Breath in the Wild

thinking about another playthrough of Breath of the Wild, with the emphasis on “wild”. as in, “in the wild”. the rules as planned, presented in bullet form because i’m a fiend for bullets:

• no* fast travel
• pro display mode
• the “Stable Rule”. no* use of the following outside of stables, towns, etc.:
  • the sheikah slate map
  • cooked meals. elixirs and individual pieces of raw/toasted ingredients are ok

how will the travel and map restrictions affect the experience? hopefully more immersive within the world. really seeing the terrain. seems likely i’ll spend a lot more time on horseback. lots of travel and exploration may involve following roads, reading signs, talking to NPCs to get directions. or will i climb a mountain and set a bearing visually instead?

and avoiding use of the map while out in the field reduces reliance on “gps”, keeps you in the moment and out of the menu system. but one would certainly expect to have a paper map available to link at any stable or town, along with an NPC to point out where you currently are. pro display mode reduces distracting and immersion-breaking UI chrome, and there’s no mini-map on screen constantly hinting your location.

the idea of the Stable Rule is to eliminate some of the implausible actions (eating a large meal in the middle of combat) and rebalancing a bit in favor of realism in terms of food, health, and navigation. maybe nintendo should have had each food item consume some stamina, so if link eats 20 apples in the middle of a battle, they’re left vulnerable (tummy ache simulated by an empty stamina wheel). and yes, link’s magical infinite pouch is legendary, but let’s say that it’s not realistic to carry a fully cooked meal around for days, whereas it’s more sensible to pop some elixirs or ingredients on the go. maybe nintendo should have cooked food turn into Dubious Food after each blood moon!

with the prospect of being marooned far from a safe space without a massive cache of healing items, elixirs should have much greater tactical value with their status effects (should be nice to actually use elixirs and monster parts, i feel like they’re not utilized strongly enough in typical gameplay). this means using more monster parts. but the more monsters you slay, the sooner they level up. interesting!

* where “no” means “minimize it”. not going to throw my Switch in the trash if i break the rules once in a while :p