The Better Way

I won’t grumble on this post, at least not to the external world. This time, if there’s a grumble, it will be directed at me.

One of the many things I regret in life, not that I can actually have this regret as it wasn’t my decision to make, more like something imposed on me due to financial situation and household-family structure, but this “regret” would be not being able to play the Zelda games during their release window, or to not even hear about them until so much later in life.

My journey through the fantastic world of Hyrule, and I use the word “fantastic” here in both senses because it is a series of fantastic games, started on the 3DS with “A Link Between Worlds“, and I have to give credit to the creative minds who thought of this and many other names for the Zelda games, as “Link” here means the hero Link but also the connection between different worlds that happens in the story, and although I remember very little of the game itself so many years later, and with so many other games played and books read between then and now, the memory was lost, but I do remember that I spent months on it and the feeling of loving every second is still present, well, every second after I really understood the game and persisted a bit, because during the first few hours I almost gave up. It was kind of frustrating and a bit too difficult for me at the time, as this type of game was a novel experience for me, introducing me to this genre. It was quite the challenge, but everything was so well made, well designed, the freedom to move, to do what you want when you want, the secrets, the puzzles, it was just perfect, an awesome first experience with Zelda games. I do have to thank the fandom here because podcasts and “the internet” were extremely insistent and full of positive reviews, so I had to persist, even though it was not the type of game I was used to, even though it was a bit too difficult for my taste. Because of the fandom I persisted, and I didn’t have to persist for too much. After finally understanding the mechanics and combat, it became such a wonderful game for me, still challenging and frustrating at times, but still a fantastic experience.

Then I stayed years, and I may say almost a decade even, without trying another Zelda game. Life happened, other new games and IPs were released, new books, new movies, new series, I just went on with my life, little by little overwriting the memories I had with “A Link Between Worlds”, until it came time to buy the first Nintendo Switch, a year after its release. When I went to the store to buy it, there was a promotion to bring home a game for free, but the selection was not very appealing. I won’t remember all the options available, I do remember that Breath of the Wild was among them, but I didn’t want it. In my mind, it was just another “3D sword hack ‘n’ slash” similar to the hundreds of similar titles I saw or played on PS2, PS3, and Wii before it, but as the other options were even less captivating for my ignorant tastes at the time, I selected Breath of the Wild. It stayed on my shelf at home for a few weeks still, unopened, untouched. I was playing something Mario, then something indie that caught my attention, and when I was left with nothing available, I decided to boot Breath of the Wild for the first time, and then I couldn’t think of anything else.

My experience with Breath of the Wild is a strange one, because again I thought the game was too difficult for me. There were enemies I simply couldn’t beat. On that first time, I just wasn’t able to replicate the parry and dodge well enough. It took me several attempts to pass through their tutorial, and after it I used those mechanics rarely, but the whole freedom, exploration, everywhere you look you can go, every little place you try to explore has something to do or to see or to collect, the shrines and puzzles made to be challenging but not impossible for the average mind, the cooking, the pictures! I spent weeks taking pictures of everything, sometimes I opened the game just to take pictures and complete my compendium, and retaking them as well because I wanted to have a better or closer framing. The powers gave you even more freedom to act as you saw fit, multiple ways to solve the puzzles and challenges. It is even possible to think of ways to break and bypass the puzzles if you want, like me using bomb arrows because I didn’t want to use the motion controls for an “apparatus”, or using fireproof clothes to make a fire puzzle easier, or Lynel bows to light up three things on fire at the same time. So much to do, and so many ways to achieve what you want, a unique experience in the gaming world.

I had one of the best gaming experiences of my life with Breath of the Wild. Now I do not remember if I did 100% on my first or second playthrough, but I played this game multiple times, and in one of those I did every single thing I could, 100% and more, and this is something I simply can’t do for most media. Even movies I don’t like to watch twice in most cases, and games as well, I just can’t play the same game twice. The second time it becomes too boring for me to be able to enjoy it, but Breath of the Wild was not like the others. I played it again almost instantly after beating it once, then a couple of years later, and then again some more, and recently, with the advance of technology where I could play it outside the original hardware, I played it once again. But I am getting ahead of myself here, back to the past. After finishing all I could with Breath of the Wild, I was left with the feeling of wanting more of this, and there wasn’t anything available that gave me even a fraction of the freedom, exploration, and rewards of Breath of the Wild. There was Assassin’s Creed, Just Cause, and some other similar titles that started copying the mechanics of having many things to collect, several portions of the map to open after climbing up a tower and opening the map, but it was never the same. Those non-Zelda games were too boring in their exploration. Assassin’s Creed, for example, always had huge maps full of things to collect, but all those collectibles were so repetitive and boring or annoying that I never cared to collect more than a couple of them, and only when they were right there on my path. Same for the other games. Even the renowned GTA has boring and sometimes annoying collectibles to get. It is quite rare to see (in my bubble) people who spend time trying to get everything in those non-Zelda titles.

