I thought about what to write about Breath Of The Wild for a long while because I wanted to make sure I'm certain of these statements. I take them seriously, and if anyone reads this, so should they. I tried reviewing the game, but I soon noticed it's a pointless struggle; the game is beyond reviews, saying things like, "this is good about it, that's bad", and so on would be like trying to explain black hole physics to a hamster. It's a completely inappropriate approach to something of this magnitude. Words fail me, there is nothing I can say about this game that would be on point. Sure, we could discuss the graphics, or the story chapter by chapter, or the boss fight mechanics... but what for?

I cannot be precise about Breath Of The Wild, and I suppose that is the perfect starting point for all theoretical thought on this game. It's not about precision of statements here, it's more about the general feeling, because that's what this product is to me: it's a feeling. I can't honestly say I experienced it as a video game, because how would that even compare to other things we call video games? Is this the same thing as some run of the mill shooter or car game? Is it even a game still?

I believe it was around fifteen, maybe twenty hours in that I realized I was experiencing this "new Zelda game" as something completely unrelated to anything from my previous twenty plus years of gaming. I was just running through the meadows, jumping off of cliffs, taking photographs of the wildlife, trying to get a new horse... and there was nothing, just calmness like when you visit the lake house, away from all your day-to-day problems, and just relax. Breathe in the nature, the silence, the beautiful solitude. It hit me then, that Breath Of The Wild is right, because you do get to breathe in the wilderness that world has to offer, and you can actually taste it on your lips.

I can't think of it as a video game, because it's just so beyond that. It subtly, non-invasively entered my consciousness and altered it, providing me with a joyful, almost meditative state of complete serenity. Even words like immersionor beingtransported are completely useless in this context. It feels like medicine. Yes, it might sound like new age nonsense to some, and I'm willing to take a hit for that, because I want everyone to understand that this is not just some piece of software, but a fantastic, almost unfathomable achievement. You can very well see in which points exactly thirty years of game-making experience went. You can witness not just the genius of the creators, but also a piece of their soul. This is actually more like a painting than a game. It's a symphony composed of love and peacefulness. It is - to paraphrase Dan Ryckert - the crown jewel of Nintendo's entire history as a video game company.

I'm willing to expose myself here and admit that Breath Of The Wild came at the very end of what was a truly hellish period in my personal and family life. I realize that I've become more sensitive to some triggers (and by the Great Old Ones - I despise the phrase), and perhaps this fact influences my perception of the game, but that is not necessarily a bad thing.

Think about what it would be like to discover some new medicine that can cure your mind and heart of everything that ails you. There's no side effects, no hangover, no bad trip. You'd really want to tell everyone, wouldn't you? At this point it's a bit hard to believe that this is still about a video game, ergo something that most people don't even consider serious. Again, I must repeat myself and refuse to see it as a video game. It's a portal to another dimension, probably the most perfect one yet. It's a mind altering device that fills you with confidence, that there is still good in the world, and that the troubles we are facing as a culture, and a civilization, can be fixed using the same old methods our species has known for thousands of years. Breath Of The Wild certainly is a statement like that. It glorifies some very Zen concepts, and does it with a Buddha smile on the face of a goro. The Japanese gift to the world of video game players, a portal and a vessel for a powerful message.

A powerful message that hits you gently like the blue droplet that hits the Sheikah Slate. SNAP.

It’s really cool that you had a transcendent experience, and I love it when people get above and beyond what they wanted.

I did not have your experience. Running around the world was cool, and the shrines were rad. I hated the combat, thought the story was lame, hated the inventory management, hated the heat and cold costume swapping for just three minutes of running around, the dungeons were lame, the bosses were more lame, and I have had no interest in playing the game again after beating it.

Still I’m happy so many people are loving the game, it just wasn’t for me.

@ungodly: By your reaction I'm somewhere in the middle ground. I loved the world and shrines, thought the combat was OK by Zelda standards until the late game when it loses its challenge, didn't mind the inventory management, genuinely liked the weather systems, but was disappointed by the dungeons and bosses (with the exception of the DLC 2 boss).

I have been thinking about starting a new playthrough in a few weeks on hard mode and thinking of some ways to make it more challenging for myself, such as a three heart challenge or the like. Or maybe I'll start a long term replay of the series chronologically. That could be fun as well...

That's cool that you had that experience! Honestly, I think the devs played a lot of Shadow of the Colossus, and added a lot of useless stuff to it, and a tiny bit of cool stuff to it. The best bits, however, are the same as in SoTC- the beautiful environments, the vistas, the exploration, the excitement of just being in this world, it's all the same. They just gamified it, and opened it up slightly.

