The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

In the announcement of the expansion pass for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild sounded the first of two DLC packages for the Nintendo Switch Launchtitel not particularly exciting. It should contain a higher degree of difficulty as well as additional features for the game environment map, it was called spongy at the time. Contrary to this expectation, the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - The Legendary Examinations is a challenging and worthwhile expansion of the already huge gameplay.

Almost naked and alone

The highlight of the first DLC package is testing the sword. Once you have found the master sword, you can reinforce your power by taking on a 45-space challenge. Like on the Jotverde Island in the main game, you start without clothes or weapons and carry only the Shiekah stone with you. Not even the forces obtained after a successful completion of the four Titans can be used.

They fight through spaces with well-known adversaries, climbing climbs and different conditions such as lava, thunderstorms and snowfall; Always with scarce resources. In order to survive, the game requires the creative use of all of the skills you have acquired in your travels through Hyrule. From the use of certain weapons against elementary enemies, through the clever use of runes, to the most effective combination of cooking ingredients - sword testing is required at all levels.

If you commit a fatal error, it is "back to the start" - at least almost. The test is divided into three sections. After successfully completing a section, you are teleported from the challenge and do not have to go through the already mastered rooms again. The reward for each completed phase is ten additional damage points for the master sword. If you have also conquered the very demanding last spaces, the sword is permanently in its luminous state with 60 damage, as long as it is usable. The second great feature of the DLC is the master mode. In this (with a separate scoreboard) new difficulty level, Hyrule becomes even more dangerous. Thus all opponents have a "degree of hardness". Red Bokblins, for example, become blue and suddenly very strong opponents appear in places where they are not expected. In addition, opponents discover Link when they approach them and regenerate energy during a battle if they are not continually attacked.

Everywhere in the sky of Hyrule hovering also balloons fastened planks, on which are opponents and also the one or other treasure chest. These changes make it at least partially, the game also after a passage on the normal difficulty mode again interesting to shape. However, the more powerful opponents encourage a very defensive style, in which one fights as best as possible out of the way.