When the Nintendo Switch launch, it did so withThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wildas a launch title.The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wildearned near-universal critical acclaimand is widely considered to be one of the absolute best video games ever made. Its critical success translated into sales success, withThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wildstanding tall as one of the best-selling games in the franchise.
BeforeThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wildlaunched, some fans were skeptical about whether or not the game would be a success.The Legend of Zeldatrack record is nearly spotless, butBreath of the Wildmade some major changes to the established formula. It abandoned the dungeon and progression structure established by previous games in the series, embracing an open world design that offered a completely different experience.
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The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wildrepresented a major shift in the way Nintendo designedZeldagames, and its influence has left a lasting impact on not just the franchise, but the industry at large. There’s no denying thatThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wildis one of the most innovativeZeldagames, and one of the most innovative video games period, but some may be surprised to learn that the foundation for the game was actually laid by the previous entry in the series,The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, which released six years earlier as an exclusive for the Wii.
Stamina Meter
Nintendo itself recently pointed out some of thesimilarities betweenThe Legend of Zelda: Skyward SwordandBreath of the Wild. For the most part, these similarities are found in the two games' gameplay, withSkyward Swordintroducing mechanics that would later be adopted byBreath of the Wild. One of the most obvious of these is the stamina meter, which plays a major role inBreath of the Wild.
InThe Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, the stamina meter is used to govern actions like Link climbing up walls and sprinting. Thestamina meter inBreath of the Wildplays a similar role, though it is a much more prominent part of the experience. Since so much ofThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wildis about exploration, players have to manage their stamina much more often, having to regularly eat food to keep Link’s stamina gauge built up.
Exploration and the stamina meter are a huge part ofThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, but the concept originated inSkyward Sword.
Upgrading Gear
InThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Link is able to upgrade the gear he gets to make it more useful for combat, exploration, and puzzle-solving. This is in stark contrast to most games in the series, which have featured static items that do not change once Link has them. This is yet another gameplay mechanic that someZeldafans may have believed originated inBreath of the Wild, but it was first featured in the series inSkyward Sword.
InThe Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword,Link is able to upgrade gear using various materialsthat he can find out in the game world. One example of this is the slingshot item.Skyward Swordplayers can upgrade Link’s trusty slingshot (long a mainstay inThe Legend of Zeldafranchise) to the more-powerful Scattershot if they have the right materials and rupees to get the job done. The process is similar inThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, so it seems that is yet another idea that carried over from one game to the next.
Sailcoth
A big milestone in the early hours ofThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wildis whenLink is able to get his sailclothand safely leave the starting island from the beginning of the game. The sailcloth gliding item was yet another idea that originated inThe Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Like the stamina meter, the sailcloth is a unique addition to traversal inZeldagames, and whileBreath of the Wildmade it more of a focus, it definitely owes some debt toSkyward Sword.
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD
One of the reasons why Nintendo recently made these comparisons betweenThe Legend of Zelda: Skyward SwordandBreath of the Wildis because the former is set to get a remaster on the Nintendo Switch later this year. It was confirmed during the most recent Nintendo Direct presentation that thepreviously-leakedLegend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HDwill launch on the Nintendo Switch this summer. Millions more people playedThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the WildthanSkyward Sword, so it stands to reason that Nintendo thinks it can convince someBreath of the Wildenthusiasts to giveSkyward Sworda shot by showing how the games are similar.
Of course, fans should keep in mind that while there are definitely some similarities betweenThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the WildandSkyward Sword, the games are more different than they are the same.Skyward Swordis a more traditionalZeldaexperience, with standard dungeons to complete and things of that nature, whereasBreath of the Wildis completely open world. It’s unclear ifSkyward Swordwill be able to win overBreath of the Wildfans who never played the original release on the Wii, but it will be interesting to see what happens when it launches for the Switch this summer.
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HDlaunches this summer, exclusively for the Nintendo Switch.
