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I just wonder what Calamity GANON’S up to!

Many videogame franchises, like movie series, tend to be of inconsistent quality, although critics may extol some to the point where finding legitimate dissenting opinion tends to be tedious at best. Nintendo’s fabled The Legend of Zelda franchise is one such pantheon, with mainstream videogame critics lauding its first three-dimensional entry, Ocarina of Time, as one of the greatest games of all time and a beacon in an otherwise-lackluster Nintendo 64 lineup. In 2017, the Big N released the latest entry of the series, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, on the Wii U and Switch, again garnering near-universal praise, but is it justified?

Breath of the Wild opens with yet another incarnation of series protagonist Link awakening after a century in cryostasis with no memory of the time before, with a main quest focusing on visiting various locations indicated by photographs in a Sheikah Slate of which he comes into possession so that he can see memories of his past with Princess Zelda’s crusade against an antagonist force known as Calamity Ganon. With this setup, players can be forgiven for experiencing some trepidation, given that many other videogames have done amnesia plotlines to death, and this entry certainly doesn’t do it any better than other titles with the trite narrative device. The goals of rescuing Zelda and defeating Ganon have, too, been done plentiful times.

That leaves the gameplay to shoulder the burden, with Breath of the Wild sporting nonlinear open-world play that starts Link off in a vast explorable world, with the mute hero quickly obtaining all tools necessary to solve whatever puzzles may come in Shrines liberally spread throughout the world whence he can obtain Spirit Orbs, four of which he can exchange for either an extra heart container (Link starting with three) or a hint of stamina necessary to climb obstacles from which he falls when running out of it, although players might want to hold out on the latter since sleeping at some inns in the world can net him a temporary extra stamina ring, and maybe a few extra maximum hearts.

Players can outfit Link with clothes and/or armor that provide heightened defense, sometimes resistance to hot and cold elements that is in fact necessary to fully explore Hyrule, not to mention weapons, shields, and bows to shoot arrows. The game restricts the amount of equipment the player can carry at once, and while sidequests can increase these limits, maximum load is hardly critical to success throughout the game. Weapons one or two-handed, shields, and bows gradually wear down and break after excessive use, although clothes remain intact, players able to increase its defense by visiting fairy fountains and consuming specific parts gained from killing most monsters.

Link can use some of said ingredients, in addition to meat gained from killing wild animals and other foodstuffs found throughout the world, up to five of which he can carry at once, to cook consumables that can perform duties such as granting temporary increase to attack and defense, resistance to hot or cold, and recovering hearts. Lamentably, Breath of the Wild doesn’t track recipes like so many other titles with similar item creation mechanics do, which augments the general artificial difficulty throughout the game. Keeping plentiful healing items tends to be critical to success against most adversaries, and fortunately, ingredients that formulate such consumables at least receive indication with heart icons.

Another main goal is to subjugate the four Divine Beasts at several corners of Hyrule, although the player can actually forgo this task and confront Calamity Ganon any time but doing so without meticulously exploring the world would be far more difficult. Beating the bosses possessing the Divine Beasts grants Link both an extra heart container and a special ability that has limited use and needs time to recharge after the player uses them. There are other quirks with combat such as Link being able to jump, especially effective when doing so from high up, and granting him the ability to slow time when using his bow and various kinds of arrows, making hunting and defeating some foes easier.

In general, the gameplay definitely has plenty going for it, with standard battles against foes allowing players to use the targeting system present in other three-dimensional Zeldas for more effective combat, although the trio of dimensions and the camera create issues that are otherwise absent in titles with 2-D gameplay. Some of the puzzles necessary to complete shrines and increase Link’s stamina and hearts are actually fairly enjoyable, even though some might necessitate a guide, a few being tedious such as one where the player has to guide a ball through a maze and launch it onto a slope. In the end, the general game mechanics are a positive.

Control in Breath of the Wild is, however, perhaps its low point, given the general lack of direction and need to reference a guide to make the most of the gameplay itself. The maps of the Divine Beast dungeons, moreover, are actually somewhat unhelpful, appearing as three-dimensional transparent models rather than as individual chambers with various floors like in Ocarina of Time’s automapping system, players needing to activate terminals indicated by dots before facing their bosses. The player can also expect to die often, and there is absolutely no excuse for loading times in a cartridge game, occurring largely during the teleportation to shrines and towers that unveil maps for Hyrule’s various regions. Ultimately, the developers could have certainly given interaction a once-over.

Zelda games tend to feature enjoyable soundtracks, although Breath of the Wild even falters in this area, given the general lack of music and overreliance upon ambience during exploration, although there are a few decent tracks, even if some existed in prior installments of the series. This entry is also the first mainline entry, not counting the Unholy Triforce of Phillips CD-i titles, to feature full voice acting during cutscenes, which is actually pretty good, even if the lips sometimes don’t match spoken words, and with pleonasms that the localization team could have compressed such as “past one hundred years” into “past century.” All in all, the audio too could have used more memorable music.

