Addit with Screwdle: Breath of the Wild

I recently beat Breath of the Wild, the 2017 entry into the Legend of Zelda series. This game is really fun and expansive, and I enjoyed it a lot. I completely respect the journey that a game like Breath of the Wild must undergo to become a video game, especially one so expansive as this. But... My habit when playing any game, is to expand it in my mind. After all, my imagination isn't limited by crunch deadlines, or budgets, or the technical limitations of the game.

So, here's Addit with Screwdle. Stuff I think should be added not because it completes an incomplete game, improves it, or because anybody messed up, but because I like it and it makes me happy. Think of this as mechanical fanfiction. Fanfiction about gameplay, rather than plot.

Equipment

I had a lot of opinions about the weapon system in BOTW right away. I think everybody did. I feel like the Obstacle / Tool / Obstacle path that has traditionally been used to gate off parts of LoZ games is the soul of the franchise, the thing that makes Zelda games so fun to explore. Half the fun, after all, is remembering that you passed a rock that can only be lifted with the Power Bracelet and going back to see what was there. Plus, I love magical artifacts. I liked looking at pictures of the Power Bracelet, or teleporting to the Dark World with a magic mirror. I've always been an archivey nerd, and I love the completionist feeling of watching pedestals in your inventory window fill up as you complete every dungeon and sidequest to get every item. Breath of the Wild doesn't give you that feeling.

Tattoos

The most obvious potential "artifacts" are the runes. Presumably they were subsumed into the Shiekah Tablet to distinguish them from the breakable weapons links encounters, but it's still disappointing. But I started thinking. If we're not going to make these items, and Link's bare body is right there for us to see... what if the Runes and the Spirit powers were tattoos? Your magic powers are represented on your Magic Phone, sure, but they're also tattoos. Maybe Link has the Magnesis rune on his forearm. The Cryonis rune on his left shoulder. Maybe he has the symbol for Vah Medoh and thus Revali's Gale across his back and Vah Ruta over his heart. When a rune or spirit power is ready to use, they glow under Link's armor.

Lasso

A rope-based melee weapon. Tapping the attack key would cause Link to whip with the lasso. Using the “melee throw” function would cause Link to try and lasso a target. If he connects, he plants his feet and begins using stamina to pull the target. Lassoed enemies get tangled and vulnerable. Horse-riding enemies are unseated. Ridable enemies are temporarily easier to ride. Think about how much fun it would be to lasso a Lynel!

Rope Arrows

Okay, the lasso was just an extension of this idea I like a bit more. Rope Arrows would allow you to fire a rope at distant targets. The rope would be climbable, and able to be staked down to serve as a tightrope. Walking on a tightrope and pressing X while a bow is equipped would cause link to drop down and zipline. Enemies like Lynels and Hinox, when charging through a tightened rope, could trip and fall. In some ways, it might resemble the Grappling Hook from Phantom Hourglass.

Wind Rune

This would functionally replace the Korok Leaf and produce a gentle current of wind, allowing you to navigate on rafts more consistently. As it stands, I almost never used rafts because giving up a melee slot for a Korok Leaf felt like a huge waste. I’m sure we could have included some puzzles that required the Wind Rune, as well. We can visit that in a minute.

No-Slip Set Bonus

The Climbing Gear, once fully upgraded, should have prevented slipping while climbing in rainy places. Very basic, very simple. I can’t think of a place where rainslickness serves as a story-critical bounding obstacle. Maybe the Thundra Plateau? I'm just... look, I'm the Hero that Seals the Darkness. I defeated an ancient manifestation of hatred. I can change clothes while hang-gliding. You're telling me that I slip on rainy surfaces while wearing No-Slip Gloves? Oy oy oy.

Snowquill Headpiece

... is the smallest hat in the game. Smaller even than earrings. And it confers cold resistance? Okay. I laughed at the joke. We all laughed! It was funny. But that laugh is over, and I wanna see Link in glare-resistant snow glasses and a parka hoodie. I'd wear that all the time!

Boomerangs

It bothered me a tiny bit that the most common type of boomerangs you encounter for most of the game, and indeed the strongest sort of boomerang you find, are three-pronged Lizalfo boomerangs which don't look like boomerangs hardly at all. Also, I almost never broke a boomerang--generally I missed catching them and then they'd glitch through some geometry and that was that. Give me a few more regular boomerangs, please.

