There are rumors that “Zelda: Breath of The Wild 2” will be released sometime within the next couple of years. Back in June of 2019, Nintendo released a teaser video announcing that the game is currently in development, but no official release dates have been officially announced yet. In the meantime though, if you haven’t played “Breath of the Wild” now is the time.
“Zelda: Breath of The Wild,” published by Nintendo in 2017, has received outstanding ratings and reviews from the gaming community. Google users gave the game a rating of 96% and GameSpot gave it a 10/10. So, it’s safe to say that the gaming community is very happy with this game—some consider it the best game ever made. But what about non-gamers? If you consider yourself a gaming-novice or a beginner, then Zelda is also the perfect game for you.
If your experience with video games was anything like mine, you probably didn’t see a lot of “serious” games geared towards women. I remember growing up with my two brothers, watching them play Xbox or GameCube and never being given a turn to play since I was a girl. When I started dating, I began to see video games almost as my adversary. My boyfriends always seemed to be overly obsessed with playing video games and for some reason, I was never given a turn—until recently.
My boyfriend bought a Nintendo Switch this past year and has been super stoked about helping me get more into video games. He bought a lot of good party-games like Mario Cart and Super Smash Bros for us to play together and he lets me try out any other new games he buys to see how I like them. At first, I was really just playing the games because he liked them and I liked to spend time together. But from my experimentation with different games, I realized that I don’t like first-person-shooters (FPS) like “Black Ops” and “Fortnight,” but I do like adventure role-playing-games (RPG) like “Zelda,” “The Witcher” and “Final Fantasy.” I love games with story, pretty scenery and cool characters. It’s like reading a book or watching a show, only I get to be involved in how the plot unfolds.
Here’s Why Zelda is Great For Beginners:
- There Is No Right Way To Play
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The problem with a lot of RPGs is that they can be confusing to those that aren’t well-versed in the gaming world and the common ways you navigate them. The nice thing about “Zelda: Breath of The Wild” is that it presents the player with a clear route to take and then allows them to problem-solve in a variety of ways, creatively find solutions, and choose their own path. There is not simply one way to arrive at a tower or kill a monster, but a variety of possible routes and actions. Providing options to people that don’t have a lot of gaming-experience helps them build confidence. As a beginner, it’s more likely that I’m going to hit a wall early on in the game and get bored with it if there is only one way to solve the problem. By giving me options, the creators of the game have allowed me to express myself creatively and get a feel for gaming in general
- It’s Beautiful and Relaxing
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When I began the game, the first things I noticed were the serene music playing in the background, the beautiful scenery and the spectacular open-world layout. I ran down a hill of flowing grass through flowers and past an apple tree. I leisurely foraged fruit and other materials and then cooked those materials by a campfire. I climbed cliffs and mountains to look out across a breathtaking landscape. As the game progressed, I got to discover more settings including deserts, jungles, villages and snowy mountains
- You Have Unlimited Attempts
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As I progressed through the game, I was also faced with many challenges and opportunities to fail and for Link to die. Luckily, dying doesn’t have huge consequences in the game. If you die, you simply come back to life wherever your last save was. This was hugely important for me as a non-gamer. Because I’m not used to the controls and not used to games, in general, I ended up dying for a lot of dumb reasons. For example, I have died a lot from simply taking a wrong step and falling off a cliff, or from going to fight a pretty low-level monster and getting the camera angle wrong so I don’t aim correctly and completely miss my target. “Breath of Wild” enables me to keep trying a task until I can get the controls right or figure out a way of overcoming the obstacle that works for me.
- You Can Go at Your Own Pace
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Another one of my favorite things about “Breath of the Wild” is that you can pick and choose your battles when you feel ready. Technically, you can spend the entire game climbing trees, hunting deer and gathering mushrooms and not follow the storyline at all. Of course, the game is more fun when you interact with the non-player characters, complete the quests and defeat the adversaries to ultimately save Princess Zelda, but you can always go at your own pace. You can run away from conflicts and monsters you aren’t ready for and you can play the game, for the most part, in whatever order you want to.
Breath of the Wild has really opened up a new door into video games for me, and I hope that others see why I feel that way.