Customer Ratings & Reviews

This game is absolutely amazing. The amount of things you can do and the different ways to solve problems make this game incredibly fun and rewarding. My best advice to have the most fun is to go in blind, don’t look things up online. Explore and use common sense to solve problems. You’ll be immersed in the level of detail in this game. I haven’t felt a sense of wonder and amazement in a video game in many years. The world is huge and expansive and you can go pretty much anywhere at any time. Do not hesitate to try this one out.

This is how you revitalize a franchise that was starting to grow stale in it's formula. I bought a Switch just to play this game and I do not regret my purchase. I'm going to go over pros and cons to make this review a little easier to read. PROS: + HUGE OPEN WORLD - Lots of interesting places and things to discover. It's quite exhilarating to scale a mountain in order to get a better view of everything around you and then paraglide to points of interest. If you can see a place on the map, you can get to it. + COMBAT EXPERIMENTATION - Combat experimentation is fun and rewarding, for awhile (more explanation in 'cons' section). + FUN AND VARIED COMBAT (FOR AWHILE) - Different enemy types are interesting and have specific tactics that clearly telegraph their moves making combat a rewarding learning experience and almost never feels cheap. + RPG ELEMENTS - The RPG elements fit very nicely into the Zelda universe and give the game a lot of depth. Mountable horses have different stats, enemies can have different elemental types along with stronger variations, weapons, armor, and shields have wildly different stats and abilities, food and elixirs provide different buffs, etc. + GAME DIFFICULTY - The game is relatively difficult compared to previous Zelda games. You really have to assess combat situations before entering the fray and many enemies are punishing. You will die, many times, but you do learn, with time, and with learning comes triumph and satisfaction. DLC adds Master Mode for the most hardcore players or those who found Normal too easy. + COOKING SYSTEM - Cooking system is deep and rewards experimentation. Cooking not only allows for the crafting of meals and elixirs which gives you numerous buffs, but it's also one of the best ways to make money. + WEAPON DURABILITY - Weapon and shield durability forces you to continually hunt for new gear and keeps combat interesting and tense. While I didn't think I would like this system at first, it makes for a much more engaging game than just getting a single, over-powered item and just relying on that the rest of the game, which would get boring, imo. + SHRINES - There's over 120 'shrines' which are peppered all over the map which act like mini-dungeons. They usually can be completed in 10 minutes or less and usually involve the use of several of Link's Runes (that you get at the beginning of the game) that give you the ability to move metallic objects from a distance, throw bombs, summon ice pillars, or even freeze objects and apply force to them to launch into enemies or to other places to help solve puzzles. I love these shrines because they're fun to solve, and due to the game's physics engine, many can be solved in ways the developers probably didn't intend (look up YouTube videos on it). Shrines are short enough that they're not a huge time investment like normal Zelda dungeons that used to demand an hour+ of your time to complete, making them ideal for short gaming sessions. + NO HAND HOLDING - Doesn't explain much, doesn't hold your hand, and expects you to learn everything from the world, NPCs, and experimentation. CONS: - BARREN FEELING OPEN-WORLD - The world feels very barren and empty, much of the time. Many say the map is 'dense' but I don't think that's an accurate word to describe it. The map is loaded with things to do, but there is lots of empty space between those points of interest. Think if you took the map of Skyrim (a game I would call 'dense') and expanded it by 3 times the size, including time to travel between points of interest. Horses don't really help with traversal especially when you're moving across mountainous or rocky terrain. - COMBAT GETS STALE - Combat experimentation becomes less effective as you become stronger. Ambushes with bombs, chu chu jellies, stasis, etc, all become less and less rewarding as enemies become stronger. Before, a carefully aimed bomb could kill an enemy, outright, or roll into barrels which would take out an entire encampment, now a bomb does roughly 5% damage and most other means are hardly worth the effort over just using brute-force. For a game that really rewarded this kind of behavior at the start, I was bummed that I couldn't rely on those tactics later in the game, adding to the combat feeling stale and repetitive after awhile. - CAN'T SUMMON HORSES FROM ANYWHERE - Horses cannot be summoned from anywhere. The DLC solves this with 2 different solutions, but it should have been in the base game and been an early quest/reward before you spend 50+ hours exploring the map. This was super frustrating to me when walking to Gerudo town, which ended up being close to 25 minutes of walking/running from the nearest shrine. A horse would have made this trek much more bearable but there were no stables nearby to even take it out of. - INVENTORY MANAGEMENT AND GENERAL UI - Inventory management and the menu UI could use a little work. While I loved having so many interesting items and ingredients to discover and experiment with, moving through the menus got tedious, especially when you have multiple pages of stuff to sort through or when you find new, better weapons/shields and have to go back into your menus to drop some to make space. Menus felt cluttered and even after 80 hours, I would still fumble through menus trying to do specific things. - PERFORMANCE AND LOAD TIMES - The game runs pretty well a majority of the time, but there are certain places where it will chug, specifically when there's lots of particle effects on-screen or there's a lot of things to render. This also makes load times get kind of old, as it can take up to 20 seconds to load into new areas or even just reload the area you are in, after dying. Even dying in a shrine results in a 10 second reload, which is baffling since they're not in the open-world and shouldn't take that long to render, especially when they've already been rendered before your death. - GRAPHICS - While the game looks pretty good most of the time, there's other times that the hardware limitations really show, like when you're trekking across big meadows or rocky mountains with little detail. It looks really good for a handheld system, but doesn't quite hold up to console standards, even compared to last gen. - EXPLAINS NOTHING - While I love that the game doesn't hold your hand, I was equally frustrated by not having a clue how to do certain things. While a purist would argue that all the answers are SOMEWHERE in the game or that you should just experiment, someone like me just doesn't have the patience to play 90% of the games content to then find out that a certain ability will significantly help map traversal and reduce travel time. I want to know these things up-front or at the latest, halfway through the game, since getting an ability to improve travel time feels less rewarding when I've already slowly trekked through a vast majority of the map at 60 hours. DLC rewards are not as great if you have nearly completed and covered the entire base game... what's the use of a horse or motorcycle you can summon anywhere if you don't have anything left to explore? Anyways, I absolutely love this game. Given the number of rather large gripes that I had with it, I felt like a 4 is a fair score. I really look forward to the next game but I hope people can acknowledge and admit the game's shortcomings, otherwise, these things won't be fixed in order to give us the most refined and amazing follow-up that we all are already salivating for.

