Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is an open-world adventure game where you play as the elf-like hero Link, the hero of every Legend of Zelda game (even though it's a different Link each time), and have to save the land of Hyrule from the Demon King/destructive force known as Calamity Ganon, which is the only thing you have to do to beat the game. Anything else, apart from the tutorial, is completely optional. It is a game of freedom, and as such, is very enjoyable.

The game starts with Link waking up from a long slumber inside a mechanical pod that I affectionately call the "ancient pressure cooker", picks up a device called the Sheika Slate (this is important, remember it), is told by the voices in his head to go outside, and then you, the player, realise "wow, this game is massive."

From there, the story is explained to you by an old man, the story being Calamity Ganon and the people of Hyrule had a massive war, that Ganon won by taking over the Hylian's (people of Hyrule) ancient technology, including the mechanical spider creatures called Guardians. He also instructs you to complete four shrines scattered throughout the area, which is a relatively small portion of Hyrule called the Great Plateau. Each of these four shrines add a new ability to the Sheikah Slate, followed by a trial to help you understand how each ability works. There are bombs that you can throw or place down and detonate remotely, an ability called Stasis that can freeze objects in place, an ability called Magnesis that lets you move any metal object and finally, Cryonis, which can create icy platforms in any body of water. After that, the old man reveals himself to be the spirit of Hyrule's King, gives you a paraglider, and then the real game begins.

In Breath of the Wild, you can go anywhere and fight anything, although that may be hard, due to the fact that Link is incredibly weak. However, you can change this by collecting a spirit orb at the end of each of the shrines (there are a lot more than just four). after collecting four spirit orbs, you can go to one of the few statues scattered around Hyrule, and exchange them for either more health, which helps you last longer in a fight, or more stamina, which helps you climb higher and swim for longer.

To fight the multitude of monsters in this world, you can use one of the variety of weapons, shields, bows and arrows found across the land. You can find them in chests, in the hands of monsters, or just strewn about the environment. However, you can only carry a small amount of these at a time. Fortunately, you can find small challenges on your adventures which, when completed, will reveal one of the plant-like Koroks, who will each give you a Korok seed. You can then give these to a Korok named Hestu, who will expand the amount of offensive equipment you can carry.

However! Like I said earlier, most of the game is optional, since you can just waltz up to Hyrule Castle, defeat Calamity Ganon, and save the day. But you will probably fail. So, what do you do until you're strong enough to defeat the villain?

Why, procrastinate, of course!

There is a lot of things to do in this game, from buying a house, to recovering Link's memories, to taming horses, and lots more that I can't think of right now. But if you want the bare bones of what to do to make you fight against Ganon easier, then aside from the shrines, your other target is to free the Four Divine Beasts, which are giant mechanical animals that each reside in a different area. To free them, you'll need to talk to the leaders of the four other peoples (besides the Hylians, who are the equivalent of humans): The women warriors known as Gerudo in the southwest, the birdlike Rito in the northwest, the amphibious fish people known as the Zora in the southeast, and the super-strong fireproof Goron in the northeast. You will then gain the trust of said leaders by performing a quest for them, weaken the Divine Beast in question in a very stylish fashion, enter them, complete the puzzle inside, and defeat the Blight inside, a Blight being a combination of machinery and part of Calamity Ganon. Freeing each Divine Beast will give you a new ability to make your journey easier.

No matter what you do beforehand, if you manage to defeat Calamity Ganon, Hyrule will be free, and you will be the hero. And that's where the game ends.

However, there is also additional content, which unlocks new pieces of armour to find, and also brings two new challenges known as the Trial of the Sword and the Champion's Ballad, neither of which I have done. I will write about them when I get round to doing them, but until then, farewell.