The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Also known as: Zelda Chuanshuo: Kuangye zhi Xi (Asia), Zelda no Densetsu: Breath of the Wild (Japan)

Developer: Nintendo

This is the type of game that you want when you release new hardware - Breath of the Wild broke records with the number of perfect scores that it received from critics, and with good reason...it deserves it. This entry in the Legend of Zelda series is one of the greatest games that I have ever played. While it saddens me that the closest thing to “traditional” dungeons found in the game are the insides of the Divine Beasts, that change in gameplay direction towards an open world Zelda more than makes up for it with the rest of the gameplay. I’ll admit that I was skeptical of whether an open world Zelda game would work, compared to the “explore around and complete the dungeons in the correct order” formula that had worked well for the series in the past. The beauty of this being open world is that you actually have the choice to try to complete the game whenever you feel like it. Do you want to take your time, collect everything, see everything, do everything…or do you want to skip everything and head straight for the castle and battle Gannon to see if you’re skilled enough to complete the game with the absolute bare minimum? You can play this game any way that you want, but no matter how you play, it’s always fun. To sweeten everything even more, the Switch is portable, so you can explore the beauty of this version of Hyrule on the go. Breath of the Wild is an absolutely fantastic game, and it very well could be the greatest game in the history of the Legend of Zelda franchise.

Review added: 07/04/2019

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom

Also known as: Zelda no Densetsu: Chie no Karimono (Japan)

Developer: GREZZO

The non-main story Zelda games are some of my favorites…Majora's Mask and Link's Awakening are two games where Ganondorf isn't the main villain, but they're still fantastic games. Echoes of Wisdom follows those games, and even takes the art-style of the Link's Awakening remake that Nintendo put out a few years ago. This one has a twist, though…this time, you take the role of Zelda herself, rather than Link. This change allows for a brand new style of gameplay where Zelda focuses more on learning "echoes" of objects and enemies, allowing her to summon them at will. You can use the items to reach otherwise unreachable places, and of course, you can summon enemies to battle any baddies that try to cause you harm. As you advance in the game, you'll be able to summon more echoes at once, allowing you reach even more places, and essentially allowing you to summon a small army of monsters (or one very powerful monster) to fight for you. You'll also gain the ability to channel Link for short periods of time, allowing Zelda to slash at enemies and/or fire arrows, allowing her to aid her summoned allies. The end result is a very solid new entry in the Legend of Zelda franchise, and one well worth playing for Zelda fans…especially those of us who appreciate the oddball, non-Ganondorf games in the franchise.

Review added: 12/29/2024

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Also known as: Zelda no Densetsu: Tears of the Kingdom (Japan)

Developer: Nintendo

My initial thoughts of Tears of the Kingdom weren't the best, honestly. In the starting moments of the game, they throw a lot at you and, quite frankly, I initially found the crafting aspects to be a chore. I think I probably played an hour or two of the game, then moved on to other things. A few months later, I revisited the game and once I found myself back on Hyrule, I started to explore to see how this Hyrule was different than the Hyrule in Breath of the Wild….and nearly 170 hours later, I can honestly say that not only did Tears of the Kingdom win me over, it is one of the greatest video games that I have ever played. If you thought that you had plenty to explore in Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom essentially triples that, by including an underworld and sky world to explore that both span the entire map of Hyrule. As someone that loves to wander around and explore in games, I lost countless hours to just looking around and exploring in all three areas. My only real complaint upon completion is that it feels like Nintendo did too much with Tears of the Kingdom. They threw so many gimmicks and features at this game that I have a hard time believing that they can ever top it. The developer even said that they don't plan to release any DLC for the game since they feel like they can't improve upon the experience. I feel like maybe they should have saved some of the concepts and ideas found here for future Zelda games, especially since the next game now has incredibly big shoes to fill to avoid feeling like a letdown…but honestly, that's a very minor gripe. The fact is, that by using every idea they had, they created one of the absolute greatest games ever made. As I mentioned, I put nearly 170 hours into this game before I finally saw the credits roll…and I still had so much left to do and discover at that point. I can honestly see myself revisiting this game over and over and over again. The only tears that this game made me shed were tears of pure joy.

Review added: 11/13/2023