The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

 Wii U
User Score
8.3

Generally favorable reviews- based on 2424 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,893 out of 2424
  2. Mixed: 211 out of 2424
  3. Negative: 320 out of 2424
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  1. TheWinner
    Mar 3, 2017
    3
    Be wary of people giving this game a high score. They just might be trying to sell you on something.

    Things it did right: + Huge world with lots of little details, probably where Nintendo spent most of their time in development + The go-anywhere-and-possibly-be-undergeared motif of LoZ1 was translated to a 3D game alright enough + Made the mastersword rely on heart containers to    Be wary of people giving this game a high score. They just might be trying to sell you on something.

    Things it did right:
    + Huge world with lots of little details, probably where Nintendo spent most of their time in development
    + The go-anywhere-and-possibly-be-undergeared motif of LoZ1 was translated to a 3D game alright enough
    + Made the mastersword rely on heart containers to acquire it, much like the White Sword or Magical Sword from LoZ1. Probably the only specific callback to LoZ1 that translated "perfectly".

    Things it tried:
    • Redesigned many characters, going as far as never giving Link a hat in promotional art and changing his iconic color from green to blue, or Ganon who is now a demon spider instead of a pig, only a pig in spirit. Moblins were turned into weird long snouted lanky unicorn pigmonsters, Hinox were turned into somewhat-more-generic Giants losing their iconic(?) Bomb-throwing attacks.
    • Tried voice acting but traded player-freedom of naming their character so spoken lines could needlessly refer to you as "Link".
    • The go-anywhere-model of LoZ1 lost almost all likeness to most other Zelda games because of the way it was implemented. In order to go anywhere and do anything from the start of the game, the player unfortunately gets all their tools at the start of the game so no proper dungeons with proper treasures or item equipment that would otherwise lock one player from accessing things another player could gated via game progress- which also isn't necessarily even "true" to how LoZ1 accomplished it.

    Things it did wrong:
    - Traded the sweeping and catchy good music of traditional Zelda design even going as far back as the original LoZ1 for lighter, emptier, less-frequent ambient sounds to adapt to the world's environment of "musical" cues and reliance on things like stealth. As an original game this might have worked, but the tradeoff meaning no great "Zelda music" as many expect from the franchise doesn't work to a benefit. The weaker audio design fits their game design, but the weaker audio design of their game design doesn't fit "Zelda".
    - From a series known for streamlined access to health replenishment via bottles full of potions and frequent floating hearts, placing all healing behind food collection and menu access gets in the way of player intention within the world and only serves to distract the player or otherwise pad the adventure with unnecessary filler. Trivial for a series that virtually invented the concept behind the Estus Flask from the Souls games. Such an estus-flask-like method of healing would have more accurately emulated the streamlined healing of past Zelda games while still allowing them to get away from hearts in bushes and pots.
    - Related to food collection, the game design around killing simple non-zelda scenery animals unrelated to the variety of Zelda enemies for various Raw Meat items is woefully unnecessary and out-of-place for any Zelda game much less any Nintendo game. This concept was so poorly implemented to even include killing foxes and wolves for meat, in our modern society where both have been domesticated as pets or otherwise crossbred with domestic dogs to produce canines that look identical to their wild counterparts. Whether the player has the intent or not to harm them, they can be killed by enemies anyway. "Eating dog meat" is a gut-wrenching phrase I never imagined would describe an action in any videogame much less one from Nintendo, and has forever irreparably damaged my otherwise flawless opinion of the franchise and its creators.
    - No actual sprawling dungeons from a series known for it's sprawling dungeons is a weakpoint. The shrines, although numerous and fairly uniquely designed in terms of their puzzles, unfortunately still manage to all look identical and don't offer the same expected gameplay layout or scenic/regional design as cohesive interconnected hallways and rooms from traditional dungeons in other Zelda games. Even the four Divine Beasts operate more like "slightly larger shrines" than something remotely close to being considered a true "dungeon", with Hyrule Castle being the only "true" dungeon.
    - Enemy variety compared to past Zelda games and even many modern games is staggeringly low. All enemies and bosses counted, there are only 23 different monsters that are copied-pasted-and-recolored or given a slightly different weapon or elemental attribute to create the majority of Breath of the Wild's "variety". Even going back to Ocarina of Time, there were 46 unique enemies and bosses counted together, not including recolored or reskinned variations; and of course each mainline Zelda game since Ocarina and before Breath of the Wild has had virtually the same variety if not more. There are actually more background scenery animal species in this game than unique enemies, meaning the only true visual variety that exists is in the scenery itself - a negative only because enemy combat is a necessity.    … Expand
  2. zeroex_15
    Mar 3, 2017
    0
    Not worthy of the Zelda franchise.

    Despite offering a huge world to explore its largely empty and devoid of interest. The shrines are mini puzzles and become incredibly boring early with journeying between them even more so. Its also one of the only ways to increase your hearts/stamina so your essentially forced to do these side quests. Dungeons are gone. You have shrines that are    Not worthy of the Zelda franchise.

    Despite offering a huge world to explore its largely empty and devoid of interest. The shrines are mini puzzles and become incredibly boring early with journeying between them even more so. Its also one of the only ways to increase your hearts/stamina so your essentially forced to do these side quests.

    Dungeons are gone. You have shrines that are very short puzzles rewarding an item you can trade for hearts or stamina. Probably is they all look the same with bland interiors. There are 4 mechanical creatures that are slightly longer versions of shrines but the only real dungeon is hyrule castle.

