The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

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The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a 2017 video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch and Wii U. Part of the Legend of Zelda series, his story happens in a place of the timeline long after any other installments of the series.

As usual, Link wakes up at the beginning of the game. This time however, he seems to wake up in a kind of hibernation chamber. And when he goes outside of the cave where the chamber was, he discovers something bad happened to Hyrule. Apparently, 100 years ago, an entity known as Calamity Ganon devastated the kingdom of Hyrule. It has been contained inside Hyrule Castle, but the time for his escape approaches. Guided by a disembodied voice, Link decides to go towards the castle.

A sequel was announced at E3 2019, and will likely see release in 2022. Watch the trailer here.

Tropes used in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild include:

• Amnesiac Hero: Link wakes up barely remembering anything other than his mission, but gains bits and pieces of his memories during the story.
• An Ice Person:
  • There's Lizalfos with the ability to spit balls of ice at Link. Fittingly, Link mostly finds them at the top of mountains or other snowy areas.
  • Divine Beast Vah Ruta uses ice objects it creates to attack Link and Sidon. As it turns out, this was Waterblight Ganon's power all along, since it uses its ability again when Link fights it directly.
• And 99 Cents: Kilton's wares are priced in this manner.
• Apocalypse How: Class 0, but Calamity Ganon wants to make it Class 4, if not even worse.
  • Apocalypse Not: The individual towns of Hyrule seems to be managing okay - for now - despite the disaster. However, they're few and far between, and it's clear looking at the various ruins laying around that Hyrule's nowhere near as prosperous as it once was.
• Attractive Bent Gender: Link's feminine good looks make him a very convincing woman when he crossdresses, and several oblivious men fall head over heels in love with him when he talks to them. Vilia also passes for an attractive Gerudo woman... until you get a peek under his veil.
• Baby Got Back: Zelda has a big butt, and the tight pants she wears are incredibly flattering.
• Back from the Dead:
  • Implied by the name of the shrine where Link was sleeping, “Shrine of Resurrection”, though Purah affirms he was only seriously wounded, averting the trope.
  • During the Blood Moon, Calamity Ganon resurrects enemies slain by Link so they can try to kill him again.
• Badass Princess: Zelda has fit the Trope before, but this is, without a doubt, the most badass version yet. She's been fighting Ganon nonstop for the past 100 years!
• Bad Moon Rising: The moon turns red when Calamity Ganon's power rises to its peak. During that time, known as "Blood Moon", the enemies who Link have slain are raised from the dead to fight for Ganon, between other nasty side effects.
• Bare Your Midriff: All Gerudo show off their bellies, whether they're young and attractive or old and withered. Link can also get in on this by by wearing a Gerudo outfit to infiltrate Gerudo Town.
• Bat Out of Hell: Keese, bats with one gigantic eye that appear at night, sometimes in large swarms.
• Big Bad Wannabe: While the Yiga Clan are genuinely dangerous, it's hard to take them even the slightest bit seriously thanks to how much of a clown Kohga is. The man accidentally kills himself with his own attack, for goodness sake!
• Big Beautiful Man: There's no telling what Kohga looks like under his mask, but his female followers certainly think he's a dreamboat.
• Big Beautiful Woman: The Great Fairies, who are very plump, thickly built, and absolutely stunning. Also, middle-aged Gerudo collectively sport something of an "ex-jock gut", but are still quite attractive despite their weathered, aged faces.
• Blob Monster: Chuchus, living blobs of goo that will try to leap at Link to hurt him.
• Bloodless Carnage: To a cartoonish level: if Link kills a normal animal, the animal puffs and turns into a piece of meat.
• Boom! Headshot!:
  • Shooting arrows to a monster's head inflicts more damage than what they normally deal.
  • And this is usually fatal to animals.
• Breakable Weapons: One of the game's selling points is that nearly every weapon and shield that you collect will eventually shatter after an certain number of uses (and even immediately in some cases, for example if a shield is subjected to a more powerful attack than it can withstand).
• Bullet Time:
  • Drawing your bow while you're in the air will slow down time to a snail's pace so you can easily aim your arrows. This will quickly drain your stamina, though.