I'm late to the Breath of the Wild party but this game is fantastic!!! The graphics and gameplay are amazing. Beautiful game with a beautiful atmosphere. The combat is challenging with a diverse amount of weapons/shields/armor/accessories you can switch up your play style at any time. The open world exploration is my favorite thing about this game. A must have for Switch owners!

There is so much to do in this game. You will get hundreds of hours of content to explore in just your first playthrough alone if you try to 100% complete this. It has stunningly outstanding graphics for a game thats on less powerful hardware than XB1 and PS4. It also sounds incredible, plays like an absolute dream, and its presentation oozes with possibly Nintendo's best polish ever seen. Arguably the best action-adventure game ever created. The highest recommendation, and was completely worth getting on launch day with the Nintendo Switch!

I want to start out by saying that I've played every Zelda console game. They are all truly superb games and have their own identity. Enter Breath of the Wild. The ability to roam where ever you please in a vast, rich world that is Hyrule. I've spent numerous hours just wandering the various sections of the map finding secrets, tackling challenging packs of enemies, and engaging with NPCs to complete a quest. Each encounter is fun and satisfying to complete. Most importantly, this game is just FUN. Nintendo has truly made a masterpiece with this game.

Does a lot of new things for the series and takes ideas from other open world games and improves upon them. Weapon break is a bit annoying and it makes me want to not use my weapons and avoid encounters unless I need to fight. Leaves you to figure out what to do and doesn't hold your hand. The world feels a bit empty at times. There's things to do all over but some things feel a bit lacking. A lot of traveling feels like it's just for the purpose of looking for shrines which are how you can get more stamina or heart containers. Material gathering is plentiful and the different varieties of armor are nice to have. It's been quite a while since I played a Legend of Zelda game so this feels a lot more "new" for me than someone else who has been keeping up with the series. I've found the game can be rather difficult but that may be my lack of experience. I'm not the biggest fan of the futuristic tech stuff in the game. Overall it's a fantastic experience that I would recommend but wouldn't call it perfect.

I’m not the biggest Zelda fan, so I haven’t played any version of it since I was a kid. Breath of Wind is incredibly fun and engaging. I was hooked on the first day and played for about 8 hours straight. The only thing that was weird for me, and that’s probably mostly due to my age, is the concept of weapons suffering damage as you use them. But, once I got used to it, it’s been pretty fun trying to make sure I don’t overuse my weapons. I also love all the puzzles and games and side quests.

I have enjoyed the past games and feel that this is a perfect next step in the Zelda/Link lineage. Good story, game play, and overall immersive world.