    Its also annoying that the inventory is micro management heavy, item break often so your constantly swapping. You can expand your inventory but again it involves finding seeds and trading them in. If the world was more interesting this might have been fun.

    The climbing mechanic isn't fun. Its tedious and repetitive. The towers you have to climb are essentially less interesting versions of the towers from far cry 4.

    So disappointed. I've put it down and don't think I'll bother finishing it. There's just nothing to keep my interest.    … Expand
  3. Zygor
    Mar 3, 2017
    0
    As a person who never usually rate games. I created this account SOLELY to express my frustration over this. This game ISN'T TRADITIONAL, IT'S BAD! It's so F bad that I need to invent new word to express my frustration. Well glad I didn't buy this along with Switch.

    Music SUCKS BIG TIME. Game feels empty and less magical feeling, not to mention those annoying sound you hear somewere    As a person who never usually rate games. I created this account SOLELY to express my frustration over this. This game ISN'T TRADITIONAL, IT'S BAD! It's so F bad that I need to invent new word to express my frustration. Well glad I didn't buy this along with Switch.

    Music SUCKS BIG TIME. Game feels empty and less magical feeling, not to mention those annoying sound you hear somewere which makes my ear bleed. Graphics and art style sucks. It made me more sad when irl friend who aint a gamer told me "looks like world of warcraft". Combat is bad. It feels like playing hack n slash game. Dungeons aint like before. WTf that voice acting in the beginning. Where's the green:ish armour? wow healthbar above npc.. No animation while opening chest like in OOT, Twilight n Majoras mask and so on. FFS! this F game. It was so hard for me to give it 1/10.

    The game overall looks just meh, empty, they tried to do something different. They completely raped the core of the game.

    Story: LMAO, won't mention that until you've played it yourself.    … Expand
  4. sumbodyshero
    Mar 3, 2017
    0
    1. Link is LEFT-HANDED. I guess the Producer didn't know that (who thinks that Phantom Hourglass and Triforce Heroes are the best Zelda games ever made).

    2. Zelda is supposed to have EXCELLENT MUSIC. 3. "Link" is not the character's name, but a placeholder name. You are supposed to enter your own name. 4. They nerfed the Gamepad functionality. No Zelda will ever come close to Wind    1. Link is LEFT-HANDED. I guess the Producer didn't know that (who thinks that Phantom Hourglass and Triforce Heroes are the best Zelda games ever made).

    2. Zelda is supposed to have EXCELLENT MUSIC.

    3. "Link" is not the character's name, but a placeholder name. You are supposed to enter your own name.

    4. They nerfed the Gamepad functionality. No Zelda will ever come close to Wind Waker's excellent Gamepad visuals. The Switch (dumb name) has NO LAUNCH LINEUP, so they needed to stab Wii U owners in the back and take what was supposed to be the definitive Wii U game and the definitive Gamepad game.

    5. "Expansion pass"... just hearing that makes me cringe.

    6. Link looks effeminate and malnourished.

    7. The game designers clearly had much contempt for the Zelda series. Just give us Link to the Past in the Ocarina of Time engine and we're good! The only thing "Zelda" about this game is the word on the box. Not even the character on the box is from Zelda (blonde haired feminine boy holding a sword in his right hand when the REAL Zelda protagonist has brown hair, a green hat and tunic, and is BADA--).    … Expand
  5. PaidLeaf7068
    May 17, 2019
    4
    I say this game is VERY overrated. Where do I begin?

    •The story It’s stupid. Worst story in Zelda. •Gameplay Also stupid. Weapons break easily. Got a weapon you think looks slick or is a good weapon? Too bad. It’ll break. • Empty Open world World is YET AGAIN stupid, have a pretty but empty open world having almost nothing to do. •sidequests Wow Nintendo. If you are going to make an    I say this game is VERY overrated. Where do I begin?

    •The story
    It’s stupid. Worst story in Zelda.

    •Gameplay
    Also stupid. Weapons break easily. Got a weapon you think looks slick or is a good weapon? Too bad. It’ll break.

    • Empty Open world
    World is YET AGAIN stupid, have a pretty but empty open world having almost nothing to do.

    •sidequests

    Wow Nintendo. If you are going to make an rpg you have GOT to make good side quests. Side quests in this game are consisted of taking pictures of stuff or boring fetch quests.

    • shrines and koroks
    Two of the worst systems in gaming history.

    Not all bad!

    •world is pretty
    •guardians and Lynels are fun to fight despite being difficult
    •a poor excuse of a final boss, but still fun!
    •I no longer have to worry about my bomb count with infinite bombs    … Expand
  6. Evilwolf1111
    Aug 29, 2018
    0
    a almost perfect game if u haven't played run and buy it... now and get the dlcs
  7. Tenderizer17
    Feb 15, 2019
    1
    I watched a youtube video a while ago, it explains that each event is spread out by exactly 40 seconds. That source of praise for some is probably a large part of why I hate the game. The game survives by using it's metronome like action to turn you into a mindless zombie. Because of it the exploration is not fun, it's just easy to lose track of time doing it.

    The main reasons this    I watched a youtube video a while ago, it explains that each event is spread out by exactly 40 seconds. That source of praise for some is probably a large part of why I hate the game. The game survives by using it's metronome like action to turn you into a mindless zombie. Because of it the exploration is not fun, it's just easy to lose track of time doing it.

    The main reasons this series gets undue praise is that it's absorbing and big. Both act to the detriment of the game.

    Continuing with the absorbing nature of the game, the pacing of 40 seconds actually acts to the detriment of the exploration. Dead space is important, and constantly spacing things out by roughly 40 seconds means there is no dead space. Everything is routine. Furthermore the content that you come across every 40 seconds is not of any value. There rare things that do have value are often pointed to directly by waypoints.