  • An similar effect occurs when you dodge an enemy's attack at the right moment, enabling you to hit your opponent multiple times in the span of a few seconds.
• Came Back Strong: Slay an entire camp's worth of Bokoblins, Moblins, or Lizalfos, and when the Blood Moon respawns them, one of a group might be the stronger, silver type. This can happen to Lynels too.
• Camp Gay: Bolson is a mix of this and Manly Gay: he's flamboyant, swishy, wears pink clothes and lipstick, but he's also a carpenter who goes all-in with the Hot-Blooded shouting when he and his men get to work.
• Can't Get Away with Nuthin': Link has to go all way back to the beginning of a path towards a certain shrine if he damages the flowers surrounding it. Even if the damage happens accidentally, like while fighting an enemy.
• Changing Clothes Is a Free Action: Played straight, despite the generally increased realism compared to previous Zelda games.
• Charged Attack: The Guardian in the Soh Kofi Shrine has as last resort strategy a charged attack that leads to it to fire four consecutive laser beams on Link.
• Chubby Chaser: A random Yiga encounter has you talking to a female assassin who's smitten with Master Kohga and his "cute, poochy tummy". If you have Link tell her that "he has a dumb belly", she is not amused.
• Continuity Nod: During a ceremony, Zelda makes references to others Links' lives:

Whether skyward bound, adrift in time, or steeped in the embers of twilight, the sacred blade is forever bound to the soul of the hero...

• Convection, Schmonvection: A rare case of a video game where this is averted. Link cannot survive the superheated air in the Eldin area without magical protection (either potions or special armor) and any combustible items he carries burn quickly. The closer he is to the source of the heat, the more protection he needs. The in-game thermometer can't even measure the temperature there and just reads “Error”. Bomb Arrows will also blow up in Link's face if he tries to use them there.
• Cool Sword: The Master Sword, of course, but there are others, like the Ancient Bladesaw. It's a freakin' chainsaw that Link uses like a sword!
• Cordon Bleugh Chef: Purposely subverted. Link can cook some pretty potent Power-Up Food when he follows his recipes, but if he tries to cook ingredients that obviously shouldn't go together, like put bat wings in with apples and rice, all he'll get is a barely edible mess. Putting more than one stat enhancing ingredient in one dish will likely ruin it too.
• Creepy Crossdresser: To get into Gerudo Town, Link has to get a set of Gerudo clothes from a man known to have infiltrated the city. Said man, Vilia, is heavily implied to be a creepy pervert with a love of crossdressing, and when Link gets a look at his face beneath his veil, he's sporting some very obvious five-o-clock shadow underneath. Cue his hilariously squicked out reaction.
• Darkest Hour: Shown as history, the battle a hundred years ago which ended with Ganon winning. The literal darkest hour is shown via cutscene as a recovered Memory, complete with a Hope Spot.
• Dark Is Evil: Unsurprisingly, becoming a swirling mass of dark Malice energy hasn't made Ganon a single bit nicer.
• Dead All Along: The Old Man in the Great Plateau is a dead king. More exactly, King Rhoam of Hyrule.
• Deal with the Devil: What got the entity inside the Horned Statue an eternity of imprisonment by the goddess Hylia; she didn't like him making outrageous deals like exchanging life for money, or the reverse.
• Dem Bones: The Stalkoblin, Stalizalfos and Stalmoblin are reanimated corpses (of a Bokoblin, Lizalfos and Moblin respectively) made entirely of bone, without one piece of flesh visible. There's also the Stalnox, which are undead Hinoxes.
• Disguised in Drag: In order to do anything in Gerudo Town, Link has to dress as a woman, wearing something that looks like a harem girl outfit; he's clearly embarrassed the first time he does it. Oddly, several Gerudo catch on fast to this disguise - including Princess Riju and her Number Two - but they still insist it's necessary.
