The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild[b] is an action-adventure game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch and Wii U consoles. Breath of the Wild is part of The Legend of Zelda franchise and is set at the end of the Zelda timeline. The player controls Link, who awakens from a hundred-year slumber to defeat Calamity Ganon and save the kingdom of Hyrule.
Similar to the original 1986 The Legend of Zelda game, players are given little instruction and can explore the world freely. Tasks include collecting various items and gear to aid in objectives such as puzzle-solving or side quests. The world is unstructured and designed to encourage exploration and experimentation, and the main story quest can be completed in a nonlinear fashion.
Development of Breath of the Wild took place over five years, following the responses from some fans who wanted a larger game world in the series. Wanting to rethink the conventions of the series, Nintendo introduced elements such as an open world and a detailed physics engine. Monolith Soft, known for their work on the open world Xenoblade Chronicles series, assisted in designing landscapes and topography. The game was originally planned for release in 2015 as a Wii U exclusive but was delayed twice. Released on March 3, 2017, Breath of the Wild was a launch game for the Nintendo Switch and the final Nintendo-published game for the Wii U. Two waves of downloadable content were released throughout 2017 in an expansion pass.
Breath of the Wild received acclaim for its open-ended gameplay and attention to detail. Critics called it a landmark in open world game design, although it received minor criticism for its technical performance at launch. It won several game of the year awards and has since been cited as one of the greatest video games of all time. By 2021 it had sold nearly 25 million copies, making it one of the best-selling video games of all time. A sequel is set for release on the Switch in 2022. A crossover with the Dynasty Warriors series, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, was released in 2020.
The Legend of Zelda (Japanese: ゼルダの伝説 Hepburn: Zeruda no Densetsu?) is a high-fantasy action-adventure video game series created by Japanese game designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. It is primarily developed and published by Nintendo, although some portable installments have been outsourced to Capcom, Vanpool, and Grezzo. The series' gameplay incorporates elements of action, adventure, and puzzle-solving games. The Legend of Zelda is one of Nintendo's most prominent franchises.
The series centers on Link, the playable character and chief protagonist. Link is often given the task of rescuing Princess Zelda and the kingdom of Hyrule from Ganon, who is the principal antagonist of the series; however, other settings and antagonists have appeared in several titles. The games' plots commonly involve a relic known as the Triforce, a set of three omnipotent golden triangles. The protagonist in each game is usually not the same incarnation of Link, but a few exceptions exist.
Since the original The Legend of Zelda was released in 1986, the series has expanded to include 18 entries on all of Nintendo's major game consoles, as well as a number of spin-offs. An American animated TV series based on the games aired in 1989 and individual manga adaptations commissioned by Nintendo have been produced in Japan since 1997. As of 2011, the series has sold over 62 million copies.
The Legend of Zelda games feature a mixture of puzzles, action, adventure/battle gameplay, and exploration. These elements have remained constant throughout the series, but with refinements and additions featured in each new game. Later games in the series also include stealth gameplay, where the player must avoid enemies while proceeding through a level, as well as racing elements. Although the games can be beaten with a minimal amount of exploration and side quests, the player is frequently rewarded with helpful items or increased abilities for solving puzzles or exploring hidden areas. Some items are consistent and appear many times throughout the series (such as bombs and bomb flowers, which can be used both as weapons and to open blocked or hidden doorways; boomerangs, which can kill or paralyze enemies; keys for locked doors; magic swords, shields, and bows and arrows), while others are unique to a single game. Though the games contain many role-playing elements (Zelda II: The Adventure of Link is the only one to include an experience system), they emphasize straightforward hack and slash-style combat over the strategic, turn-based or active time combat of games like Final Fantasy. The game's role-playing elements, however, have led to much debate over whether or not the Zelda games should be classified as action role-playing games, a genre on which the series has had a strong influence.[1]
Every game in the main Zelda series has consisted of three principal areas: an overworld in which movement is multidirectional, allowing the player some degree of freedom of action; areas of interaction with other characters (merely caves or hidden rooms in the first game, but expanding to entire towns and cities in subsequent games) in which the player gains special items or advice; and dungeons, areas of labyrinthine layout, usually underground, comprising a wide range of difficult enemies, bosses, and items. Each dungeon usually has one major item inside, which is usually essential for solving many of the puzzles within that dungeon and often plays a crucial role in defeating that dungeon's boss, as well as progressing through the game. In nearly every Zelda game, navigating a dungeon is aided by locating a map, which reveals its layout, and a magic compass, which reveals the location of significant and smaller items such as keys and equipment. In later games, the series includes a special "big key" that would unlock the door to battle the dungeon's boss enemy and open the item chest.
In most Zelda games, the player's life meter is represented as a line of hearts. The life meter is replenished a number of different ways, including picking up hearts left by some defeated enemies, fairies or springs located in specific locations, or using an item such as a potion. Most games feature "heart containers" as the prize for defeating the final boss of a dungeon and "pieces of heart" for completing certain side quests or found in hidden chests; heart containers extend the life meter by one heart, and receiving a varied number of pieces of heart (On average four pieces) do the same as a heart container. Both will completely replenish Link's health.
The games pioneered a number of features that were to become industry standards. The original Legend of Zelda was the first console game with a save function that enabled players to stop playing and then resume later. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time introduced a targeting system that simplified 3D combat.