10 Iconic Video Game Influences You'll Find In Zelda: Breath Of The Wild

Shadow of the Colossus had a huge impact on game designers everywhere. It had a minimal HUD, no conversation choices, no towns, dungeons or stats to grind. Instead it was a straightforward action adventure where you guide Wander to fight sixteen giant beasts known as Colossi. Your only weapons were a sword and bow and your attack strategy had to be to slowly ascend each colossi to damage it.

The game played like a puzzle-platformer as the monsters tried to shake you off their heads or swat at you like an annoying insect. Daring leaps could be made to grip onto fur or concrete body parts and Wander's grip gauge would slowly deplete. If it ran out, you'd fall to the floor and have to start the climbing process all over again.

The stamina meter in Zelda also doubles as a grip gauge for climbing with similar consequences: you can make last second leaps to reach a ledge or plateau but if the grip gauge runs out, you fall. And the same can be said for the Taluses you'll encounter where climbing to find and attack a weak spot is lifted straight from Shadow of the Colossus. The battles aren't as large but they certainly have the hallmarks of SOTC, as does the landscape and sometimes lonely feeling of the world as you travel across it.