• Eldritch Abomination: Ganon does not even remotely resemble a human in this version, and has long been stuck in the form of a vaguely boar-shaped cloud of Malice called Calamity Ganon. His first battle form might be more of a Humanoid Abomination being a large bug-like Cyborg made out of Guardian parts and other Sheikah Tech, the only trace of the original Ganondorf being his red bearded face. It's revealed that he was trying to reconstruct a physical body before the battle, but all he managed was a half-rotting corpse. Ganon's final form, a Kaiju-sized demonic boar, has the title of "Hatred and Malice Incarnate", and truly fits this Trope with Zelda stating Ganon has given up on trying to reincarnate. At least in the English version, that is. In the original Japanese version, he become this as a result of trying - and failing - to reincarnate himself.
• Elite Mook: Moblins are bigger, stronger, and sturdier than their weaker Bokoblin brethren, and Lynels are far stronger than even them to the point of being extremely dangerous Bosses in Mook Clothing. Yiga Swordsmen are also a hell of a lot more dangerous than the rank-and-file assassins.
• Exposed to the Elements: Again, averted. Link needs warm clothing or magic (or to be carrying a lit torch or have a flame weapon equipped) to survive blizzards and high altitudes, and the colder it is, the more protection he needs. Similarly, surviving the heat of Gerudo Desert during daytime requires cool clothing or magic (or to have an ice weapon equipped), and the hottest temperatures require twice the protection. Oddly, fireproof clothing and elixirs provide no protection from the desert heat.
• Fingerless Gloves: Zelda wears them, apparently only because it looks cool.
• Flash of Pain: Not only does Link flash red while low on health (and when hit), his weapons and shields also do so (on the inventory screen) when close to breaking.
• Full Set Bonus: Each style of armor consists of a helmet, top, and pants; while each piece gives Link some benefit alone, additional pieces of the same armor increase the benefit, and sometimes the full set gives Link an additional boon. For instance, one or two pieces of Snowquill armor gives Link some resistance to cold, but all three makes him impervious to attacks that cause Freezing.
  • Most sets require that the Great Fairies upgrade every part at least twice to deliver the bonus, though; the exceptions are those sets which cannot be upgraded, in which case the bonus is available immediately.
  • The Radiant outfit is a peculiar case, its set bonuses being the only physical effects it provides. The same goes for the Gerudo outfit (which is also non-upgradable).
• "Get Back Here!" Boss: A variant. When Link first meets Naydra, the dragon is covered with Malice that is attempting to corrupt him. Link has to chase after Naydra using the Glider and fire arrows at specific parts of the Malice to purge it and free Naydra.
• Getting Crap Past the Radar: if you go to the inn in Gerudo Town and buy the more expensive room, it comes with a massage; the player can only hear, not see, what happens, but it seems Link is enjoying it a little too much. The peculiar thing about this is, Link is Disguised in Drag whenever he's in this town; exactly how he can get a massage without the masseuse figuring it out is a mystery.
• Go for the Eye: Hinoxes, but they will cover it if Link deals too much damage.
  • Also a good way to fight Guardians, as hitting the eye with an arrow will stun it, but attacking the legs - if it has them - does even more damage.
• Grievous Harm with a Body: When Moblins are found with Bokoblins, the former will sometimes throw the latter at Link!
  • Pebblits are unhurt by weapons, but Link can pick one up and throw it at other Pebblits.
• Healing Hands: Mipha's special ability is to be able to heal wounds with her hands.
• Heroic Mime: While this is the first Zelda game to have voice actors, Link, as always, remains silent. This is emphasized in one scene where Urbosa asks him a question, but he does not vocally answer, and she says, "Yes, your silence speaks volumes."
• Hero of Another Story: All four of the Champions qualify, each having gained heroic prestige among their own peoples long before meeting Link.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: The easiest way of taking down a Guardian is parrying their attack with a shield, reflecting their energy beam attack back on them.
• Hot Amazon: The Gerudo in this game are just as scantily clad and attractive as the ones in Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, but are also incredibly muscular and fit.
• Humongous Mecha: The Divine Beasts are robots constructed to fight Ganon, and can be piloted by Champions.
• Improvised Weapon: Link can use wood sticks as weapons. Later, he can use soup ladles like swords, brooms and pitchforks like spears, and pot lids as shields.
• Incredibly Lame Pun:
  • Link can make a few sealy puns when asking about the Sand Seals in Gerudo Town.
    • Riju's Sand Seal, Patricia, incorporates them into her words of wisdom; but Padda spares Link the pain of most of them. (It's not hard to figure out what they were going to be, though.)