Enemies

So, I would have liked to see a greater variety of enemies in such a large game. It would be easy to just list off my favorite enemies and insist they need to be in the game, but that’s not quite the point. So instead I'm looking for enemies that either help make the different regions feel different, enemies that suit BOTW mechanically, or enemies that help emphasis a mechanic I wanted to see more often. This game had fewer enemy varieties than Link's Awakening, for pete's sake, and nearly all of Link's most quintessential enemies are gone. Where are all the giant bugs? Dungeon weirdos?

Like-Likes

Shield Eater

These shield-eating jellies were the first and most obvious enemy that was missing from BOTW. In most LoZ games, losing your shield feels weird because it's the only item you can lose, but in a game where nearly your entire inventory is completely replaceable, Like-Likes would be a reasonable monster to have lurking in certain areas, gobbling up rusty shields or your third Bokoblin Arm.

Leevers

Desert Menace

One of the most classic Zelda enemies, these bloodthirsty cactus could diversify this game's monstrous ecology by replacing Octorocks or Chuchus in the Gerudo's desert.

Kargaroc

Feathery Foe

The road to Zora’s Domain was the first time I truly encountered Lizalfos (although I know now they can be seen sooner, swimming in the Squabble River). This lead me to believe that the semiaquatic Lizalfos were the special foe of the Zora people, and that the Gorons, Gerudo and Rito would have their own rivals.

I was disappointed to learn that wasn't the case, but liked the idea that each race might have a nemesis monster race. I ALSO felt that BOTW, with its unequaled vertical spaces, was the perfect place for more flying enemies. Thus, kargarocs seemed like natural enemies to include in the game. Living primarily in the Tabantha region (or serving highly specialized roles elsewhere), Kargarocks would swoop down to unseat Link when he's riding and attempt to carry him back to their nests. It might be funny if they harassed any mounted characters (like Bokoblins or Hylian riders).

Maraudo Riders

Mounted Pests

One of the most deadly enemies I faced in BOTW were the Maraudo Wolves, partially because I tended to underestimate them but also because their circle-pounce-feint strategy is a lot smarter than most enemies' "blunder into range and punch until Link is standing in a cloud of smoke and teeth" strategy. This felt wrong. Replacing Maraudo Wolves with Maraudo Wolves ridden by Bokoblin riders would be a much more reasonable threat, and frankly I think bokoblins should MAYBE be able to ride anything ridable.

Gleeok

Two-headed bridge guardian

When I was crossing the bridge in Lake Hylia, I thought I saw a massive fish swimming in the lake. I was wrong, of course, it’s an island, but that idea stuck with me. When I found Gleeok Bridge later, it made sense that the two-headed serpent might rise out of the water around the bridge to fight Link.

NPCs

One of the things I felt was particularly weak about BOTW was its NPC characters. Upon reflection there are more, in greater variety than I realized, but then I compare them to older Zelda games and still feel like something's missing. Link to the Past had the Exiled Thief, for example. A neat guy--he helps you pick a lock. Link's Awakening has an old woman whose pet dogs are chain chomps! Rescuing Bow Wow is a major story point!

Sword Master

The special vagaries of BOTW's combat is visited briefly in one of the most important shrines in the game (the one overlooking Kakariko Village and the first Great Fairy shrine you're likely to encounter). However, I missed having a sword-master tutorial. Give me a couple sword schools that focus on getting sneakstrikes, Flurry attacks, and parrying. Give me some more guided interactions with the combat system, because I especially felt like sneakstrikes were beyond me.

Witch

Syrup the Witch produced potions in Link to the Past and the Oracle series, and her granddaughter Maple flew around the world, periodically bumping into Link in order to give him items. The Gerudo witches Koume and Kotake appeared in OoTs and MM to sell potions. There's a witch family in Link Between Worlds.

I would like to see a witch brewing elixirs in her special witch hut in some of the more forgotten backwater forests of BOTW. Perhaps she’s stirring a pot similar to Sayge’s dying apparatus. On a bookshelf in her house there’s a book of recipes that contains the recipe for the best version of every elixir you’ve brewed. Put her in the Minshi Wood, since that forest is pretty empty.

Witch’s Apprentice

One of the things that inspired me to write this was the vision of a witch flying over Hyrule Field. She could run a shop of rare or difficult-to-craft elixirs and you’d have to lure her to the ground with octoballoons carrying potion ingredients, maybe? Occasionally she'd follow you while you're riding on horseback, racing you. But in that playful, companionable way.

Kapoera Gabora

Link’s owl guide from Link’s Awakening and Ocarina of Time doesn’t necessarily need to make a reappearance, but the vastness of the game often made it lonely, and it doesn’t help that major expositions are caused by flashbacks Zelda helpfully stored in her phone for you. I like the idea of Kapoera Gabora showing up in the ruins of different towns to explain the cause of their abandonment and give us a view of the world outside Zelda's phone. A calamity happened! Help us understand it.

