What Made Us Feel The Vastness And Freedom In The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s Demo

Siliconera got to try out the E3 2016 demo of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Here are our highlights, most notably about the sense of freedom and vastness of the upcoming action RPG.

The E3 demo, which is massive, is just 1% of the game. And it’s easy and fun to get lost in the vast world. Another factor that made the game’s world actually feel like a proper huge world is the weather and how it also plays a role in the game. For example, Link can get cold and equipping different armor bundles him up so he isn’t cold any more. We only got to see a tiny bit of the game, but it was things such as these that gave us an idea on how the full version could introduce us to a bigger world with various climate that we’ll have to adapt to.

While armor is important to keep Link warm and protected, having the right weapons is equally as important while out there surviving the fields. Link forages weapons, and you can also gain multiple weapons. The demo starts with players picking up the bow and arrows. From there, you can find a two-handed sword, an axe that lets you chop trees, and more.

The demo at E3 had Bokoblins to fight, and similar to The Wind Waker, it’s possible to deflect enemy attacks with Link’s shield. The game also shares similarities with Dark Souls when it comes to shield play, as timing it before an enemy strikes you will parry an attack. This move is very effective since you can disarm enemies.

There is a sound meter on the bottom of the screen. This shows players visually how much noise they are making in the game world. If you crouch while moving you make less noise which makes it easier to hunt. In addition to sound being an important factor, Breath of the Wild also has a day/night cycle. The clock at the bottom of the screen tells players what time it is and things vary depending on the time of day.

We’ve all seen how vast the world is from recent footage, and its open world is said to be about 12 times bigger than that of Twilight Princess. Another thing that made us really feel the size of the game is that there’s a lot of vertical space to the world. Link can jump (yeah, he actually jumps!) and climb and there is plenty to explore above. When you scale the top of a peak and look down or out at the world, you can definitely feel the expansiveness of what’s out there.

While on the subject of climbing higher grounds, it’s worth noting that climbing takes stamina. If you jump while climbing you actually lose more stamina. Being slow and steady lets you climb to higher ground. Swimming is another action that consumes stamina. The same stamina meter is used for climbing and swimming just in case you jump into the water. Dashing while swimming consumes stamina faster. If Link runs out of stamina while in the water, he’ll drown, so you’ll want to keep a close eye on the stamina bar while doing some crazy runs.

One more thing worth mentioning is that you can gather ingredients to cook! You need fire wood to heat up ingredients. Cooking food typically recovers more HP than eating raw ingredients, making it a crucial part of surviving in the wild. Players can hunt the boars for meat and gather mushrooms for ingredients.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild will release in 2017 for Wii U and Nintendo NX. The Wii U version has off-screen play.