➤ The review of Breath of the Wild - The Ballad of the Champions 🎮

Attention! We assume, writing this review, that you have finished the main adventure of Breath of the Wild: consequently, there are some spoilers.
The Breath of the Wild DLCs were announced at the game's launch, and right from the start, despite having few details, there was a sense that the "big" update was going to be the Christmas one. A feeling that has (erroneously?) Persisted even after the spring publication of The Legendary Trials, a DLC that has proven to be more valid than might have been expected. Fujibayashi, creator and director of Breath of the Wild, has been working on The Ballad of Champions since February, when the main work was completed: in short, it was normal to expect something big, even considering the adamantine quality of the original game. Certainly, we anticipate it immediately, we are faced with a great DLC: however some may be partially disappointed, especially due to the high expectations that were circulating. Little was expected from The Trials of Legend and we received a lot, from The Ballad of the Champions a lot was expected and we had ... a lot.

Video games, and even DLCs, must be evaluated for what they offer, not for what we would have liked to propose: however, Breath of the Wild had partially deluded us. Because in the game there is a topographically registered but not scalable mountain (unique), and this mountain is in the snowy areas that dominate the Gerudo desert: the same areas shown in the mini preview of The Ballad of Champions. In addition it must be said that, if this really was the last expansion of Breath of the Wild, no clear words were chosen to conclude the main adventure: at the end of the game, all the memories collected, Zelda says that there is some problem with the colossus of the Zora, anticipating that she would go there. More than a clue then hinted that this DLC would be set after the defeat of Ganon, and that it would propose new areas. Well, that's not it: The Ballad of Champions, like everything else in the adventure, takes place before facing the Calamity.

And it's Game Over right away

We said that this new adventure begins before the fall of Ganon, to be precise just before the final confrontation. The Ballad of the Champions in fact begins after having tamed the fourth and last Colossus: an almost obligatory positioning for obvious playful reasons, but which is questionable from a narrative point of view. Many of you at the time of starting the DLC will have already beaten Ganon, and therefore will not even ask the problem, however the same cannot be said for everyone who will buy Breath of the Wild from now on (and, we bet, there will be several ): just beaten the fourth colossus, finally ready and prepared to face Ganon, the voice of Zelda, of that same Zelda that has been waiting for you for a hundred years, informs you that, if you would like to know more about the past of the Champions, you could go to the Shrine of the Rebirth. Here, you understand that, evaluated in the original narrative flow, it is certainly not the most contextualized of the introductions.

Accepted this little idiosyncrasy, all that remains is to lead Link there where he is risen, a place where, once the DLC is activated, he will find a new very, very particular "sword": a four-pointed weapon, one per champion, capable to start a new challenge. Basically, once the Tetralama is held, the plateau (the initial area of the adventure) is immersed in the fog, and four new points of interest appear on the map. Your task is to reach them and defeat every enemy present in that area, so as to reveal new shrines. All this is very interesting because Link's new weapon not only has the ability to defeat any opponent in the first attack, but also condemns its owner to the same fate: if Link is hit, it's Game Over.. So every enemy is potentially dangerous, even the weakest. Nintendo made a strong choice, certainly not a typical start, but in our opinion it was a laudable decision. Both for the interesting mechanics, and because it is a rather difficult step, mandatory to see everything else: a sort of initiation into the DLC. Once you have completed the four unpublished shrines and put away the Tetralama (which cannot be carried around, predictably), everything falls into a context more suited to the main game.

The path of Champions

After this atypical introductory section, the DLC embraces the purest essence of Breath of the Wild: it could even be said that it represents a miniature version of it. Four focal points in the same regions of the main mission, which can be explored in the "usual" arbitrary order. Without going into futile details, the DLC unfolds - in every area - in a harmonious blend of exploration and action. Three images per area that suggest the destination, to be compared and recognized on the map, which lead to as many missions related to the discovery of a Shrine. Guardians to be exterminated, magical circles to cross riding the snowboard-shield, real Malnedottere to be killed: a varied collection, stimulating and challenging tasks. Which, as mentioned, lead to the opening of twelve new shrines: among the most difficult, beautiful and complicated that Breath of the Wild has proposed. In this regard, The Ballad of Champions reiterates an uncomfortable but inescapable truth: this latest Zelda boasts the best puzzles of the three-dimensional era of the saga. Because they are interpretable, and rarely dual.

Those who contest the dungeons of this game actually criticize their recursive setting, reject their fragmentation, do not accept their lack of centrality: placed on a scale, the puzzles of this Zelda stand up to any predecessor ... even more so. after this DLC. Speaking of dungeons, the one that concludes the Ballad of Champions is probably the best in the game (rivaled only by the camel Gerudo): small, brilliant, cerebral. A blatantly Nintendo distillation of intelligence, celebrating the absolute excellence of the Breath of the Wild engine. An underground Colossus that flows into one of the most particular bosses of the game, challenging in any case but demonic if faced in Master Mode. The reward you know (almost) everyone, and it is frankly a narcissistic habit (both Fujibayashi and Aonuma have a motorcycle) and decontextualizing: we hardly forgive them, both for the general vulgarity and for the "shots" that the vehicle causes in the villages. There would be other elements to deal with, the most interesting of which is the ancestral saddle that allows you to recall the horses, but in essence the value of the DLC lies in what we have already said - certainly not in the t-shirts, although fun, inspired by The Wind Waker.

Comment

Tested version Nintendo Switch Price 19.99 € Resources4Gaming.com

8.3

Readers (36)

8.5

Your vote

Breath of the Wild will probably be remembered, in many years, as the most beautiful and important game of this decade. It is the most relevant Nintendo work of the century, and there was a legitimate expectation that the Ballad of Champions could further glorify it: it did not. This is a full-bodied, challenging and excellently crafted DLC, but it's not the Blood and Wine in Zeldian sauce that so many expected. It offers ingenious and complex puzzles, as well as challenging combat - it's a great and laudable incentive to return to Hyrule. It will satisfy anyone who wants "more", but in no way expands the essence of Fujibayashi's masterpiece ... to which we forgive the vulgar final reward.