    This leads me to my next point, the world is big but vapid. There's not enough dead space in the game, but you could also say the majority of the game is dead space. There's so much stuff in the game but almost none of it has any merit. Exploration only works if there's something to find, and the few worthwhile things I found do not make it worth wading through the hours and hours of worthless things to find.

    That's most of my criticism for the game, the core gameplay isn't fun because the finding of things in regular intervals lulls you into a trance that makes you not cognisant of the environment and there's just nothing of value to find.

    Aside from that THE ENDING SUCKED. Nobody of their right mind could like that ending, an easy bossfight makes all the work of freeing the divine beasts feel redundant and afterwards you're greeted with a second boss-fight that barely surpasses a cut-scene in difficulty.

    Princess Zelda gets next to no characterisation despite me hearing praise for her character repeatedly, and honestly development for her would be far better rewards for exploration than a shrine. That said, what bits of development we do get are also terrible. They're barely better than her staring at the camera and explaining "oh boy do I feel like a failure because I haven't been able to summon the power of the goddess". If we were given a lot more cutscenes that were less direct about it, it would've made her into a far more compelling character.

    The shrines are complete garbage, I'm literally looking at a review that calls them "fun". The biggest challenge in the shrines is sitting through the loading screen at each end.

    Every town is marked on the map, making stumbling upon them impossible and they're most of what's worth finding.

    Your horse is basically never around (unless you buy the DLC) making traversing long empty fields a pain. It'd be great if we could mount a large wolf-like creature that'll follow us up cliffs.

    Your powers don't start recharging until you've used up all three charges and don't progress any further even if you use the in-game time-passing functionality.

    All in all I regret my time with BOTW. Lame exploration, lame world, lame story, lame shrines (which add up to about 8 hours of my 70 hours in game), lame Princess Zelda, lame horse, lame experience. There are a few quests in the game that work, and a few divine-beast related cutscenes and I really like that each town has it's own musical theme but that's not enough to carry a 70 hour game that isn't fun.    … Expand
  8. AutomaticTaco
    Mar 28, 2017
    2
    Why the low score? Several reasons. The first are completely hotfix-able if Nintendo wishes to resolve them.

    The Yiga Clan Hideout. You will be forced to play stealthy or die to one-hit enemies. Okay, fine. Spend 20 minutes or so learning how to get to the final boss the first time. Then spend 5-10 minutes doing it again. And that is only if you were lucky enough to save once manually    Why the low score? Several reasons. The first are completely hotfix-able if Nintendo wishes to resolve them.

    The Yiga Clan Hideout. You will be forced to play stealthy or die to one-hit enemies. Okay, fine. Spend 20 minutes or so learning how to get to the final boss the first time. Then spend 5-10 minutes doing it again. And that is only if you were lucky enough to save once manually as I did. Why? Oh, yeah. Master Kohga has a tendency to despawn if he is hit at the right moment with an arrow. The Yiga Clan Hideout is ridiculous to begin with and we are forced to suffer this insult to injury. Forced stealth with one-hit capable enemies who somehow prevent Fairy or Zora revival is just ridiculous in-and-of itself. Add this mess with the boss to the mix and we have this intolerable circumstance.

    Tip for Nintendo: Please fix the boss. And fix the entire encounter while you are at it please. It is beyond maddening.

    Weapon durability is horrendous. Weapons rarely last a single fight. Yet somehow your armor is completely unbreakable. I guess we should just swing our armor at the enemies in the game. And if only we could craft weapons from the same materials our amazing unbreakable armor is made from to make weapons.

    Tip for Nintendo: Increase weapon durability. Give us a durability status bar. And, give us more options for later weapons what are unbreakable made from the material of our armor which is apparently immune to breaking.

    Your horse. Somehow in a land of magic and miracles, your horse must strictly obey the laws of in-game physics. You cannot summon your horse. If your horse is not in range when you whistle it will not come when called. Okay, so, get back to your horse or get to a stable and board and then take your horse. Fine. The annoyance? The annoyance comes with how often you must leave your horse behind. And then, either getting back to the poor beast becomes a chore or starting back, once again, from the nearest stable.

    Tip for Nintendo: How about, you just whistle and the horse enters stage left; or behind? It would work just fine.

    Dungeons? Trials. Okay 120 trials. 4 divine beast encounters. Sadly all lack the proper dungeon look and feel. I am fine with them. I just wish they had included a handful of solid dungeon content worthy of previous Zelda titles.

    Tip for Nintendo: Please do not forget the dungeon content.

    Music is atmospheric but overall lacking.

    Tip for Nintendo: Bring back more sections with catchy Zelda-themed music.

    Finally, the story. Yes, I know, it is Zelda. The excuse is harder to make in 2017 than it would have been in 2002 or 1995 or even 1985. The story is okay. Not bad. Not great. Just okay. This last one has no easy fix so I will simply accept that this is Zelda and that Nintendo is stuck on that front.

    Tip for Nintendo: While I am not expecting the Witcher 3 in terms of content or subject matter, try taking the Zelda approach for a more expansive story and not just an expansive game world.

    In short, if they fix these issues I will reconsider. Until that point, too many bugs or just plain poorly chosen game design sections to recommend.    … Expand
  9. Meta1234
    Mar 17, 2018
    4
    From an until recently lifelong Nintendo fan:

    This is a Zelda game but it has got its flaws. They should be mentioned and the eternal Nintendo nostalgia should be put aside because it has metaphorically become a source of sickness. Starting with the hardware and the frame drop is a source of frustration. A company the size and economic power of Nintendo should be doing better than    From an until recently lifelong Nintendo fan:

    This is a Zelda game but it has got its flaws. They should be mentioned and the eternal Nintendo nostalgia should be put aside because it has metaphorically become a source of sickness.

