Peter James Mann
I have a backlog of games I need to play. A lot of them are strewn about the Nintendo Switch and PC, so I thought I’d start with beating all the games I have on my Switch one-by-one, and try to get as many of them to 100% completion.
Because I can’t really say I’m doing game journalism if I’m not really diving into a lot of these seminal games. There are plenty I have done, but they were all on the PS4. I sold that because my family wanted a NIntendo Switch, and I figured they would have plenty of games I’d love on there (rightfully so, which I will give myself credit for because I do not do that very often. Pat. Pat).
And since I also want to spend more time with my kids, this allows me to do that. Especially with titles that are more family-friendly. My son asked to sit and watch me play a video game, he wanted one with monsters and us being a hero and fighting bad guys. I decided to dust off my copy of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and do something that, at the time, I wasn’t completely ready for: a playthrough in Master Mode.
I never actually beat it on Normal Mode, but I got pretty far! Life got, well, lifey. But I wanted to see what the major differences were and see how much I remembered. I remembered this game being a fair challenge for me, but not one that was due to combat related difficulties. I had no idea the adventure we would be starting upon.
For those that haven’t played, here is a brief synopsis of the game: You’re Link, you were frozen in time to heal and wake up 100 years later. Zelda, somehow, is also still alive, but Calamity Ganon destroyed the Kingdom of Hyrule. You’re back to set things right and save the world from even more destruction. And you’ve got a long way to go.
Along that very, very long road, you’ll be treated to some of the best visuals you can still see on Switch. The cel-shaded-inspired graphics still feel like you’re playing through a graphic novel or a fantasy novel. A majority of the dialogue is text based and my son loved all the silly voices I would do in place of the actors. I’m still not a big fan of Zelda’s voice, but the classic Link grunts and gasps we’ve gotten since Ocarina of Time are still here; that brings back a lot of memories.
There’s also, by the way, nothing stopping you as a player from running right at Ganon in the center of the map to try and defeat him immediately, but you’ll get eviscerated. So I at least remembered that. But Master Mode makes it that much harder. Chests and Enemy placements can vary from Normal Mode, along with the addition of platforms being held aloft by Octo Balloons. Also, every single enemy in the game is increased in difficulty by one level.
“Oh,” I hear you say, “one level doesn’t sound too bad.” But it is. Oh, it is. And you’re not exactly the biggest badass in the kingdom anymore. You’re starting off with twigs and wooden clubs, spears and shields. And those enemies are now way tougher and have a larger health gauge, with the same equipment, but they kill you in one or two hits. And it isn’t the greatest feeling to have the loading screen help tips tell you things like (and I’m paraphrasing this):
“Instead of running head first into enemies, have you considered getting better equipment, potions or better tactics in battle?”
“No, I hadn’t,” which I said in sarcasm, but I also started to agree with. I hadn’t actually explored most of the starting area, I hadn’t actually tried stealth and sneak strikes. And that wasn’t just in Master Mode, that was in Normal Mode unless it was explicitly lied before me with pop-ups to “Use Stealth Now.” I felt like an idiot.
But I found more stuff than I had ever found before in the starting area. I hadn’t even visited the Old Man’s Cabin behind the ruins of the Temple of Time. I didn’t know there was a centaur walking around in the fields by the ruined guardians, some of which are alive (which I did know about), and I could have had a Warm Doublet from the starting area the whole time. All of that was found scouting different ways to the same goals I found before, but with way, way better ways of getting there.
That is a testament to the quality of the Open-World design of Breath of the Wild. There are a myriad of ways to complete quests, fight enemies, traverse terrain, you name it. But Master Mode brought me to all the places I believe the designers hoped I would go, the items I should be using, and how to all of my abilities to their fullest potential.
I slogged away at enemies, breaking shield after shield, weapon after weapon, until I played like A Metal Gear Solid game. I found a really nice groove of sneaking around enemies, scouting the terrain and using my environment to my advantage.
All the while, I had my son in tow, cheering me on to keep fighting the bad guys. Also he gave me a ton of crap for sneaking after a while, but also encouragement. Mostly demands. It was honestly great.
See you Soon.
