The Mastered Sword

At long last, I have finished my "100%" run through The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. By "100%," I mean as close to 100% as I'm willing to get. I finished the game on Master Mode, completed every quest I found including the DLC, solved all 136 shrines, and filled the Hyrule Compendium. I did not collect all 900 Korok seeds, though I did find the 441 required to maximally expand Link's carrying capacity. Suffice it to say that I now know this game like the back of my hand.

Immersion

After finishing my first run through BotW, I realized that I was dissatisfied with the fast travel system. By the late game, there's really not much of a reason to ride your horse anywhere: you can fast travel to any shrine or tower, which are evenly spread across the map, from any location. Teleporting becomes Link's primary mode of transportation. The DLC only makes this worse by adding even more shrines, plus the Travel Medallion and the Master Cycle Zero, both of which are made completely redundant by the overly-generous fast travel system.

Pictured: a waste of time.

I am of the firm opinion that The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind has the best fast-travel system in any open-world game, so I decided to play BotW as though it were Morrowind. By this, I mean that I almost never teleported. BotW has a network of stables that apparently can warp your horses around Hyrule, so I rationalized that Link simply hitched a ride with the stable staff when I teleported from one stable to another. This was surprisingly effective; there are few locations not in reasonably close proximity to a stable, but these felt appropriately remote. I also utilized the otherwise useless Travel Medallion to put a waypoint in the Korok Forest immediately in front of Hestu. This saved me from having to traverse the Lost Woods every time I needed to give him some Korok Seeds. You can warp from the Korok Forest to the entrance of the Lost Woods via a magic tree, so leaving is a snap.

I was pleased to discover that Nintendo had put some thought toward accommodating my chosen playstyle. I really enjoyed getting a feel for Hyrule in a way that's simply not possible if you mostly travel by pointing and clicking on the map, and I'd highly recommend playing this way if you have the DLC. Otherwise, there's just no convenient way to get to the Korok Forest: one trip through the Lost Woods is plenty.

Do you come here often?

Master Mode

Master Mode is a replacement for the "Hero Mode" found in earlier Zelda titles, and makes four important changes to the game:

1. Almost all Bokoblins, Moblins, Lizalfos, Hinoxes, and Lynels have been "promoted" one tier. Red enemies are now blue, blue enemies are black, etc. Gold enemies are unique to Master Mode.
2. Enemies regenerate health if they go a few seconds without taking damage.
3. Platforms carried by Sky Octoroks now exist and hold enemy archers and treasure chests.
4. A Triforce symbol appears in the lower-left corner of the screen.

The most significant problem for the player is the massive buff to enemy defenses. After breaking five tree branches over the first Blue Bokoblin on the Great Plateau, you'll learn to avoid combat if at all possible. Encampments that once could be cleared in seconds by exploiting the environment for massive damage, then mopping up the survivors, are now major time-sinks that just aren't worth the effort. Fortunately, BotW has almost no mandatory combat, so pacifism is usually viable, though you'll have quite a fight on your hands if you wish to recover Hestu's maracas.

Master Mode adds this Lynel to the Great Plateau: this was as close as I ever got to it.

The Trial of the Sword, on the other hand, is a completely different animal on Master Mode. Brute force will get you nowhere, though it's quite sufficient for Normal Mode. You'll need to treat each floor like a puzzle to be solved one step at a time or else break all of your weapons on the regenerating damage sponges inhabiting the gauntlet. Protip: you can chain backstabs by circling in front of the enemy before it recovers, then exploiting its instant 180-degree turn.

As usual, the way to earn the ultimate weapon is to prove that you don't need it.

The Champions' Ballad isn't as severely affected, though you'll need to fight smart during the boss rematches in order to beat their health regeneration. (Fireblight Ganon is a total joke, however.) In retrospect, Normal Mode is almost insultingly easy, since even a little preparation will guarantee that you'll win any battle of attrition. Master Mode kicks this crutch out from under the player and demands an all-out offense in order to have any hope of victory.

The Legend of Replay Value

My second trip through Breath of the Wild was a wildly (sorry) different experience than my first playthrough. (I'm not sorry at all.) The same can't be said for the other times I've replayed Zelda games on a higher difficulty level (when available). Most of those changes boiled down to "you actually need health potions for a change," and the games still offered the same fundamental experience. Since BotW is by far the longest Zelda game (in the 100% route, at least), I think the drastic alterations to the player's tactics necessitated by Master Mode do a great job of livening up what might otherwise have been a grand adventure on the first playthrough and a tedious slog afterward. Although I'd certainly never suggest Master Mode to a new player, it's exactly what a BotW veteran needs to feel a true challenge while saving Hyrule all over again.

I've always loved finding the "edge of the world" in video games. Whatever is on the other side of this bottomless canyon, it sure looks beautiful.