First announced back in February, Nintendo has just detailed what exactly we’ll be getting with the first batch of DLC that’s being offered for Breath of the Wild in winter. And it all sounds pretty great.
First, and coolest of all, is a smart map which will track where you’ve been over the last 200 hours.
It will help you see not just where you’ve been, but also where you haven’t, in case you’re hunting for shrines and want to see the areas of the map you haven’t been hitting for whatever reason.
Adding to your navigation options is an item called the “Travel Medallion”, which you need to find in a chest. Once you’ve got it, you can set a single point on the map and make it a fast travel point. Which sounds very handy.
Then there’s a horde mode that you can complete to add power to the Master Sword:
Trial of the Sword
When you get to a certain sacred location, you can take on the new “Trial of the Sword” challenge. Face an onslaught of enemies, one wave after another. Link starts the challenge without any equipment or weapons. When all the enemies in a room are defeated, Link proceeds to the next. Clear all the trials (about 45 rooms in total), and the true power of the Master Sword awakens.
There’s a hard mode, in case you’re finding the combat too easy:
Hard Mode
In Hard Mode, enemies gradually regain health, so take them out as quickly as possible. All enemies are also powered up by one level. For example, Red Bokoblins in Normal mode are now Blue Bokoblins. Enemies can also have higher maximum levels than they would in Normal mode. Look up, and you may also find enemies and treasure chests in the sky!
And for those wondering about aesthetics, there will also be new armour that taps into the series’ history, including a replica of Majora’s Mask, Tingle’s outfit and a Korok Mask which “shakes whenever Link is near a hidden Korok location”.
Remember, this is the first of two planned pieces of DLC. This one is due this winter, while the second — which includes an expansion of the story — is coming later.
Comments
35 responses to “Zelda: Breath Of The Wild’s First DLC Adds Some Very Cool Stuff”
Phantom armour looks tops
I’m strangely into the Tingle armour o.o
Side note: only been playing for 20 or so hours or so (is there a timer in-game?) but just unlocked one of the towers and it said there was “Tingel Island” off the coast somewhere ^_^. Ha!
Hmmm. Not sure how I feel about the smart map being locked behind DLC. It’s the sort of thing that should be a standard patch, yeah?
That’s the hard part isn’t it, this probably would have come in a standard patch for an ongoing game like Diablo, but it probably wouldn’t have come at all in a game like Zelda. These are like Wind Waker HD features.
At this point Zelda (and the Switch in general) could be like “pay $30 and we’ll give you $100!” and people would be like “sooo… we’re actually only getting $70? That sucks.”
It’s amazing how many people are Nintendophobic now.
I don’t feel it’s amazing. They consistently make anti consumer decisions.
It’s like the Grandpa that says and does inappropriate crap at Christmas. Everyone hates it but let’s it go because he is old.
“It’s literally OK when Nintendo does it!” the post.
Not really sure how that is relevant. I like the feature being mentioned, but feel that it should have been part of the game from the beginning – because it really is quite difficult to track where you’ve been previously in a game this big. It’s not unreasonable that they might offer it as a realisation of their original vision, and perhaps as a thank you to the millions of customers who have paid full price for the game (and, generally, the accompanying console). They certainly would not be the first big developer to do this.
Beyond that feature, I’m not convinced that the whole DLC is a necessary purchase. Because how many costumes can you wear at any given time? And how easy is it to switch between them?
Hence: Hmmm, I’m not sure how I feel about this.
Look, expecting consistency across the gaming industry is just impossible. You can’t say it’s unfair of Nintendo to ask for money for a new feature that would “probably” have been added to Diablo for free. I mean – you can certainly SAY it but it’s not a STRONG argument that can be supported by anything, you know, real.
The serious point behind my flippant joke is that Nintendo gets this special (mean) treatment where it’s not enough to say “meh this DLC doesn’t interest me” which is perfectly valid. We also have to make a jab about how DLC feature X should have been included in the main game for free.
Even when Nintendo is offering us new stuff to buy, that we don’t HAVE to buy, it is still somehow still “ripping us off”.
(Also your last paragraph, the answers are “1” and “very easy, but could be easier, in fact the whole inventory management system could be more streamlined and I get why it doesn’t support touch but THAT’S something I’d like them to patch in, ideally for free.”)
I’m happy to have a stab at it. For me that feature is the only worthwhile thing in the entire DLC, it’s something that I mentioned to friends when the game came out as an “oh man I wish this game had this feature”, alongside the ability to change which voice acting you have while keeping english subtitles. We have now have both of these features, but one of them will cost $30 to access. Entirely not worth it.
And I do think it’s somewhat unfair (well maybe not unfair but certainly leaves a bad taste) in that it works retroactively with your file rather than only tracking from when you get the DLC, so obviously this has been in the works since the beginning. This is no special treatment for Nintendo though, I would criticise such a move in any game regardless of who it came from.
I agree that free enhancements to BOTW to reward our loyalty (anyone who played it on Switch essentially paid $500 for this one game) would be super-nice, but we should try to stay at least a little bit objective here.
What’s the economics of the BOTW team continuing to put hours into programming extra feature (this map tracking thing seems pretty sophisticated – are there any other games that do it like this, with this level of granularity?) and then just giving that work away?
There’s something that doesn’t sit right with this argument that essentially boils down to: “What? This DLC actually has a new feature that’s useful and desirable? Well then, they should give that away for free!”
The team came up with a good, compelling idea to make the DLC worth having. Why would they give that away?
