By: Jesus Cruz Valdez
OwlFeed Journalist

The Legend of Zelda is one of the most immersive games of this decade. This is an overview and my opinion on the game. This is your warning for spoilers and that this will be a two-part series.
This part will be about the basic story, a few miscellaneous things and my opinion on them. The next part will go more into depth about the story.

The Prophecy
Calamity Ganon is an animalistic evil that has returned time and time again. It’s been fought and defeated ”by a warrior wielding the soul of a hero, and a princess who carries the blood of the Goddess,” said an in-game character named Impa.
10,000 years ago, Hyrule was a highly advanced civilization. The strongest monsters proved to be no threat. The people thought they’d put use to their technology so that they’d be safe if Ganon were to return.
They made four gigantic weapons that were mechanical and they came to be named the Divine Beasts. They also built weapons that were autonomous, a whole army of them named the Guardians.

“The Divine Beasts were piloted by four individuals of exceptional skill from across the land,”̈ said Impa. The four individuals were deemed Champions.
This was the plan to beat Ganon. The princess, the hero and the four Champions fought against Ganon. The Guardians were to protect the hero, while the Divine Beasts unleashed their attack.
The hero used the sword that seals the darkness to inflict the final blow. The princess then seals Ganon with her sacred power.
In the end, this plan ended up backfiring. Ganon infected the four Divine Beasts with Malice, killed the Champions and took control of the Guardians. The Guardians massacred everyone that lived in Hyrule Castle.
Link and the Princess run away while Guardians are attacking them. Link does his best to destroy most of them to protect the Princess. He gets seriously injured and loses consciousness, Zelda then instructs some of the nearby Sheikah to take him to the Shrine of Resurrection.
Hylian/Sheikah-Zelda
I don’t care much about these people. They are basic people and the Sheikah protects the Royal Family.
Zelda is the Princess and she’s a Hylian. I rate her character development a solid 9/10 and her annoying level a good 9/10.

Sheikah Slate- Game Mechanics
After the shrines on the Great Plateau, Link gets runes called Bombs, Cryonis, Magnesis and Stasis. They all help him on his journey in Hyrule.
The Bomb can be used to destroy things and hurt enemies. Don’t forget that he can get injured if he is too close. The Bomb can be upgraded and have better damage.
Stasis can freeze certain objects and if upgraded at Hateno Ancient Tech Lab it can freeze enemies as well. It can give him room to breathe and time to reposition.
Magnesis can help him move metal objects around the map. Cryonis can help get him across rivers and block attacks in certain circumstances.
Camera comes along when he fixes his Sheikah Slate, it can help him look for certain materials, ores and memories to further the story.
Weapons are the basic utility for survival, but he can only have a certain amount so choose them wisely. Weapons can also break, so don’t grow too attached to his trusty Claymore or Broadsword. The only weapon that can’t break is the “sword that seals the darkness.”
Climbing and cooking are very important to the game. Climbing is critical because almost everything is on a mountain. How much he climbs also depends on how much stamina he has.
Cooking and making elixirs is very significant to survival as they all have different uses. Some dishes can give him temporary hearts, give heat resistance, cold resistance, electrical resistance and fire resistance.
Zora-Mipha
The Zora Tribe lives in the southeastern part of the land of Hyrule. They are aquatic people who have gills, webbed feet and fins. They all resemble some type of marine life. Prince Sidon, for instance, resembles a hammerhead shark.
They also live to be more than 100 years of age. There are multiple Zora in the game who are 130 years old and still look young.
If he finds all the stone monuments for the shrine quest Zora Stone Monuments he gets a bit of backstory for the Zora. The one that I find most intriguing states:
“Our scholars say that in the distant past, Zora’s Domain had a king with no talent in the art of war. What he lacked in skill with a blade he made up for in love for his people, and especially for his queen. One day, news reached the king of a horde of monsters gathering in the Zodobon Highlands. The king steeled himself for war to protect his people, but the queen knew how ill suited for the task he was. Worried for his life, she wove one of her scales into his armor, hoping that her love would protect him in battle.”
In the end, the armor protected him and turned the tide of battle. So it became a tradition among the Zora for the wife to make her husband armor woven with one of her scales.
Mipha, one of the Champions, made Link his very own Zora Armor. She died in battle before getting the chance to give it to him. She always admired him.
She wrote in her diary, “His kindness and determination to help those in need… His strength and skill… My heart is drawn to his. I am doomed.”
If you play the game and pay attention to the cutscenes, you can tell she loves him. I find her character just so sad. She was going to try and love someone who she barely saw. Her story is great 10/10.
Gerudo-Urbosa
The Gerudo are all women and they only allow women inside their town. They live in the southwestern part of Hyrule and to have a husband they have to leave the town and find one.
Keep in mind Gerudo women finding husbands is very rare considering they live in the middle of a desert.
The only Gerudo woman Link sees with her husband is Rhondson. He actually gets to see the wedding ceremony, so that’s pretty cool, but that’s in Tarrey Town above Zora’s Domain.
Urbosa, one of the Champions, helps Link and lectures him constantly. She wants to protect Princess Zelda and help her fulfill the prophecy.
She was also the head chief along with being the most skilled swordswoman among the Gerudo. She could manipulate lightning which made her the best fit for Vah Naboris. She was bested and fell in battle.
I give Urbosa an 8.5/10, she’s a great person I just don’t like her story.