    Starting with the hardware and the frame drop is a source of frustration. A company the size and economic power of Nintendo should be doing better than this. It should be avoiding the eternal excuse it is the game experience that matters. Lower quality graphics can be ok but frame drop is unacceptable, anti-game experience and repeat frustrating.

    Continuing with the gameplay, the one-shot game overs and the constant breaking of the weapons is another source of frustration. It even goes beyond frustration and generates anger in the player. Travelling long distances for exploring and suddenly getting one-shot is not nice. This is a first open world for Zelda and the flaws are more than visible. The balance in the open-world playing experience is not there.

    Moving on to cinematics and voice-acting. Once again the experience lacks completeness. There is voice acting in some scenes but once the cinematic is over it goes back to the text boxes. Compared to a game like AC where there is voice acting even during gameplay e.g. when following an ally, Nintendo is lagging far behind in this sector.

    Lastly, there is a robotic style of developing a game from the side of Nintendo. What models have we got in our inventory? this and that ok how to combine them together? ok then now use them. First make the models, then robotically dress it up with some reused storyline. Does it fit? Who cares? After creating a story timeline in Hyrule Historia probably for selling a few copies of a book, now it is scrapped just like that. The story is meshed up again.

    And my final thoughts: It does not mean that a pioneer in the pixel-era of gaming should continue getting praise even for underperforming open-world modern games, just because they pioneered back in the 80s. If a game like Far Cry gets 8 points on average, when it is much more advanced in gameplay balance and cinematics and overall feeling, then Breath of the Wild is half that and can only get a 4 from my side.    … Expand
  10. Fetch11
    Mar 12, 2017
    4
    I hate to score this so low, given its astounding attention to detail, its many great features and (when it works) its incredibly engrossing gameplay. However, the frame rate issues present (on the Wii U version I've got at least) are utterly unacceptable. I don't overly care about technical issues in and of themselves, and when the art style of a game is fantastic (such as in the WindI hate to score this so low, given its astounding attention to detail, its many great features and (when it works) its incredibly engrossing gameplay. However, the frame rate issues present (on the Wii U version I've got at least) are utterly unacceptable. I don't overly care about technical issues in and of themselves, and when the art style of a game is fantastic (such as in the Wind Waker) the numbers being crunched are irrelevant. However, as I went on in the Wii U version, I found the frame rate drops in all villages, most stables and some other areas totally devastating to the experience of immersion. I don't know how this has got past the reviewers - perhaps they all played the Switch version (I don't know; I haven't played it.) Whatever the case, Nintendo need to fix this. And I'm not the only one experiencing these issues - anyone who has got in far enough to see the locations will be able to confirm what I am saying is true. A very sad missed opportunity. Let's hope Nintendo fix the issue - but I have a feeling they sadly won't for the Wii U version...… Expand
  11. MetaAccount
    Mar 12, 2017
    1
    A massive downgrade from the initial showings of the game, yet the performance of the game has not gone up in the slightest.
    This game is capped at 30 frames per second, rather than Nintendo's standard of 60, yet it is unable to maintain even 30, especially during boss battles where it is most important to have a steady framerate. The framerate goes even further down when the switch is    A massive downgrade from the initial showings of the game, yet the performance of the game has not gone up in the slightest.
    This game is capped at 30 frames per second, rather than Nintendo's standard of 60, yet it is unable to maintain even 30, especially during boss battles where it is most important to have a steady framerate. The framerate goes even further down when the switch is docked, since the resolution is higher when docked than in portable mode.
    A 10 out of 10 means perfection, but nothing that does not run well can be considered perfect.
    It is a good game ruined by bad performance.    … Expand
  12. pokemon12
    Mar 23, 2017
    1
    Not worthy of the Zelda franchise.
    zelda is supposed to have great music but this game doesnt have music!
    i bet 90% of people will never replay breath of the wild!
  13. JFlag
    Jul 8, 2017
    3
    Interesting what the Metacritic user data shows. As of April 15 2017 and over 10,000 user votes on both platforms, an analysis of the number of people who rated the game positively (rather than mixed/negative) relative to other Zeldas showed some interesting findings Nintendo should take on board. 1 in 3 people, globally, didn’t rate it positively compared to 1 in 10 for major 3D ZeldaInteresting what the Metacritic user data shows. As of April 15 2017 and over 10,000 user votes on both platforms, an analysis of the number of people who rated the game positively (rather than mixed/negative) relative to other Zeldas showed some interesting findings Nintendo should take on board. 1 in 3 people, globally, didn’t rate it positively compared to 1 in 10 for major 3D Zelda games of the past (OoT, MM, WW, TP). Older titles like Link to the Past and its modern sequel, Link Between Worlds, are both also ranked at only 1 in 14 and 1 in 10, respectively, not rating it positively. This clearly shows that age or format of a Zelda game is less important than whether it employs a winning formula—a formula for enjoyment, satisfaction, and fun. Breath of the Wild along with Skyward Sword are the LEAST-LIKED major 3D Zelda games Nintendo have ever released by a substantial margin according to these figures, despite what the North American-centric internet media headlines claim, or what the numerically insignificant ‘critic’ reviews suggest. Good gaming formulas work; trying something new for the sake of it using the Zelda IP, just because a few loud mouths claim the ‘Zelda formula’ is ‘getting tired’, is a recipe for losing respect. After two poor major 3D Zeldas in a row now, I personally can’t buy another one until I’m convinced that it’s good from other sources. It’s a good job the astoundingly enjoyable Link Between Worlds was released recently, otherwise I’d have lost all hope for the series. LttP is an utterly marvellous experience; take note of why and please use that in future Zelda experiences. The game was legendary because of the stunning quality of the musical composition and scoring, the gameplay pace, and the rate at which fun things happened during uninterrupted gameplay. It was tight, original, had a very high ‘fun-density’, and oozed character—all completely absent in SS and BoTW…

    Really didn’t enjoy this game despite being very open-minded about it in the run up. It was a mediocre game in itself, and a very, very poor Zelda, relative to the best of past games, new and old. The Metacritic user data also shows this to be the case.

