Category: Breath of the Wild

The first set of DLC for Breath of the Wild, dubbed The Master Trials, was made available just three months after the game’s release on the 30th June 2017. Director Hidemaro Fujibayashi stated that The Master Trials was created for “core gamers and people who wanted an extra gameplay-based challenge.” To that end, the DLC introduced several new features that increased the challenge of the base game, including Master Mode and the Trial of the Sword, and new features that…

Link, our favorite hero of Hyrule, has had many different incarnations throughout the Zelda series. However, apart from the commonalities of wearing green, wielding a magical sword, and having a trusty steed and companion, there’s another similarity nearly every Link has: little to no family members. There are a few exceptions of course, like in The Wind Waker, where Link’s sister Aryll’s kidnapping is the triggering event that sets him out on his journey. His beloved grandma who suffers from…

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) hosted the 20th BAFTA Game Awards ceremony on Thursday, April 11th, 2024. BAFTA hosts the annual event to recognize achievement and excellence in the art of video games. A total of eighteen awards were presented at this year’s BAFTA Game Awards, showcasing excellence in Narrative, Game Design, Animation, Audio Achievement, and more. Nintendo took the Technical Achievement Award for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom home from the event,…

Speedrunning is a part of the Zelda community that I do not have a lot of experience with. The first time I paid any attention to speedrunning was in Spring 2019 when I attended my first Zelda Dungeon Marathon. Even getting into the mindset for speedrunning (let alone doing very well in my runs) is very challenging because it requires me to play Zelda games at a pace that is different from how I usually play Zelda games. I enjoy…

Last month, a panel of prominent Tears of the Kingdom developers, including Senior Director Takuhiro Dohta, Sound Programmer Junya Osada, and Lead Physics Programmer Takahiro Takayama, hosted a presentation at the 2024 Game Developers Conference. The panel offered several insights into the creation of the massive 2023 Zelda sequel and shared about the core philosophies that guided the team during development. The concept of “multiplicative gameplay,” wherein “action and objects come together to create countless possibilities,” was a particular focus…

Since Tears of the Kingdom’s initial unveiling at E3 2019, one of the main points of discussion within the Zelda fan community has been Nintendo’s decision to revisit Breath of the Wild’s iteration of Hyrule. Even today – nearly a year after the game’s launch – this continues to be a particularly hot topic. Given the six-year-long wait, was this decision ultimately worth it? Was Tears otherwise distinct enough to warrant exploring much of the same territory again? Depending on…

The narratives of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom have a lot of similarities. In both games, Link awakens after a tremendous defeat to a world that has changed in his absence. Additionally, both games utilize memory or flashback cutscenes in order to fill in the backstories for Link, Zelda, and other key characters. Breath of the Wild requires the player to match different locations across the world with a picture from the Sheikah Slate. These memories…

The Zelda series is full of countless lovable, cooky, weird, and downright unsettling characters. In fact, there are some who seem quite sinister not only because of their appearance, but because of their suggestive dialogue or questionable actions. One of the first characters that come to mind that fit under the sinister umbrella for me is the Poe Collector from Ocarina of Time, who makes some suggestive comments when talking about how handsome Link is, stating that he could “run…

One of the hallmarks of open-world Zelda is the depth of its robust physics engines. Giving the players freedom to interact with their environment in a realistic way and to overcome obstacles on their own terms has spurred a wave of creativity within the Zelda community. This creativity is manifested through unconventional solutions to puzzles, and actions that exploit the physics engine, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible within the game. Though this type of gameplay may often resemble something…

You have successfully solved four Shrines and go merrily to the nearest Goddess Statue to pray, but then you have to decide: Do you want a Heart Container or a Stamina Vessel? Unless, of course, you are doing a Three Heart Challenge, there is a choice to be made, which is much harder in the early stages of the game as you really want both! My preference is to go for the hearts, with the odd stamina upgrade occasionally added….