Thursday, September 14, 2017

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Review (Nintendo WiiU)

Written by Patrick Orquia


Title: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo
Genre: Action-adventure, RPG
Release Date: March 03, 2017
No. of Players: 1 player
Price: $59.99
Also Available On: Switch



Yes, this review comes a bit late now, more than 6 months after it got released way back in March. Millions of copies have been sold already: about 4 million for the Switch version and over a million for the Wii U version. It is now hailed as one of the very best games ever made, one of the best reviewed, and many are predicting that it will win Game of the Year. Do we still need ANOTHER review of the game?

Well, no. Without having to read this article, you can probably predict that I’ll praise the game and give it a perfect score. Yes, I will do that, but this review is not just that. Not a lot of reviews of the Wii U version of the game has come out, because most of those who have played the game played the “better” version released on the Switch, Nintendo’s new console. Nobody cares about the Wii U anymore, and the Wii U version of the game doesn’t need a review since who would want to play the game on a “dead” console?




I did play the game on my Wii U, partly because I don’t have a Switch yet and not yet willing to buy one, and because my Wii U is not yet dead. I don’t think mine is, I’m still playing lots of games on it, and I’m still loving every moment that I spend with it. And even when I have finally bought a Switch, I probably will still play my Wii U.

So, those facts aside, playing Breath of the Wild on the Wii U is NOT bad at all. It was awesome. I played more than 140 hours of it on my first playthrough (I recently started a 2nd playthrough after not playing the game for 4 months), and yes, I enjoyed the game a lot. Before buying the game, I watched some comparison videos online to see if this version of this game is really inferior to the Switch one, and I saw that they look very, very similar. I didn’t see any significant difference in the quality. So I decided to ditch spending a lot to buy a new console and just buy the game on my existing one. And I made a very smart decision, because the game is a blast.




I remember when I first loaded it up on my Wii U and saw the opening splash screen. I knew right there and then that this game is a radical departure from the previous games. It looked different… and sounded different. Where’s the Great Fountain Fairy theme that plays at the beginning when you are about to start a new game or load a saved game? OK, new game, new sounds, no big deal. So I started a new game, watched the opening scene, started playing as Link who just woke up after a hundred years of sleep, met the old man, started slaying bokoblins, got instantly killed by a guardian (it all happened to us), started tackling the shrines, got the paraglider, got off the opening area and into the rest of Hyrule… boom, 5 hours went by just like that.

This game is definitely one of the best games that I have played. This is not the first time that I have played an open world RPG (I have played Xenoblade Chronicles 3D on my New 3DS XL and The Witcher 3 on my PC), but this is the first really open world, open air, open EVERYTHING RPG that I have ever played. In this game, you can reach and access everything that you can see on the screen, except the edges of the map, of course (yeah I tried if the map would go on forever or it would just instantly kill me… no, it just said ”you can’t proceed any further” or something like that, I forget). But yeah, all mountains and towers and ruins in the overworld can be climbed, except when it suddenly rains and they become too slippery. I have easily spent hours upon hours just aimlessly trekking and climbing everything I could. Oftentimes, I would get sidetracked from some subquest that I was supposed to be doing because I saw something interesting from a distance. It is really incredible the amount of freedom that the game gives you, and it is more incredible seeing all these things unfold on a Wii U console.




It has been said time and again how ridiculously underpowered Wii U compared to PS4 or Xbox One. I disagree… I think those other two are just ridiculously overpowered. Yeah, whatever. My point is, I take gameplay over graphics always. Sure, a graphically good game looks better but if it doesn’t play good, it’s not a good game. Wii U has had lot of good games, albeit mostly 1st or 2nd party games a good number of indies. Most major 3rd party game developers and publisher abandoned the console after its first year, which made it unable to sell well (which those 3rd party developers and publishers saw as an excuse to not release game on the console… it’s a catch-22, really). Nintendo and its close allies had to soldier on, struggling to stay afloat for the next 3 years. Despite the lack of 3rd party support, the 1st party games on Wii U are mostly awesome as expected, Breath of the Wild being one of them.




