The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild celebrated its sixth-year anniversary last March. It has certainly been a wild ride, with new things still being discovered about the game to this day. It is the game that keeps on giving, but what’s really wild is the fact there is no stopping this narrative.
Just because Breath of the Wild released in 2017, its story goes further back than that. In fact, it goes all the way back to 2011. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword had just been released and the home console team would commence work on the next 3D title for the series.
It is crazy to think Breath of the Wild has been around for the last ten years (in one form or another) and Nintendo still aren’t done with it. From releasing a prequel in 2020 in the form of Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity (the bestselling musou game to date, already selling more than 3.5 million copies worldwide), and a sequel on its way, Breath of the Wild just keeps charging along at its new pace, reaching new heights.
Talking of heights, given the high sales this game has achieved, it’s no wonder Nintendo wants to do more with it. Sitting at a combined 30.67 million sales (29.00m on Switch and 1.67m for Wii U), this is a game that has easily clawed back its development budget tenfold, with Nintendo previously stating it would need to sell around two million copies just to break even.
Then of course, its engine was reused for Ring Fit Adventure, a game that has now gone on to sell 15.22 million copies worldwide (not bad at all for a fitness-based RPG). Still, Breath of the Wild is more than just an incredible means of generating a great cashflow for the Big N, it’s also a ground-breaking game in its own right and deserving of all the praise it’s received over the years.
Yes, it was a tad buggy in the beginning due to plenty of glitches. Yes, there were things that Nintendo could have handled better, but at the same time, despite how different it is to conventional Zelda games, at the end of the day, it is the next best Zelda game that has raised the bar and set a new standard for what Zelda can be, should be and could be. It is a true masterpiece and may its legend continue being the fresh breath of air we know and love it to be.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Review:
Initial Release: March 3, 2017
Pricing: $59.99 USD
Category: Adventure, Other, Action, Role-Playing
Players: 1 playerThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is more than just another Zelda game, it’s a game fans waited a long time for and when it was finally released, it showed us all just how much more Nintendo can do with the Zelda franchise. As a game that feels like a celebration of all things Zelda, there has never been a game quite like it and years after its release, new things are still being discovered about it. Link might wield the Master Sword, but it is Nintendo who wields this masterpiece.
10/10
