The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild: 12 Critical Reactions You Need To Know

9. It's One Of The Hardest Zelda Games

"Breath of the Wild is, without question or debate, the hardest Zelda game of the last 20 years...Once you leave the initial learning spaces and venture into more typical zones, you’re probably going to die. You’re probably going to die a lot, honestly. Often without much warning...Comparisons to games like Dark Souls are probably inevitable, but they’re not exactly fair. You don’t lose anything when you die, other than the time lost getting back to where you were...Breath of the Wild isn’t just difficult for the sake of it, or unnecessarily complicated." - Polygon

"Somewhat surprisingly, exploration often proves far more challenging than combat or puzzle solving...Exploration may be a struggle at times due to Link's limitations and harsh weather that hinders his capabilities, but to avoid long treks is to rob yourself of some of the best moments of discovery in Breath of the Wild, and the sense of satisfaction you feel for overcoming its most foreboding environments...Bring a wooden shield to the fiery slopes of Mount Eldin, and watch it set ablaze on your back while Link's health slowly slips away." - Gamespot

The Zelda games aren't typically known for their crushing difficulty, though many reviewers confessed that Breath of the Wild was much more challenging than they were expecting, but never unfairly so.

In short, the game gives you a massive array of options to traverse the land and take on enemies, but to the same token the mobs are much more aggressive and will push you to make best use of all the tools at your disposal.

Traversal and combat were said to be the major areas of difficulty, while puzzles on the whole seem either on par with or slightly toned down from earlier games in the series.