    My biggest complaints are:
    • No sense of designed adventure; felt more like a large complex technical demo than a well-crafted adventure experience. Like Skyward Sword and unlike any 3D Zelda game before it, I established no emotional attachment. This was principally due to the lack of a high quality, emotive, lyrical musical composition written by a master composer who understands the emotional language of music. I can’t stress this enough. Kondo was clearly inspired by the work of geniuses Goldsmith and Williams in the mid 70s-mid 80s in the movie world, and is himself a genius, with strengths in lyricism. This game was emotionally dead and I didn’t bond with it at all.

    • Didn’t feel like I accomplished anything meaningful while playing. Felt like a repetitive grind-fest or a slow, arduous, boring trudge through a mostly baron world. Climbing in particular was absolutely not fun; it was slow and often frustrating. Wandering around collecting stuff for the sake of it, to later grind blindly into materials for things which wear out in 2 minutes. Many gamers around the world don’t like farming—certainly not in a Zelda game! Of the 140 hours sank into this game to achieve 99% completion, about 120 were grinding and walking around/climbing in the empty world, not enjoying myself. I forced myself to get through it because I’d paid so much for it.

    • Cut scenes added very little and voice narration was disruptive to any emotional attachment. Due to the do-anything-without-restriction approach, I also saw them out of order; I saw key characters before I’d met them and lost any sense of story linearity—much like reading a book random chapter at a time.

    • Being one hit-killed, even when experienced, was deeply frustrating. Making a game challenging doesn’t mean the fun has to be taken out of it. This was just bad design.

    • The Wii U features being dropped (causing a delay in release) so they wouldn’t outshine the retrograde Switch console version was offensive and the game suffers for it—particularly when you contrast to how the beautifully done Wind Waker HD remake utilised the second screen.

    • The tedious weapon breaking every few hits made the combat a completely unsatisfying chore. There was no incentive to work for a nice weapon because it breaks in the same few hits as a plain old tree stick.

    I could go on and list several other major points… Many others have said similar things in the non-polarised mixed reviews. I just don’t understand why so many people thought this game was outstanding. Less would have been much, much more.    … Expand
  14. Thruck197
    Mar 6, 2017
    3
    90% of people will never replay breath of the wild.
    The game is designed around dumping all your time into a single play file thanks to how slow the accumulation of anything works. Theres no second quest, the enemy variety is **** like the only thing you have going for it is "the world is big and i wanna see every inch of it" which is absolutely no different than any other open world game    90% of people will never replay breath of the wild.
    The game is designed around dumping all your time into a single play file thanks to how slow the accumulation of anything works. Theres no second quest, the enemy variety is **** like the only thing you have going for it is "the world is big and i wanna see every inch of it" which is absolutely no different than any other open world game ever. Unfortunately the gameplay options and variety isn't there to carry you all the way.

    Its Minecraft survival without crafting, world building, world destruction, or a random world and fresh world every time you play. And I don't even like Minecraft, i'm just sayin this Hyrule is going to get old fast because the world itself is the only thing that got a lot of attention in development. There are re-used assets everywhere, from multiple recolored/reskinned variations of enemies to even there functionally being 6 or 7 different kinds of weapons in the game that were negligently forced into strict attack sets of shortsword, longsword or spear. Reused animations, reused monsters, reused assets everywhere. Even the mastersword explodes into blue dust like every other destructable weapon despite its plot mechanic of "running out of energy" to be returned to your inventory rendered useless for 20 minutes.

    The game is as wide as an ocean and deep as a puddle.    … Expand
  15. Merchant
    Mar 15, 2017
    1
    good looking game.
    Iconic franchise.
    Huge world. Lots to do. massive frame rate drops. Weapon durability isn't fun. Game encourages you to avoid fights to protect your gear. the puzzles are easy and the game tells you the answers. The game's difficulty decreases the longer you play. Lacks music. Story is flat. Ending is anticlimactic and the final boss is a free ride. Low    good looking game.
    Iconic franchise.
    Huge world.
    Lots to do.

