as told by zaheerah

Just over two years ago Nintendo released The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (BotW) on the Nintendo Wii U and the Nintendo Switch. And almost five months ago, I bought the Switch version and fell in love. Please note: This post will have spoilers from throughout the game.

Growing up, I wasn’t allowed to play games. The closest game I could play as a kid was The Sims. And even then, my parents hated that I spent so much time on it. My older brother, on the other hand, has grown up with the privilege of being the first son and that meant he was allowed to play whatever he wanted. And that meant excluding us, the younger siblings, from playing anything because it would cut into his game time. So, my experiences of games as a child was always through the view of a bystander. And growing up, we could never afford to buy all the new games and when we did, to no surprise, I wasn’t allowed to play them.

I had watched my brother play most of the Zelda franchise and when I grew out of being the bystander, I turned to YouTubers who would post their walkthroughs online. When we had first bought Breath of the Wild (BotW), it was on the Wii U. I remember being captivated by getting to experience a Zelda game for myself, with me in control and not someone else.

But then school came first, I couldn’t play much and by the time, I got around to picking it up, my brothers had decided to sell all our Wii U games in order to buy the Switch. I had, of course, played games on the Switch but most of them were either shooting or platform games. It wasn’t until last year December that I came across a BotW video and I realised that I had to play it again. Now that I’m older, and with a job, playing games is a little easier now. Sure, my mum would cuss me out for spending money on games, but I didn’t care. So, I bought it and I cannot explain how captivated I was by the game. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against platform or shooter games, but it just wasn’t my style. Most of the ones I had played, I found them too fast paced and I didn’t enjoy the speed.

BotW was truly the game made for me. It was adventurous and fast-paced in a way that didn’t overwhelm me. The way the entire world was unstructured allowed me to move in a pace that worked for me. The beauty of BotW was that there was no one set pathway. I’ve seen hundred of videos ranging from people finishing the game 100% to people waking Link and rushing straight to Ganon. I’m over 150 hours into my gameplay and I still feel like I haven’t discovered everything in the game.

But, in honour of the games two-year anniversary, I wanted to share some of my favourite places and parts in Breath of the Wild, whether that be a side quest, location or person. My initial list went well over the twenty mark, so I decided to whittle it down to just ten, which was hard enough.

A Gift of Nightshade (Side Quest)

This side quest is located in the Faron Region and I found it by accident. It’s a pretty simple quest, you basically become a matchmaker for a Hylian and a Gerudo by giving the Gerudo woman a flower. I only climbed up this mountain because I was making my way to Faron Tower to unlock the map, and a Yiga clan members was on my tail and I did not have the hearts nor food to deal with him, so up I went. And there I found these two people standing at opposite ends of a river. At first glance, I was wary because I had I expected something bad to happen to me. But then I went up to the Hylian to find that he was just being a chicken and couldn’t work up the courage to talk to a girl he liked. It made me laugh. The game, for those who don’t know, is set years after Ganon had ruined the Kingdom, villages and safe spots were sparse with Guardians and camps of enemies in most of the world. At first, I found it so odd, but I instantly loved it. And it’s a prime example of what makes BotW so good. There was something good to be found in even the strangest of places.