Nintendo went a little too hard on the open world/survival aspect of this game. It's HIGHLY likely that you will spend more time in the menu screen than the actual game world and, as long as that's not a problem for you, this game is rather enjoyable despite itself. It's still a Zelda game and that puts it a step ahead of the rest, but only a step. The controls are clunky (a circumstance of being a launch title on a new console), and the new gameplay elements are far too gimicky to add any real value or fun to the mix. The story is great and worth powering through any disappointment you have with the game itself, but it's hard at times, especially considering how much time is consumed by aimless wandering, gathering obscure ingredients, or hunting down insufferable quest objectives, all while every weapon in your inventory teeters on the edge of breaking. It's not a masterpiece, despite all the media hype for it, but it's fun and worthwhile. Wait a bit and pick it up on sale and you probably won't be disappointed.

I'm new to the world of nintendo and wanted to play this game first after hearing so many great things about it. Very expansive open world, but the controls on nintendo take some time to getting used to after playing playstation for so long. Enjoying it so far!

Solid entry in the mainline zelda series. I came in expecting stellar gameplay, a good story, and plenty to explore and I was not dissatisfied.

I'm an old school gamer who remembers playing the original Zelda game on my NES in 1986! Since I don't get to game as much -- life gets in the way in a good way! I didn't know much about the Switch. After reading a few reviews about Breath of the Wild I knew I had to play it! Wow... A truly amazing open world adventure and exploration experience. I love open world games because I enjoy getting lost and fully immersed in the "digital worlds". This game feels different from most other open world games as you truly have the ability to do anything and go anywhere. This game with suit any gamer who wants to be part of an epic Zelda adventure! It'll also be a perfect game for anyone who just wants to get lost and explore a truly massive world. I can't recommend this game more!

This game is very engaging and lots of fun. I'm getting close to the end and I haven't yet hit a part that was too difficult. (With a previous Zelda game on the Wii the mechanics were very difficult to shoot an arrow from a horse and this was required to proceed). My kids love watching me play and are trying to play themselves. The game is what you make of it. You can work for a while to collect items, then when you get bored of that work on making progress through the story line.

So this is a massive game. I am always in awe of what they accomplished here. When the game starts you are all but thrust into this world where you can just explore. I highly suggest slogging through at least a couple dozen hours of the story before really wandering, as then you'll be strong enough to do it efficiently. The main issue I have is that there's too much content! I'll probably be playing this for at least a year.

Love this game! So many adventures and different levels of skill needed. Provides hours of entertainment. Great visual quality and brings back fun memories of playing on various Nintendo softwares with my dad growing up. I bought this for myself (female, 35 yrs old) and this is “my” game in the house lol my kids sit and watch me play while yelling out tips. It’s really fun!

I didn't buy into the hype since I've always been more of a Mario or Pokemon type of person, but I've played and enjoyed a decent amount of Zelda. I always prefer the 2D games over the 3D ones so I was reluctant to buy into the hype. I got the game the night it came out along with the Switch. I'm also not a huge fan of open world due to how non-linear it can get From the opening cut scene I was immediately entranced by the visuals and just the scope of how big it all was. Suddenly I just wanted to explore every single inch of the map. The game eases the player into learning mechanics and the controls before allowing them to truly start their adventure. Music is pretty low key compared to most of the Zelda games, like when you're just in the wilderness, but when it plays in cut scenes it really does impress. Story is somewhat standard for the series but they tried to change it up so it didn't get stale. It isn't as perfect as many news sites and reviewers are calling it, but it's quite the experience and adventure. I'm excited to see what direction the Zelda games go in next since I really think Breath of the Wild has a great foundation and the developers have a lot of room for improvement. Must Own for any Switch owner easily

Breath of the Wild boasts incredible visuals, an epic story and a fun open world experience that is sure to please any fan of the franchise.

I have always been a huge Zelda fan and I was a little bit nervous about the open world concept and not being able to have a permanent weapon. Once I played this game I was in awe and I think it actually adds to the game play that your weapons actually do wear and tear throughout battle. This makes you really think before going into a battle and it seems to have been pulled off flawlessly. The gameplay, side adventures, subtle Additional gameplay features you find along the way to fit your playing level is absolutely incredible. Highly recommend!

I have never played a Zelda game before, so I can definitely say I'm not a fanboy. But I do like the genre of adventure RPGs, and Zelda: BotW gets it right! It has just the right mixture of difficulty, open world exploration, and advancement. The puzzles in the shrines are lots of fun and give you a great break from the monster killing and exploration, but wandering around the world is definitely loads of fun as well. It's really beautiful and fulfilling to find new things. Definitely recommend to anyone who likes video games!

I never grew up playing the Zelda games at all so when I first saw this one release I jumped in and have had a great time. It does have a quaint approach to the gameplay where it doesn't feel as tight and rushed, you can take everything at your own pace. Just like more expansive games like GTA and Red Dead, if you can see it in the game you can go there. The presentation is wonderful and the graphics are wonderful on the switch. At home or on the road we have had a lot of fun playing this one.