Beer: Black Butte Porter, 12 fl. oz., 6.3% abv
# of beers consumed during play: 4.
Level Reached: Levels...hah! Zelda laughs at your levels.
Level of Intoxication: Woozy
Game
If I need to introduce you to the Legend of Zelda series, there is obviously something very, very wrong here. Seeing as how the game hit the ground running thirty-one years ago and has more installments than the Encyclopedia Britannica, the chances of anyone aside from the most isolated of island pygmies missing this series is slim to none. Taking that as a natural given, the number of people who were hyped for this game was insane, and this small factoid played no small part in the immediate shortage of Nintendo Switch units. One may also take into account the fact that at the time there were exactly zero other AAA titles on the Nintendo Switch, and the Reagan-esque trickle of digital-only titles on the eShop pretty much cemented the Switch as a $360 Zelda Machine. It may or may not surprise you to hear me say this isn't necessarily a bad thing.
Gameplay
Looking at a property as deeply rooted as Zelda requires a certain degree of perspective. While it is necessary to look at this game on its own merit, this review would mean nothing without knowing what precedents were set before, and which ones the current game breaks from. So, first off, while there are the requisite heart containers and Master Swords and boss fights, among other things, they most certainly do not come in the normally accustomed flavors. In fact, the best analogy I can think of is that all the previous Zelda games up to this point have been really amazingly huge, awesome ice cream sundaes. One day, you go to the ice cream shop, and see that the owner has had some kind of attack of insanity and has created the biggest, most beautiful, most carefully laid out sundae you've ever seen, hands you a spoon, and says "Dogfarts slay bear-children!" while motioning to the monster sundae.
Maybe he doesn't say that, I don't really know. The point is, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is this insanely huge thing, made out of many, many flavors you know and love, and has been presented in such a way that everything comes together in the most glorious of ways. A cardinal difference is that because of the sheer size, complexity, and scope of the offering, many things have been changed in very fundamental ways to suit. A very early dungeon sees you trying to use motion controls to guide a ball through a maze and into a target on the other side. I accidentally used the motion platform as a bat, and whacked the ball directly into the goal. Not only was I flabbergasted at the fact that it worked, but that the game would allow it in the first place. I know I'm not alone when I recall earlier iterations of the series being rather unforgiving in many scenarios, requiring you to strictly follow the game's criteria lest you fail. While BotW does have a few sections that fall into this category (I hate you little Korok...you're cute, but I hate you.), they are few and thankfully very far between. Longtime fans of the series can tell you that this is fairly unprecedented. The rest of the game takes the same concept of freedom and basically lets it off the leash. Once you finish a short tutorial area, the game points out over the horizon, and says "Go there."
It's really difficult to convey the dizzying feeling of looking out over a positively enormous landscape and know you can go anywhere. It's even harder to reconcile that it's a Zelda game, and you are in the most lush and expansive example of Hyrule ever built. The open world in front of you is truly alive, and it interacts with itself in mind-boggling ways. In addition to full weather and night-and-day cycles, there is a complete and unbelievably open-ended physics engine, which allows for some of the most amazing gameplay I've ever seen. Have a torch? Set things on fire, including enemies, woodpiles, and dry grass. In a lightning storm? Put away anything metal to avoid attracting a lightning strike. Metal debris nearby? Pick it up and drop it on your enemies, or better yet, stand back and sweep it back and forth, flinging anything not tied down into the enemies, including other enemies.
