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A ramble about Breath of the Wild's difficulty level;

I've poured more hours into Breath of the Wild than I probably should have, perhaps only outdone by my last obsession with Animal Crossing New Leaf. I’ve finished the game twice, and decided I wanted another go. Let me say; it’s rare to come across a game so captivating it makes you want to pour in another 150 hours to see every detail all over again.

My first time playing the game, I was pretty bad at it by any gamer’s standards. If I wanted to go somewhere, I’d quite literally go as the crow flies. I’d cross cliffs, attempt to jump huge rivers, swim across lakes; because, apparently, I’d never heard of roads. At every enemy, I chose flight over fight. I forgot to prepare food before every venture from a stable. There was no strategy, no direction, no intent. I once tried to befriend wizzrobes because I thought they were fairies, and I’ll die disappointed about it.

But I think that was why it was fun. I played the game like a 6 year-old who just wanted to ride horses and find out what happened to Zelda. And the game let me. Unlike most games, where you can only access certain parts of the map at certain levels, I could go the most illogical way possible and this game would just laugh and wish me good luck. I didn’t get stuck, like ever, because I wasn’t bogged down figuring out how it was supposed to be played, how someone else was expecting me to get unstuck.

My second time, I knew the tricks. I knew there were roads and bridges, I knew how to fight from the offset, I knew which enemies were too dangerous to take at the beginning, and how to find everything. This time, I went to Gerudo town first so I could get the magic jewellery, because I knew it would be helpful on the way to getting the proper armour. I played the game the way it was perhaps not so much intended to be – for Breath of the Wild there is, of course, no intended way – but expected to be. Eventually though, I got bored. I didn’t have the patience to drag my heels through the completion of every shrine and puzzle. I just fought Ganon so I could finish the game and start over. Another nice option, might I add.

But why? Well, there was no challenge anymore. I knew how to beat every enemy, what was where. I knew to visit the castle dungeon mid-game to get the goods rather than right at the end where they were little use. I knew every twist and turn, every memory scene, most of the secrets in the map. But it just felt like I was walking in my old footsteps with less wonder and less to discover.

I love Breath of the Wild. I wanted to traverse its wonderful universe a hundred times. But I couldn't just do the same thing a third time, what was the point? I needed something new. A challenge. So on my third playthrough, I had some new rules:

No upgrading hearts or stamina. I could collect every spirit orb in the game, but it wasn’t allowed.

No upgrading runes.

No using the champion gifts, even if I had earned them fair and square.

No fancy clothes. Basic Hylian clothes only. And the warm doublet, ‘cause I said so.

No upgrading clothes either. Not that I’d miss the fairies.

Now, this put me in an interesting position. I played through the Great Plateau as normal, and enjoyed it as I always did. There’s something about it, it’s just my favourite part. Perhaps it’s the secluded area, perhaps the small space as you build from zero. Or maybe the stronger link to the story at that point in the game. I’ve never been sure. But the moment I set foot on Hyrule kingdom soil, there was no more normal; and in a good way.

At this point, I hadn’t considered any other changes to my playthrough, so I set off down the beaten track towards Kakariko village…for maybe 2-3 minutes?. I saw the Bridge of Hylia, and I turned right. Impa could wait.

And it was a great decision. The Faron region is the only one you’re not really directed to in your main quest, when you think about it. Most regions are home to an important village, a major path, or an area where at least part of the main quest takes place. Excluding Akkala, but there’s plenty of direction towards it. So what directs people to Faron? There’s only one memory there, and it’s right on the outskirts. Either you’re aiming for completion, or you’re just plain curious. The latter is the beauty of the game.

The only area that really has a difficulty level intended for a specific point in the game is the Duelling peaks, and to an extent Hateno, suited to be easier in the beginning. So Faron was a fun choice for a first region. Storms, the lightning god, a jungle, a peaceful village unaffected by your main quest? Perfect.

I had my knowledge of how to fight, and of different enemies and whatnot, but I was still in for a shock. Oh yeah. Where most of us would brush a couple of Stalmoblins off, they were a one hit killer for me, and I quickly learned I couldn’t take three at once without getting hit. A rude awakening. So travelling at night was out. I also quickly found I had to restock food at every cookpot, because there was no point in carrying a ten heart meal. Just lots of burnt fish and mushrooms. Classy.

But the biggest change (and my favourite) was the combat. I’m aware that you can buy master mode if you want to make the game more challenging, but what does it change? You take more damage, enemies are stronger, your weapons break more often. To me, that honestly sounds very frustrating. It makes the technical combat more difficult, but it doesn’t change how you approach it. That, for me anyway, was the fun bit.

I remember early in my first playthrough, I was sent to raid a beach camp near Hateno village to rescue some sheep. At this point, I was still a terrible fighter (and a bit of a wimp), so I picked the monsters off one by one with remote bombs until there were few enough to take in one go. It took a while, sure, but hell was it a satisfying victory. Now, two playthroughs later, it was back to that kind of strategy. Analyse your surroundings for things to drop or to blow up, approach from the right place, bait monsters out to you, pick them off one by one. Granted, I failed a lot – I’m still not a great fighter by any stretch of the imagination– but I was thinking about what I was doing, so every victory felt more earned.

The most satisfying win I’ve had so far was against a lynel. (No, I wasn’t going to hide from them this time, I’m slightly less of a wimp.) So, I thought back to how I normally fight a lynel. Stasis, hit, wait to recharge, repeat until dead. But that strategy had some beef with my little rulebook – No stasis +.

Which turned out to be pretty brilliant.

