10 Reasons Zelda: Breath Of The Wild's Haters Are Wrong

It really is that damn good.

legend of zelda breath of the wild
Nintendo/Metacritic

If you've managed to keep up with the slew of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild reviews, you'll note that there is some dissenting opinion beginning to form amongst the abundance of perfect scores.

Most notably, Jim f'ing Sterling (son) saw his website suffer DDoS attacks and was taken offline for a period of time in response to his 7/10 score for Breath of the Wild - a score on his scale that equates to 'Good', leaving many Zelda followers* disappointed.

Much of Mr. Sterling's ire has been directed at the niggling problems behind the systems the game has been widely praised for elsewhere.

Seeing the same types of cutscenes play out for shrine exploration or the blood moon sequence, having problems with the stamina wheel forcing players to limit their exploration before finally being able to build it up themselves, and finally, perhaps most crucially, the weapon system.

Regardless of all the furore surrounding the review (and others like it), it's crucial to remember that Breath of the Wild is not the first game to use such a weapon degradation system, nor do many of the other emergent nitpicks truly hold any ground.

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(* I say 'followers', as you never know quite who's genuinely a passionate fan and who's simply a professional harasser online.)

10. Collectibles Are Linked To Upgrades

legend of zelda breath of the wild
Nintendo

A common complaint you'll hear from hardcore Zelda fans is the fact Breath of the Wild has changed the series into a Ubisoft-style collect-a-thon. This is patently, a lie. People say this is the case because of the 900 Korok seeds (in total) used to gradually upgrade the inventory, but they're not even required to enlarge the inventory to the maximum number of slots.

Let's remember Wind Waker: a game that had collectibles including Joy Pendants, Skull Necklaces and Gold Feathers (plus many more). They were useful but not really connected to the main abilities in the game. And these collectibles were a long time before Assassin's Creed and Far Cry took over all elements of map design with feathers, diamonds, flags, Masks of Yalung and lost letters from Lord knows who.

At least with Breath of the Wild, players can have some choice about how to expand their inventory when they spend their hard-earned Korok seeds with Hestu - adding a larger number of bows, shields and weapons that Link can wield, rather than being for the sake of achievement or trophy hunting.

Contributor

Bryan Langley’s first console was the Super Nintendo and he hasn’t stopped using his opposable thumbs since. He is based in Bristol, UK and is still searchin' for them glory days he never had.