There and Back Again
It is somewhat astonishing to me that it has been some 15 years since the release of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, my first ever adventure into the realm of open world games. Having been popularised by that very series and having become the almost de facto genre choice for big budget development one would have been forgiven for assuming that we wouldn't still be struggling to grapple with the side effects of giving players such freedom, or even the illusion of it.
Granted, improvements and refinements have certainly been implemented over time, but the immortal question as to what to fill these vast landscapes with has yet to my mind been comprehensively answered. There's certainly no denying that The Witcher 3, Fallout 4, Horizon Zero Dawn and Link's latest open world adventure aren't short of content, but the value of such and the rewards for greater exploration are all too often so inconsequential and anti-climatic that they leave me pining for a return to the trend of much more directed and authored experiences.
Breath of the Wild's greatest strengths are those that would be retained should the game have not been open world and the majority of its shortcomings rest on the consequences endemic to trying to populate such a massive, freely explorable world.
Curious then that the narrative, often the greatest casualty of the open world formula suffers for relatively unrelated reasons here. Zelda has had its moments in the past such as the time shift in Ocarina of Time but never really has been at the industry vanguard for story ambitions, however Breath of the Wild is mind boggling at times in its approach.
Link awakens at the start of the game 100 years after the rise of the hilariously named Calamity Ganon. Having been mortally wounded a century before when Ganon took control of the very machines designed to defeat him, he must now race to confront to his old nemesis and rescue the titular princess whose waning power is all that keeps the world from being consumed.
In order to do this he must invoke the Sucker Punch method of collecting various tools to make the task possible, taking our hero to the literal four corners of Hyrule in search of magical macguffins, largely in the form of giant mechanical beasts that double as the game's major dungeons.
There are bosses to slay, puzzles to decipher and many an incidental problem with the locals to solve, but what there isn't is any sort of actual story to partake in. From his awakening to the final confrontation nothing of any interest actually happens, everything of any real import is cast as back story and we know this as one of the major quests is to recover Link's memory by visiting significant locations from the past. We have a beginning, an end, but everything in between is an inconsequential mass of quests and characters whose only purpose is to act as conduit for Link to obtain the next item on his save the world shopping list.
What's all the more frustrating is that the memories you recover hint at lost potential. Nintendo may have remedial class level writers but the events depicted present the best the game has to offer in terms of establishing some semblance of an emotional investment.
Why could we not interact with those memories, why not have these more intriguing moments made playable in real time? All the character development of any worth is contained in these snippets of the past, where even Princess Zelda's disastrous voice acting can't hide the sparks of life her character brings to proceedings. Her developing relationship with Link and her own internal struggles could have made for a far greater adventure where some 30 hours of the game could easily have been given over to make it, and the subsequent ascent of Ganon, all the more affecting. Instead and with much disappointment are these meagre if tantalising scraps relegated to collectible status.
Like so many open world games it is the landscape that has to carry one's immersion. Whatever lack of effort, talent or thought that may have handicapped the story it's certainly not present in Breath of the Wild's aesthetics which push the poor WiiU as far as it can manage, creating a set of technical issues that whilst not deal breaking, can frustrate when in the midst of high-stakes combat.
Nevertheless it in turn allows for some quite extraordinary levels of beauty that belie the limitations of the hardware. The physical geography of Hyrule is complex and agreeably varied, taking in all the standard locations one might imagine whilst giving them personality and a level of detail that showcases some of the best gaming currently has to offer. The weather effects merit specific praise as they give life to the landscape and solidify a sense of place and time. Watching the grass sway and the wind gust, running through lighting storms in the rain, these little touches do much to persuade you that this is world worth exploring and makes the simple act of being there an immensely satisfying one.
Where Breath of the Wild goes further then say something like Horizon is in how the climate has a more significant impact on gameplay. Whilst certainly not on the level of a strictly survival based adventure there are at least elements where one must adapt in order to explore, be it the freezing cold of a snowy mountain or the volcanic fury of a topographical sibling. The need to account for such environments can at times lead to a nice tension of weighing up one's survivability against one's defence against more biologically sophisticated foes. This in turn gives value to the many foods, elixirs and outfits that tie in with your capacity to explore Hyrule's more hostile regions. It's not a new or particularly novel idea, but not only does it add an extra dimension to gameplay, but it goes towards making an already vibrant world more dynamic and a character in its own right.
As one might reasonably expect from Nintendo the game is very charming visually, with an almost overabundance of cutesy animations and jingles. A special mention must be made to the music and ambient sounds in accentuating the already rich and colourful atmosphere. Winter wonderlands are given a light crystalline soundscape whilst the more dramatic scenes are granted a suitably moving accompaniment. As an audiovisual exercise there are few to match it.
