Nintendo dedicated a huge chunk of their Treehouse live event yesterday to the new Legend of Zelda, which now has a subtitle, Breath of the Wild. We now have our first in-depth look at the gameplay, and even with Nintendo spending a whole day showing the game off it only scratches the surface on this open-air adventure.
With hopes of bringing back the original charm of Zelda, Nintendo hopes to put Zelda back on the map. Here are a few highlights from the livestream.
Shrines of Trials: More than 100 of these locations are scattered around the world for players to find, and in some cases finding the Shrines can be a puzzle in itself. As a result, Shrines offer more compact challenges that can be solved in a variety of ways. In order to earn a Spirit Orb from the monks who designed these challenges, players must overcome challenges or solve puzzles.
Runes: While exploring Shrines, players can earn Runes. For instance, the Magnesis Rune can help Link lift and toss metal objects. The Remote Bomb has two different types of bombs: rolling spherical ones and cubical ones that stay in place. The Stasis Rune briefly freezes moving objects, while the Cryonis Rune freezes water and causes an ice pillar to appear.
Weapons and Combat: The game contains a wide variety of weapons, many new to the series. Players must find weapons or take them from enemies, but weapons wear out as you use them. Players can also time offensive and defensive manoeuvres to temporarily slow time and connect with a flurry of strikes against their opponent.
Food: In another break with conventional gameplay for the series, players hoping to replenish their hearts or score some easy rupees will come up empty when they cut grass. Link can forage for a variety of foods in his environment, including apples and mushrooms. He can also hunt for food. Consuming raw foods gives him a modest health increase, but cooking different kinds of ingredients together will result in dishes with different effects, such as cold or heat resistance, for a limited amount of time.
Climate: From snowy areas to desert heat, Link must dress appropriately for the weather. If he needs to stay warm, he can don appropriate clothing, warm himself with a fiery torch or even eat food to maintain his body temperature and his health. Link also needs to be careful during lightning storms – if he is equipped with metal equipment during a downpour, he can find himself attracting deadly lightning bolts.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is scheduled to launch simultaneously for both Wii U and Nintendo’s next system, code-named NX, in 2017. To get a glimpse of what the game will have to offer you can watch the individual segments over at the E3 Nintendo Videos.