  • Sayge, the dye shop owner, also gets quite “colorful”.
• Instant Awesome, Just Add Dragons: There are three dragons in Hyrule; Dinraal, Farosh, and Naydra. All three divine beings of unearthly beauty with godlike power who harness the elemental forces. Simply getting close to them is dangerous, as their auras can crush Link quickly if he doesn't have proper protection. "Awesome" doesn't begin to describe them.
• Kill It with Fire: Icy enemies ranges from losing their frigid aura to dying in one hit when exposed to fire.
• Kill It with Ice: Fiery enemies have the same weakness to ice weapons.
• Kleptomaniac Hero: Grabbing everything you can take from defeated foes - be it rupees, weapons, food, gems, or Organ Drops - is highly recommended.
• Large and In Charge: Dorephan, king of the Zora, is gigantic despite the fact his race have more humanoid proportions.
• Mecha-Mooks: Kind of justified: Calamity Ganon don't seems to have tried to make any allies and, in fact, seems to not desire one since it wants to kill every living thing in Hyrule; so his mooks are the robotic Guardians, and even then he seems to have enslaved them more because he didn't want to risk having them as enemies than because he desired them as subordinates, because apparently they helped in defeating him before.
• Miniature Senior Citizens: Impa is the size of a small child, as is Robbie. Pura is also over a hundred years old, but her small size comes from accidentally de-aging herself into a child.
• Money Spider:
  • Talus are huge rock-monsters who yield lots of gems when destroyed.
  • Kill enough mobs, and eventually silver versions of them will appear that, while harder, drop gemstones. In Master Mode, Gold varieties appear that are even tougher but drop more.
• Mook Maker: Pools of Malice spit monsters out of their mouths when you approach.
• Morton's Fork: When you meet a traveler who is secretly a Yiga member, he or she asks Link a question, and the player has to give one out of two answers. Doesn't really matter, however, as both answers result in the Yiga attacking Link. In one case, the Yiga offers to sell Link his Mighty Bananas; if Link doesn't buy them all, the Yiga gets upset at Link for insulting his wares and attacks him. If Link does buy all 99 of them, the guy's a little happier, but still attacks Link.
• Ms. Fanservice: In a game that isn't that sexual, Urbosa walks around wearing a Chainmail Bikini while using a scarf as a sarong. Every other Gerudo around her age is just as scantily-clad and gorgeous.
  • This game's Great Fairies are scantily-clad Big Beautiful Women with robust figures, and they are very flirty towards Link, usually hugging and kissing him when they level up his gear.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: The evil Yiga Clan are decent fighters, but their obsession with bananas and over-the-top buffoon of a leader may lead you into thinking that they are just comical foes like the Bokoblins. But then you learn about Dorian's backstory as a former Yiga Clan member. The Yiga Clan, in response to his defection, killed his wife and now threaten to kill his children if he does not give up information about Link and Kakariko Village. Even when he complies to their wishes, the clan members decide to execute him for outliving his usefulness, and would have succeeded if Link had not intervened. Despite their goofy demeanor, they are still a ruthless and murderous cult carrying out Calamity Ganon's will.
• Obviously Evil: Calamity Ganon, even more so than before. He's a massive swirling mass of magenta/black energy that vaguely looks like a demonic boar, and his physical body is that of a rotten corpse-like mess of robotics and Malice. Hard to mistake him for anything but evil.
• Older Than They Look: Purah has the looks and the size of a small child thanks to an experiment Gone Horribly Right.
• Orange-Blue Contrast: Sheikah Towers glow orange until Link activates them with his Sheikah Slate, then they turn blue. Shrines have three states: All orange to start with; then when opened by Link's Sheikah Slate, the base turns blue while the tip stays orange; finally, the tip turns blue when completed.
• Overly Long Gag: Every time Sidon pops up outside of Zora's Domain, he strikes a pose, smiles, and shows off his shiny teeth in a winning smile. Every single time. From the time you begin your trek to the domain all the way until you battle and infiltrate Vah Ruta, it happens at least a dozen times.
• Plant People: The Koroks.
• Properly Paranoid: Brigo isn't wrong to fear the end of the world, and he notices the right signals for it.