Still, if you think the situation sucks, wait until 2019 or 2020 when the Gold Classic Edition of BOTW is $29.95 and comes with all the DLC bundled… 🙂
(Of course then we will be bitching “Thirty bucks?! For a three year old game?!”)
For one, yes – it’s a feature they used in Mario Chase back in Nintendo Land. And I don’t know how much I would say it’s “useful” as such, it’s more of a QOL addition than outright content as the rest of the DLC seems to be. Which is how this kind of thing generally goes – you put out content as DLC, and features/tweaks go into patches. Following your argument I guess we’d be paying for patches as well. Do you think the feature of being able to switch audio tracks to have differing languages between vocals and subtitles would have been an appropriate inclusion in the DLC too, rather than being pushed out in a patch?
The team did not come up with a good, compelling idea to make the DLC worth having. They came up with a good, compelling idea to make me look into how I can pirate the DLC because it’s absolutely not worth paying for two DLC packs when the only compelling thing is one small feature in one of the packs. But I can’t just give them a couple of bucks for that one feature (which I would still be annoyed at doing), so fuck ’em.
And this is a complete fantasy too. We just had Mario Kart 8 undergo that exact treatment and it is more than double your suggested price.
Well let’s put it this way: should DLC never ever have “bonus content” that is promoted as being “free with the DLC”? The downside of making art in an updateable media is that it’s even POSSIBLE to patch previously purchased games with new content.
Book authors don’t have to deal with readers saying “that cliffhanger at the end of book 1 was just to make us buy book 2. Now book 2 is out he should give us the resolution of the cliffhanger for free!” because once a book’s published, it’s done (reprints and second editions aside).
Only gamers can look at someone who bought DLC and say “Why did that consumer get a free Smart Map? I should get a free Smart Map too, if it’s free. If it’s only free with the DLC then it’s not really free!”
Cue extremely long debate about what the “price” of any game really is, in a media where patches can change a game without the consumer even hardly having to do anything.
It’s an interesting problem, that’s for sure.
Oh, and my gag about the “Gold Classic Edition” was meant to be about the way that people who buy games and DLC when they first come out always pay more, whereas if you just wait say, three years, all today’s hot hot $100 games will be $30 and the DLC will be in the box for free…
… but I actually forgot we were talking about Nintendo here, so the Super Gold Edition will be $59.95 in 2022. Hell – I just saw Super Mario Galaxy at JB Hi-Fi the other day… for $45!!
@fermian I’m… not even sure what you’re trying to say here at all. Nor do I see how functionality changes to a game are somehow equivalent to a book’s sequel.
I think we’re jumping to extremes here. I’m not suggesting for a second that I must buy this stuff – and I doubt that I will. Nor am I suggesting it is unfair, or that they are ripping us off. Nintendo are a business, they are putting this out there to make money, and they probably will. Good on ’em.
But it is undeniably shit that the only way to get a map feature that improves the base game is to pay for it – and even more shit that it’s only available in a uber DLC bundle (unless I missed the announcement of a piece-meal option somewhere?). They’ve taken an approach that is different to most other developers – as is their way – and it is my strong opinion that in this case they’ve taken the wrong approach.
Nintendo’s still a pretty cool guy, though.
Anyway, arguing on the Internet. Woo.
I guess it depends on how you look at it. Is this Nintendo withholding core gameplay elements to compel us to buy DLC? Or is it Nintendo trying really hard to come up with good ideas to make the DLC worth buying? So much DLC exploits “collector mentality” and adds nothing you really NEED to the game.
I am not sure that “most” other developers are currently offering piecemeal gameplay enhancements like better map systems independent of larger bundles.
Again though, trying to objectively figure out if an element of a game is worth $2 or $5 or $30 is just so difficult – ESPECIALLY because some developer are happy to give new content away, while others dump 85%-finished games on us and never look back.
I think it’s hard to argue that BOTW doesn’t provide good value for money as-is. And I think it’s hard to argue that just because a feature (smart map) would benefit all players, it should therefore just be given away for free.
I mean… I thought we hated socialism and sharing and being nice to other people now? Doesn’t everything serve the mighty dollar these days? 🙂
Yep, happy not to have bought the DLC. Nothing there for me.
Go the Korok Mask!
I would see my Link wearing the pelt of a creature he’s forever smashing with rocks.
Yahaha!
Ouch!
this is average at best
I’ll either buy when I’m not playing other games (unlikely to happen for a while as Lego City and MK8D are massive time sinks) or the main part of the DLC hits late in the year.
It’s funny that if it was anything else, all this DLC content would be $50 instead of $30.
I haven’t got the game but I’m wondering, does Link ever wear his green tunic in this one?
You can get a few different versions of the standard green tunic but you need corresponding amiibo for that. You can dye your clothes green though!
you can also
SPOILER
Get the “Tunic of the Wild” by completing all 120 trials.
Psst… that’s not how spoiler tags work.
I never need to use the tag, so I don’t even know how to do it.
Ok. Third time’s the charm, after getting hit with moderation several times:
Well there’s the button in the toolbar with the eye, I can’t remember if I can make this work but I’ll give it a shot…
<s>spoilered text.</s>
So this is free DLC, yeah? Cause with how the game went, I’ve no interest in spending any more money on it.
Maybe this pack is free but the second pack is $30. Except you can only buy the two of them together as a single package.
I must have this, though hard mode isn’t for me, I can’t even take down a normal level Lynel.
Don’t even get me started about them damn Lynel!
Killing my first Lynel was one of my favourite moments in this game.
Link: “Whoa, new mask”
*Puts it on*
Link: “… Why is there a face on the moon?”