Speaking of baddies, they exhibit some of the most "alive" behavior in any game I've ever played, let alone the Zelda franchise. Bokoblins, Moblins, and other humanoids sleep, play, and patrol, and when fighting, can flank and call for help. More impressive though, is how they may decide to run if they realize you're gaining the upper hand; or if they've lost their weapon, how they'll improvise with whatever is around them. These and other tactics will take new players by surprise, and really cause them to think on their toes. When I first walked into an enemy camp, confident I'd cut them down one-by-one as in previous games, I was treated to my first Game Over screen as they flanked me and beat me simultaneously with clubs and feet. I was aghast, but it was a feeling of dawning discovery, of realizing the depths of the water I'd just jumped into and excitement at the prospect of enemies that truly pissed me off. Indeed, not long into my playtime, I encountered enemies that not only killed me, but utterly annihilated me. For the absolute longest, Guardians were pretty much the most terrifying thing I could imagine encountering in a Zelda game, and that was before I ran into a Lynel. This game brings a whole new dimension to being spotted, and enemy cues are so realistic you begin to get a feel for how best to approach and avoid enemies in the field. Each new encounter brings with it moment-by-moment strategy, as well as the raw potential to be caught unprepared and unawares. If you haven't yet felt the sweaty-palmed butt-pucker that comes with being spotted by a Lynel, zig-zagging madly away from their attacks, then finding to your ultimate dismay that they can pull off some Skyrim-bow-ninja shit, I feel a giddy anticipation for you. Once that happens the game will begin to take on a highly intimidating life of its own and you'll start to understand that the codewizards over at Nintendo have gone the extra mile on this one. The problem is, I can spend literal paragraphs going into acute detail about the insane ways this games systems interact and in the process spoil a huge amount of what makes this game so incredible; namely the ability to explore, observe, and adapt to the world around you and the puzzles it holds. It's really difficult to explain how profound this framework is to someone who hasn't experienced it firsthand, and to plot it out does it a tremendous disservice. BotW is truly about discovery in every aspect of its being.
One such aspect is in cooking and crafting. In BotW, you collect ingredients and food, either by hunting, gathering, scavenging, or trading. Alone, these things such as monster guts, insects, apples, and meat either do nothing or very little, but when combined in the proper ways, they can create dishes that turn Link into an alchemical force of nature. Depending on what gets mixed together in a jaunty little cooking tune, Link can gain resistance to heat and cold, gain boosts to attack and defense, and boost health well over normal levels. The cooking system in the game is seamless, and once introduced to the way things work, most players can figure out what happens next. Recipes are fairly intuitive, and various texts and townsfolk can give hints for some really special concoctions. Much like in Breaking Bad, places to cook can be found everywhere, and the benefits far, far outweigh the inconvenience. Crafting comes with a similar system in place, though it will usually be less prolific as cooking. Most of the time you will still elect to buy your armor from the town merchants. Each town sells something different, and it will almost undoubtedly be something you need in order to progress in the game. In this, Zelda still has not lost it's roots. While it may have been the Hookshot or the Serenade of Water in previous installments, in BotW, it's armor. Armor will help you to survive the extremes in the newest Zelda, whether it be the scorching temperatures of the Eldin region, the frozen cliffs of Hebra Mountain, or the violent exclusivity of the all-female Gerudo tribe. Who says Nintendo is above a little social commentary? At any rate, finding or buying different pieces of armor and assembling sets is another way to garner special abilities and find another layer of protection in the game. This is another key mechanic as Zelda does not have character levels in any classic sense of the word. Link does not grow stronger himself, aside from health and stamina. The only way to take less damage or to inflict more of your own is through your equipment. Armor with better rating will help insulate you from damage, whereas weapons with different properties will help you whip Ganon's army back in line.
I know what you're thinking: how many weapon varieties can there be? Weeeeellllll, you have different weapon classes as we've already discussed, but within swords you'll have daggers, broadswords, claymores, and the like, and each subclass can do varying amounts of base damage, along with things like crit modifiers, enhanced durability, or even special powers such as lightning or ice status effects. In this one mechanic is where much of the game's magic resides. This exponential variety in weaponry, equipment, and food is a daring and incredibly effective supplant for character levels, and has been implemented so carefully that it becomes inseparable from other elements of the game. My mind reels when I consider the flowchart-like precision the dungeons and chests in the game follow. There's a tangible understanding of reward versus challenge, and BotW nails it time and again. Such is the graduation of the game, where the world pulls you by the hand into greater and greater challenges, and giving you better goodies each time, giving you the confidence to go up against some pretty scary characters. And on that notion, the game doesn't hold back.
