One of my favorite genres of YouTube videos are these long video essays critiquing open world games. There’s like this prevalent opinion that a lot of people are getting tired of open world games or how in general, open world games aren’t that fun. These videos all have one thing in common: they all reference Breath of the Wild… as an exception to the rule. It’s actually hilarious how spot on this is. They’ll go off on how there’s this terrible design choice or game feature that’s seen in every open world game and then immediately transition to “unlike Breath of the Wild, an open world game that doesn’t do this”. Breath of the Wild has been set as such a golden standard for video games, and not just in the open-world genre. Since its release in 2017, you can see its influence on many video games from all walks of life. But is it really that good of a game? Is all the prestige deserved?

Yes. The answer is yes. You could stop reading now. I mean it won like 16 different Game of the Year Awards from several institutions. But I plan on going over precisely why in my eyes, Breath of the Wild is a good game and one everyone should experience at some point in their life.

There are three key things I want to discuss that in my opinion, makes this game so good. That’s freedom, wonder, and design intent.

I want to start off by talking about the design intent, because I think for any new player, getting to understand how to interact with the game is very important. Consider the concept of a game tutorial. Most games have one but it’s not something you really think about. You learn the basic controls and then you continue off to the rest of the game. Some games have a dedicated tutorial that’s very obvious. Some games have a “first level” that functions as the tutorial. But usually, it’s a clear distinction that tells you the game hasn’t officially started yet. Historically, Zelda games can have a pretty tedious tutorial “area”. This area is kind of separate from the rest of the game and you can’t progress until you complete the tutorial content. Breath of the Wild starts off pretty differently. You’ll get some pop up prompts that tell you what the controls are and what buttons do. But other than that, it’s not a long intro. Now this is the greatest trick that Breath of the Wild pulls on its players. You don’t realize that you’ve been doing the tutorial until you’ve already completed it. Because the next hour of the game or so, the game will be subconsciously teaching you how the game works by weaving it into the gameplay so fluidly that you don’t even realize it. The game doesn’t tell you things, it hints at things through environmental design. The game doesn’t tell you that you can cook food, instead you come across an unlit cooking pot and a nearby torch. The game doesn’t tell you that you can cut down trees, it casually shows an old man doing it in the background. Everything is meant to be discovered by the player. The game doesn’t explicitly tell you that large objects can be pushed around, instead it places a large boulder on top of a cliff, where there are two enemies sitting at the bottom. These are all hints to teach the player what is possible. Every time the player is introduced to something new, the game then tests the player by giving them an optional challenge to make sure they understand what is going on. But it isn’t framed as an obvious “You can press this button to do this, try it out!” situation. Instead, for example, after you acquire bombs, you’ll notice there’s cracked rocks that might look like they can be destroyed with a blast. Or after acquiring the magnesis ability, you see a metal chest at the bottom of a pond that you previously couldn’t reach. It isn’t until you reach a final point, where the game “officially starts”. But the whole point is that this entire time, they’ve made the tutorial into a fun experience that feels no different than just playing the game normally. After finishing the “tutorial”, you don’t just feel like “ok now that we’re done with that, we can get started”. You instead feel “holy shit there’s an entire rest of the game after this?”. This feeling does stays with you throughout the rest of the game. The entire map is cleverly designed so that you always have a sense of what’s supposed to happen or what will go on. For example, if you ever encounter an area with a lot of hearty radishes, you’d probably be very excited at first. Hearty radishes when cooked, will restore all your health and then some. But then you realize. Oh no. You’re in danger. The game won’t just give you a lot of healing items for no reason. Why did the game just give you a bunch of healing items? What’s about to happen? What’s going on? The entire land is riddled with puzzles and challenges. They are all designed in a way that clever players will be able to seek them out by paying attention to the environment and assessing what tools they have at their disposal.