• Reality Ensues: While it's still a fantastic medieval fantasy game, Breath of the Wild goes for a more realistic approach with how it handles physics compared to other Zelda games.
  • Link isn't immune to Exposed to the Elements; his health will drain and he can even die of cold if you don't keep a heat source (like a flame) near him, or make him wear adequate clothes for cold. And if you don't have a way to cool him down in sweltering environments, he'll die from the heat. His wooden gear will even burst into the flames the deeper you go into the volcanic Death Mountain.
  • While lightning homing in on you and you specifically during thunderstorms is a bit much, it's still a very bad idea to carry around metal equipment during one.
  • If it isn't a surface specifically made for climbing, rocks and mountains are hard to scale when they're wet, and climbing them while it's raining is an exercise in futility and frustration.
  • You aren't going to find arrows or rupees by cutting grass or breaking rocks, you're going to want to look in places that make sense. If you want arrows, you have to kill bow-wielding monsters, break crates kept at monster camps, or buy them from merchants. As for Rupees, you can usually get them by selling things, but you can also get them by defeating Yiga Clan members. Since they're humans, it makes sense that they'd be carrying money on them.
  • Falling into icy cold water is a death sentence, no matter how warmly dressed you are or how many warming drinks/food you've consumed.
  • Bomb Arrows are useless in the rain and in Death Mountain: a bomb with a wet fuse is pretty much a dud, and the ridiculous heat of a volcanic environment will set them off way before you'll want them to.
  • You better bring gear to keep you warm in the desert, because it gets cold at night. Very cold.
• Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Lizalfos, for more than one reason. They're tougher than Bokoblins, and unlike Bokoblins, are good swimmers, often ambushing Link from water.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: The Entity inside the Horned Statue is a demon that makes deals with people. You could argue people were only foolish to make deals with him... until the point where he takes one of Link's heart containers to force him into a bargain.
• Sealed Good in a Can: Zelda, seeing as she's sealed herself in order to keep Ganon sealed.
  • Also, the Sheikah monks, who have been inside the shrines in deep meditation for thousands of years until needed.
• Shifting Sand Land: Gerudo Desert, as usual. In a twist of fate, it's surprisingly realistic in the sense that while it's unbearable hot during the day, it's also incredibly cold at night.
• Shock and Awe: In a nutshell, being electrocuted in this game sucks. Not only do you get stunned, but you'll drop the weapon you're holding. Thankfully, you can use this against the monsters you fight.
  • Certain enemies will come in electric flavors such as Chu Chus, Keese, and Wizzrobes. Electric Wizzrobes also wield a special lightning-slinging rod that Link can use if he kills one.
  • Lizalfos and Lynels often carry Shock Arrows; Link can use them too, and they are useful against enemies in water. They are required for the battle against Divine Beast Vah Ruta.
  • Thunderblight Ganon is a lightning-themed boss, and its aggression and status as an incarnation of Calamity Ganon's wrath makes it a Psycho Electro as well.
  • Urbosa, Champion of the Gerudo has the ability to call down blasts of lightning to smite her foes, and her Divine Beast, Vah Naboris, can also rain down lightning on its foes. Once Thunderblight Ganon has been slain, Link gains Urbosa's Fury which allows him to borrow the Gerudo's lightning powers for his adventure.
• Starfish Robots: The Guardians have six legs and cephalopod-like heads.
• Stout Strength: Riju's bodyguard Buliara has a stocky muscular gut and huge arms, making her come off as the female equivalent of a power-lifter. King Dorephan of the Zora is built similarly, and is known to have flung a Guardian off a cliff when it tried to attack Zora's Domain years back. And of course, the Gorons as a whole are as rotund and buff as they always are.
• Super Drowning Skills: Link's ability to swim is handled rather realistically; he can swim as long as his stamina wheel holds out. However, he can swim just as well in plate armor as he can in a regular shirt and trousers. It's different for monsters: Bokoblins and undead enemies swim about as well as anchors, and it's relatively easy to defeat a group of them by luring them into water. The same goes for Guardians, but if you defeat them that way, you lose the loot they drop, which is often the biggest reason to fight them. Lizalfos, however, can swim like fish and often ambush Link from water.
