Review: The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild – The Champions Ballad

It is never a bad thing to get more content from the best game of the year and one of the best Nintendo games of all time. While Zelda: Breath of the Wild easily provided over a hundred hours of gameplay it never felt old or tiring, whether it was finding all the shrines or exploring every corner of the world map. With the release of the Champions Ballad DLC, I always wondered what more could be done to expand the Breath of the Wild world. Not only did the Champions Ballad deliver but it also had a few interesting surprises up its sleeve.

The Champions Ballad can only be played once the four divine beasts are defeated after which you are summoned to the shrine of resurrection where you receive a new weapon: the One Hit Obliterator. As the name suggests this weapon only requires one hit to defeat an enemy but the catch is that you are left with no hearts and cannot even recover any hearts from eating food. This concept and idea work wonderfully are you are then tasked with defeating enemies in four different areas on the Great Plateau who once defeated unlock a new shrine to enter. Again, this is all done with no hearts, so it is a very challenging quest and is geared more towards experienced players.

The shrines themselves are incredible and are some of the best shrines in the game. It will have you thinking and pondering for quite a while before you realize how to solve the puzzle. One of my favorites was a shrine that had you getting by these obstacles that are put in front of your path. At one point you are avoiding spinning spikes, at another, you are gliding through a room with swinging spikes and the last room you are running away from a spike block that is following you from behind!

Once you beat all the shrines on the Great Plateau you must travel to four different markers on the map that each have you completing three challenges that further unlock another shrine to play. Each area on the map is tied to one of the divine beasts and once those challenges are completed there is a rematch against each divine beasts boss. This may have been the one part of the DLC I didn’t enjoy as the bosses are not that challenging and weren’t as fun to play against the first go around, never mind having to do it a second time. Once defeated a cutscene is then shown with the champion in that area. While it did not do much to advance the story it was a nice backdrop to some of these champions lives.

After defeating all the challenges and all the shrines you then return to the shrine of resurrection to play in a new dungeon. This was one of my favorite dungeons and makes excellent use of all of Links powers. Once you complete the dungeon you then play in one of the best bosses fights the game has to offer. You will be tested to your limits and in the end, rewarded with one of the quirkiest things found in any Zelda game… a Sheikah motorbike! Hop on and give it a ride because you won’t want to get off and there is no better way to see the Breath of the Wild world than on a motorbike.

For those who enjoyed Breath of the Wild and want to be more challenged this is an excellent DLC pack to pick up and culminates in one of the most interesting things ever found in a Zelda game. The ending boss fight is one of the best in the game and the beginning challenge on the Great Plateau is tense and exhilarating knowing that you can die with one hit.

Guest reviewed by Theodore Nanos

[A code for the expansion pass was provided to us by the publisher for review purposes.]