The Poetry of Breath of the Wild

[@WritingwithAndrew]

Level up your reading with Shortform-Free Trial and 20% Discount at shortform.com/write

[@AbadonBIack]

I've subbed, liked, and commented to help the algorithm! You have such a wonderful perspective on a medium I've loved my whole life. This was like a fantastic college lecture, compelling and leaves me looking at the world in a different way. I'd love it if you made more content like this if you enjoy making it!

[@TechnoEstate]

Except the concept of "No Story, No Problem" did not begin with the open-world paradigm. Imagine playing Super Mario Bros. on the NES or, say, Pac-Man or Tetris *_for its story._* 😛 I'd go as far as to say video games have ALWAYS been more poetry than story at their core.

[@AnonimitySmith]

Jolly good show. Cheers mate.

[@jonathonharris9665]

😅😅

[@jonathonharris9665]

😅​@NicholasWilliams-y3m

[@mictony999]

Funny thing is I wrote a literal poem based on the experience of climbing towers and paragliding off it in this game. Its the only game that made me do that

[@WritingwithAndrew]

That's awesome

[@thesetwofloofs5397]

Yo can we read it anywhere? Would love to see it because those actions inspire some sort of feeling in me that im sure a better writer than I could probably put to paper quite well

[@tahutoa]

@@mictony999 link

[@SomethingWellesian]

I’d also love to see that.

[@claudiah3824]

me too, I want to read it, please :)

[@Rayne_Storms]

For me, and a lot of other people with depression, BOTW was incredibly moving. It's a world in which the worst thing that could happen already has, and still life has gone on. There's still beauty. There's still kindness and bravery. You're right, it's absolutely poetry and I really hope we see more games in this vein. TOTK never felt like a real successor in this way.

[@Margar02]

This is random, but I would bet money you're a Critic Role fan....

[@Rayne_Storms]

@@Margar02 lol yep, since the early days of season one. 🤣 Is it that obvious?

[@GoddesAphrodite]

The sky islands still really fulfilled this role for me in totk. I love just walking around on them and looking at the sunrise or sunset. I spend even more time there just enjoying the view and living in the moment then I did in breath of the wild. The underground world and caves also gave many moments like that. While the surface was more alive and it felt like it lost the lonely melancholy feeling it had in botw, the underground, caves and especially the sky still made me feel this way, yet in its own new way. So for me if I want to walk through forests, grasslands and mountains just feeling the moment, I play botw. But otherwise I play totk, which also captures so much beauty.

[@ClumsyToast]

Tears of the Kingdom felt like a DLC add on, which is excellent honestly. Who doesn't want MORE breath of the wild?! But as a sequel to Breath of the Wild that had an amazing impact, it's underwhelming.

[@pramitpratimdas8198]

TotK seemed to fundamentally misunderstand what was so great about BotW. The biggest one is probably the memories. In Botw, as OP said, they served to enrich the "lyrical" experience of the game instead of supplementing the plot. Those memories primarily served to deepen our understanding of the characters not further the plot. TotK abandons that and we get plot in these cutscenes and since you can get the climax first it ruins the whole experience. I wonder the incessant complaining regarding the narrative of BotW led to nintendo devs making changes for TotK. There are loads of similar issues in TotK

[@joshuafrank1246]

I always found myself opening the game only to wander around looking for beautiful places. I would sit and listen to the sound of the nature and the sporadic music. Those were the moments I remember most from the game. The whole game has a mood that sticks with me, a solemn feeling which is perfectly complemented by the art and music direction.

[@Hormigacronopio]

I think thats why i didnt like totk as much. Something about the atmosphere feels off. Most of botw's replay value came from that, but totk just feels shallow on that aspect. I really tried loving it but nope

[@knp01]

@@Hormigacronopio I only started to like ToTK on my second unintended play-through. My save got corrupted, had started new one and I decided I would not use any Zonai devices unless I really, really need to and walked/glided everywhere. Instant +20 to experience. And it's funny how the game really outside of few shrines, doesn't make you use any of the nefangled building mechanics. And I think this is the root of the issue with this game- they added the mechanics to a map/gameplay that isn't designed to handle it.

[@Hormigacronopio]

@@knp01 yeah that's true, its so easy to travel around that instead of feeling like youre exploring it just feels tedious. Besides the sky islands are all the same except for a few

[@GregGarciaHouse]

Exactly! There are times I just wanna be there (in the game) doing nothing. Just enjoy that world

[@mayalonde1138]

I love LOVE horseback riding, just watching Link ride the whole Hyrule. I just... Move the camera and look at the surroundings. I missed that feeling 😢

[@56ty_]

I’ve been watching videos of botw for 7 years now. This is it. You managed to put into words what I’ve been feeling all this time. I love these games to death, they’re some of my favorite pieces of media, and now I know why. I could talk about this for hours but the only thing I need to say is thank you so much. I’ll only add one thing: Nintendo, and especially Zelda, has always had poetic settings, mechanics, moments, characters, art styles but Breath of the wild and Tears of the kingdom is where they made everything come together. Such incredible achievements.

