Nintendo is in an awkward spot at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo. Caught between a console that never really took off and one that is still yet to be fully unveiled, the Japanese company is holding virtually all its cards close to its chest. The one big known game on the horizon — The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild — was unveiled this week and is also the only game Nintendo has brought to Los Angeles.
Transforming its massive booth into a life-size recreation of a small clearing from the game — complete with enemies, towers, grass and buildings — Nintendo's strategy appears to have worked. Social media monitoring site Brandwatch has declared Breath of the Wild the "winner" of E3 for each of the first two days of the show, earning almost twice as many social media mentions compared to its closest competition on each occasion.
And while numbers aren't everything, there's more to Breath of the Wild than buzz and six-foot-tall bokoblins. After spending some time playing and watching the game, I understand why this is the biggest thing at E3. Zelda, a series that has survived on a very similar structure for 30 years, is finally changing. And it's awesome.
For the first time since the original 1985 game, the player is free to go in any direction and explore anything they want at any time. Every aspect of the play, from the story progression to the way weapons and items work, has moved away from the linear adventure structure pioneered in the nineties and introduced an open design more akin to a role-playing game like Skyrim or The Witcher III.
With no living society in place, Link is left to survive and equip himself with what he can find in nature. He can collect anything he comes across — from apples to kindling to animal horns — and use them to craft food and items. There are also a huge range of clothes, weapons and items to find, each with their own stats and benefits.
As I started the game I donned the tattered old shirt and pair of pants found nearby and picked up some apples that had fallen from a tree (I wanted to eat one, but I was already at full health). Exploring around and finding an axe, I chopped down a tree to get access to some more apples, and chopped the fallen trunk to get firewood. A mysterious old man tried to fill me in on some lore but I blew him off.
Spotting a number of bokoblins roasting a pig over an open fire, I crouched to reduce the noise I was making and readied the axe. My first swing took the creature completely by surprise, his bow flying out of his hands. As I turned my attention to a second opponent coming at me with a club, the first bokoblin opted to leave his bow on the ground and pick up an explosive barrel from nearby to hurl at me. I leapt out of the way (for the first time in a long time, Link has a dedicated jump button), but the barrel hit the pig and completely incinerated the camp and its inhabitants, injuring Link in the process.
Luckily the now-deceased savages had a cooking pot nearby, and I threw in some steak from the pig and one of the bokoblin's fangs. The result was dubious. I had better luck roasting some of the apples with some mushrooms I had picked nearby. Now at full health and equipped with a bow plus a shield and a sweet two-handed claymore which the bandits had been hoarding, I set off in search of my next adventure. I spotted a chuchu in the distance, and wondered if I could harvest some of its jelly.
Being a little bit predictable and tapping into nostalgia has been a big part of Zelda's design for such a long time, and to a certain extent has been part of its charm. To instead have legitimately no idea what to expect around each corner, down each pit and among the wreckage of old buildings is thrilling.
Mechanically, the way you interact with your items and weapons has changed too. Instead of assigning your items to different buttons manually, your bow is always mapped to the right trigger, and you can lock on with the left trigger. Your rune power (which is like an 'item' in the parlance of the older games) also gets its own dedicated button, as does your melee weapon. You can use the directional pad to easily cycle through the bows, weapons and runes you're carrying without needing to pause the game and sort it out.
Link's ability to fight, run, climb and explore can all be improved and augmented by the items he's using, so it's worth exploring to find the perfect clothes and weapons to suit you, and to make sure you have enough food and potions to see you through. Unlike prior games, there are no health-giving hearts to be found in shrubs or pots, and your weapons will break after a certain number of uses, so you need to be prepared.
All this said, not everything is different, and you only have to glance at a few screenshots to be able to see this is not a rip-off of any other RPG. That distinctive Zelda magic is still there in the scenery, the familiar creatures both helpful and harmful, and a certain sense of melancholy, discovery and the unknown.
Something you might not be able to pick up in screenshots is how charming and full of life the animation of the world, animals and characters is. While food is cooking, Link hums a tune and rocks back and forth on his feet. When it's too cold and you haven't equipped suitable clothing, he clutches his body and shivers. When you take a bokoblin by surprise, it freaks out and fumbles to get its hands on a weapon, or just runs away.
The entire production, from the music to the art style to the direction of the story, is reminiscent of an animated feature from Studio Ghibli.
Speaking of story, the tidbits given away so far should be enough to keep Zelda fans crazed with conspiracy theories and speculation from now until the game's release (at least six months away). Link emerges from inside a mountain at the start of the game to discover a great view of the massive continent, overtaken by nature. During the first half hour (assuming he goes in the direction a mysterious voice is pointing him), he comes to learn that an evil power referred to as the calamity Ganon destroyed the kingdom of Hyrule 100 years ago. Ganon was sealed in Hyrule castle, and the hero Link has been sleeping in a "resurrection chamber" ever since, to be awoken if Ganon begins to regain his power. Link has no memories of his prior life.
The landmass in Breath of the Wild is big enough to fit the entire world from Twilight Princess inside it 12 times. That was previously the largest Zelda game. The E3 demo was limited to the game's opening area, yet still way too big to run across in the limited time afforded to attendees. The number of enemy camps, treasure chests and secrets dotting this small area alone would take hours to fully experience. A Nintendo representative tells me this area represents around 1 per cent of the full game.
Judging by the opening high-vantage point that looks out at the world beyond the starting area, I believe it. Temples, towers, mountains and valleys dot the landscape in every direction, and to one side you can see the unmistakable silhouette of Death Mountain in the distance. Between you and it, the entrance to several shrines — underground puzzle chambers that grant powerful items — can be seen. There are more than 100 in total.
Perhaps the ultimate mystery at this point is how Nintendo will achieve its stated goal of releasing this game simultaneously on the current Wii U system and the unknown upcoming system codenamed NX. The E3 demo holds few clues, save for the fact that NX will likely have a controller with a touchscreen and some degree of motion control (the main item Link uses to keep track of his map is a square tablet with a screen and handle, and motion control is used to aim arrows and use some rune powers).
All will be revealed some time in 2017, when Nintendo will launch what appears to be the most ambitious Zelda game it has produced over the series' 30-year history.
The author travelled to E3 as a guest of Microsoft.