Some of the added systems are fine, others are not great. The rewards are always disappointing. But the core of the game, while not revolutionary, is still strong. My second GoTY.

I almost never respond to posts, but you nailed it. That is exactly what Breath of the Wild is. Nice work.

I'm willing to expose myself here and admit that Breath Of The Wild came at the very end of what was a truly hellish period in my personal and family life. I realize that I've become more sensitive to some triggers (and by the Great Old Ones - I despise the phrase), and perhaps this fact influences my perception of the game, but that is not necessarily a bad thing.

The things we often remember the most fondly and enjoy the most are those that helped us through harsh times. I love the original Guardians of the Galaxy, one of my favorite movies ever, because I saw it in theaters while I was going through a pretty rough patch and I had been going through it for a long time. Same thing with Skyrim.

I do understand what you're getting from Breath of the Wild. Trust me, I do. I think that game is beautiful and serene and relaxing in ways that almost nothing else is - everything else that aims to be those things seems to be either too basic, too pretentious, or both for them to really have any impact. BotW's feeling and atmosphere are incredible.

But that game has a handful of massive problems that keep me from coming back to it. I want to, I really do. I played it for a little under seventy hours earlier this year and loved most of my time with it. But every time I start to come back to it, I stop for the same reasons that I stopped after that original seventy hour stretch of playtime. The weapon degradation flat-out sucks to an indescribably infuriating degree, managing your inventory is not fun, cooking and preparing things is not fun at all. Every time I pick it back up, I start to tire of these things and then it starts to rain while I'm trying to climb a mountain and I just say "fuck it, fuck it, fuck it, I'm going to play something else".

I would be more forgiving of these things if they were intrinsic to the game's mechanics and ideas, but they're not. Somehow these seasoned, incredible developers got the gamiest parts flat-out wrong. Papier-mache weapons? OK, fine, allow me to repair them so that I'm not holding back from using this ridiculously awesome fire-sword that I just found, or allow me to find recipes and craft the fire sword in some way - you can do this in a very limited fashion but it's prohibitively expensive and not worth it. You want rain to impede my climbing? OK, that's all right, just give me some way to negate that - a potion, a recipe for a meal, a pair of gloves that I can put on until the rain has passed. There's a shrine or two that depend on your inability to climb during the rain and there's an entire area based on that - so why not just give me the ability to climb mountains in the rain after doing those challenges? This isn't even getting into the problems with inventory management and cooking recipes, which are problems that were solved long before BotW was even announced.

Breath of the Wild remains the only Zelda game that has captured my attention for such a ridiculously long amount of time and I really would like to keep playing it - there are things about it I love and it's "my kind of game" so much that it hurts. But I get so angry at its problems that sitting down to play it again just isn't worth it.

Here's hoping for a similar sequel that ditches the weapon degradation and the fucking rain blocking you from climbing a mountain.

I had a really magical time with Breath of The Wild and is honestly one of my favorite games of all time. Though I also can clearly see how some of the mechanics can really turn certain kinds of players off. But even while admitting that in my opinion there is a core to this game that to me cannot be denied. This game's world feels so incredibly alive and naturally beautiful. The way wind sweeps through a grassy field or watching a little fox chase a butterfly BOTW's world is the most immersed and wowed I've ever been in a video game. It is something truly special and exceptionally crafted. I feel really bad for the people that aren't able to get past some of the games more polarizing mechanics to see how breathtaking it can be.

It's hard to talk about this stuff because everything comes off as hyperbolic fawning to the people that aren't already bought into what this game is. No matter how much I reinforce my opinions with "I've been playing games for a long time" or "I don't use these words lightly" it still sounds like an over the top response to a video game. All I can say is trust me I guess.

Your feelings on the game seem to come from a very personal response to some of its themes and I can definitely identify with that. Though I would stress that the fact that these moments are very much a part of my experience and add to my enjoyment I wouldn't hang my love of the game on them. I find importance in saying other peoples possible enjoyment is not dependent on their reaction to these same moments that pushed the game to a higher place for you or me. Though it does make me look at the game differently if those moments weren't there I wouldn't recommend the game any less.

I defend things like weapon degradation and how rain effects climbing though I see why people have a problem with these things they never bothered me much at all and I would argue these things add more to the game more than it takes away. Not to say I don't have any problems with the game. The FPS issues are such a big bummer for me and I really don't like how they handle horses. I love galloping around Hyrule so the way they restrict how horses work bums me out. I wish there was more to do in towns and some of the story elements feel really throw away and pale in comparison to others. Other than that though this game does more or less everything else right for me.