I've already joked that Lynels are some pretty serious dudes in the game. Make no mistake, they certainly are, but they are not alone. There are many high level baddies in the game, including Wizzrobes, Stone Tali, and Hinox, who will all turn unsuspecting players into little grass-stains. All these horrendously powerful critters stake out certain environments, and again, it is up to the player to remain observant to their surroundings and subtle clues to avoid getting caught between a Talus and a hard place. Even these inhabitants of the gameworld don't hold a candle to the real objectives, who infest the four "Divine Beasts" in BotW. These blights each take a specific form, and I'll be the first to say they are bad mamma jammas. The first time you roll up against one of these guys you may just ragequit, and in that regard, having an entire console in the palm of your hands can be a little dicey. Persevere though and you will be treated to a true feeling of victory as well as a special power to wield during future encounters. And once again we are treated to the classic hook that all Zelda games have, a building block of abilities and game mechanics that coalesce to make Link a fearsome warrior in the final battle. As the player moves through each Divine Beast and gains their powers, the game begins pointing players toward the final contest, and the true blight that lay within. One thing that is for certain is that it is all too easy to put off that final battle, in order to search for all the remaining secrets the world holds. The game lays claim to a staggering number of shrines, collectibles, cutscenes, and other goodies. So much so that the game guide associated with BotW looks more like an accountant's college textbook than a video game walkthrough. Late in the game Korok seeds become a particular addiction, as they are needed to unlock inventory slots and in a game that hides more than 900 of them across miles of nooks, crevices, and crannies, Nintendo may have just engineered a new form of digital crack...literally.
Add in horse taming, a plethora of wildly different areas and NPCs, puzzles and Easter eggs, surprises, and some pretty crazy minigames and you have what is an extremely strong contender for the greatest Zelda game ever made. That is how incredibly well crafted and balanced this game is. If any game deserves the title "Masterpiece", Breath of the Wild would be it. This game is simply that damn good.
Graphics/Sound
I'll go ahead and say it, Breath of the Wild has some of the best graphics I've seen, and for a system that is less powerful than both the current Xbox and Playstation models, and leagues less powerful than my PC, that's high praise. The truth is, while there are some absolutely gorgeous graphics techniques in play, I attribute the amazing eyeball candy more to the solid art style than anything. It seems apparent now that porting the Windwaker to HD wasn't simply to make the fans happy, it was to experiment with cel-shading in HD and begin crafting an artstyle that is one of the most cartoony while at the same time being one of the most realistic. When seeing how the light, shadow, and color interplays, one starts to get the feeling they are watching a very expensive anime. The cel-shaded characters and monsters mesh easily with the bright, realistic textures and landscapes. The lighting and ambient mist in the air add the finishing touches on a game that is amazing for the visuals it can provide. Photo opportunities abound in this game, and more often than not, as you pick up a rock to unearth a rupee or toss another bomb into a moblin stronghold, you may look to the left and see the moon rising over a crest, bathing the softly blowing grass in blue light. You may find a hidden copse of trees shading bunches of wildflowers at the base of a rocky cliff, with no other hidden secrets aside from the isolated calm. With the rather impressive horsepower this tiny console pumps out, all these scenes and more are not only possible, but just a fraction of amazing sights I've actually seen during my time playing. While the raw resolution and framerate might not be up to standard depending on who you talk to, it is a small sacrifice to see what Nintendo has managed to accomplish. The natural flipside to that of course is the same 1st party graphics curse that has overshadowed Nintendo's premier machines for years now. Since the N64, few other companies could harness the graphical power of the hardware as well as Nintendo, and the quality gap between Nintendo's own titles and those of 3rd party developers has always remained significant since. Breath of the Wild seems to be no different, as the few quality 3rd party titles I've seen so far have not even come close to tapping the potential of the system the way BotW and Super Mario Odyssey have. Standing on its own merit, BotW is a stunning achievement in graphics, but part of that reason is because it had to be. It was a system-seller in much the same way Super Mario 64 was. Only time will tell if other companies will be able to match the beauty of Zelda.