A high point of the game, however, is its visual presentation, sporting a style that bridges the line between realistic and celshaded, with believable character and enemy models, not to mention pretty scenery with realistic colors, although some of the textures appear blurry and pixelated at times, and there is occasional pop-up regarding things such as foes and wild animals. There also exist the oddity, within the game menus, of a model of Link appearing to eat invisible food whenever the player uses a food item or potion, although this is hardly a deal-breaker in an otherwise pretty videogame.

Overall, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild definitely has some things going for it, such as its serviceable open-world gameplay, nice voice acting, pretty graphics, and enough reason to play on. However, like Ocarina of Time before it, it scarcely justifies the acclaim it’s received as one of the greatest games of all time, given many superior titles within and without the Zelda franchise, not to mention issues such as its difficulty without Internet reference, loading times, the generic plot, and minimalist audio presentation. In fact, had it been this reviewer’s first Nintendo Switch game instead of the vastly-superior Super Mario Odyssey, he would have been downright furious, although those who still own Wii U’s might find it a good time sink.

The Good:
+Serviceable open-world gameplay.
+Good voicework.
+Nice visuals.
+Plenty lasting appeal.

The Bad:
-Difficult without a guide.
-Loading times in a cartridge game…come on.
-Generic plot.
-Minimalist musical presentation.

The Bottom Line:
Not as great as critics claim, but far from terrible.

Score Breakdown:
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Game Mechanics: 7/10
Controls: 4/10
Story: 5/10
Localization: 9/10
Music/Sound: 6/10
Graphics: 8/10
Lasting Appeal: 10/10
Difficulty: Somewhat Artificial
Playing Time: No in-game clock.

Overall: 7/10

Developer tri-Ace is known for its roleplaying games blurring the line among various subgenres, such as the Star Ocean and Valkyrie Profile series, published under the Enix, eventually Square-Enix, banner. In between console generations, they commenced development of a new title under the codename “Project Cobra,” the result published in 2010 under the name End of Eternity in Japan, and Resonance of Fate in the rest of the world, although surprisingly, Sega published the title instead of Square-Enix. The combat system contains many interesting ideas, but do they follow through in harmony?

Although many have heralded the battle system to be “innovative,” it’s actually an amalgamation of elements filched from previous roleplaying games, although the overworld system of connected hexes is somewhat unique, with special consumables necessary to further exploration among the world’s various layers. Colored hexes can hook up to terminals that provide effect to the areas they overlap (in addition to unveiling story destinations), although said terminals require a certain number of hexes of the base color to take effect. This somewhat parallels the area-of-effect system of tactical RPGs such as the Disgaea franchise, with terminals potentially becoming a decider in late-game combat.

Battles themselves are randomly-encountered on the overworld and in areas outside the hex-based “dungeons,” although each room in said dungeons contains fixed enemy fights for the most part. Terminals and an accessory can potentially nullify random encounters, and possibly allow for stress-free travel throughout the game. The fights themselves really blur the line among turn-based, action, and tactical roleplaying games, the player equipping the three playable protagonists with various firearms, an ammo case, a grenade box, and an item box, for use in combat, gamers able to mix-and-match combinations of these in most instances however they please.

Fights occur in an arena-like area on the overworld or in a dungeon’s chambers, the player moving around one ally at a time while targeting an enemy with their weapons. If the player desires to attack an enemy, they must “charge” their weapon at least one round, with greater effects the higher the charge and a protagonist’s proficiencies with the current weapon type, the three increasing levels, max HP, and capacity points allowing for higher-level equipment and guns with more accessories. Since grenades come in scarce supply early in the game, players might want to hold off on increasing their level for the three characters until they become readily available for purchase in the base town’s shop.

Enemies can interrupt a character’s charge, effectively wasting the player’s time, and while the player can see the charge gauges of enemies in front of them, they’re pretty much completely blind to foes elsewhere, and if the player reaches their maximum charge without manual execution, they’ve also wasted their time, and while an accessory can deter it, certain accessories become far more critical to success in battle. Before attacking foes with handguns and grenades, it’s critical to soften them up first with machinegun fire before executing “direct” damage using one of the other two weapon types, enemy and player character shields gradually recovering.

A major safeguard to success in combat is the Bezel system, with the player having a certain number of Bezels that each character can consume to run in a straight line across the battlefield while being immune to damage, able to charge up their weapons even more greatly, and able to jump in an arc that terminates at the endpoint decided before performing one of these Hero actions, and is in fact necessary to avoid obstacles that otherwise cut short their run. The player collects Bezel shards from story battles, sometimes from tough encounters indicated by glowing red hexes on the overworld, or as special rewards from opening hexes, four of these granting an additional Bezel.