I cant think of another game that I would laud as much as BOTW and I hope some of the "naysayers" are able to see passed their very valid complaints and notice the special things this game does that set it apart. As for me as well as the OP: No matter the amount of Korok Seed or how fierce the Lynel I can not wait to smell the breath of the wild. *bows*

In hindsight, I think it was... fine. I mean, it's solidly made, but I didn't love it. I did all the shrines and all 'side missions' and to me, a lot of the experience is kind of repetitive. My favorite part of the game is sorely lacking, which is character interactions with quirky characters. My favorite part was just going to town, fixing your house, then going and helping fix Tarry Town with the whole wedding and all. I just didn't love chopping wood in that task. I didn't really have that much issue with weapon degradation or the climbing stamina, but just the overall feel of exploring the world and doing things got very repetitive. I am also not a fan of the shrines; sure, they all have their unique puzzles, but listening to the same music over and over and then seeing the same artwork/assets wasn't very interesting to me.

It all became quite a chore. I guess when it comes to combat, the only thing I would have added would be a Souls-like target aim switch to other enemy NPC's. The dungeons and bosses were pretty underwhelming, and really, the overall Hyrule location was kind of disappointing. I couldn't stand to go through the latest DLC, especially considering I've done everything I felt was necessary for the experience. I was really bummed to not like it more, either one of the DLC's. I think it's probably better for those that don't have a lot of time on their hands to sink hours into a game and play it in short bursts, exploring incrementally so it doesn't get old. That all said, I have games that make me feel similar to the way you do about Zelda, and I'm happy it's a game you feel that way about.

@justin258:I absolutely understand your argument. If you take it apart and analyze mechanic by mechanic, some of those things can agreeably be infuriating on their own. The weather management and cooking especially, you're right. However, even though I don't like them myself, I wasn't bothered by them to anywhere near any kind of frustration. They're just there, and that's fine - it's a choice the developers made, I guess to me it's an ok price to pay for everything else this game gives in return. And I'm 100% with you on Skyrim. That game is a life-changer as well. If I had to name like a holy trinity it would be BotW, Skyrim, and The Witcher 3. They all have that alternate reality quality.

@fatalbanana: I have that same feeling every time I even talk about it, like I'm crazy and my obsession with it is not an adequate response to "just a video game". I think we're touching on a big question here, are they still just video games? No, I couldn't say that they're still just that with a straight face. We're on a level now (actually we've been on it for a while) where games can be so full of content that they become very real experiences, quite hard to distinguish from actual reality on an emotional level (because on the intellectual level of course we all know it's a piece of software). Let me give an example other than BotW - The Witcher 3, and particularly its morality and decision making system. Those things stay with you long after the console is off. You get to choose who live or dies, and the characters are so believable and life-like, that it becomes an actual moral decision for you the player, perhaps just as meaningful to your own psyche as real life decisions. This is the ultimate goal of video games, I think. To be experiences on the same exact density level as real life.

I know I'm starting to sound like some kind of a cultist or addict who's willing to say anything to support his argument. Hear me out, though, I'm almost done. Dead honest how I feel about it.

I've had a lot of shit real life experiences, with a lot of family issues, some health problems, horrible shit like suicides in the family, depression, violence and so on. I'm telling this to an unfamiliar internet audience because it validates my point, and it's not like I'm ashamed of going through hard times. I've had a rather big share of experiences, definitely too big for my age. I have experienced real life, and based on those experiences I have to say that when a video game is as powerful as BotW or Skyrim, those experiences aren't any different in force and consequences from what is called "real". Yes, the decisions take place on a screen, and a real living person's life will not be altered by them, but within my consciousness they're still decisions that have to made using the same exact intellectual and emotional functions as in real life. So in other words, from a personal perspective there is no difference between game and life, in this respect at least. It's logical that if a game's morality system can provide real dilemmas for the player, the game's world in general can also provide real emotional states and reactions.

What was I trying to say? That I need mental treatment because the lines between what's real and what's not are fading? Perhaps, but let's all keep in mind that in those crucial moments in life like deaths, illness, weddings, childbirth - it all doesn't seem real at all. The heaviest, most "real" experiences we have in life seem very much unreal when looked at from a distance. Like when you have a car accident. It doesn't seem real after a while.

