The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is the nineteenth installment of the main The Legend of Zelda series. It was released for both the Wii U and Nintendo Switch in March 2017. The game features large, open world exploration like earlier three-dimensional The Legend of Zelda titles but is more non-linear in that the dungeons can be completed in any order, similar to the first The Legend of Zelda.

Gameplay
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild features an enormous Hyrule and has an emphasis on exploration and survival. Unlike other titles in The Legend of Zelda series, the game does not impose or even provide a predetermined or linear path to completion, instead encouraging players to explore Hyrule on their own accord, finding new ways to interact with the environment and overcome obstacles. To this end, the player employs different moves, weapons, and resources while frequently engaging in puzzle-solving and real time combat. Typical dungeons of the series are quite few and far-between, with most of the game's dungeons instead being miniature stages of a single puzzle known as Shrines, which Link receives a Spirit Orb for completing. Most of the primary dungeons are aboard enormous mechanical animals called Divine Beasts, which Link must subdue, board, and free from Calamity Ganon's influence.

Link's primary actions include walking and jumping (the latter of which can be performed without attacking, unlike previous free-camera games), which extend to running, gliding, swimming, and climbing. The Stamina Wheel returns from The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, depleting when Link performs strenuous actions and leaving him temporarily exhausted if it empties. The health counter also appears with the same function as all previous games. Both meters can be increased with a specific item, being the Stamina Vessel and the Heart Container, respectively. Both can be obtained through trading four Spirit Orbs to a Goddess Statue, and the latter are also received upon freeing a Divine Beast. For enough rupees, the player can also exchange accumulated Heart Containers and Stamina Vessels through the Horned Statue.

A large part of Link's performance relies on effective use of resources found in the environment. Food restores Link's health and stamina, and is acquired in various circumstances such as hunting wild animals, bonking trees to make fruit drop, or finding nests with eggs. There are also non-edible resources such as small animals and monster spoils. Through use of cooking pots, Link can use raw ingedients to prepare various dishes and elixirs that replenish his health and stamina, or provide him temporary status enhancements such as endurance to hazards. Link has access to a wide array of weapons consisting of melee weapons, bows, and shields, obtained by salvaging them from the surroundings or enemies. These are primarily used in combat and hunting, though they may have other uses; for instance, axes or swords are needed to cut down trees and procure wood, while shields can be used to slide down hills. Most weapons in the game have some degree of durability that determines how quickly they break after repeated use. This is often proportional to the amount of damage Link can inflict when using them. Additionally, Link gains different types of clothing that help him in certain situations, such as insulating him from cold weather.

Instead of traditional inventory items, Link uses interactive runes from his Sheikah Slate, such as two types of Remote Bomb. The slate also has a comprehensive map of the kingdom that is expanded by activating Sheikah Towers with it and a compendium of the various weapons, ingredients, creatures, monsters, and other entities he documents. Furthermore, the slate keeps track of Link's quests, acts as a telescope for strategic function, and can even partially control a Divine Beast's functions while he explores it.

Trivia

 * The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is the first The Legend of Zelda game that simultaneously released for two consoles; a previous title, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, was initially released on Wii despite development originally being on Nintendo GameCube.