Breath of the Wild

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. A painfully long five year development period gave way to this absolutely gorgeous, innovative, awe-inspiring game. Being the newest of the Zelda series, Breath of the Wild (BotW) introduces a stunning new way to play a Zelda game that, in the opinions of most players, shatters the competition when it comes to their favorite Zelda game.

You can explore every inch of the world, including every place you can see in that introduction photo. As Mufasa would say, “everything the light touches” is able to be visited and scoured for items, non-playable characters (NPCs), and enemies. Having a completely open world Zelda game is totally new to the series, and it has been wildly successful with not only myself, but a large range of audiences.

Not only has BotW literally reached new heights by allowing Link to jump (which he has never been able to do without a certain item before), but he can also scale nearly every vertical surface in the world, giving the player an entire new dimension in a Zelda game to explore.

I know how satisfying it feels to seemingly break the game’s usual story sequence by climbing into somewhere you’re not “supposed” to climb into, but BotW accounts for so many things, and NPCs have confronted me and discussed how I didn’t take the usual route to them.

You’re also rewarded with secrets and possibly items for your exploration, as you may scale a certain coliseum and find some hidden chests or maybe climb a giant fish statue and find a Korok Seed, one of the game’s collectibles.

BotW is such an amazing new edition to the Zelda series, and I am so glad that Nintendo decided to really open themselves up to a Zelda game with open world characteristics that is still Zelda with Zelda characters, enemies, and lore. Everyone should get a chance to experience this Hyrule and climb to new heights in their gaming experience.

Twilight Princess

I suppose I have a thing for the darker games, as Twilight Princess is another huge favorite of mine. I have only played this title on the Nintendo Wii, which, fun fact: has a mirrored world/map as compared to the original Gamecube version, but I would like to play through the game a few more times using a Gamecube emulator on my PC.

The story of this game is wonderfully compelling and deep, and it makes me want to replay it just thinking about it.

In Twilight Princess, you, Link, are to save two worlds in one game. Both the overworld, Hyrule, and the Twilight realm have been ravished by the evil Ganondorf, and it’s up to Link to traverse both realms and defeat evil, freeing the Queen of Twilight and Princess Zelda to return to a peaceful rule over their respective lands.

After getting a tutorial in the day in the life of Link that includes interacting with friends in your hometown, Ordon Village, goat herding, and fishing, Link’s love interest and childhood friend, Ilia, is captured by monsters. Link plans to run after her to save her, but faces a wall of darkness in his path, and is grabbed by a hand in the shadows and plunged into a Twilight infested version of the world ahead. When Link awakens in the dark area, the game introduces us to the most striking feature of this game. The spiritual power of the Triforce in Link allows him to survive in this Twilight-ridden area by transforming him into a wolf.

Link then meets an Twili imp named Midna who makes a deal to help Link in his journey as long as he helps her as well, doing whatever she says. They make fast friends, and are partnered for the entirety of the game, Midna giving Link the ability to traverse the Twilight areas proficiently, eventually able to allow Link to teleport and become his wolf version at will, and Link can allow Midna to travel as his shadow through the world of light.

As wolf Link, Link is able to run faster than his human counterpart, dig into small holes and find underground grottos, and use the heightened senses of a Twili dog to follow scents and find areas to dig for items. Also, I mean, who doesn’t want to play as a dog?

Twilight Princess is such a stupendous game, and I definitely recommend adding it to your Legend of Zelda repertoire. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a Princess to save.