the legend of zelda: breath of the wild
when BOTW was announced, I greeted it with professional interest at best. an open world game on a nintendo console? really? I hadn't played a zelda in a while and I didn't feel a deep and urgent need to do so.
six years have passed. I'm back in florida for christmas, watching my brother-in-law playing games as we sit around and wait for the baby to go to sleep. it's breath of the wild. he's doing some busywork: showing a villager boy several legendary weapons in a row in exchange for rupees, fulfilling a longheld desire of the boy's deceased grandfather.
it looks good. the voices I care about in games say it's good. but is it for me? I've always worried: everything I see on social media is people building bizarre physics props. solving strange puzzles. is this what zelda is now? what about that weapon degredation everyone is so up-in-arms over?
the sequel comes out. the world logs on to play Tears of the Kingdom. I finally decide to start playing catch-up.
what can I say that hasn't already been said by more eloquent people? the vibes are incredible. the puzzles are there but they're not THERE. you don't have to play kerbal space program to play zelda. the game exudes wonderment. there's so much to discover. the game out-does the ubisoft map-full-of-icons model at every single turn, except perhaps speed of menu interaction. the writing is charming. the sense of danger, of the need to survive, is real.
there were moments where I was absolutely transfixed, taken by moments of nostalgia so deeply rooted that I'd forgotten they were there. there were moments where I cursed at a death fairly doled out. there was so much, and I have left much of the world untouched (even having prematurely bought the two DLCs so that I could get instant-horse summoning.)
what a game.