    massive frame rate drops.
    Weapon durability isn't fun.
    Game encourages you to avoid fights to protect your gear.
    the puzzles are easy and the game tells you the answers.
    The game's difficulty decreases the longer you play.
    Lacks music.
    Story is flat.
    Ending is anticlimactic and the final boss is a free ride.
    Low replay value.    … Expand
  16. BiFrost
    Mar 14, 2017
    1
    How can they release a game that looks like it was made pre-2010? It looks so bad and bland i felt sorry for my eyes. When i port my switch to the TV, it looks much worse. The open world aspect of the game is boring but the game killer for me is the frame-rates issue.
  17. NatDiamonds
    Apr 22, 2017
    0
    A very bad game in my opinion, which is only Zelda by the name, the mechanics give the impression of being very varied but after a while they become repetitive leaving you alone with that expectation of seeing what will happen with your seemingly realistic system Of physics, it is those kind of games that first you are attracted to have a great map and many objectives to discover, but thatA very bad game in my opinion, which is only Zelda by the name, the mechanics give the impression of being very varied but after a while they become repetitive leaving you alone with that expectation of seeing what will happen with your seemingly realistic system Of physics, it is those kind of games that first you are attracted to have a great map and many objectives to discover, but that ends up leaving just because it is too long and nothing linear, very bad adaptation of the bomb system and the little comfort that Is to finish a sanctuary compared to previous deliveries, without words, it is better to wait for Nintendo to publish a new delivery more faithful to what a Zelda really is.… Expand
  18. tsumasaki
    Mar 20, 2017
    1
    the new zelda is not zelda
    zelda is magic
    your music is horrible the music at game is very important ocarina of time , major mask, wind waker , twilight princess since skysward zelda have lost your magic my score is 1 the game is short, very expensive zelda is a game very popular and am fan of it i thought that the new zelda will to be better that ocarina of time or a remake    the new zelda is not zelda
    zelda is magic
    your music is horrible
    the music at game is very important
    ocarina of time , major mask, wind waker , twilight princess
    since skysward zelda have lost your magic
    my score is 1
    the game is short, very expensive
    zelda is a game very popular
    and am fan of it
    i thought that the new zelda
    will to be better that ocarina of time
    or a remake of ocarina of time
    the art is very bad.    … Expand
  19. ArtSth
    Mar 13, 2017
    4
    I do not understand how such games can be played in 2017. This game is straight from 2005. But fanatics do not understand this, they will blindly defend any game to the end. The game has absolutely nothing in what it can compete with AAA projects.
  20. Annahbananas
    Mar 21, 2017
    3
    meh, I didn't really like it.

    I thought it was kind of bland. I made sure I wouldn't get caught in the hype. I played it as if it was another game...not a holy grail.

    It really wasn't the best game ive ever played and it wasn't the worse. I would place it a little under painfully average
  21. midnarosalina76
    Jul 20, 2017
    4
    This game is not the best Zelda game in the franchise, but it is still good. There is a good background, and the open-world idea is fairly good. However, I still prefer the traditional style of Zelda games. Although there were 120 shrines, trying to complete all of them was tedious and boring, as there were too many of them, and they were too short. The divine beasts were also too short,This game is not the best Zelda game in the franchise, but it is still good. There is a good background, and the open-world idea is fairly good. However, I still prefer the traditional style of Zelda games. Although there were 120 shrines, trying to complete all of them was tedious and boring, as there were too many of them, and they were too short. The divine beasts were also too short, and were all the same. The bosses inside the divine beasts were also the same, and so was Calamity Ganon. I did enjoy the side quests, however, I felt as though the game relied too heavily on the open world, shrines and side quests to make it longer. Yes, Majora's Mask did the same thing, however, it was done so that the side quest all helped with the main quest. In Breath of the Wild, the side quests were just for the sake of it. I also missed all of the regular items.
    To conclude, while I enjoyed Breath of the Wild, I hope that Nintendo revert back to the more traditional style of games later on, as I believe that they are way better.    … Expand
  22. voiders
    Mar 6, 2017
    2
    Ladies and gentlemen please welcome the most overrated game of all time!
    A simple Zelda game with a good world and physics but with a PS2 graphic!
    The funny part is this game has the exacly same camera problems from Final Fantasy XV. The camera is manual, the moviment is not relative and the objects between the camera and the character are allways solid. So you can't see link with a    Ladies and gentlemen please welcome the most overrated game of all time!
    A simple Zelda game with a good world and physics but with a PS2 graphic!
    The funny part is this game has the exacly same camera problems from Final Fantasy XV.
    The camera is manual, the moviment is not relative and the objects between the camera and the character are allways solid. So you can't see link with a tree is in front of he. Every reviewer complain about this problem in FFXV and in Zelda "ow it's perfect".
    Just a normal game nothing else. People pick a lot of hype and fanboysm to make other people thing that game is perfect. It's even can handle 30 FPS.
    Also the story is so cliche and stupid. 'Hey link, you are the hero of the prophecy. Save the princess, save the world'    … Expand
  23. hirschlord
    Mar 16, 2019
    0
    most boring zelda experience i ever had .
    the endless world is to big and senseless
    the fight is to unlimited and i dont get a clue why i was still running through it with all the superpowers from beginning.
  24. daylightjackson
    Mar 8, 2017
    0
    no where near as good as it should have been. Poor graphics, Un Zelda like gamplay. No dungeons. VOICE ACTING!!! Like, actual real voice acting! Do not buy this game
  25. TheExplorator
    Mar 21, 2017
    3
    I really, really wanted to like this game. Ultimately, however, I scarcely found anything that didn't deeply frustrate me about the experience. First, let me go over the pros of the game:

    1. The characters are fun and wacky, exactly what I expect from a good Zelda game. 2. The stamina system is a really good mechanic and balances with health as a choice when 'levelling up'. 3. The    I really, really wanted to like this game. Ultimately, however, I scarcely found anything that didn't deeply frustrate me about the experience. First, let me go over the pros of the game:

    1. The characters are fun and wacky, exactly what I expect from a good Zelda game.
    2. The stamina system is a really good mechanic and balances with health as a choice when 'levelling up'.
    3. The difficulty is appropriate and creates a good challenge.

