You can beat the new Zelda without finishing the story

By Imad Khan June 15, 2016

When Nintendo claimed that the new The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild would give players “unprecedented freedom,” it wasn’t kidding.

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In an interview with Polygon, famed producer Eiji Aonuma revealed that gamers can finish the game without completing the story.

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“Users may not actually get the full story depending on how they play this game and how they strategize and solve puzzles,” Aonuma said. “Users are able to go to the very end goal without revealing why Link woke up the way he did and where he did. Whether you want to reveal the storyline and find out why Link woke up, or you want to just go straight to the goal, that’s an option totally up to the user.”

top-E3-games — Image used with permission by copyright holder

This means that if gamers want to, they can go straight to the final boss right from the get-go. “Anybody who can go straight to the goal without doing anything else — there’s two possibilities,” said Aonuma. “Either they’re a really good gamer, or they could be somebody that’s a little bit crazy. But it’s not impossible. I created the game like that.”

While this might be ideal for speedrunning, it may not make for the best gaming experience. But Aonuma might be egging speedrunners on. “Maybe it might be fun for fans to compete in a challenge for who can clear it first,” he said.

Although Breath of the Wild was one of only two games Nintendo showed off during its E3 presentation, it’s clearly generating a lot of hype. Among all the games and announcements at E3, the latest Zelda is by far the most talked about online.

A release date has not been set for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, but it will land sometime in 2017 for both the Wii U and Nintendo’s next console, code-named the NX.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Imad has been a gamer all his life. He started blogging about games in college and quickly started moving up to various…

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Link stands in front of a large stone structure in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

Before The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom's launch, there was one question that fans kept asking: Would the sequel bring back traditional Zelda dungeons? That was something that was sorely lacking from Breath of the Wild, which replaced them with Divine Beasts. These were technically dungeons, but ones that were much smaller in scope and revolved around specific puzzling.

Nintendo would alleviate some fears days ahead of its launch by confirming that more familiar dungeons return for the sequel, but we weren't given a full idea of what that would entail. All we knew is that they'd be bigger and be themed. So, does Tears of the Kingdom actually usher in the return of classic Zelda dungeons? It's complicated. The answer is firmly between yes and no, depending on your definition of "traditional."
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