It is often overlooked but this version of the game is, in fact, the original version of the game. The game had been in development as early as 2012 and was supposedly going to be released on Wii U as early as 2015. But it got delayed a few times and when the Switch was announced late last year, the game got further delayed so that it could also be released on Switch. And because of that, some features the Wii U version of the game got removed, most notably the Wii U gamepad functionality. It was shown before in various promotional videos that the game’s map and item inventory would be available on the gamepad, like how it was in The Wind Walker HD and Twilight Princess HD, but were absent in the final released build of the game. For me, the removal of this feature assured that the Wii U version would not be better than the Switch one (and could potentially affect the sales of the new console), because, you have to admit, it’s a pretty cool feature. Being able to see the map, especially on a game with this huge world, and being able to switch between weapons and use items without having to pause the game would totally make the game ten times better. But alas, in the end, the gamepad is only used to switch between playing the game on the TV or on the gamepad itself, and that’s it. Oh, well. Let’s hope that in the future, Nintendo comes to its senses and patch the gamepad functionality back to the game.




In conclusion, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on Wii U is not too different from its Switch port. Maybe it suffers a bit more frame rate drops, only in 720p, the color a tiny bit less vibrant, and loading times are a bit longer, but overall, they are pretty much the same. This version of the game might probably end up not getting the same number of praises as that on Switch, but again, this is the original version, and the developers for the longest time were making and optimizing the game for the Wii U. And as Nintendo’s last published game for the console, this is the very best Wii U game ever made. This is Nintendo’s swan song for the console, and what sweet melody it has.



REPLAY VALUE: very high

PROS:
  • Excellent visuals, gameplay, physics engine, enemy AI, art style, story, musical score, and overall game quality
  • A radical departure from the Zelda formula, but it offers freedom to players to explore a very huge world in however way they choose
  • For the first time, a Zelda game that has voice acting, though it could have been better (The woman voicing Zelda, for example, doesn’t sound very good)
  • Almost everything on the overworld can be reached and climbed, if Link’s stamina would allow it
  • Calamity Ganon can be beaten after leaving the Great Plateau if the player chooses to, without having to tackle first the other dungeons
  • Link’s Master Sword and Hylian Shield is in the game but are completely optional to obtain and use (I myself forgot that they were in the game and only knew about them about 60 hours into my first playthrough)
  • Link can use a wide range of gears and weapons 
  • Link can collect more than just rupees… he can collect fruits, nuts, different kinds of meats, different kinds of bugs, different kinds of monster parts, falling stars, etc. and they can be used to cook meals, brew potions, and upgrade armors
  • Speaking of cooking, cooking is very fun on this game
  • The game, for the most parts, doesn’t tell you anything on what to do with the environment or how to defeat foes. It is like Nintendo has decided that it’s about time for a Zelda game to level up in difficulty and stopped holding the player’s hand like how it was in previous Zelda game. After leaving the Great Plateau, you are pretty much on your own. Sure, the game still points you to where to go next, but you are not required to do that and you are free to go and uncover the rest of the map.
  • You will die a lot in this game. The enemies adapt to your play style and techniques on the fly and will actively try to defend themselves and even use your own weapons against you if given the chance. If you are weak and not adequately prepared, the enemies you encounter will be more than happy to one-shot kill you dead.

CONS:
  • There are only 5 main dungeons on the game. For a very huge map that it has, another 2 or 3 could have been added. There are mostly optional 120 shrines in the game that has puzzles that can be tacked for a short time (most of them in only about 10-15 minutes) but still, big dungeons would have been better. Only the Hyrule Castle can be reminiscent of a classic Zelda dungeon, that other four are relatively easy to navigate and complete.
  • The 900 Korok seeds scattered across the big map is just too much to collect. You only need about half of those to complete upgrade your weapons, bows, and shields inventory slots (which you really don’t have to do) and getting all 900 only gives a literal golden shit. It’s like the developers were trolling the players for only giving this useless reward for accomplishing such a tedious task.
  • Most weapons in the game break overtime. Though this is not a bad per se, some weapons, some really cool and powerful ones, just break too easily and there is no way to repair or upgrade them


 RATING: 5/5 legendary swords that sealed the darkness

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