Give me Closure for the people I save

One of the cool things about BOTW is that you get a glimpse of how the monsters threaten the people of this world. It’s not the first time that it’s happened in a Zelda game but it happens more often now. The problem is that these people will express gratitude... then nothing happens. They just wait for the monsters to respawn on a blood moon. On one occasion, I saved a woman, then road down the road at breakneck pace... to save her two more times, each time with no acknowledgement of the previous times.

Give me closure on these! Let these people build a homestead or something after I kill the bokoblin that's bothering them. Give them a trading quest.

Give the New Champions more to do

Since the game went to the trouble of introducing relatives of the Four Champions who help you gain access to the Divine Beasts, it would make sense to incorporate them into the larger story. Having them interact with the ghosts of their ancestors might make them a touch more memorable.

Korok Dialog

The third or fourth time I found a Korok, I realized that these guys have maybe two lines of dialog total. Their cookiecutter “you found me” dialog means they have only slightly more personality than a korok-shaped treasure chest. I mean, I came to the Hyrule Castle, a monster-haunted castle permanently cloaked in a shroud of red fog, the ground literally oozing liquid evil, and then I climbed to the very tippy-top, and your line is "You found me!" Which, by the way, is the exact same thing a Korok said to me when I found one hiding under a rock outside a comfy tavern.

How about having these guys acknowledge the world in any way? Write a stock line for each related to where they were hiding, and then for the ones that are hiding in particularly interesting points, give them something to say when you talk to them.

Like for a geolithic pattern: “Thanks for helping me finish that pattern!”
Hiding under leaves: “I love jumping in leaf piles!”
Circle-of-rocks in the river challenge: “It sure was wet down there!”

And then, like “Wow, from the top of Hyrule Castle you can see pretty much the whole world!
“Wow, from Zelda’s turret you can totally see Crenel Hill!”

“Great job finding me in the dark! There’s another one nearby!”

“The Lynel over there was singing showtunes when he thinks nobody’s listening.”

Zelda

Something I thought early in my BOTW playthrough: that Zelda was trapped in Hyrule Castle with Ganon, hemming him inside a bubble generated by her piece of the Triforce. Occasionally Ganon would muster his strength to create a streaking phantom monster, which she would shoot with her Light Bow, keeping the beast trapped inside the castle walls for the most part. But then, occasionally, she'd slip, or miss, and some Malice would escape into the world.

But no. It turns out she's just chilling in a polyp in the castle, until you save her. 

Places

Monstrous Cookpot

We find a ton of monster camps that feature their cooking. Cooking fish, roasting giant slabs of meat... but it would be pretty neat to see at least one with a person-sized cookpot. Sneakstrike the chef to get a rare elixir! Here's a typical Moblin fort, but the platform wraps around a cookpot over a roaring flame.

Flood Zone

In Link to the Past, you have to drain a reservoir in order to find a piece of heart. Even in BOTW, there are challenges in Vah Rutala and some of the Shrines that require water depth manipulation challenges, and it would be cool to explore some more of those in the overworld.

Gameplay

Caravan Mission

I can already hear people getting anxious about the escort mission, but hear me out: rather than pass/fail, you're awarded a rupee total based on the success of your defense.

Point to Point Racer

The world of BOTW is huge, and it would be fun to have a unique, maybe over-designed NPC who challenges you to races all over the world. There is a jogger who challenges you to a race, Similar to Fletus from Brutal Legend. You come up to a Hylian at a campfire while riding your horse, and she's like "Hey! That's a fine horse you've got there! I'd love to race you from here to Fort Hateno!" And then you have to chase her on horseback, or just try to navigate a path there. And she gets mad at you if you cheat by teleporting. Th

Stable Raids

The people in BOTW seem pretty comfortable in their post-apocalypse. Occasionally a person will fight a bokoblin on a bridge but nobody seems to be in particularly serious danger. Their cities and even their outposts seem comfortable and safe. I wanted to ruin the sense of safety these people have. Sometimes, when Link is near a stable, Zelda would miss a shot back at Hyrule Castle, letting a piece of Ganon escape to spawn monsters that then attack the stable. Intercede at your own peril but also recognize the stable might close while the beasts take over the stable, sleeping in the beds, chasing livestock and fighting. This would be a rarish event, something that happens under supremely scripted situations and separated by dozens of hours of gameplay.

Conclusion

BOTW is a great game, and I had a lot of fun dreaming of this stuff while I was playing it. Have your own ideas? Wanna complain that mine violate the spirit of the game? Great! Share them with me!