This is a great opportunity to transition into freedom. Let’s talk about what that means. Breath of the Wild is an open world game, which means it doesn’t have a linear path with levels that you progress through. So you can pretty much go wherever you want. But a lot of other open world games also work like that. So what is this freedom I’m talking about? Well Breath of the Wild starts off with this relatively new game mechanic that allows the player to climb FUCKING EVERYTHING. You can climb walls, trees, buildings, rocks, hills, cliffs, fucking frozen waterfalls. There are no limitations to where you can reach. There are no invisible walls, no barriers preventing entry. If you have the will, you can reach it through sheer determination. This gives the player a sense of control, that they are the one who carves out the journey, not some pre-planned path. This also means you can easily accidentally enter an area that is too tough, with enemies far stronger than you. But that adds to the thrill. You have the choice to go ahead and engage in battle anyways. You’ll probably lose, but it was your choice to do so. If you win somehow, you’re pleasantly rewarded. You’re not forced to double down on your decisions either. There will be times you encounter a hard mini boss while roaming around. You might find that you cannot possibly defeat them with your current equipment. But you can always run away, come back stronger. This freedom I discuss doesn’t just refer to freedom in your ability to go to physical places in the game, I’m also talking about freedom in which how the player chooses to progress. Puzzles and obstacles are common in games as a way for the player to interact with progression. There’s usually a solution, whether it be timing your jumps to get to the right platforms in Mario, or acquiring TM cut to get past some bushes in Pokémon, there’s an intended way forward. Breath of the Wild, has no right answer. For there are an infinite number of ways to do everything. Sure, there’s an intended or suggested way to do things that the game developers will nudge you in, but the physics engine is so damn intuitive that you don’t have to follow that path. Other games might have invisible walls or blocked off areas to prevent you from entering areas you aren’t supposed to, Breath of the Wild removes all limitations and your ability to complete a task is entirely up to your creativity and dedication. For example, early in the game you might come to a large lake that you can’t swim across. You might cut a tree down and float across on a log. Or you might notice that there’s a raft nearby and a big leaf you can use to blow the sail. If you’re really creative, you can use your cryonis powers to create ice blocks to hop across. Maybe you’ll drink like 18 stamina potions to have the energy to swim across, no one will stop you. The game should inspire you to try things that you think will work, because most of the time, it probably will. Are you too cold? You can put on warm clothing as the developers intended. Or maybe equip a fire sword to achieve the same effect? Maybe cook some warm food. I’ve seen players set themselves on fire to escape the cold and I mean it certainly works. The game does have barriers, but you can approach them in any way you want. And by doing so, it makes you feel like you came up with a unique solution rather than follow some developer intended planned path. This is what makes the game fun, you constantly improvise and come up with different solutions to your problems.

And this leads to my last point: wonder. This game at its core is about exploration. The world is big but not devoid of life. The freedom you are given in this game allows you to explore to your heart’s content. When I first got the game, after the tutorial, I was told that it might be a good idea to head towards this town in the east. I started to go in that direction but immediately got sidetracked. Every 5 seconds, I find an interesting new thing that caught my eye, leading me further and further away from where I initially wanted to go. And that didn’t matter, because of the open world nature of the game, there is no pressure to follow the intended path. And throughout my discussions with other people who have played this game, I realized this experience is universal. I don’t think I’ve met a single person that has followed the game advice to simply go to the village in the east straight away. Along the road you’ll find ancient shrines and towers, monster camps and dens, horse stables and grassy fields, old ruins and architecture, ominous forests and foggy swamps, and so much more. The name of the game really keys you in on what to expect. You explore this beautiful land and try to uncover its secrets. This game lacks a traditional story structure since it can’t be played linearly, but the idea is environmental story telling. Things aren’t stated outright, but you’ll come across places that instantly tell a story. Breath of the Wild is one of those games where you never stop learning new things about. I have over 3000 hours spent on the game and I still learn new things to this day. There’s so much wonder in this game, secrets to explore. Every town and ruin you come across is intricately crafted. No other game has led to me having this much fun just walking and climbing around. Often games will hand you maps and locations of interest, which clutter your map screen or make it difficult for you to decide where to go. Or maybe they focus too hard on bringing you to certain areas. Everything in Breath of the Wild by contrast feels natural. You either stumble upon things or you see them off in the distance and you decide to go take a look for yourself. You’re rarely ever on the main path, and that’s ok. Despite taking place mostly in the wild, there still are towns and regular folks living around. You might come across a traveling adventurer or find a small trading post near the ocean. There’s plenty of side quests that you can take up to help the various people you meet. Maybe help a lovesick guy collect some flowers for his beloved, or help a farmer rescue her sheep from some monsters.

In the end, Breath of the Wild is one of those games you can lose yourself with. Fully immersed in the world that the developers crafted. There’s so much more to talk about regarding what makes the game good, but these three points I presented are some of the unique ones. I truly hope everyone gives this game a shot at some point. It’s really fun.