5 Ways Zelda: Breath of the Wild Could Have Been Even Better

Deeper Crafting

Breath of the Wild is certainly a huge evolution forward for the series, but when it comes to crafting, you can often get the feeling that the feature was never taken quite far enough. Yes, Link can use all of those monster parts and resources out in the world to craft food, potions, and elixirs to keep him fighting fit on his journey, but what about ammo, armor, and weaponry?

With the wood you can get from trees and flint that you can get from smashing rocks with a sledgehammer, could Link not make some sort of make-do arrows? Or how about using some of those monster parts you looted from corpses to make some badass armor or weaponry? Considering there are over 100 resources in Breath of the Wild, the fact we’re limited to only cooking up some different meals and brews for Link definitely feels like a limitation. It’s only a small gripe, and pretty much our only gripe when it comes to the gameplay, but hey, maybe that’ll come next time around.

Framerate

Depending on how you’ve been playing Breath of the Wild, you may have hardly had any issues when it comes to the game’s framerate, if any at all. Running in portable mode on the Switch, Breath of the Wild actually seems to run and handle the stunning sights of Hyrule far better than when the system is docked.

While playing docked, you’ll likely find countless times where the framerate has become a real detriment to the gameplay. Drop a bomb in the center of an explosive-filled camp, and things slow right down to a crawl. The same thing seems to happen when exploring dense wooded areas, too. Considering the dock is supposed to provide additional power and improve a game’s performance, the fact that Breath of the Wild runs worse when docked is disappointing, especially how great the game looks on a big HDTV. With the rest of the game being so darn polished, it’s disappointing Nintendo couldn’t iron out these final, tiny creases in performance to ensure an optimal experience on your adventure.

Control Mapping

By now, most players have got used to certain actions being mapped to certain controls. Jump is assigned to the bottom button, sprint is the left stick, crouch is normally the right stick or farthest right button of the four… you get the picture. So when a game like Breath of the Wild comes along and maps a number of these crucial actions to really strange buttons, it can really throw you off your game and cost you heavily in battle.

While Breath of the Wild did have some element of changing the controls, such as enabling you to switch the jump button to the bottom button, sprint and crouch were still mapped in different places. Though you’ll get used to Breath of the Wild’s unusual controls eventually, the ability to map the controls however you saw fit would have been a godsend. Or, y’know, just have a more traditional control scheme as an alternative configuration, instead.

Fully Optional Motion Controls

While aiming your bow and looking around with your Sheikah Slate can be controlled by using the Switch’s motion controls, this can be turned off in the game’s settings. Instead, you can simply use the traditional aiming method of using the analog sticks. Unfortunately, Nintendo just couldn’t let us have a motion control-free game, forcing you to use the rather cumbersome and not-so-accurate control scheme during some of the game’s Shrines.

Not every Shrine in Breath of the Wild requires you to use these motion controls, but there’s a good few of them that will crop up and make grabbing that all-important Spirit Orb far more tedious than it really should be. Why can’t we just use the analog sticks to navigate that ball through a maze? We get it’s there to show of the Switch’s features, but at least give us the option to completely turn them off.

Just Let Us Pet the Dogs, Breath of the Wild, Please!

Us gamers are a strange bunch. We see a sheep in a game, we couldn’t care less. We see a dog in a game and we immediately want to become its best friend, shower it with love, and embark on this adventure together. Well, not every game can let you have a furry friend for the adventure, and Breath of the Wild is one such game. But, c’mon Nintendo, at least let us pet ’em.

While dogs aren’t completely useless in Breath of the Wild (feed them and you’ll see), they do need some affection, something that Nintendo just doesn’t understand. Nevermind Fido of Hyrule, I’ll just feed you these apples instead.