[@WritingwithAndrew]

Thanks a bunch!

[@b.lloydreese2030]

Botw came to me at just the right time in life. I had heard about it and switch but thought it didnt sound interesting and didnt have a switch anyways. I was having problems in my marriage. Fast forward, caught my wife cheating on me, filed for divorce. Bought a used switch from my friend and started playing it right at the start of covid. I get out of the tomb of resurrection and find hyrule in ruins. It had been 20 years since i had played a zelda. Ocarina of time. I felt personally responsible for abandoning hyrule. Hyrule was in shambles just like my life. I started playing and it was like learning to walk again every little undertaking felt like a big accomplishment. Botw, the music the story hit me at just the right time

[@amdobrantal1774]

❤

[@squeeneytodd]

[spoilers for BOTW, in the vaguest sense] The thing I've always liked about the unsctructured nature of BOTW's memories is that, for me, it provided the real motivation to go to the castle and beat the game. Instead of being a story I play through, the memories give reasons to travel to various areas (I really loved figuring out the locations!) and to care about the characters I'm intended to save (Zelda and the Champions). I want to give the Champions their second chance. I want to relieve Zelda of her burden because I've seen her as a person, at her best and her worst. For a game that's built around exploring a melancholy and lonely yet still /lived-in/ world, I think focusing on smaller character moments was absolutely the right move! It gave me room to rebuild a town, help a bird man write a song, and take photos of the landscape because I love the sunrise that much. [I also love the Champion's Ballad for the same reason] Great video!

[@WritingwithAndrew]

Thanks--that sounds a lot like the experience I had too!

[@AbadonBIack]

Please make more video game content! Analyzing video games as literature is not often done, and ever fewer manage to make it have the compelling and thought provoking nature of a great college lecture. As someone who loves video games, literature, and philosophy, this is the type of content I could consume ad infinitum, and I know I'm not alone!

[@WritingwithAndrew]

Thanks for the kind encouragement--I'm sure we'll do some more of this in the future!

[@imacg5]

analysis is the least literature thing. it's like studying biology only by dissecting.

[@AbadonBIack]

@@imacg5 I think I understand what you're saying, but that's why I would say it's such an exciting thing to do. It's like studying a piece of human consciousness. There's always something new to learn because there's an infinite number of contexts and perspectives. Literature continues to live and evolve beyond the life and meaning of the author, and that lends itself to analysis because near every analysis can be valid, and often tells us more about our own experiences than it does about the work we're studying. So it's a worthwhile pursuit, even if it lacks objectivity.

[@elliebonavia9167]

Agree, this video was amazing and I'd love to see more!

[@marialuisalino2915]

Never thought I could learn literature with my favorite game. This is one of the best videos I've seen about BOTW. Truly amazing, thank you.

[@WritingwithAndrew]

Thank you!

[@disasterdykeallie7922]

what’s really great about this, is that the best part of the game’s lyrical content, is a poetic metaphor the game gives you if you invest enough into it. what am i talking about? the way the ending cutscene changes is only emotional resonant if you: first, restore links memory (it’s how you get the “better” ending in the first place), you recognize why zelda actualized her powers too late to save the kingdom and you remember the item description of a specific flower in the game. zelda could not grow because of her father’s overbearing pressure on her to gain her ability, when she isn’t locked in the castle, she is still forced into duty. meanwhile, the flower is the silent princess, a flower that cannot grow in captivity. in the extended good ending ends with a shot of an entire field of silent princesses, which in normal gameplay is fairly rare, often you can only find 1-3 at a time and the wind blows carrying and scattering many of their petals as the camera locks onto one flower at the top of a knoll.

[@Big_Dai]

You are talking too much out of your *$$

[@jackatk]

I never noticed that! That’s beautiful

[@minecrafter3448]

That was beautiful. I’ve been trying to convince people of vaguely the same thing for over a year now, but you put it into such clever words they can no longer plug their ears and call the duology of modern Zelda games bad because of their story. If your video gains traction, it will single handedly change the opinion of the entire community. You may have just become the spark for a major chain of events where people appreciate games because they are games, where the story isn’t something that you’re told, but where the story is YOU.

[@gabrielgian6207]

Sadly they won't because gamers are dumb and want the next over-the-shoulder gameless movie-game to come around and validate the purchase of their overpriced Netflix boxes.