Goron-Daruk
Gorons are humanoids that live around Death Mountain, which is northeastern. They don’t eat regular “food” like the rest of the world. They eat rocks, which is weird but Death Mountain is a great place to find ore.
A few unique characteristics of the Gorons include: they can turn into a ball and roll, they‘re strong because most mine to get food and their backs are basically rocks.
Death Mountain is burning hot as it’s beside an active volcano. The Gorons are used to this heat. Link has come to this Mountain and helped the Gorons in multiple different timelines.
Don’t get me started on the timeline, it’s kind of confusing for new players to Zelda. The key fact is that every Link is a different person. Daruk considers Link a friend. I give Daruk a 9/10.

Rito-Revali
The Rito live northwestern and have grown accustomed to the cold in the area. Mostly because of the fact that they’re life-sized birds. They can fly, shoot bows and they look up to Revali.
Revali is an arrogant piece of poultry. I dislike his character because he’s just a jerk. He teases Link on multiple occasions. The most notable is the memory that gets recalled when talking to Saki in Rito Village. The memory is called Revali’s Flap if you want to look it up.
Though he isn’t the best Rito I rate him a solid 9/10. Yes, I know it’́s better than Urbosa. I felt Revali was one of those people who insults Link but actually wants to help him or be his friend.

The Great Plateau-The Tutorial
At the start of the game, Link wakes up in the Shrine of Resurrection after 100 years of slumber. He attains a tablet called the Sheikah Slate and gets out of the shrine, which is at the top of a hill. He looks out to the scenery ahead for a few seconds. Link then sees an old man at the bottom of the hill.
This old man is supposed to guide Link for the beginning of the game. Link’s objective is to get off the plateau he’s on. The old man has a paraglider to help him get off the plateau. Now what this old man wants him to do after about ten minutes of him waking up is to do shrines and attain four Spirit Orbs.
After that is done, he wants him to go to the Temple of Time. It’s on the Great Plateau just outside of the Shrine of Resurrection. He prays to this Goddess statue and with the four spirit orbs, he just attained he chooses to either up his stamina or health.
The old man calls out to him from atop of the building and he wants him to climb to where he’s at. He reveals to Link that he was the King. He then tells him of the story that happened 100 years ago, right after he fell into a deep slumber.
This part of the map is called the Great Plateau and even though it’s basically the tutorial, it’s still massive. This is the most tedious part of the game, but once you get past it you can explore the map. The monsters at the beginning of the game are ridiculously strong, so tread carefully.

