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.
  • 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. Electric, fiery, and icy versions exist too.
  • Blob Monster: Chuchus, blue blobs with yellow eyes. Also come in Electric, fiery, and icy versions.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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 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.
  • 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.
  • 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: Calamity Ganon does not even remotely resemble a human in this version. 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 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.
  • 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.
  • Humongous Mecha: The Divine Beasts are robots constructed to fight Ganon, to 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 has the size of a small 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 using a scarf as a skirt and using only small breastplates to cover her torso. Without mentioning the high heels.
  • 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: Sidon swings his arm, smile, and his teeth shine. From the time you first meet him until Link has to go inside Vah Ruta, he probably already did that 12 times.
  • Plant People: The Koroks.
  • Properly Paranoid: Brigo has really reason to fear the end of the world, and he notices the right signals for it.
  • Reality Ensues: 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.
  • 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 her…until the point where she 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.
  • Shock and Awe: In a nutshell, being electrocuted in this game temporarily stuns you as you drop a piece of your equipment; and this also applies to some of the monsters, as well.
    • Electrical Keese and Electrical Chuchus, as their names make it obvious. They'll try to shock Link by contact, but don't have other forms of attack.
    • Some Wizzrobes wield a Lightning Rod (or its more powerful version, the Thunderstorm Rod), using it to shoot sparks. Link can also use those rods against enemies, if he obtains one.
    • Lizalfoes 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.
  • Starfish Robots: The Guardians have six legs and cephalopod-like heads.
  • 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.
  • 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 Pebbits have lava and ice variants.
  • Video Game Cruelty Potential:
    • You can force Link to suffer in cold areas by removing his warm clothes, leaving him shivering. Conversely, you can also make him trudge through deserts and volcanoes in full metal armor.
    • Be honest, if you've played this game, you've figured out that firing a burning arrow at an Exploding Barrel in the middle of a whole tribe of Bokoblins can lay waste to the whole tribe in seconds, a move that brings instant Catharsis.
    • Unlike other games in the series, horses can actually die from being hit by attacks. While this mainly means that the monsters you encounter have another target, this doesn't stop you from murdering your own horse if you feel it's outlived its purpose, or if you find a horse with a nicer-looking design or even better stats. And it's ultimately unnecessary, since you can have up to 5 at a time in the stables, and can let go of the ones you don't want. Also, if you try to bring it near the lava in the Eldin region, the poor thing will burst into flames unlike other damage-registering NPCs.
    • While NPCs can't be harmed, you can still swing your weapons at them to make them scared or annoyed. They'll have a different reaction to your bombs, where they'll look at it in terror, track where it goes if you toss it, and then freak out proper when you detonate the bomb. They also have a different reaction to your attempts at setting them on fire with the Fire or Meteor Rod.
    • Fighting monsters has so many ways you can utilize: blowing them up with explosives, shooting elemental arrows at them, setting them on fire with a torch, blowing them off a cliff with a Korok Leaf… the possibilities are endless! But what takes the cake is what you can do to skeletons: You can beat one with its own arm, then steal its skull and run away with it while the rest of the skeleton desperately tries to take it back, and finally kick the skull off a cliff, after which the skeleton throws a fit in frustration before collapsing into a pile of bones.
    • Want to catch a whole school of fish but you’re too ill-equipped/lazy to swim after them? Simply let loose a Shock Arrow into their general area and watch them all float up to the surface of the water!
    • An old lady in Kakariko Village yells at you for stepping in her garden where she's growing her plum trees. She'll also yell at you if you blow up a tree with a bomb. Blow up all the trees and she gets depressed that her trees are all gone.
    • Like most games in the series, attacking Cuccos earns you the wrath of the Cucco Revenge Squad. However, due to the open world nature of this game, it is possible to kill them without consequences by carrying one all the way up to the hottest parts of the Eldin region and then throwing it into lava.
    • An NPC will give you 500 rupees if you agree to meeting a Great Fairy and making an offering in his place. Nothing is stopping you from ignoring the request and just keeping the money for yourself, though doing so does deprive you of a means of further upgrading your armour.
    • 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.
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