The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a revelation. A masterwork of game design. It is incredible that this can be said of a Zelda game, but here we are.
Over the years, Zelda had become formulaic and, despite being the originator of many foundational ideas in action RPGs, was beginning to feel bereft of truly inspirational gameplay. There were still excellent new games in the series with minor adjustments on the standard gameplay loop (A Link Between Worlds with its borrowing of tools comes to mind), but they all generally followed the same formula.
Thus, Breath of the Wild felt all the more like a breath of fresh air. Gone is the gated content, dungeon-delving, and acquisition of tools to essentially unlock new areas. In their place is a greater openness than I think I've seen in any game I've ever played. You can put 100 hours into the game before facing Ganon if you want to but you're also free to jump off the starting plateau and face him within an hour of starting up the game.
For Nintendo to have delivered so well on the promise behind the seemingly tongue-in-cheek "See that mountain? You can climb it!" hook is fantastic. But it goes beyond just that. The game is designed from the ground up to constantly give you sight lines to new and interesting places that you actually want to visit.
While Breath of the Wild is generally light on narrative plot, stories instead grow organically out of the gameplay. The best games allow you to tell a story about what you did in them that can engage people who haven't even played them before, and Zelda delivers that kind of experience better than any game I've ever played.
I think back on the time early on in my first playthrough of the game when I saw a cliff hanging over the ocean far in the distance and decided I had to go there just to see what I could see. I called my horse, who I had only recently tamed, and rode up a path on the mountainside. At the top, I reached a flat, grassy plateau. I was avoiding the bokoblins riding around the area when I heard dramatic piano music start up and noticed a red laser beam pointed at my chest. I turned to see my first live Guardian right there on the hillside, looking right at me!
I rode as fast as I could and managed to avoid its first shot, which exploded into the ground, sending up dirt and catching the grass on fire. I was heading to that cliff and I wasn't about to let an ancient spider tank thing with a laser beam stop me. The laser was focusing on me again as I pounded away from the Guardian, struggling to get far enough away for it to stop pursuing. The second shot missed... but the third one threw me from my horse to the ground.
I had a scrap of health left. I had no idea where I was. It started to rain. I turned to face the Guardian. My anger at its interruption of my journey outweighed my fear. I held up my shield and ran towards it as it fired at me again.
I burned through two fairies, multiple swords and spears, every shield I had, a quiver full of arrows, and countless stores of food before I realized my defeat was inevitable. I had only one trick left up my sleeve, so I went for it! I ran zig-zag in the opposite direction of the Guardian through a stand of trees and towards the edge of the plateau. Its laser beam hit the trees and ground behind me, but it couldn't hit me as I dodged out of the way each time. One last laser beam slammed into the ground behind me as I leaped off the edge of the plateau into the great empty space beyond... and pulled out my glider.
I had survived my first fight with a Guardian. And as I glided down towards the ocean below, I saw the cliff I had set out for in the distance. But in the dark and rainy night I saw something else as well--the blue glow of a shrine on what looked to be an island in the distance. And another island past that. And I was off on my next adventure.
There are so few games that constantly create such compelling stories through gameplay mechanics alone. That, to me, is the greatest strength of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and the reason it takes the number one spot on my 2017 Game of the Year list.
Played on: Nintendo Switch