Enemies
Every enemy comes in different variations. In the beginning, Link faces the red ones (Bokoblins), which are beginner level. The variation starts to change as Link progresses through the game. The blue ones are intermediate level so they’re a bit more difficult. Link then faces silver ones later in the game, which is the hardest variation, be sure to stock up on weapons.
Bokoblins are one of the first enemies he sees they are usually in a group. They‘re really annoying (just a tip, use bombs to kill them). There are Mokoblins and they are basically a bigger version of Bokoblins.
Chuchus are also a really basic enemy, but they have different variations. The basic one, the bigger one, the flame one, the ice one and the electric one. All, except for the basic one, are annoying.
Lynels are the death of me, literally. They are enemies that have a legendary strength. Link needs to be perfect at parrying and dodging to even stand a chance. They’ll run at him from afar and they are in a different league when it comes to archery. Don’t take them lightly.
Guardians are fairly easy to kill alone if you know how to and perfected the parry. If they’re in a group of other enemies be sure to be wary and probably rethink your strategy.
The enemies are challenging and fun, I give them an overall rating of 8.75/10. They get more durable as you progress through the game, so be sure to always have multiple weapons.

Towers/Shrines/Korok Seeds
Shrines are of the essence when trying to improve Link´s stamina or health. There are a total of 120 shrines in Hyrule. When finished with these shrines Link is rewarded with the legendary ¨Hero’s Clothes.¨ In Breath of the Wild, they are called ̈Cap of the Wild, Tunic of the Wild and Trousers of the Wild.¨

Both Towers and Shrines have really cool mechanics. Once Link puts his Sheikah Slate on them he can teleport to that location. Towers are key for a different reason; they let him see the layout of the map and the different towns associated with that Tower’s location.
Korok Seeds are a real pain to do though they are at almost every turn. There are 900 Korok Seeds scattered across the land. These Korok Seeds can help expand his inventory and only 451 Seeds are needed.
To expand your inventory he has to talk to Hestu and complete the side quest: Hestu’s Maracas. The other 449 Korok Seeds are irrelevant unless he wants Hestu’s gift which doesn’t do anything except take up space in his inventory.
I rate the Shrines and Towers a 10/10 they are important if you want to get places quickly. I rate the Korok Seeds a whopping 4/10. They aren’t as important but they are convenient.
Great Fairies/Clothing
Great Fairies are delightful though they require an astonishing amount of rupees to unlock all of them. I’d personally say it’s worth it, these Great Fairies can boost Link’s clothes defense if you bring them certain materials.
There are a total of four Great Fairies and they gain the power to upgrade his armor even more as each one is unlocked. The clothing itself is great, they can offer set bonuses like faster speed at night and heat resistance.

There is also a Great Horse Fairy. Let me explain. Let’s say Link is having a bad day and an enemy kills his horse. This Fairy will revive your horse. It will only revive his horse on certain conditions. Do you want to know these conditions? Play the game.

Tips/Tricks
Let’s end off this part with a few tips and tricks. Sydnee Messerschmidt, a fellow gamer and student at Agua Fria, said, “Cook 5 [Mighty] Bananas before you go into battle and your life will literally be saved.” I agree with this to an extent, it gives Link three times his attack power for a limited time and regains some hearts.
I’d say if you have the Barbarian Armor set it’s way easier and instead of cooking five Mighty Bananas, cook a few Hearty Truffles. The set bonus of the Barbarian Armor is upping your attack power and the Hearty Truffles give you temporary hearts.
I also have a personal one – grab all the fairies you can. Once you’ve reached four, they typically can be found at Great Fountain Fairies. Hold two of the fairies in your hand and four more will appear. These fairies revive you for five hearts and having them in your inventory is life-saving.
Another trick by Sydnee, “When getting the Master Sword, instead of waiting until you have 13 hearts, trade your stamina for hearts from that demon statue, then once you get the Master Sword, trade back the hearts for stamina.”
This demon statue, instead of bestowing you with hearts or stamina, buys and sells your life essence. This demon statue is found at Hateno Village and the animation is very entertaining to watch.
That’s it for this part, read more in the second part of the guide.