BOTW: 10 Things We Wish Would Change

Breath of the Wild is an amazing game. Its map is bigger than the already enormous Skyrim’s, and the physics engine is so dynamic that the unimaginable can happen with a click of a button. But that doesn’t mean it’s perfect: here are 10 things we wish would change about the game.

10. Gerudo Town Entry Post-Vah Naboris

We get it, the Gerudo wouldn’t let Link in before Vah Naboris. After all, they were in a life crisis with Naboris roaming around next to their town and didn’t have a clue who Link was yet. But even after he completed the Divine Beast, they still kick him out of the town if he’s not dressed as a woman. What’s up with that? Link just saved your town, freed Champion Urbosa’s spirit, and helped Naboris move to strike Ganon, and you know very well who he is. Strangers are a different situation. Show some appreciation, please?

9. Flesh Out Revali’s Character

Revali is the example of a character that Nintendo failed to flesh out properly. He rubbed tons of players the wrong way with the first memory he’s shown in, and even in the rest of the memories he’s featured in (with the exception of the DLC “EX Revali’s Song”), he isn’t shown for who he is. The only way to see who he is underneath his supposed arrogance is to purchase the Champions’ Ballad expansion pass. And even then, some people don’t want to read through his whole diary to learn about the Champion who has, unfortunately, already become just another character to hate for them.

8. Weapon Durability

This has become a really big problem by now. Everyone hates how quickly your strongest weapon can break on you in the middle of a fight, and it can get pure frustrating when two break. Take the Savage Lynel Sword, for example. It’s one of the most powerful one-handed weapons in all of BOTW, but this doesn’t stop it from breaking mere minutes after initiating a jump strike. Weapon durability is arguably one of the most limiting factors in BOTW’s overall fighting mechanic.

7. Underwater Swimming

One thing in Skyward Sword that is superior to BOTW is the ability to swim underwater. It provides an interesting new mechanic that reveals a whole world beneath the waves. It also introduced a new species living alongside the Water Dragon, Faron: the Parella, a squid-like race that prefers to live in a secluded environment. This officially makes them the second species living in water, with the Zora being the first. However, Breath of the Wild, for whatever reason, avoids going underwater – hopefully, its sequel will change this.

6. Attack on Vah Rudania

Vah Naboris, Vah Ruta, and Vah Medoh all had great, fast-paced boarding sequences that required you to seize opportunities at the right time and keep your head in the game. The only one that lacks is Vah Rudania. Its boarding sequence, rather than being a thrilling challenge, felt like a boring chore that basically consisted of playing red light, green light with a cowardly Goron named Yunobo. And that’s it. It’s literally talking to a stone!

5. Korok Seed Completion Reward

The ultimately most trashy thing in BOTW is the golden stack of poop Hestu gives to you after you’ve searched far and wide for all 900 Koroks. I mean, that’s all you get! No cool upgrades, no infinite weapon storage, nothing special… just something dubbed Hestu’s Gift that is stated in-game to “smell pretty bad.” Really, Hestu? It’s no easy feat to find all nine hundred of your hiding friends, and you should try it yourself if you don’t know already. Even giving his maracas to Link would be better than giving poop.

4. Shrine Completion Reward

Breath of the Wild really isn’t big on giving good completion rewards, is it? The shrine completion reward is at least better than Hestu’s “Gift,” but it’s still pretty lame. As a reward for meticulously looking for all 120 shrines and solving the puzzles/shrine quests inside or outside of them, you receive the Hero of the Wild clothing set, which is basically Link’s classic green clothes he wears in every single Zelda game. At least it comes with a unique set bonus of “Master Sword Beam Up”… until you realize the same effect is obtainable from amiibo outfits such as the Skyward Sword and Wind Waker sets.

3. Durability Meter

Okay, be like that if you really want to stick with weapon durability, but how about at least a durability meter? Players should know when to save a weapon for later, how much durability is lost from a certain attack, etc. via a meter, like the shield durability bar in Skyward Sword. The “badly damaged” alert only barely touches the surface of knowing how much durability is left in your weapons. I can’t believe Nintendo never created anything of a durability meter during BOTW’s development.

2. Re-Entering the Divine Beasts

I’m sure nearly all of you reading this have accidentally missed a treasure chest in at least one Divine Beast, left the dungeon permanently (you can’t receive the corresponding Champion ability if you don’t permanently leave it), and spent the rest of your days mourning about how you can’t get a second chance. I know how that feels like. That’s exactly why Nintendo absolutely should make the Divine Beasts re-enterable dungeons, like most other dungeons in most other Zelda games. Even for those who have magically never missed a single dungeon chest, re-entering the Divine Beasts would just be pretty cool. It’s hard to disagree with me, right?

1. Post-Game Content

Five words: We. Need. Post. Game. Content! Regardless of how much you hate the NPCs, post-game reactions to peace in Hyrule would be extremely interesting to see, on top of the Divine Beasts’ peace and a “clean” Hyrule Castle. While we don’t need any extra main questline (save that for BOTW 2), it would still spark fans’ interests to explore a post-Calamity Hyrule, aka a land temporarily in peace for the first time in Zelda history. We’ve only seen Ganon-free Hyrule in cutscenes, but never as a playable world.