Breath of the Wild ruined traditional Zelda for me

(Epitome credit: Nintendo)

I have never replayed The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. That's not a scathing indictment of the game's quality. In fact, information technology'due south the verbal opposite. I have never returned to BOTW's stunning rendition of the Kingdom of Hyrule because my first feel was so magical, I'm worried a revisit would taint those memories.

To give some context, Jiff of the Wild was my starting time-always Zelda game on my showtime-ever Nintendo home console. The experience of finally getting to play a title in a serial I'd only ever admired from afar was a special one, and not simply considering of the quality of the game itself.

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Still, my admiration for BOTW has had an unforeseen knock-on upshot over the last few years. In many ways, the latest entry in the franchise actually ruined the Zelda series for me.

A breath of fresh air

Breath of the Wild was touted equally a radical difference from the traditional Zelda style, then in that location was some skepticism pre-release from the gaming customs at large. People needn't have worried, though. Nintendo knocked this one out of the park, and so some.

Moments like gliding off the Great Plateau, unlocking the mysteries of Eventide Island, and taking downwardly a ferocious Lynel for the starting time time are amongst the most memorable I've had in all of gaming.

The sense of exploration in BOTW is something that no game since has matched. It felt incredible to but run in any direction and see what I discovered. The private puzzle shrines were a please to solve besides. While longtime Zelda fans seem to recollect that the Divine Beast dungeons are among the weakest in the franchise, I personally enjoyed them immensely.

Breath of the Wild screenshot — (Image credit: Nintendo)

Not my Zelda

Straight after finishing BOTW in March 2017, I was dying for Nintendo to port over as many Zelda games to the Switch as possible. I needed another Zelda fix, and I needed it quick.

Unfortunately, unlike on the Wii and Wii U, Nintendo has never actually launched standalone Virtual Console games on the Switch. VC, which allow users purchase and play classic games on newer Nintendo consoles, is a glaring omission on the Switch to this day.

Instead, Nintendo has granted Switch Online subscribers access to a selection of classic games, which includes the very first Zelda game, originally released on the NES. Notwithstanding, a close friend brash me that I might find the footstep from BOTW back to the very fist Zelda a tad jarring. Every bit such, I decided to wait for a more recent Zelda to make its style to the Switch.

In 2019, The Legend of Zelda: Link'southward Awakening debuted on the Switch. While this game is a remake of the 1993 title of the same proper name, I assumed the modernistic coat of pigment would ease the transition. I dove in expecting to accept another magical experience.

Zelda Link's Awakening switch port — (Image credit: Nintendo)

That didn't happen. I establish Link's Enkindling's structure to be rigid, its dungeons to be ho-hum, and its countless backtracking slow. At no point did I lose myself in the game world. I always felt like the game placed very strict limits on how I played.

I told myself that my feelings were due to playing a second Zelda — ane that originally came out on the Game Boy, no less. If I gave a archetype 3D Zelda a adventure, I would find the same spark that BOTW ignited.

I decided to try The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess next, and was convinced that this fourth dimension, my experience would be a positive 1.

Simply it wasn't. I certainly didn't detest my scattering of hours with Twilight Princess, merely once more, I constitute information technology frustratingly restrictive and struggled to lose myself in the globe. The joy of exploration that fueled my BOTW addiction wasn't there. Instead, I was stuck following a adequately plodding path that had already been laid out for me.

Playing the waiting game

Earlier this month, Nintendo announced that Skyward Sword is getting remastered in HD on Switch. Rather than beingness charmed that I would have the adventure to play a classic Zelda game, I was merely disappointed that there was no news about the BOTW sequel.

breath of the wild 2 screenshot — (Prototype credit: Nintendo)

The pre-BOTW Zelda games are not in whatever way bad. The vast majority of them are considered gaming classics for practiced reasons. Even every bit someone who struggled to connect with them, I can respect their positions within the gaming dictionary.

I suppose it comes downward to the fact that BOTW is my Zelda. Some players held stiff connections to the traditional Zelda formula, and struggled to handle BOTW's blatant disregard for it. For me, it'south the other way effectually. BOTW is my baseline, and the classic formula is the radical divergence.

While I won't exist checking out Skyward Sword this summer, and my involvement in further classic Zelda ports has waned, I'm eagerly awaiting whatever fleck of information about the sequel to BOTW. I cannot wait to lose myself in that version of Hyrule all over again.

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Rory is a staff writer at Tom'southward Guide based in the UK. He covers a broad range of topics including tech news, deals, gaming, streaming and more. When he's not writing hot takes on the latest gaming hardware and streaming shows, he tin exist found watching a borderline unhealthy amount of movies and beingness thoroughly disappointed by his terrible football team.