An Hour of Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Gameplay
By Derek Nichols 13 February 2017
A recent livestream event hosted by Nintendo Japan shows off nearly 100 minutes of gameplay from the beginning of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
The long road to launch for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is almost at an end for fans. With the game scheduled for release alongside the Nintendo Switch next month, the development cycle wasn’t as smooth as Nintendo had hoped after suffering multiple delays and long periods of silence. Things have been heating up lately however and thankfully for fans who want to see more of the open world gameplay in action can check out nearly 100 minutes of footage from the beginning of the game.
Sponsored by Nintendo, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild appeared in multiple livestreams at an event held in Chiba, Japan yesterday at Nico Nico Tokaichi. The livestreams were organized by Nintendo and the Japanese magazine Famitsu, showing off gameplay from the start of the game, so players who want to avoid spoilers should beware.
The six part series shows off a ton of gameplay ranging from exploration, to messing with the world in various ways, and even one of the 100 plus shrines scattered around the land. The shrine gameplay also shows off some new rune abilities, enabling Link to interact and move special stones.
The gameplay environments also range from grassy woodlands which have been extensively shown at major events like E3 2016 to other rarely seen areas like a snowy mountain and exploring a broken monastery as well. The mysterious Sheikah Slate is also found near the end of the livestream demo, unlocking a pedestal which grants Link access to a cliff which kicks off a cut scene showing off just how large and diverse the land is.
Unfortunately, those who don’t speak or read Japanese will miss the finer details, but at the very least fans can see more gameplay before the game’s launch in March. In addition, since this is pulled from livestream footage, the visual quality doesn’t represent the actual game well with high compression and low resolution.
The open world isn’t the only big change coming to Breath of the Wild. Nintendo also has a few more tricks up its sleeve including changing how dungeons work, removing the traditional formula revolving around finding an item and using it to overcome the challenges located there. Now, players won’t need to worry about finding a compass as these dungeons are designed to be more straightforward rather than making the player feel like they’re in a maze. In addition, puzzle solving revolves around a poisonous, sentient liquid called Malice that will need to be cleared away in order to progress.
What do you think of the gameplay above? Are you ready to jump into this latest entry when it arrives in a few weeks? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild launches on March 3, 2017 for Wii U and Nintendo Switch.
