The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild Review - 9 Ups & 1 Down

2. It Can Be BRUTALLY Hard, But In The Most Rewarding Sense

In the words of Grey Fox, "I've been waiting for this pain!"

Indeed, for years the Zelda franchise has mostly eschewed ball/ovary-breaking difficulty in favour of targeting the widest market possible.

Well scratch that, because in going back to the franchise's 1986 roots - which is to say, the notion of the game saying, "Go on then, figure it out!" - there's nary a moment in Breath of the Wild where if you're not careful, you'll be brought down in seconds.

Whether it be harsh weather conditions chipping away at your health if you've not prepared some hearty meals or drank the right potions, random enemy 'heavies' that will one-shot you in the middle of combat or over-agile bosses you'll need to conjure a trial and error pattern to defeat, 2017's Zelda doesn't give a f**k about giving you anything of a 'helping hand'.

As such, you will die. A lot. All as the game tries to tell you, "Hey, maybe you should go explore and rank-up more". Breath of the Wild is the 'gamer's game', just like its Great-Great-Great (x11) Grandaddy was when it was a lad.