First revealed briefly in 2014, the latest console installment of the Zelda franchise titled Breath of the Wild, has finally been fully unveiled to the public.  Fans have waited with intense eagerness and speculation as to the game’s details has been running rampant.  While there is undoubtedtly more to discover, this first trailer for the game reveals substantially more than we knew beforehand.

The first and most obvious thing to note about the footage we’ve seen is the absolutely colossal world on display.  Grasslands forests, deserts, mountains, tropics and arctic environments are all on display, and each appears to be massive.  The world is a sea of rolling hills, craggy peaks, rivers, lakes, cliffs and ruins.  Judging by what little we’ve seen, I would say the world in Breath of the Wild could be as larger or larger than what we’ve already seen on the Wii U in Xenoblade Chronicles X, which featured a world larger than Skyrim, Witcher 3 and Fallout 4 combined.

The next most obvious conclusion to draw is the sheer amount of gameplay variety and activities that can be engaged in.  The game appears to follow a core concept of wilderness survival and exploration, and Link’s displayed tools and abilities definitely seem to flow naturally into this concept.

We also get a few glimpses of other new activities and options available to Link, such as setting wildfires, cooking food (presumably meat obtained from hunting), and using traps to foil his enemies like rolling boulders downhill or shooting down beehives to confuse and panic enemy monsters.  Link also appears to carry a book or stone tablet item of some sort which allows his to manipulate the world around him, or conjure items out of thin air.  And my God, can we talk about Link wearing sets of armor in the game?  I think this definitely indicates an element of strategy, where being practically nude is advantageous for swimming and fishing, wearing the basic tunic is best for exploration and traversal, and the armor is ideal for combat.

Finally, the trailer closes on an epic shot of the Master Sword, lying at rest in the forest.  Based on the setting and dilapidated appearance of the sword, my guess is that this game will take place after A Link to the Past, and quite some time after at that.  I’m hoping the aged condition of the sword means Link won’t actually be using it in the game, and maybe simply viewing the weapon as a holy relic of sorts instead.

Regardless of speculation and missing information, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is clearly a game to keep our eyes on.  March 2017 is the projected release date, and it can’t come soon enough!

Once upon a time, Nintendo offered the premier home platform for epic RPG experiences.  Square, Enix, Capcom and numerous others offered massive adventures filled with dragons, magic, technology, evil empires and heroic quests.  All of this changed when Sony introduced the Playstation in 1995, and Nintendo forfeited most of their RPG kingdom to the newcomer rival.  However, in the years since, there have usually been at least a handful of good-to-excellent RPG titles to be found on Nintendo’s hardware each generation.  For the Wii U, Nintendo’s current-gen console, Xenoblade Chronicles X is the standout RPG offering.

The main bulk of the story plays out during a series of around a dozen main Story Missions, each one advancing the overarching plot significantly.  Each Story Mission adds a new mysterious layer to the overall puzzle, prompting the player forward naturally, by way of curiosity.  While the Story Missions focus on the grand narrative, most of the character development and relationship building is kept to optional Affinity Missions, of which there are several dozen.  Together, both of these mission types paint a powerful and moving picture of man’s struggle to adapt to a new environment, to come to terms with its vulnerability, to press forward in the face of overwhelming odds.  Though the narrative is fractured and certainly not presented in typical Japanese RPG style, it’s still a powerful story to watch and experience.

As the story progresses, the player travels to the five massive regions of Mira, ranging from the grasslands of Primordia with its strange sickle-like outcroppings of rock, to the colossal desert of Oblivia and its gargantuan stone rings reaching into the sky.  Each of these zones is breathtaking in size, scope and artistic vision, with incredible vistas, rolling plains, towering mountains and all manner of alien formations and natural structures to admire.  Altogether, according to Nintendo World Report, the entire available world of Mira is larger than the worlds of Skyrim, Fallout 4 and Witcher 3 combined, all with no load times or transition screens.  Traversing these lands is a massive undertaking on foot, but around the thirty hour mark of the game the player can obtain a Skell, a massive bipedal battle mech, which changes the exploration significantly.  These huge robots can cover far greater distances per stride than a regular human, and they have the option to transform into a vehicle mode which increases that travel speed immensely.  Eventually, the player can unlock the option for Skell flight, opening up every corner of the world to the intrepid adventurer.

Put plainly, Xenoblade Chronicles X is just a massive game.  In addition to the colossal world and dizzying number of combat and character options available, the game also has a tremendous amount of quest content to offer.  I spent just over one-hundred hours with the game when I finally decided it was time to put it down.  Had I kept going, I could have easily added another fifty to one-hundred additional hours to my playtime, through questing, exploration and character building.  Not to mention the options and freedom opened up by the game’s Skells, which offer entirely new levels of customization and combat tactics.  The game just doesn’t stop giving you things to explore, analyze or play with.

However, this does highlight a couple of concerns about the game.  First, of the systems I’ve described, and the others that I haven’t gone into detail over, there is a prevailing issue of feeling overwhelmed.  The problem most seem to have is the lack of tutorials or in-game references to draw upon in order to learn these complex systems in the first place.  For many, this could be a major issue.  For me personally, I love delving into cryptic or under-demonstrated game systems and figuring things out for myself.  Second, a lot of time is spent in menus in this game.  With all of the customization and tactical options available to the player, that conclusion is a given.  However, a major indisputable issue reveals itself in that the text size in a lot of the menus is frustratingly small.  Not illegible, but definitely uncomfortable.  With time, one can easily become accustomed to this issue and work beyond it.  However, it is a clear-cut problem nonetheless.  One final item to address is the music, quite possibly the most heavily-divisive element of the game.  I personally find the soundtrack to be eclectic, epic, sweeping, heartfelt and genuine all at the same time.  It fits the atmosphere of the game perfectly.  Many, however, take issue with some of the more frequently heard themes in the game.  The main combat track, “Black Tar”, is one such example, as are the day and night themes for the city of New Los Angeles.  Some hate these songs, I have grown to love them.  The music is at best truly inspired, and at worst an acquired taste.

Who should play this? VIDEO GAME BUFFS

Xenoblade Chronicles X is a truly impressive experience.  It offers a massive, gorgeous world to explore, a dizzying web of systems to immerse oneself in, an epic and mysterious story, and it has giant freaking robots you can ride around in.  What issues it has are primarily going to be left to the taste of the individual player, but as a whole I’d say it’s generally too big and too complex for just anybody to play.  Anyone who considers themselves a video game nerd or a hardcore fan of the hobby in general owes it to themselves to give the game a shot.  Get lost in the wilds of Mira.  Get lost in Xenoblade Chronicles X.