top of page
Search

The Pure Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

  • Writer: Aidan J
    Aidan J
  • Jul 31, 2018
  • 5 min read

A medieval setting with Japanese influences. A realistic physics system combined with dynamic time and weather systems. A huge open world filled with secrets around every corner. This is Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

Look at that golden water. That golden sun! Wait, this isn't Golden Sun!

It’s one of the best games ever made. For starters, it’s a lot of fun, and while that’s hard to measure from person to person, see if this sounds interesting. You can sneak up on a monster camp while they’re sleeping to cut down a nearby tree so that it lands on their heads. You can battle a centaur while on a horse of your own, jump off, and mount the centaur. If you read that and you’re not interested, it’s your loss, but you probably will ONLY enjoy the game a good amount.

The only complaint I’ve heard about the game is its story. It does not give the player all the information; some of the plot is left out due to the narrative structure of the game. Personally, I think the story is brilliantly done.

The game does not try to reinvent the hero’s story. It sticks to a beautiful simplicity that is almost uncommon within its genre. For reference, I am comparing this game to open world games such as Witcher 3 and God of War, or massive linear games like Mass Effect.

I guess we should start at the side quests. In an open world, there will no doubt be a bunch of miscellaneous objectives to complete to improve. Of course, there are Koroks everywhere that allow you to hold more goodies while you’re adventuring. There are shrines and side quests that take some time, but reward you with better items; however, these quests are not compressed stories of their own. While a couple of them are, such as create a whole new town, the others seem to be little snapshots of activities. In the Witcher 3, you are tasked with finding the killer of a drunk soldier the night before, resulting in you having to decide between letting a reformed succubus live or completing the task for extra coin. In contrast, Breath of the Wild has you chasing around little bird kids to get them to their recital. The side quests are lighter, quicker, less impactful, and more of a life-like experience, since not everything is so grandiose.


This is not a cross between man and bird. This is a child of a fictional race known as the Rito. Looks like there's some dew in the air, so let's call her Dew Rito.

Unlike huge linear games like Mass Effect, the story takes no twists nor turns throughout the entire adventure. The point of the game is to defeat malice-incarnate, Calamity Ganon. This “malice” is a poisonous-bog substance that has spread across the kingdom, infecting all sorts of machines and landscapes. So, you prepare, and then you travel to fight the final boss.

The machines I mentioned are battle robots from an ancient civilization. Their origins were unknown, but the Sheikah tribe restored their power so they may be used to take on this Calamity. When used in the fight before the events of the game, the Calamity corrupted the technology, leading the robots against their owners, and soon took over the castle.

lighter, quicker, less impactful, and more of a life-like experience, since not everything is so grandiose.

The malice is the driving force of corruption within the world. It spreads equally across the artificial and the natural world; the game does not try to make a statement on the differences between these two spheres. The only conflict thematically is that between the Calamity and the Goddess.

The fighters could not destroy Calamity Ganon during the first fight because they did not have the power of the Goddess on their side. The seer, Princess Zelda, had not yet unlocked her powers of faith.



Zelda’s life was not a happy one. When she was still a wee lass, her mother died. Her mother was to be her teacher, the one who would awaken her connection to the Goddess. Her self-studying failed her, and she grew up with whispers of judgement echoing through the castle walls, as she could not fulfill her role in the prophecy to destroy the Calamity. She had no support system: the king only encouraged her to study, not to support her. Her only friend was Link, the knight sworn to protect her, who never utters a single word. She is undeniably alone, stricken by grief from her mother, without any connections to her family and any clue whether the knight in shining armor likes her.

(Pictured: knight in shining armor.)

Once the Calamity comes, she is still woefully unprepared, and her kingdom falls to ruin. Yet, after a passionate moment shared between Link and the princess, Zelda finally gains her connection to the Goddess, as she now risks everything to save the knight that has constantly saved her. The connection to the Goddess came to her as she realized her pure love for the knight.

This search for purity directly opposes the corruption of the Calamity, a certain, unpreventable, yet hollow force, compared to the uncertain, preventable, but strong force of the Goddess.

Purity and Corruption? This sounds like Shintoism. The practice of Shinto involves purification rites to counteract defilement, known as kegare. This type of sin is not an evil that requires an intention, or an action, but rather a condition caused by an evilness of spirit like sin or an unfortunate circumstance. This evilness can be explained by disrespecting any kami, leaving them quite peeved.


Member of the Yiga Clan. If the Sheikah's were pure because they fought for Hyrule, then the Yiga are corrupt for fighting for Ganon.

Kami is untranslatable into English. They are outside our world yet have connections to certain objects or places: a family might have a shrine to their kami in their garden. Kami can also be personal beings, but they can also be representative of the elements, or rivers, or land. They can even be like a god.

Amaterasu is the most famous—and most important—Kami, as it is said she created the Imperial family, and rules over both Heaven and Earth. That sounds strikingly like the Goddess of the Legend of Zelda universe, although that sounds closer to Skyward Sword, the game that inspired Breath of the Wild to be made. Without any actual dogma to the religion, there is no traditional hierarchy of other spirits, and as a result, they all sort of exist like humans in a spiritual dimension. This grants them the power of playing and mischief that explains spontaneity in life. The Koroks mentioned earlier are a great example of a spirit celebrating spontaneity; Koroks hide around every corner, and because it gives you incentives to find them, exploring the world becomes enjoyable, fun, and spontaneous. It promotes a happiness within the player that can only really be described as peaceful and pure.

The story is simple. Stop the corrupting force, and instead seek purification of both the land and technology. That is the message that Breath of the Wild conveys, deriving from the studio’s Japanese influence. They are Japanese after all, so it makes sense they might have some bias to include Shinto concepts into the game. Yet, they also adhered to the basic principle of simplicity. If it had any fluff, any moral dilemmas, any twists in the story, the game could not use its puzzles, exploration, and dialogue to create an experience that demonstrates the harmony between humanity, nature, and technology so well. We are the tenders to our earthly garden, using our tools for the benefit of the land, and receiving nature’s boon in return.


Comments

© 2023 by Stagyrite2. Proudly created with Wix.com

Join my mailing list

bottom of page