    I played through so much just because I know there is hidden stuff in the game that I would love to go through and enjoy. It's just a horrible slog through bad game mechanics and dull atmosphere to get to anywhere and you're constantly getting impeded by mini-puzzles that consistently feel like a chore than a valuable part of the game. All this as well as the fact that the game mechanics seem to be designed to discourage you to do things like fight or progress at all. Now, let me go over the cons:

    1. There are no dungeons and shrines are awful. Most of them have unbalanced fights or horribly gimmicky 'puzzles' where the puzzle is bad controls making it hard for you. Where are the long themed dungeons with awesome boss fights that is literally most of the reason most people play Zelda? There aren't.
    2. Crafting, camping, hunting. Survival stuff detracts from the fun of the game, it's not necessary, but you are playing at a disadvantage by not engaging with it, so I either make the game hard for myself or not fun for myself. Bad set of choices, there.
    3. The music is boring and doesn't inspire anything of either fun exploration or the stand-out songs of a Zelda franchise.
    4. The weapon system is awful. They consistently break, meaning due to the lack of EXP or anything, there is literally no value in engaging with enemies unless it is absolutely necessary.
    5. You get all usable skills at the beginning of the game. So where is my sense of progression and fun classic Zelda items like the Hookshot to keep adding new mechanics to the game to aid progressions and keep it exciting alongside the story? Shh, that would have been a good idea (and they're avoiding those).
    6. The map is huge. Great if you're into a massive time-sink. But most of the world is empty and everything is just really far away, so it takes insanely boring runs to get anywhere - when you do get to a shrine you can fast-travel, but you have to get there first. And. It. Isn't. Fun.
    7. The WiiU version has frame-rate drops and some long loading times. A minor gripe, but worth noting.
    8. Most of the game looks the same. It feels like a grind. Shrines look the same, most of the areas have similar areas with slightly different looking trees. Given how big the world is. It really loses the desire to explore very quickly.

    Overall, I cannot recommend this game at all. The most it does is vaguely remind me of other Zelda games I would rather be playing. Very disappointing title, I am very upset that I couldn't find it in me to have any fun with this.    … Expand
  26. logan1087
    Mar 21, 2017
    1
    Me parece un videojuego muy tedios el mundo abierto al principio esta bien pero se vuelve repetitivo y ese tipo de colores lo hacen ver como un juego para niños de 6 años, me aburrio en un par de horas
  27. Keaton
    Jun 7, 2017
    0
    This game is Nintendo at is best. I thought Nintendo would never make a Legend of Zelda game that would TOP Ocarina of Time. But they had me dead wrong. This game is a masterpiece. It's so beautiful and so wonderful, it's very hard to put into words, you HAVE to experience this game for yourself. Whether your a PC player, Sony, Xbox, this game is bound to astonish you. Nintendo willThis game is Nintendo at is best. I thought Nintendo would never make a Legend of Zelda game that would TOP Ocarina of Time. But they had me dead wrong. This game is a masterpiece. It's so beautiful and so wonderful, it's very hard to put into words, you HAVE to experience this game for yourself. Whether your a PC player, Sony, Xbox, this game is bound to astonish you. Nintendo will forever be in my heart.… Expand
  28. 1234JacobW
    Mar 4, 2018
    0
    This game doesn't deserve the praise it gets. When you first start the game you have no clue what you are meant to do you have to look it up online.
  29. Dilbert
    May 6, 2018
    1
    Full disclosure: this is my first Zelda game and damn I can't help but wonder how differently it may have scored with critics if they were approaching Zelda for the first time as I am.

    Gameplay; this is supposed to be a videogame i.e. it's meant to be fun and entertaining. It instead turns out to be the most boring and repetitive game I have ever played. I had heard of Zelda's    Full disclosure: this is my first Zelda game and damn I can't help but wonder how differently it may have scored with critics if they were approaching Zelda for the first time as I am.

    Gameplay; this is supposed to be a videogame i.e. it's meant to be fun and entertaining. It instead turns out to be the most boring and repetitive game I have ever played. I had heard of Zelda's reputation for recycling dugeons; wow how many times do I have to redo the same things again? It's as if I have no life besides playing videogames or what? It's just a walking, climbing simulator with annoying mechanics such as temperature and wearing down of weapons and tools. Ok, clearly wearing down is not a bad thing but in Zelda it's a painstaking process. If this was Minecraft at least you could repair just about anything but now this? I quit about 3 hours in.

    Graphics: Let's start with the positive: very nice artstyle and physics. The negative? Everything else. This looks like a game from 2012 at best. The original Wii U's Zelda tech demo was soooo much nicer than this. It's a tragedy that Ubisoft and others get crucified over minor graphical downgrades and this piece of crap gets a free pass... and GOTY? What ?

    Verdict: 2/10. Even a 5/10 I could think of reasons to return to. This? Nope. This game does not deserve GOTY in fact it would not have attracted my attention if it hadn't and my life would be better for it.

    Recommendation; buy the console and game at a place like Costco this way you can return no questions asked if you are as disappointed as I was.    … Expand
  30. lukaszsw
    Feb 22, 2020
    1
    The game looks great and the gameplay is very good but it just lacks soul.
    There vast open stretches of land filled with nothing. Or even worse than nothing - copy&paste moblin camps and shrines. After a while you realize that there is just no point in attacking most enemies because all you do is wear down and break weapons and in return you might get some random worse weapon. With such a    The game looks great and the gameplay is very good but it just lacks soul.
    There vast open stretches of land filled with nothing. Or even worse than nothing - copy&paste moblin camps and shrines. After a while you realize that there is just no point in attacking most enemies because all you do is wear down and break weapons and in return you might get some random worse weapon. With such a big world at least the settlements should be fun right? No. They have minimal NPC and side quest and you form no attachment to them. Compared to previous games - Skyward Sword and Wind Waker , Breath of the wild seems devoid of life.

