Has Nintendo mastered DLC?
It’s been a few months since the Switch and Breath of the Wild came out, I personally rank BOTW as one of my favourite Zelda games, so the DLC was always going to be a no-brainer situation. The first DLC “The Master Trials” contains quite a bit of content, so let’s get started…
First up is the Trial of the Sword which is level after level of enemies, while Link has to scavenge for food and weapons, as he starts with literally nothing. Enemies get tougher and in some cases can kill you in a few hits if you’re not careful or properly equipped. It’s one shot only as well if you die…that’s your chance gone, back to the first room. Cruel, but if you complete it then your Master Sword never runs out of energy, which is a nice reward.
Next up is the game’s new Hard Mode. This is particularly brutal as the lovely people at Nintendo have decided to add a Lynel to the starting area, then each enemy has been leveled up to the next version. There are even Gold Lynels to beat, which is no small thing…let me tell you.
Besides that, you get side-quests to earn items such as Majora’s Mask which has a great stealth boost, the Korok Mask which highlights when you are near one of the 900 Korok Seeds, Midna’s Helmet which gives you higher defence against those pesky Guardians and the Phantom Armor Set which boosts your attack and finally the Tingle Set which nets you a Night Speed Up bonus.
As well as these, you can now see where you have been on the map thanks to the new Hero Path option which highlights your many travels across Hyrule and finally, there’s the Travel Medallion which lets you place a waypoint that you can fast-travel back to if you need to.
The Verdict
All in all, it’s a great opener for Breath of the Wild’s DLC. The Hard Mode and Trial of the Sword are the main attractions, both are brutal and it’s always great to be rocking Majora’s Mask while facing away from a Blood Moon. Let’s hope The Champion’s Ballad hits the right notes when it releases later this year.