As for the sound, the fidelity is quite amazing. Incredibly clear samples have been taken from a huge range of sources in order to breathe life into the game. Babbling brooks will attract wildlife, who all have their own chirp, snort, clop, or whine. Snow also crunches underfoot with a satisfyingly crisp crackle, and arctic winds are wonderfully chilly sounding. The sounds of distant enemies recognizing you, or of the janky piano intro to the music for Guardians and the subsequent lock-on noise are nearly guaranteed methods of instantly putting your short hairs on edge. Other players may have a more difficult time zeroing in on all the different hints this game tosses out, and may find themselves stumbling across the aforementioned sleeping Hinox and be stomped to death before they have a chance to run. Also, if I haven't mentioned this before, Breath of the Wild rewards inattentiveness with a swift kick to the nuts. Speaking of which, all the other creatures in the world are similarly attuned to the noises you make, and in order to get a horse in the game, you must be quiet. This also works on enemy encampments where I've snuck in at night while everyone was asleep and stealth-killed everyone while their weapons were laying a few feet away. Their snores in surround sound was a very helpful indicator as to my ongoing success. Long story short, the sound is good, and it makes this good game sound really good. Link is still mute though. I think he should start a support group with other mute protagonists like Gordan Freeman. Now to think of a name...FPSpeak? Voice Over Now? #MoveMyLips? I might have to turn the gears on this one.
Story
Heh.
If people gave me money for every time Link had to go save Zelda from Ganon, I would be Nintendo. No one in the history of ever have expected this story to play out any differently, and true to form, Nintendo has reinvented the wheel once again. With the same basic arc pushing the story forward, the big change is the exposition. In this I think the minds at Nintendo have hit upon something pretty damn brilliant.
Nintendo has finally gone about explaining many of the games that have come before with some very effective and simple mechanics. Just as the best stories are told without words, BotW uses a great number of these same tricks to flesh out a world that has come before with nods and Easter eggs strewn everywhere. From recurring characters, to familiar locales, to clever diary entries, Breath of the Wild seems to have a special handshake for any fan of the series, and the delivery of each is more clever than the last. Stumbling across the ruins of familiar and beloved locations from previous hit games truly reinforces the feeling that the Zelda universe is a real place, with a real history. With BotW, I feel as though there's finally a wider window into this universe, and with it, a much greater understanding of the type of place this is and always has been. Of particular note is the building stress that characters experience prior to the game's events, and the serious tone and context given in the backstory, making this one of the most mature Zelda games to date. The heavy cel-shaded anime style helps to hide some of this tone, but as underlined in one scene where characters discuss their impending annihilation while strolling through a field of fallen foes, this iteration of Zelda is much more Game of Thrones than it is Link to the Past. I for one think this is a good thing, and that at least one of Nintendo's franchises was due to lose it's baby teeth at one point or another. Metroid used to flirt with that ideal, but with that series MIA since the Wii, Zelda has quickly risen to assume that mantle.
Another thing that needs to be highlighted is the fact that creating a cohesive story in an open world can prove challenging, and while there's a trail of breadcrumbs in the midgame that keep you roughly on the path to enlightenment, there's still a tremendous slowdown in story for the bulk of the play experience. Sidequests you happen upon generally don't touch on the main story line, and themed boss encounters are few and far between. Those encounters you do have are again, designed to be tackled in any order, so they provide a very piecemeal progression to the actual story. Still, the amazing voice acting is to be applauded, except of course in the case of Link, who, especially in the context of this story is extra mute. This is unavoidably highlighted when every time I run up to a character in the game, I steel myself for the moment when they ask Link a direct question and he gasps and emotes like a drunken orangutan. It will be sooner rather than later that Nintendo is going to have to make a choice and define Link a little better, or as the worlds grow more realistic, this one facet is going to continue to widen the uncanny valley.
Beer
So after that somewhat exhaustive review on a somewhat expansive game, do I have any more squiggles left for Black Butte Porter? But of course. Black Butte Porter is actually the debut brew from Deschutes, a brewery based in Bend, Oregon that was founded back in the late 80's. This means the first Deschutes beer came out not long after the first Zelda game, though I doubt The Legend of Zelda was named after a popular central-Kyoto geological feature. For those who don't live in Oregon, or are loathe to open The Google, Black Butte Porter--as well as several other of Deschutes' beers--are named after popular local landmarks, as the citizens of Bend are in no shortage of pride. I will say that as I go on and review more beers, pride seems to be signified by the presence of additional consonants, and in the world of microbrews, having either a brewery or a beer name consist of hot letter stew is seemingly a rite of passage. Just to put this out there, I only know if I spelled it correctly by sounding out "Dez-shoots" and wondering how many silent letters are actually in the name. Doing that helps, but I definitively know I'm on the right track if my spell check puts the red line underneath.
