The Poetry of Breath of the Wild

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is often regarded as a triumph with an unfortunate flaw--its story. But what if it's not meant to work like a story at all? In this video, we talk about the differences between narrative and lyricism to show how Breath of the Wild works more like poetry than narrative fiction.

0:00 Introduction
5:01 The Tyranny of Narrative
15:09 Liberating Lyricism
24:30 Conclusion

[Rayne_Storms]

For me, and a lot of other people with depression, BOTW was incredibly moving. It's a world in which the worst thing that could happen already has, and still life has gone on. There's still beauty. There's still kindness and bravery. You're right, it's absolutely poetry and I really hope we see more games in this vein. TOTK never felt like a real successor in this way.

[joshuafrank]

I always found myself opening the game only to wander around looking for beautiful places. I would sit and listen to the sound of the nature and the sporadic music. Those were the moments I remember most from the game. The whole game has a mood that sticks with me, a solemn feeling which is perfectly complemented by the art and music direction.

[squeeneytodd]

[spoilers for BOTW, in the vaguest sense]
The thing I've always liked about the unsctructured nature of BOTW's memories is that, for me, it provided the real motivation to go to the castle and beat the game. Instead of being a story I play through, the memories give reasons to travel to various areas (I really loved figuring out the locations!) and to care about the characters I'm intended to save (Zelda and the Champions). I want to give the Champions their second chance. I want to relieve Zelda of her burden because I've seen her as a person, at her best and her worst. For a game that's built around exploring a melancholy and lonely yet still /lived-in/ world, I think focusing on smaller character moments was absolutely the right move! It gave me room to rebuild a town, help a bird man write a song, and take photos of the landscape because I love the sunrise that much.
[I also love the Champion's Ballad for the same reason]
Great video!

[ty_]

I’ve been watching videos of botw for 7 years now. This is it.
You managed to put into words what I’ve been feeling all this time.
I love these games to death, they’re some of my favorite pieces of media, and now I know why.
I could talk about this for hours but the only thing I need to say is thank you so much.

I’ll only add one thing: Nintendo, and especially Zelda, has always had poetic settings, mechanics, moments, characters, art styles but Breath of the wild and Tears of the kingdom is where they made everything come together.
Such incredible achievements.

[mictony]

Funny thing is I wrote a literal poem based on the experience of climbing towers and paragliding off it in this game. Its the only game that made me do that

[KaneAsIAm]

3:00 “and they can’t guarantee that you won’t find a way to launch yourself into the air from a mountain, land on the castle, and defeat the monster with a ladle.” 😂 I genuinely burst out laughing at this! And I was assured at this moment that he had, in fact, played Breath of the Wild.
Bravo good sir!

[b.lloydreese]

Botw came to me at just the right time in life. I had heard about it and switch but thought it didnt sound interesting and didnt have a switch anyways. I was having problems in my marriage.

Fast forward, caught my wife cheating on me, filed for divorce. Bought a used switch from my friend and started playing it right at the start of covid.

I get out of the tomb of resurrection and find hyrule in ruins. It had been 20 years since i had played a zelda. Ocarina of time. I felt personally responsible for abandoning hyrule. Hyrule was in shambles just like my life.

I started playing and it was like learning to walk again every little undertaking felt like a big accomplishment.

Botw, the music the story hit me at just the right time

[leviwarren]

Here's one I wrote for ocarina of time. You've opened the floodgates to the Zelda fandom.



Time, like a stream, never ends, never stops,
It ebbs and flows, it speeds and slows,
Each moment we taste, a drop.

Each drop joins the whole, a river takes shape,
For each, it varies, as each it carries,
Its course no man can escape.

Deep fountains loft time from Din's red earth,
As it rises, it exorcises,
Man's form and gives him birth.

Drawn through the soil by Farore's roots,
Water and man, time and its span,
Nourish her tender shoots.

As the clear water's surface mirrors growth,
Nayru's guiding hand justifies the land,
Roots below and branches both.

Along each edge of the pedestal's blade,
Runs a silver cord, where seven years are stored,
A boyhood too long delayed.

For the flow of time is always cruel,
Child protected and child neglected,
Both drown in the temporal pool.

[marialuisalino]

Never thought I could learn literature with my favorite game. This is one of the best videos I've seen about BOTW. Truly amazing, thank you.