What games do you have in mind? Maybe something I can dive into too.

I'm glad that people can still have experiences like this. That's awesome.

For me, it was a very good game that just barely didn't make my GOTY. Definitely not perfect, but a bold and superbly made new iteration in a series and industry that desperately needed it. I cannot wait to see what the next game looks like.

@blackheronblue: I hear you but I think both things can be true. You can have truly extravagant experiences with a video game while still acknowledging it as a video game without taking anything away from it. I guess it just comes down to how you define or value games. I hold them quite highly and think they can do all the things you mentioned and more. Calling them "video games" or "just video games" doesn't diminish what this type of media can do for people. I'm just not of the mindset that the word "game" is somehow a detractor. Yes, you can have these real or real feeling moments while playing games and games can affect your mood and really trigger something deep in you and still at the end of the day say "that was a video game". Games (digital or physical) are real and a part of real life any walls there are to separate them is purely artificial.

@fatalbanana: ahh you hit the nail on the head, my friend. It boils down to the meaning and quality of the word game, exactly. It never felt right for me when talking about certain types of video games. First of all, the term "video game" itself places our entire industry right next to the toy industry. Some stores still do that, they still put consoles in the toys department instead of the consumer electronics dept. Game just has something childish in it, and that's not bad, because we're all just big kids and we love our toys, but the very fact seems to be that a game can never be serious, at least to people who never experienced a serious game. I see that a lot in my environment, people just don't know because they never had a chance to experience a serious video game. I tell them to play any of the Witcher games and tell me whether they think it's a game for kids, or something that touches upon topics that should be reserved for mature adults only.

I absolutely agree with your point that the word itself is not a detractor, but I'd like to add that it also depends on who you ask. To us it's just a word in the end, because the phenomenon has to be named, but there are those stubborn naysayers who will always use the age old argument, "would you grow up already, it's just a game". But hey, that's why I'm posting about it here, where it's never "just a game".

Video games are great. Thanks man.

Sounds like BotW came along at just the right time for you, so I'm glad it hit you so hard man. It gets some big stuff right, but for me a lot of the things around it pulled it down some. I do wonder if people will be as enamored with sequels that improve those mechanical and story issues. I can't say I completely grasp this level of praise about the game, but I can see how it could be the "best game ever" for certain types of players, I'm just not that type.

@blackheronblue: Kinda jealous you had this experience. I didn't get any of that out of BotW

@thewildcard:you know, everyone has their own tastes, for me it happened with this one. I hope it's not the last "best game ever" though. I plan on living a little longer so it would be nice if I could have like two or three more of those :D

@atastyslurpee: Don't worry man, something else will surely do the trick, just gotta wait for it to come around!

I loved what I played of it messing with the PC emulation stuff, but not sure I buy into your highfalutin opinion of the game.

It's a very good video game, it isn't perfect but a lot of fun and a great way to lose yourself for many hours. If it was some mind altering non video game for you, I have to wonder if the mind altering part was just a substance you imbibed unrelated to the game lol.

I might partially understand where you are coming from because elements of your post vaguely sound like a different perspective on how ArmA with my crew felt, but even then, it was a video game that acted as a bonding agent for good friends. It had ramifications outside of the game within our relationships and even taught me to get over my hesitancy to lead when I know it's what I'm here to do, but it was still a video game. And that's okay.

Try spending a week in true wilderness with basic supplies and tools and I'll show you an elevated experience akin to what BotW brought only on a whole other level: that sense of adventure and discovery is intoxicating when all your senses are experiencing it, when it's all around you, when there is to easy way to simply disconnect.

@opusofthemagnum: I used to live in a forest cabin for two years. Water from a well, heat from the fireplace, that kinda deal. I love the outdoors and that kind of living, and I'm actually saving money to buy a small plot of land near that place, maybe put a living unit there, or build a small log house. I don't have bonding experiences because of games like you say because genreally I stay the fuck away from people. Can't stand them, you know? ;) Shit, I singleplayer mmos. :D

I absolutely love this game. Without a doubt my game of the year. I was reminded of this by the DLC, which caused me to just get lost in that world all over again.

beautiful post. I've played through the game 4 times now, and am now certain that this is my second favorite game of all time, right after MGS2. This game helped me get my shit together for sure.

I adore just existing in its world, booting it up in for a bit before going to sleep and doing what in most games would be considered wasting time.

@lv4monk:Yeah it can just be so ambient. I found just taking pictures of animals and monster to be extremely relaxing and peaceful.

@gtb08 thanks man :)