In my previous victories against lynels (few and far between, if I’m honest), I had never really taken the time to watch how they fought, I’d just ran around waiting for my stasis to recharge. However, upon watching, I noticed they don’t have too many moves, really.

Their close combat moves feature a cross slash and a heavy swing, dodged by backflip, as well as a charge attack which can be avoided with a side hop, both allowing me to get my hits in with a flurry rush. (which were my best friend this playthrough, even on bokoblins)

They also featured a move where they breathe fire – my personal favourite, because for the lynel of Ploymous mountain, he was standing on grass. When this move was featured, I could glide on the updraft, and draw my bow.

Now, a general rule when fighting a lynel is never draw your bow. You draw your bow, they draw theirs. Big mistake.

My first encounter with a lynel way back when was with the one on the Naydra snowfield. Here, I had a similar situation as with the wizzrobes. You see I thought, ladies and gentlemen, that the lynel was a centaur. Like an npc creature. That I should go and talk to. Until, of course, I saw the dreaded yellow exclamation mark and knew I had royally screwed myself over. I ran, only to find that their arrows could HONE IN ON YOU LIKE MISSILES, and I was dead in less than ten seconds. You can draw a number of conclusions about my intelligence from this, but the important lesson is never to let a lynel draw its bow.

Once yours is in hand, the only way to stop it from doing so is to shoot it in the face, stun it, then put your bow away. But on the ground, you have no chance of this hit before you’re trampled. From the air, however, the time freeze allows you to take the shot, drop to the ground, and perform the legendary move of mounting a lynel.

Did it take some trial and error to figure this out? Absolutely. Would I have figured it out if I hadn’t put myself in the position where I had to? Probably not. And I certainly wouldn’t have been able to ramble about it like a 5 year old at a birthday party if I hadn’t.

To me, that’s what makes videogames exciting, especially ones like Breath of the Wild, where you’re constantly figuring out new ways to do things. If any of you have ever played Splatoon, think about what’s more fun; Shooting your enemies down, or surprising them as you jump out from the trail of a curling bomb and splashdown three people at once? The rewarding part of the fighting aspect of gaming is winning in the ways that no one, sometimes not even yourself, expects. I don’t imagine everyone feels the same way; there is, of course, a certain pleasure to just blasting them. But this is true for me.

I also feel like, as you move through Breath of the Wild, you get a lot of great tips on creative fighting; from npcs, loading screens, and hidden all over the game, but many of them quickly become irrelevant. Taking out a bokoblin camp with magnesis is all great until you have seven hearts and can run in and mow them down in 20 seconds. During this playthrough, I actually learned a lot of tactics I could apply in the overworld through shrine puzzles.

In my early game exploration of Faron, I encountered an area of constant thunderstorm, caused by a shrine. The shrine was at the top of a massive waterfall. First thing that comes to your head? Yep. Zora armour. But by my rules, that wasn’t an option. Next? Climb the cliff and rest on its ledges. Bad news; with one wheel of stamina and constant rain, that wasn’t happening either. So what would I do? Come back later? In any other situation, yes, but this time, later in the game I’d still have no fancy armour, and no more stamina. So I had just as much chance of success now as I would later.

I am admittedly proud to say I did figure it out. The solution was found in a rather annoying shrine puzzle, where you had to lead one of those giant Sheikah orbs along a waterfall and into the hole. The goal was to use cryonis blocks to make a path for it. Incredibly pernickety and frustrating, but there was the solution, staring me in the face. A cryonis staircase up to the top of the waterfall.

It took a while, but it’s another example of using every tool at my disposal. The runes are an aspect of Breath of the Wild’s gameplay that is very creative, and very well used in overworld korok puzzles as well as shrines, but I think, rather underutilised in combat. That’s not to fault the design – the open nature of the game gives us the option, but most players would simply rather opt to use a royal broadsword, which is to be fair completely understandable.

This way of playing made the experience feel more human. If you were out in the wild, you’d need every trick in the book. You’d have to pick your battles - when you travel, what route you take, what you pack - very carefully. From the beginning of the game, Link is, let’s face it, already strong for a human/hylian. He can fight, he can take being stabbed a few times, withstand harsh environments for a decent amount of time, jog for way longer than I could dream, sprint a fair bit, climb sheer cliffs… He has the strength of your average soldier right off the bat. By the time you’re halfway through the game he’s frankly super-human. And yes, this kinda fits with the lore of the goddess’ chosen hero, but still; anyone who can get hit by a guardian’s laser square on and get back up is more than just abnormally strong.

And I’ve always been very interested in what it would be like to be a civilian during the events of the game. We laugh as travellers get beaten up by red bokoblins, but the truth of it is we’d probably be just like the truffle hunter girls. This time I suddenly didn’t feel so invincible against a black bokoblin, and the reality of the danger of Breath of Wild’s expansive world hit me. It’s not all pretty post-apocalypse of open fields and skies. I don’t think the urgency of the boss battle in universe quite hits any player in the vast expanse of pretty picture material, but during this playthrough the thought did occur. Not that it made me go any faster.

Really, my point is that even if you love obliterating sixteen monsters in one charge (‘cause same), I would still whole-heartedly recommend trying Breath of the Wild this way if you ever plan to play through it again. It gives a different take on the world and gameplay, which for me was very fun, and breathed a little new life into a game that was already brimming with it the first time. Games are best when you play them however you want. Solve problems with crazy backwards solutions. Play games like a happy little six year-old at Christmas. Sometimes making things difficult for yourself is fun, and who’s gonna stop you?

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