

Clearing shrines earns Spirit Orbs, which can be traded for additional health or stamina points. Dotted throughout Hyrule are shrines that contain challenges ranging from puzzles to battles against robotic opponents. Activating towers also adds territories to the map, although location names are not added until the player explores that area. Activating towers and shrines adds waypoints that the player may warp to at any time. Players may also defeat enemies without weapons, such as rolling boulders off cliffs into enemy camps.īesides exploration, players can undergo quests or challenges to obtain certain benefits.

In combat, players can lock onto targets for more precise attacks, while certain button combinations allow for advanced offensive and defensive moves. Over the course of the game, Link can collect powers to add to the Slate, including remote bombs, the ability to manipulate metal objects, form ice blocks on watery surfaces, and temporarily stopping objects in time. An important tool in Link’s arsenal is the “Sheikah Slate”, which can be used to mark waypoints on a map. Players can obtain food from hunting animals, gathering wild fruit, or collecting parts of deceased enemies. By cooking combinations of food or materials, the player can create meals and elixirs that can replenish Link’s health and stamina, or provide temporary status bonuses such as increased strength or whether resistance. Many items have multiple uses for example, wooden weapons and armor can be set to light fires or collect incoming enemy arrows, and shields can be used as makeshift snowboards. Unlike previous Zelda games, weapons and shields will degrade over time. Link can procure items from the environment, including weapons, food, and other resources. These design approaches result in a generally unstructured and interactive world that rewards experimentation and allows for nonlinear completion of the story.Īs Link, players can perform actions such as running, climbing, swimming, and gliding with a paraglider, although Link is limited by his stamina. For example, players may take advantage of the game’s dynamic weather by throwing metal objects at enemies during thunderstorms to attract a lightning strike. The game also integrates a “chemistry engine” that defines the physical properties of most objects and governs how they interact with the player and one another. Breath of the Wild introduces a consistent physics engine to the Zelda series, letting players approach problems in different ways rather than trying to find a single solution. In terms of structure, Breath of the Wild encourages non-linear gameplay, which is illustrated by the game’s lack of defined entrances or exits to areas, scant instruction given to the player, and encouragement to explore freely. Game play:īreath of the Wild is an action-adventure game set in an open world environment where players are tasked with exploring the kingdom of Hyrule while controlling Link.

It is not uncommon for gamers to apply the term “adventure” or “action” to describe the genre of fiction to which a game belongs, and not the gameplay itself. With the decline of the adventure game genre from mainstream popularity, the use of the term (and the hybrid term “action-adventure”) has been more liberal. The action-adventure video game genre includes video games that combine core elements from the action and adventure genres. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is an action-adventure game Players are given little instruction and can explore freely: common tasks include collecting multi-purpose items to aid in various objectives or solving puzzles and side-quests to obtain rewards. Breath of the Wild ‘s world is unstructured, designed to reward experimentation and allows the story to be completed in a nonlinear fashion. The story follows Link, who awakens from a hundred-year slumber to a mysterious voice that guides him to defeat Calamity Ganon before it can destroy the kingdom of Hyrule. Link struck Ganon down with the Master Sword, allowing Zelda to seal Ganon away. Upon Ganon’s return, four great warriors were given the title of Champion and piloted one of the Divine Beasts to weaken him, protected by Zelda, Link, and the Guardians. Hyrule matured into an advanced civilization, protected by four Divine Beasts- enormous animalistic machines- and an army of Guardians, autonomous weapons. When the evil Calamity Ganon threatens Hyrule, he is defeated by Princess Zelda, descendant of the Goddess Hylia, with the help of her knight, Link. Breath of the Wild takes place at the end of the Zelda timeline in the kingdom of Hyrule.
