Zelda: Breath of the Wild Player Discovers Overlooked Animation Details

Very few games have the longevity of a game like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. As the industry has grown, and hundreds of titles launch every year, people tend to move on from a game quickly. Breath of the Wild is something different entirely. Nearly four years after its initial release, fans are still exploring Hyrule, discovering new things, and sharing them. Whether it's a cool trick shot or, in this case, a set of animations for Link, there always seems to be something new to find.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild gives fans a fully open world, the ability to traverse practically the entire thing, and lets players have at it. While some critics point to a lack of strong narrative, or that it is missing traditional dungeon elements that have previously been found in Zelda games, the free-form exploration Nintendo allows for here has created a spark within the fan community. New things are found all the time in Breath of the Wild, like the recently discovered debug room.

While the debug room is a pretty big find, every find in Breath of the Wild is arguably cool. Such as a set of animations for Link recently discovered and shared that show the attention to detail Breath of the Wild offers. With his stamina fully drained, Link shows that he is tired, and his movement becomes labored. This extends to swinging his weapon while under duress. Instead of swinging with authority, Link fumbles with sword slashes, spear pokes, and hammer pounds, barely hanging on as he attacks.

That it has been this long for someone to find and post these animations is impressive, though it is likely others have stumbled upon Link's feeble attempts to fight when totally spent, but never uploaded them. The animations aren't found anywhere else in the game, and exist purely for this scenario. This is the attention to detail fans are going to want to see in Breath of the Wild 2.

With new discoveries being made all the time, and fans playing with the game's mechanics to have Link pull off incredible trick shots, the fan community around Breath of the Wild is still very strong. That a post about a couple of Link's animations can garner nearly 12,000 upvotes shows that there are a lot of folks still deeply invested in the game. That bodes well for Nintendo, because if Breath of the Wild 2 can deliver, then years from now fans will likely be finding new things in that game, too.

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is the latest addition to The Legend of Zelda franchise. Although the game is quite different than most entries into the series, it adds value in terms of drastically mixing up the gameplay, as well as filling in major plot points of the story. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is a spin-off from the mainline franchise, but it is still connected via characters and the lore.

Koei Tecmo's take on a hack and slash title in the long-running series may not be as impressive as the best Legend of Zelda games, but Nintendo can still learn from Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 will be better because of it.