[disasterdykeallie]

what’s really great about this, is that the best part of the game’s lyrical content, is a poetic metaphor the game gives you if you invest enough into it.

what am i talking about? the way the ending cutscene changes is only emotional resonant if you: first, restore links memory (it’s how you get the “better” ending in the first place), you recognize why zelda actualized her powers too late to save the kingdom and you remember the item description of a specific flower in the game.

zelda could not grow because of her father’s overbearing pressure on her to gain her ability, when she isn’t locked in the castle, she is still forced into duty. meanwhile, the flower is the silent princess, a flower that cannot grow in captivity. in the extended good ending ends with a shot of an entire field of silent princesses, which in normal gameplay is fairly rare, often you can only find 1-3 at a time and the wind blows carrying and scattering many of their petals as the camera locks onto one flower at the top of a knoll.

[minecrafter]

That was beautiful. I’ve been trying to convince people of vaguely the same thing for over a year now, but you put it into such clever words they can no longer plug their ears and call the duology of modern Zelda games bad because of their story. If your video gains traction, it will single handedly change the opinion of the entire community. You may have just become the spark for a major chain of events where people appreciate games because they are games, where the story isn’t something that you’re told, but where the story is YOU.

[bo]

This does a really good job of describing the potent sadness that permeates a lot of this game. The world is so beautiful, and often everything you do in it is as well. You experience this through Link's curiosity and lack of understanding in his post-amnesia world, but when you get to a new memory, or some relic of the past in the current world, it paints everything with this distinct hopelessness of what happened 100 years ago. It is so wonderfully, beautifully, sad. I know I'm just restating a lot of ideas in the video, I just really, truly love this game and all the things it makes me feel.

[ElliotRobertsVideos]

Andrew, thank you so much for translating what so many people miss about this miraculous game.
The focus on lyrical poetry instead of a forced narrative should be something everyone keeps in mind when they play Breath of the Wild for the first time.

[jackaskhim]

I think we might have the beginning of a new philosophy here. Life has a definite beginning and only one end but what we do in the middle is up to us. Living in the moment and enjoying that moment for nothing more than what it is, sounds like a nice life to me. I wish I could do that. No constant worrying about the rent or where I will be in five years. Just live and let live. Work towards a goal but how we get there or how long it takes is not important. I am in.

[chicago]

This is the first time I've seen someone compare a video game to the medium of poetry... Honestly kind of eye opening! Thanks!

[sameaston]

While you're still on a Zelda kick, check out Majora's Mask narrative. It's been nearly 20 years later and we're still debating on what it's about, pulling from theology, philosophy, mythology, and psychology to support the various arguments.

[SomethingWellesian]

I love this reading of Breath of the Wild. One of my favourite lines from a review around the time (which I’ve never been able to find since), written describing the critic’s experience of arriving at a stable, talking to the inhabitants, making a meal, and taking a night’s rest, was that it was the first game they’d played that allowed you to be a hero at rest.

I’ve been a Zelda fan for many years but stopped playing for a long time as life moved around me. About two years ago, I played Skyward Sword, then moved straight into Breath of the Wild, then (shortly after it launched) Tears of the Kingdom. So Zelda was pretty much the only thing I played for two years, but when I played Breath of the Wild, it was always the feel of the game, not the story, that kept me invested. The story contributed to the feel, but it wasn’t primary.

I’d be interested to know your take on Tears of the Kingdom (if you’ve played it), because I think it made an attempt to balance narrative against the lyricism you describe, and while I love the story it tells, I think that it does come at the expense of some of that lyricism.

[byronpaulbeadoy]

Finally! A commentary on BOTW I can agree with. After hearing so much criticism on BOTW's story, hearing your thoughts on the game's player-centric experience building brings me joy. To me the most significant moments I had with the game were the moments of mystery, discovery, and quiet strolls. I also love the way one uncovers the past events in random order. Many of our literatures here in the Orient are like that, much more concerned with feeling the essence of an experience than in the sequence of events. Like poetry indeed.

[PaperMario]

I love the story. Link’s memories that you recall and are later reminded of are what makes the game so great. You have to spend time living in Hyrule and not quickly trying to conquer it so you can move on to the next thing.

[vmsk]

I loved the memories format. It gave my journey a sorrow taste as I knew I was chasing a story which ended a 100 years ago. Recovering them in a random order made the experience ever deeper. BOTW is a sad game.