• Token Loli: Riju, the preteen Gerudo queen and the youngest successor to the original Champions of Hyrule.
• Trademark Favorite Food: The evil Yiga Clan really likes Mighty Bananas; Link can use them to distract members while infiltrating their hideout. Monk Maz Koshia - the Bonus Boss of the Champions Ballad DLC - loves them too, but unlike the Yiga, the distraction trick only works on him once.
  • A journal you find in the ruins of Hyrule Castle library states that Zelda's favorite dessert is fruitcake, and also has the recipe.
• Trick Arrow: Link can use arrows that have elemental powers, like ice, fire and lightning. Bomb Arrows also make a return from Twilight Princess.
• The Undead: It wouldn't be a Zelda game without them: skeletal versions of enemies like Bokoblins and Moblins will harass you at night, and the Shrikah Monks are living mummies. You get to fight one such mummified monk in the Champion's Ballad DLC as one of the game's toughest opponents.
• Underground Monkey: Moblins and Bokoblins have Red (weakest), Blue, Black, Cursed, and Silver (toughest) varieties; Master Mode adds the even tougher Gold variety. Keese, Lizalfos, and Chuchus come in normal, Fire, Ice and Lightning varieties; Wizzrobes have the same types except “normal”. Octoroks have Water, Forest, Rock, Snow, Treasure, and Sky varieties. Talos and Pebblits have lava and ice variants.
• Video Game Caring Potential: You see all those adorable dogs and beautiful horses? You can feed them and endear them to you, while you can also pet your horses in order to strengthen your bonds with them. One prominent sidequest chain also helps you establish a new town in the mostly-empty Hyrule, and culminates in you helping a man and woman get married.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential:
  • Want to torment Link? Undress him in the tundra, or force him to wear a full set of armor on Death Mountain. Not only is the poor guy going to die from the cold/heatstroke without proper protection, but he'll either be shivering or panting like crazy.
  • Epona was invincible in other games. The horses here (including Epona, if you summon her with an Amiibo) are not. While enemies can kill them, you can also do the deed yourself, and in a particularly stunning moment of cruelty you can ride them up to Death Mountain and watch as they burst into flames and burn to death.
  • You can't hurt any friendly NPC's, but you can freak them out by whacking them with your weapons, tossing bombs at them, or trying to set them on fire.
  • Fighting monsters can be an exercise in sadism: you can blast and blow them off of cliffs with bombs and Korok Leaves, you can electrocute them, burn them, freeze them, crush them under rocks and huge metal objects, drop beehives on their heads and watch them run around in a mad panic...
  • Ideally, you're supposed to catch fish by swimming after them and grabbing each individual fish... but you can easily say "screw it" and kill a bunch of them at once by shocking the water they're in or tossing a bomb at them.
  • In Kakariko Village, there's an old woman who is very proud of the plum trees she's raising and will flip out if you do anything to hurt them. Destroy all of them though, and she'll just be disappointed and sad. At least, until video game logic kicks in and they instantly regrow once you leave and come back to the village.
  • This is one of very few games where you can kill a Cucco! It takes a lot of time and effort (literal hours, at that), but with enough determination you can take a Cucco all the way to Death Mountain and fling it into the lava, completely destroying the poor bird.
  • When you find an NPC looking over the edge of one of the towers, you have the option of having Link sneak up behind him and shout, "BOO!" (Don't worry, he doesn't fall.)
• Weakened by the Light: Undead foes only come out at night, unable to stand the sun.
• Wham! Line: Practically every time you meet a traveler, and you discover who they belong to Yiga Clan, they drop one. Because they are a clan of ninja assassins whose whole purpose is killing Link, and after dropping the line they attack you.
• You Kill It, You Bought It:
  • Link can use the clubs of Bokoblins he kills, though sometimes you just need to knock the weapon from their hands.
  • When a pair of Bokoblins is cooking a piece of meat, Link can kill them and take their meat.
  • Taken to a literal level with the purple skull chests: you have to kill all the enemies in that area to be able to open it. You can drop a Bokoblin off a cliff but if he somehow survives landing down below, you have to drop his health to 0 to be able to open the chest.