[@AdventuresAwait123]

YESSSSS

[@jackaskhim21]

I think we might have the beginning of a new philosophy here. Life has a definite beginning and only one end but what we do in the middle is up to us. Living in the moment and enjoying that moment for nothing more than what it is, sounds like a nice life to me. I wish I could do that. No constant worrying about the rent or where I will be in five years. Just live and let live. Work towards a goal but how we get there or how long it takes is not important. I am in.

[@WritingwithAndrew]

Paying the rent is probably important, but worrying about it probably isn't that useful. Much more fun to live life like it's poetry 🙂

[@hollywood4834]

This is a philosophy that’s thousands of years old at least ❤️

[@CrimsonMey]

Life before death Strength before weakness Journey before destination

[@dominoot2652]

Born to dilly dally, forced to make rent.

[@codyt8541]

Bro discovered stoicism

[@KatieDeSousa]

This was a lovely and very thoughtful video! I'm a game developer and for lack of better terms I've always used "experiential story" or "emergent story" to explain these kinds of open world games (especially multiplayer ones like valheim), but your argument for viewing these games as poetic/lyrical feels like a better fit. 💖

[@bo1932]

This does a really good job of describing the potent sadness that permeates a lot of this game. The world is so beautiful, and often everything you do in it is as well. You experience this through Link's curiosity and lack of understanding in his post-amnesia world, but when you get to a new memory, or some relic of the past in the current world, it paints everything with this distinct hopelessness of what happened 100 years ago. It is so wonderfully, beautifully, sad. I know I'm just restating a lot of ideas in the video, I just really, truly love this game and all the things it makes me feel.

[@WritingwithAndrew]

Thanks--wonderfully, beautifully sad is a pretty good description

[@63chicago6]

This is the first time I've seen someone compare a video game to the medium of poetry... Honestly kind of eye opening! Thanks!

[@WritingwithAndrew]

You bet!

[@KaneAsIAm]

3:00 “and they can’t guarantee that you won’t find a way to launch yourself into the air from a mountain, land on the castle, and defeat the monster with a ladle.” 😂 I genuinely burst out laughing at this! And I was assured at this moment that he had, in fact, played Breath of the Wild. Bravo good sir!

[@byronpaulbeadoy]

Finally! A commentary on BOTW I can agree with. After hearing so much criticism on BOTW's story, hearing your thoughts on the game's player-centric experience building brings me joy. To me the most significant moments I had with the game were the moments of mystery, discovery, and quiet strolls. I also love the way one uncovers the past events in random order. Many of our literatures here in the Orient are like that, much more concerned with feeling the essence of an experience than in the sequence of events. Like poetry indeed.

[@leviwarren6222]

Here's one I wrote for ocarina of time. You've opened the floodgates to the Zelda fandom. ***** Time, like a stream, never ends, never stops, It ebbs and flows, it speeds and slows, Each moment we taste, a drop. Each drop joins the whole, a river takes shape, For each, it varies, as each it carries, Its course no man can escape. Deep fountains loft time from Din's red earth, As it rises, it exorcises, Man's form and gives him birth. Drawn through the soil by Farore's roots, Water and man, time and its span, Nourish her tender shoots. As the clear water's surface mirrors growth, Nayru's guiding hand justifies the land, Roots below and branches both. Along each edge of the pedestal's blade, Runs a silver cord, where seven years are stored, A boyhood too long delayed. For the flow of time is always cruel, Child protected and child neglected, Both drown in the temporal pool.

[@cosygracegames]

That was lovely!!

[@Margar02]

I legit teared up! I love how you incorporated some of Sheik's song lines. The ABBA rhyme structure makes such an impact. Bravo!

[@Commenter51]

That's so beautiful!!!!!!

[@sameaston9587]

While you're still on a Zelda kick, check out Majora's Mask narrative. It's been nearly 20 years later and we're still debating on what it's about, pulling from theology, philosophy, mythology, and psychology to support the various arguments.

[@WritingwithAndrew]

I'll put it on the list!

[@gabrielgian6207]

Anxiously waiting for when people will finally find out... it's not that deep really.

[@HandlingSmilus]

The underlying story is beautiful and helps me whenever I have grief to resolve.

