see a lot of detail. 

The only notable changes BOTW did worse than the other games were the dungeons and bosses. The Divine Beasts offered different mechanics, but many of them felt the same as they shared similar concepts as well as boss designs. 

It’s one of the biggest complaints fans have, as many have missed the unique lineup of dungeons and bosses from the previous games. 

Breath of the Wild’s variety comes from its abundance of  over 120 shrines that are mini dungeons that offer challenges to the player. 

There are even quests required to unlock many of the shrines, some of which are fan favorites. Collections like the shrines, korok seeds, and outfits give the player a reason to explore the vast world. 

There’s no order for it either. Players can experience the shrines, the side quests, everything from going out in the world and exploring themselves. 

Breath of the Wild will forever have a lasting impact on the Zelda series. WIth over 33.55 million units sold, it remains the best selling Zelda game as well as one that may be the standard for games that follow. 

The freedom to do as you wish, the variety of collectibles, and the visuals of the world are only a part of why BOTW is considered to be one of, if not the best game in the series. 

Despite being 8 years olds, BOTW remains a perfect game for gamers who like to be given the simple mechanics from the get-go, the ability to pick their own path, and be able to create their own adventure by exploring the vast world of Hyrule.