Gameplay is very much identifiable to anyone familiar with the series. Movement, combat and many of the abilities encountered are staples of the 3D Zelda titles and do not deviate too dramatically from what has been established in the franchise. The open world however makes demands that it be filled and it is this demand which gives the experience its unique qualities and forces changes upon the formula.
Chief among these is the introduction of weapon degradation. It isn't too difficult to see why such an option was chosen; a larger world needs more items to fill it, but the consequences for having every fancy sword or bow break within a handful of encounters at best is that such things can easily get under the skin. Whereas before Link had a much smaller arsenal available to him he now has dozens upon dozens of weapons to choose from, but at the price of each having a limited use and therefore value.
The argument that this system engenders more variety to combat is flawed in that such variety is not exclusive to an open world format. There is no reason why you could not have a weird and wonderful array of weapons in a more limited context, however in such a context one would have the added joy of not only discovering something that isn't so ephemeral, but on having an expanded arsenal that is readily available and not contingent on having looted the right chest or corpse. Dark Souls makes a good case to this effect in that whilst allowing for item degradation, it never allows for the mechanic to render anything completely useless.
Another lesson Nintendo might have learned from Dark Souls is how to switch between enemies. A simple flick of the right analogue stick is eschewed in favour of a clunky re-locking system where the camera can betray and leave you aimed at entirely the wrong enemy as the more pressing threat knocks your effeminate Hylian hide into orbit.
Many of the battles in Breath of the Wild will involve multiple enemies who love to blind-side you, so the lack of an efficient targeting system becomes a constant frustration where fighting the controls becomes as much a battle as the encounters these mechanics are supposed to help you with. It also doesn't help that the constant need to change equipment means you'll spend as much time fighting as you do navigating menus. The disruption to the fluidity of combat slackens the tension and ultimately serves to undermine the experience rather than enhance it.
Nintendo are on much stronger ground however with their approach to dungeons in the open world. Gone are a vast sprawling temples and instead a large number of smaller shrines dot the landscape with relatively brief challenges contained within. These shrines grant spirit orbs which can be traded in for increased health and stamina but more importantly showcase the level of gameplay variety. Breath of the Wild makes some important and positive steps towards making the usual repetition of the genre more bearable by constantly switching up gameplay styles and making inventive use of Link's abilities throughout. This approach carefully avoids the sense of simply going through the motions as each new activity or quest usually offers some unique gameplay element or detail that prevents the overall adventure from becoming stale.
Furthermore the introduction of a stamina meter and Link's now quite remarkable ability to climb pretty much anything makes exploring and conquering Hyrule all the more satisfying. The feeling of freedom is developed well over the course of the adventure, where the mix of fast travel, mounts and your trusty paraglider create an enjoyable sense of progress towards being better able to navigate the world. Previously tricky locations to reach become all the more easier to get to and largely thanks to the game simply giving you the tools you need and letting you work out the best route yourself. As such there is often fun to be had in finding new and imaginative ways to get around.
That said there are open world problems that are not overcome, such as the lack of balance to the difficulty. Breath of the Wild is certainly the easiest Zelda game I've yet played where the lack of a linear set of structured challenges creates an almost non-existent difficulty curve and a diminished sense of achievement. Each individual moment can offer an obstacle, but outside the varying difficulties of each shrine which rely on your understanding of the mechanics, having a full stock of weapons and healing items will almost always provide more utility than pure skill.
Another issue is crafting, or rather cooking. Whilst the various ingredients and items you can find and gather from the slain have their use, their collection and transmogrification can often turn into laborious busy work coupled with the excruciatingly long if admittedly charming cooking animation. It also doesn't help that whenever you need to heal you have to spend more time fiddling with the inventory where many other games would simply allow a quick button press. Conceivably the reason behind this is that as you can have so many items on you at any given time there isn't a efficient way to allow quick access to what you may need or want.
The inevitable tower climbing also features and whilst each tower has it's own unique challenge in terms of gaining access, there isn't anything here you haven't seen before other than perhaps a greater emphasis on helping you navigate the intricate world rather than regale you with a million icons of negligible interest.
The open world itinerary is rounded off with the ability to upgrade and dye your outfits, buy your own house, acquire different mounts etc. and one is left with the impression that Nintendo really did try to give its world more activities than one would normally expect, so whilst not all of it succeeds it does nevertheless represent one of the better attempts at making an open world into more than a bland checklist of repetitive side missions and meaningless collectibles.
Breath of the Wild surely represents something of an end point to the series. It is hard to imagine Nintendo going back to the formula it used before and with Hyrule now so thoroughly explored and examined one can only hope for a new adventure beyond these now well trodden lands. The question as to whether Nintendo will have the courage to do so remains however, and my own now less than secret desire for Zelda to take control of her own series will most likely never materialise. For the time being however Breath of the Wild serves as a unique if not original reminder of the franchises' core strengths and the challenges in making an open world game consistently engaging.