    I've bought the game full price and never finished it. I've played some bad games with good story but here the story is so non-existent that I have no desire to see to its conclusion.

    It seems that after development hell the game was still rushed to playable state. It is ok, bo certainly not game of the year. I look at the scores and ponder how so many people can so in love with it. It all feels like a chore, a menial job. Perhaps it is a way to escape stress like soap operas or smoking.    … Expand
  31. NomadShow
    Feb 14, 2018
    1
    I've never given the Zelda franchise much attention. As a kid I grew up with a Sega Mega Drive instead of a Nintendo, and later a developed into a PC gamer. Having bought a Wii U for my kids i opted to try this one though. Let's say the hype convinced me.

    And, well, it's among the worst games I've ever played. Graphics are sub par even to other Nintendo titles, early game story is non    I've never given the Zelda franchise much attention. As a kid I grew up with a Sega Mega Drive instead of a Nintendo, and later a developed into a PC gamer. Having bought a Wii U for my kids i opted to try this one though. Let's say the hype convinced me.

    And, well, it's among the worst games I've ever played. Graphics are sub par even to other Nintendo titles, early game story is non existent and the sound design is utterly bad (the "pick up a new item" sound is identical to the error message-sound from Window XP, so every time I pick up a new item I think there's something wrong with the console).

    Possibly a great game for those who've had a close relationship with Link over the last 30 years. But for me? No! Absolutely not. An utter disappointment. Will keep to other RPGs in the future.    … Expand
  32. Phuz
    Aug 14, 2021
    0
    Total **** **** music, **** puzzles, **** dungeons, empty world that's slow to navigate, the stamina of a 2 year old, some of the worst voice acting ever, poor dialogue, fetch quests, repetetive, plain enemies, poor weapons system. The whole game sucks balls. If that's not enough to deter you, it has **** performamce too.
  33. Captainj99
    Jun 29, 2020
    1
    So I’m probably one of the biggest Zelda fans. And I do think they did an amazing job on the open world concept and I loved the new weapons in the game. However I hated that your weapon broke down in a short time and the dungeons were horrible it was nothing like the other Zelda games and the bosses sucked. I don’t know I liked the cut scenes but but I also didn’t like shrine hunting.So I’m probably one of the biggest Zelda fans. And I do think they did an amazing job on the open world concept and I loved the new weapons in the game. However I hated that your weapon broke down in a short time and the dungeons were horrible it was nothing like the other Zelda games and the bosses sucked. I don’t know I liked the cut scenes but but I also didn’t like shrine hunting. Stamina disappearing sucked as well. All in all I’m pretty dissatisfied with the game I love the art and all but it really didn’t feel like I was playing a Zelda Game.… Expand
  34. lamen_table
    Jun 24, 2020
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Zerda: Breath of dthe wild es una secula pero poco pulida, un reeskin de los clasicos… Expand
  35. BadAim81
    Jul 1, 2020
    3
    +: Beautiful and unique graphics

    -: Boring gameplay. The world feels dead. The Shrines are so uninspiring. The weapons-break-system made me quit the game
  36. saifkhay
    Nov 24, 2021
    0
    something that can't just be replicated and a lot of that creativity comes from the weapon degradation. People have explored the depth of the systems and created many unique interactions. And those who felt limited by it showed a limit in their own creativity not the games.
  37. Amstel
    Dec 23, 2020
    1
    If you wanna loose your time playing this overrated franchise, at least go buy a switch. Seriously, why get the worst graphic if you had a better console that you can play better games after finishing this bad copy of Shadow of the Colossus
  38. MostKritick
    Jan 11, 2022
    1
    The game is absolutely worse than The Witcher 3. There is no voice acting, when the Witcher even has localization! Small FPS, on the Switch. Nintendo is parasitic on their old games. If someone didn't like the game that you liked, then DON'T **** THOSE WHO DON'T LIKE IT. Stupid idiots

Awards & Rankings

1
#1 Best Wii U Game of 2017
1
#1 Most Discussed Wii U Game of 2017
1
#1 Most Shared Wii U Game of 2017

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
96

Universal acclaim - based on 13 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 13
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 13
  3. Negative: 0 out of 13
  1. Video Chums
    Apr 10, 2017
    91
    The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is an absolute joy to play as it's an undeniably rewarding adventure set in a deeply immersive world. Although the experience is weighed down by a few minor problems, the overall journey is one that no gamer will soon forget.
    Read full review
  2. AusGamers
    Mar 28, 2017
    92
    Breath of the Wild can’t be compared to the likes of The Witcher 3 or Skyrim because it’s not trying to be those games -- it’s a Nintendo game -- and series -- all grown up. It has a lot to offer and will keep you engaged for lengthy periods of time. If you’re playing on Switch as you absolutely should be, then you can also Zelda wherever you go. It’s arguably not the best Zelda game, but damn, it might be the most polished, and the most ambitious.
    Read full review
  3. DarkStation
    Mar 20, 2017
    100
    Does it have the best combat system in the world? No. Is it the best looking game out there? No. Does it have the best RPG soundtrack ever? No. Can the game make you feel like you are eight years old again? Hell yes. It certainly had that effect with me. It has been a long time since exploring, fighting, and adventuring has so consistently brought a smile to my face. Breath of the Wild is such a wonderful experience that once you play it, you will likely never look at open world games the same again.
    Read full review
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