Horizon Zero Dawn and Breath of the Wild
You wouldn’t think that PS4’s largest new IP and the Nintendo Switch’s critically acclaimed launch title would have anything in common. After all, Sony’s Horizon Zero Dawn is about a post-post-apocalyptic world full of robot animals, tribal humans, and lots of hacking. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a new entry in the celebrated franchise that keeps a lot of the tried-and-true series formula in tact while also introducing entirely new open-world mechanics.
Let’s get the obvious similarities out of the way first. Both Horizon Zero Dawn and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild share a lot of gameplay features. This may be due to the fact that both drop players into an open world, or that they both happen to use the same type of ranged weapon. There’s a large focus on world traversal in both Horizon Zero Dawn and Breath of the Wild, too.
This is where the gameplay similarities begin to run out, though. The Legend of Zelda has a much heavier reliance on survival and inventory management than Sony’s exclusive. The art style in each game is not similar in the slightest, either, with Horizon Zero dawn taking a more grounded, realistic approach, and Breath of the Wild sporting Nintendo’s trademark artistic flair. The company knows how to make the most of any hardware given to them, and this latest release looks like a living painting.
However, the games have a lot more story similarities than anyone would’ve thought possible. We’re going to go into the big ones, but before we do, we should warn you that there will be a few story spoilers for both games ahead. If you’ve yet to play either game and really want to experience them for yourself, you may want to turn back now and come back after playing. If you’re just itching with curiosity and want to see how alike these two blockbusters are, continue on.