The Lingering Allure of Breath of the Wild

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a year and a half old, as of this writing. I purchased the game on day one for the Wii U since I was in no kind of decent financial position to get a Switch at the time. I must have played that version for over a hundred hours, barely bothering to get any of the Divine Beasts, preferring to get lost in the gameplay mechanics and seemingly infinite wilderness playground that Nintendo had created for me. Later in the year, Santa brought a Switch into my household with another copy of the game, and my second playthrough began as if the first had never happened, taking new directions and exploring new spaces, progressing further and sinking even more time into the endeavor. I finally completed the story on the Switch, gaining momentum after the second Divine Beast and powering through to the end, by disregarding my ever-growing list of side stories and quests. It was at that moment that I finally put the game down, probably the one I spent the most time with in 2017, and headed off to discover other worlds.

But to walk away from this version of Hyrule is to not really leave. The world keeps begging for you to return. The portability and ease of use of the Switch certainly plays a big part in keeping me invested. It’s so easy to play in small chunks, whether at the laundromat or on lunch breaks at work. And there’s always something new to find, something to do that keeps tugging on my attention span, some rock formation in the distance that I want to climb or the possibility of an undiscovered shrine or korok seed somewhere just around the next bend.

I haven’t found Breath of the Wild to be the physics playground that many have, however I’m constantly amazed by what players are accomplishing in the game, as I’m reminded frequently from the game’s very active player base, a constant presence in reddit’s r/gaming or on the splash pages of Youtube. Nintendo built a massive playground for us to play in and explore, and each player can accomplish that in their own way, in their own time. There’s nothing pushing you forward other than your own set of goals and what you want to accomplish. My side quest list shows no signs of decreasing, every time I knock one or two off, another few seem to come right up in their place, and I frequently pay little to no attention to it anyway as I explore territories that are still new to me.

The game has been critically lauded, and there’s nothing I can say here that adds anything new to that conversation, but my experience with most games is that once they’ve been beaten or completed, my motivation to return from them drops off precipitously, to the point that I rarely, if ever replay games or return to their worlds. In the few instances that I do, I piddle around aimlessly, then lose whatever sense of interest I had pretty quickly. Breath of the Wild continues to bring me back, even in small chunks. I don’t have to spend hours in a row with the game anymore, but it occupies a place in my heart that’s comforting to return to, asserting a sense of wonder that has not yet begun to decay. I can’t see any signs that it will happen anytime soon.

Matt

Game Journal - 9/24/18

Game playing is largely unfocused at the moment. Scattershot, across the spectrum.

• Donut County - After hearing the staff of Giant Bomb gush over the title (their weekly Giant Bombcast podcast is, in my opinion, essential listening for game enthusiasts), I picked it up on iPad for five bucks. I then spent the better part of the next two hours making things fall down holes. It’s non-committal, plucky fun, and I mostly just breezed through the text/story portions to get to more hole-dropping goodness. The art style and music are kooky but catchy. It’s money well spent.

• Batman: Return to Arkham - Arkham Asylum - The original release of this game was one of my favorites from last generation, even though I had to turn it down to Easy mode to finally be able to immerse myself in it. But once its hooks are in you, they’re in deep. Even in the limited time I have to devote to playing games, Arkham Asylum drove me to 100% completion, and I will probably continue that on this version, although I’ve been kind of plodding through it, a few missions at a time.

• Hearthstone - Another game that I’ve had downloaded on the iPad for quite a while, but never had the fortitude to stick with it to the point of getting into it, I finally pushed forward through the tutorial and came out the other side with at the very least, a basic understanding of the game, which was more than I could say when I first installed it. I don’t know if it will hold my interest for long, as I’m not much for these kinds of card games, but at least I made it to the game proper and even won a match against a human opponent (who quit midway through the game, but a W is a W, amirite?).

• Pokemon GO - The journey continues with more seemingly unreachable goals, achievements requiring a lot of perseverance, patience, and the understanding that the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. I evolved my first tier 3 Pokemon, only to learn that to continue on my progress path, I would need to do it again, and I burned through my opportunity to gather that achievement too early. Hindsight is 20/20, but that one burned my ass. Either way, it’s still a fun organization simulator, forcing me into regular Pokemon inventory purges, and subconsciously filling my head with Pokeinfo that I never thought I’d amass.

Play on.

Matt

What the Hell is Nintendo Labo?

This past week, Nintendo revealed Labo,  games that come with a set of cardboard cutout peripherals that, once assembled, accommodate the Joy-Con controllers and Switch console itself to perform all manner of play mechanics. The possible creations include a small piano, remote controlled animals, and an entire backpack/hand grip/pulley configuration that allows the player to control a giant mech. I could spend many words and a lot of time trying to convey what this looks like, but it’s probably best that you just watch the reveal video.

A lot of the reaction I’ve seen has been positive, a burst of enthusiasm for Nintendo being Nintendo, flipping our expectations on their ear because that’s just the kind of company they are. But I was left scratching my head.

Who the hell gave this the green light?

This seems like the kind of thing that may look great on paper, but not translate well to the real world. We’re talking peripherals made out of cardboard, a material that is not known for strength or durability. Getting the peripherals even slightly damp would be ruinous. The initial video also makes it look like it’s geared towards younger children, an unparalleled destructive force.

In the video, it shows some of the games included in the Variety Kit, and it seems just a compilation of small games that look more like showcases for the cardboard controllers and nothing with a lot of depth. Wii Sports was tasked with a similar role for the Wii, a pack in designed to be a proof of concept for Nintendo’s new motion controls, but Wii Sports worked because the games were infinitely replayable, as fun on the thousandth time as they were on the first. I’d love to be wrong about the Labo, but from where I stand, this looks more like a flash fad, and nothing that has legs.

My girlfriend is a pediatric occupational therapist, and when I showed her the video, she was immediately excited by the potential therapy applications for the Labo. Where I saw an easily broken children’s toy, she saw an opportunity to engage kids with video games on a more tangible and tactile level, possibilities that I had not considered. I had to admit that she had a point, and perhaps I was being overly critical of a product that isn’t intended for me.

Perspective is everything, and time will tell if the Labo is a success or failure, but one thing is certain; Nintendo will keep sending this stuff out into the world, keeping us on our toes in a way that Microsoft and Sony have never been able to do, and I will always applaud their creativity.

Matt