Joking aside, the fact of the matter is, while I may take lighthearted jabs at the spelling and nomenclature of Deschutes, there is a rather competent brewery behind the lack of vowels, and while they may also have fallen into the trap of IPA hell, it's nice to know they started with a porter, and that they still have it for those of us who get down on darker beer. Whether it sticks around for the long haul in the face of beers getting lighter and bitterer remains to be seen. At any rate, it's got my vote, if for no other reason than I like to see a bigger variety of dark beer at my local piggly wiggly. Of course, no matter how highly I regard a commodity, if typing its name makes me think of tangled headphone cords, I take the easy way out. To that end, if I need to refer to the brewery in question at any time for the remainder of this article, I shall refer to it as That Brewery. Some of you already saw that coming, for the rest of you, welcome to Games 'N Beer, you should be reading back articles to catch up.
Smell
Right off the line, there is a fat malted fastball that makes this seem like it would go well with fish and chips, or perhaps potstickers, I'm not one to judge. This initial blast is not anything like the oft-ridiculed malt liquors we've covered in the past. Instead, this is a richer, more complex note that is much more at home in the land of brown beers. The lingering tang is deeply roasted, almost as far as one would dare go before turning their precious spareribs into charcoal, and recalls some of my favorite things about a Guinness. If you close your eyes, you can almost see Juan Valdez and his fuzzy yet noble ass harvesting Columbian coffee beans. If you pin me to the kitchen and force me to keep it to foods, the two words I'd grab out of the air would be pickled chocolate. Salty and sweet at the same time. We will move directly into the next segment before your barbaric brains make any other associations.
Taste
Remember Juan? Black Butte does, and the first thing you will think of as the beer hits your tongue is that That Brewery and Senior Valdez entered into a dark partnership together, and this beer was the resultant concoction. This is the alcoholic equivalent of Brittani going into her local Starbucks, ordering her signature twenty-syllable cocktail, and due to a hilarious chain of errors, ends up with the bottom of yesterday's cold, discarded coffee sludge. Fortunately, I am not Brittani, and as far as my tastes in beery things go, I rather enjoy such tomfoolery. On the side of the bottle, That Brewery advertises this hitting with 30 IBU, which is actually pretty middle of the road for a porter, but thankfully does not go into the sort of tongue-shattering heights that modern IPAs do. Paired with the creamy undertones, so it is that this beer manages to pull of a very deep, bitter, 96% cacao flavored kick. In the face. With cleats. In this regard, I will say that if nothing else, it is entertaining watching someone else try to drink it for the first time.
Intoxication
The rich taste, feel, and smell all combine like an Oregonian Captain Planet to make for a very tingly sensation early on that quickly ramps up to an involuntary bedtime. This only occurs after one's extremities take on a quality that can only be described as flibberty. Not to be confused with either Flipper the Dolphin or Lady Liberty. Such is life. Rocking a respectable 5.2% alcohol by volume, Black Butte is very much like its namesake in that if you aren't careful, your comfortable drunken stroll will end in a horribly disfiguring tumble down a mountainside of poor decisions. Fortunately, all the aforementioned qualities are potent signs of such glum endings, and cautious drinkers will find themselves in good spirits with the proper moderation.
Feel
Each sip is rich, creamy, and fullbodied. There is a fair snap from the carbonation, but the beer holds it in well, as there is very little head even when poured. The thickness, the sheer fullmouth this possesses is a bit alarming at first, but after a while, the ease of drinkability and the relative lack of effervescence (not the 90's goth-emo band) makes this a good beer to knock a few back on the barstool. I do stress, barstool. The leaden feeling this gives in relatively short order makes actual barhopping ill-advised. It doesn't take more than a few before one feels as though That Brewery has opened a black hole in the middle of one's intestines and that the best way to avoid an "event horizon" is to lie down and hope your stupid friends don't try and move you.
The Matchup
Okay, okay, I know I've taken some rapid-fire jabs against Black Butte, but honestly, it's a good brew that will repel IPA drinkers in much the same manner as IPAs repel me. For an aficionado of darker beers, this particular game/beer combo is just right, and it shines with a game such as BotW, particularly when you use the last of your stamina to reach a mountaintop and reach over for a victory sip. Enjoying a meaty brew as you appreciate one of the vistas this game has to offer is an excellent way to while away some time, and is an experience no gamer should pass up.
Cheers/Game on.