If a character’s Hero action’s path crosses the invisible line created by his or her two other allies, then the player will gain a Resonance Point, which they can use to run in a triangle in whatever order the player decides while charging and being able to unleash their weapons simultaneously until they reach the end of their paths. However, if the player has a Resonance Point and manually moves a character, they will lose all they have acquired (players able to accumulate more if they perform more Hero actions that cross the lines creates by the two other characters).

If the player loses all Bezels due to performing too many Hero actions or losing them due to enemies fully “scratching” one of the protagonist’s HP gauges, the battle goes into critical state, where the player’s characters become significantly weaker, and they receive a Game Over if one loses all their health. However, the player can restart the battle with the stats they had when commencing it initially for a cost of some money or retry the battle with Bezels fully restored for an even greater cost, which is actually pretty much necessary to succeeding in an early story mission where the player has to protect a statue from enemy onslaughts from a dungeon’s start to finish.

Characters gain experience with their equipped weapons simply by using them, with level-ups happening in the middle of battle, and the player obtaining items necessary to create more powerful goods, transparent or colored hexes, and maybe junk sellable for money. One mechanism that can significantly increase item rewards is each character’s potential to launch an enemy into the air with an attack, in which case an ally equipped with a machinegun or handgun can smack them down to the ground and rebound them while jumping if they’re at a higher altitude than the enemy, skillful gamers able to repeat this process as they please.

All in all, the battle system has some nice ideas and can be fun, with terminals for instance being exploitable to increase things like each character’s rate of leveling in places such as the arena near the hub town and the amount of time enemies float in the air after launching them, although gameplay clichés such as the aforementioned need to protect a statue during its transportation through a dungeon, not to mention several chapters where the player must fight with reduced party size, significantly harder than with the full cast of three protagonists. Most fights further tend to be a matter of downing an enemy’s shields through machinegun and then handgun fire and assaulting the enemy proper, the difficulty generally being inconsistent and more about skill than levels at times.

The game’s controls fare somewhat worse, with unskippable startup screens such as one cautioning players sensitive to blinking lights about playing the game, the player needing to sit through the voice acting during cinematic cutscenes without being able to scroll through the text, a restricted save system that commits sins such as not placing save and recovery opportunities right before bosses, the tedium of outfitting firearms with parts without an option to optimize them (and where unequipping a part forces the player to scroll back up to the list of equipped parts), and so forth. The linear structure, however, keeps players generally moving in the right direction, so interaction could have certainly been worse.

The plot is perhaps the weakest element of the game, focusing on a dystopian setting of a world consisting of several levels raised towards the heaven, with little in the way of character development and tried elements such as an antagonist with a tragic past, and the ending is a bit confusing. The translation for the cutscene dialogue is generally serviceable, but the storyline is by no means a major reason to play the game.

The voiced battle dialogue, however, is a completely different story, with disjointed lines such as “Straight to hell!” and “Bark but no bite!” among others, and generally being terrible, as seems the norm among Japanese roleplaying games, the voicework during story scenes being hit-or-miss. Composers Motoi Sakuraba and Kohei Tanaka, however, generally do a good job with the music, in spite of some musicless moments.

The visuals are fairly generic, with a seeming overuse of grayish hues and general dull colors, alongside blurry and pixilated texturing of environments, although the character and enemy models are believable and account for graphics one could consider serviceable at best.

Finally, depending upon the player’s skill and whether they devote time to sidequests such as the arena, playing time can be at least two days’ worth, although this player somewhat found himself addicted to leveling in the arena and some extra dungeons, accounting for a little under six days of playtime.

In conclusion, Resonance of Fate continues its developer’s legacy of quirky gameplay systems, given the potential to have fun with combat, although its execution feels disjointed and rough around the edges, given inconsistent difficulty and tired gameplay clichés, and the storyline certainly doesn’t provide reason enough to experience the potentially-long game, the voices in battle are horrible, and the visuals don’t really push the PlayStation 3 to their limit. The soundtrack is pretty much the high point of the game and given a minor degree of fun this player had with the game, it actually has a little lasting appeal, and might be worth it if one can find it at a low price. The mainstream gamer, however, isn’t missing much should they avoid the title.

The Good:
+Battle system can be fun with certain exploitations.
+Good soundtrack.

The Bad:
-Combat’s ideas fall flat in execution.
-Unmemorable story.
-Awful battle dialogue.
-Mediocre graphics.

The Bottom Line:
The game isn’t bad, but you aren’t really missing much.

Score Breakdown:
Platform: PlayStation 3
Game Mechanics: 6/10
Controls: 4/10
Story: 3/10
Localization: 6/10
Music/Sound: 7/10
Graphics: 5/10
Lasting Appeal: 8/10
Difficulty: Schizophrenic
Playing Time: 2-6 Days

Overall: 6/10