So, left with no other alternative, no new game to fulfill the emptiness left by Breath of the Wild, I had to appeal to the older games of this franchise.

And this is the source of my regret, the reason why I wish I had played those games when they were released, because now, after so many years, they all felt quite outdated to me. I made several attempts, on different devices and different occasions, at some popular titles like Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword, Wind Waker, and some others, but they just weren’t playable for me. I do feel like what they lacked was just nostalgia. If I had played them during my childhood they would certainly be playable now, but as a newcomer trying them for the first time, several years or even decades after their release, it felt to me like their gameplay, graphics, camera control, world, everything was outdated, and after a couple of hours fighting with the controls I realized that I was forcing myself to play them. After a while I had to give up. The only older game that I could enjoy for a little longer was The Wind Waker. Perhaps those cartoonish graphics helped keep it pretty, but after a bit of struggling with the camera and controls, it just went to the pile of discarded games. Even though I strongly wanted to play them all, I was not enjoying them. Maybe my mistake here was going directly to the middle of the 3D era, where nowadays they all feel ugly and old and outdated (all 3D games, from all consoles), with terrible controls for camera and character. Maybe in the near future I will make another attempt at even older titles, the 2D ones may still be playable for a newcomer. (Side note, I did play the newer releases, Link’s Awakening and Echoes of Wisdom, but they were just good games, not even close to the feeling of Breath of the Wild and its successor.)

And then Tears of the Kingdom happened.

This one I was not going to miss. I got it on the first day. The only reason I can’t say that I got it in the first minutes of its release is because my internet wasn’t good enough, but for this title I was there as early as technically possible. I was participating in this worldwide release inside and outside the game, following channels and discussions about new discoveries, new enemies, new powers, people finding funny ways to bring Koroks closer together. I was there the first time the double-fan bike was created, and it was a game changer to me. I believe I was halfway through the game, still mapping the Depths, when this bike started popping up on the internet, and since its discovery it became my main transportation method. But back to the topic of feelings, that feeling was there again, now multiplied by three, three maps, three levels of freedom, exploration, and discoveries. I spent months on this game, doing as much as I could. It was still a little bit difficult for me, as my playstyle involved 99% exploration and 1% battles, just the mandatory ones, struggling and using all the food and weapons in my inventory. But even avoiding the fights, I enjoyed this game a lot, three times more than Breath of the Wild.

I didn’t do 100% on it (yet) and played it only once since its release, but now it is a good time to go back there and try to do everything that is possible, and I say that it is a good time not because there’s a new version with some graphic upgrades for the Nintendo Switch 2, but because now I know how to fight!

So, the reason for me to write this post a couple of months ago, after getting tired of me spamming “Zelda” to my wife during the last 10 years or so, she decided to play Breath of the Wild, and without prior experience with games in general, she struggled to control the camera and character in the 3D world. To my surprise, after she left the tutorial and became used to the mechanics, her playstyle was totally different from mine, focused more on “kill all that moves” instead of my “focus on exploration, stealth, running away from monsters, and save every consumable for the future“. She was using arrows like there was no tomorrow, killing all that dared to show their ugly faces in front of her. Consumables were to be consumed, weapons to be used, arrows to be shot, frogs to become stamina, Leeroy Jenkins them all! After watching her bravado and seeing her eliminate everything that cast a shadow, it made me rethink my way of playing games, and there I went to play it again, but this time with less stealth, less saving things for when I may need them, less using arrows sparingly, and it became a different game for me. I was now a hunter and had a totally new way to enjoy the game. After being killed by Lynels and Guardians a few times, well, more like dozens of times, I started learning their patterns, understanding their movements, and now I can beat them without losing a single heart container. Ok, this is an exaggeration, but it does happen sometimes, and compared to before, when I didn’t have much fighting practice and struggled to beat them using hundreds of food items and potions, and going through all available weapons. Now I can say I am many times better with this playstyle, all thanks to my wife ignoring my pleas to save arrows.

Now, with a different mindset and a different playstyle, it’s time to face Tears of the Kingdom again, and this time I will 100% it. No three-headed dragon or devilish hands will block my path!