Breath of the Wild, Three Years In: A Retrospective
(NOTE: This article was originally published at Level Up Media on March 3, 2020.)
It has been exactly three years since The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was released into the wild (pun intended, #SorryNotSorry), shaking up the Zelda franchise—and gaming in general—in ways that are still reverberating today.
I'm not just talking all the tricks and glitches that people are still discovering after all this time. I'm talking about its influence on game design, which is already showing and will likely persist throughout the coming decade (if not longer). I'm talking about Nintendo’s triumphant comeback via the Switch, which this game carried out the gate. I'm talking about the countless people who have been touched—sometimes in deeply personal ways—by the game and its characters, story, and message.
I was there since the very beginning, when I unpacked Breath of the Wild and my Switch on March 3, 2017. Since then, I have—after logging over 380 hours of playtime—completed the game all the way through to 100%. Every shrine, side quest, armor upgrade—yes, even every Korok seed. I'm not saying this to brag (well, not entirely), but rather to illustrate just how much I've got to say about this game.
I’ll get started now.