[@SomethingWellesian]

I love this reading of Breath of the Wild. One of my favourite lines from a review around the time (which I’ve never been able to find since), written describing the critic’s experience of arriving at a stable, talking to the inhabitants, making a meal, and taking a night’s rest, was that it was the first game they’d played that allowed you to be a hero at rest. I’ve been a Zelda fan for many years but stopped playing for a long time as life moved around me. About two years ago, I played Skyward Sword, then moved straight into Breath of the Wild, then (shortly after it launched) Tears of the Kingdom. So Zelda was pretty much the only thing I played for two years, but when I played Breath of the Wild, it was always the feel of the game, not the story, that kept me invested. The story contributed to the feel, but it wasn’t primary. I’d be interested to know your take on Tears of the Kingdom (if you’ve played it), because I think it made an attempt to balance narrative against the lyricism you describe, and while I love the story it tells, I think that it does come at the expense of some of that lyricism.

[@WritingwithAndrew]

Ooh, I like that line, too. Tears of the Kingdom didn't strike the same chord with me the first time I played through it, but I do want to give it another go and see if I can figure out exactly why

[@robotgeorge2896]

Your videos consistently act like axes for the frozen sea inside me. I've been struggling to write about something I experienced, and now I realize that that struggle comes from trying to relate it narratively rather than lyrically. What I experienced didn't roll out like a narrative, and certainly doesn't exist that way in my mind. It is indeed a "great big heap." Thanks for helping me see that!

[@WritingwithAndrew]

You bet--congrats on the exciting breakthrough!

[@ElliotRobertsVideos]

Andrew, thank you so much for translating what so many people miss about this miraculous game. The focus on lyrical poetry instead of a forced narrative should be something everyone keeps in mind when they play Breath of the Wild for the first time.

[@WritingwithAndrew]

You bet--thanks!

[@xabbujones]

This is the second literary channel I've gotten in my feed in the past month with an analysis of a vidya game. Dunno why it seems to be happening, but I am thrilled that the literary scene is looking at these works of art with the tools that have been honed to parse written works. These games are, in my opinion, the best narrative medium out there. Drawing from and melding visual art, audio/musical art, and the art of the written word, they are capable of creating a narrative (or poetic!) experience that is much more affecting to the 'reader' than any of the constituent parts are capable of on their own. Videos/Essays from people skilled in literary analysis that look at the stories (or poetry!) authored in this medium is a very welcome addition to KZbin. Thank you, Mr. Andrew, sincerely.

[@WritingwithAndrew]

Thanks right back to you--I appreciate that!

[@lucasdoc3]

Absolutely incredible discussion about this game. This lyrical momentary emphasis the game has also contributes to all its buddhism symbolism. It's a game that wants you to let go of the past, live the present and experience the moment to moment enjoyment it contains.

[@WritingwithAndrew]

Ooh, lovely insight too

[@PaperMario64]

I love the story. Link’s memories that you recall and are later reminded of are what makes the game so great. You have to spend time living in Hyrule and not quickly trying to conquer it so you can move on to the next thing.

[@albertl.cruztoro3050]

This is exactly what I needed. You have no idea how this has changed something for me.

[@SolidNeodark]

This is exactly the perspective I needed to go back to Tears of the Kingdom. Thanks!

[@WritingwithAndrew]

You bet!

[@a.morphous66]

This discussion reminds me that a lot of my favorite books are more poetry than novel. I'm a big fan of Susanna Clark's _Piranesi,_ which has a story but whose heart is contained in long and loving descriptions of sculpture and architecture, of McCarthy's _The Road_ for its relentless insistence on a devastating yet hopeful emotional core, of _This Is How You Lose the Time War_ and its refusal to lend its precious emotional energy to the grand sci-fi war happening around the central romance. But coming to mind most prominently is a pretty unknown book I read recently, called _Orbital_ by Samantha Harvey. I found folks on Goodreads criticizing it for the fact that nothing really happens. But again, they've fallen into the same trap as critics often do, of expecting the same sort of narrative analysis from everything. And because of that they missed that _Orbital_ is absolutely beautiful. A stunning examination of the smallness of humanity contained in two hundred pages and one single day. It's poetry. It invokes in me the same serenities as Breath of the Wild, only oriented up instead of down, at the grand scale of the universe rather than the detailed corners of a landscape. It communicates the feeling of looking up at the stars and wanting to jump into them, wanting to rise (or maybe fall) so far that I can look back at the ground and begin for the first time to appreciate that such a tiny thing as a human being can dream something so enormous as any dream at all.

[@WritingwithAndrew]

Very interesting--I'll have to check that one out

[@DarkwaveMistress]

I hadn't been able to put in words why I love BotW. I always said I loved exploring, collecting items, having Link change clothes or help a random stranger, or hang out with Kass... BotW is indeed about living. It's the one time we see Link being truly alive. Amazing.

[@ravensplat]

You’ve cracked the code here. While I was playing breath of the wild I was a much younger more object oriented person who didn’t really do much beyond just going from place to place and completing all the objectives. But when I played Tears of the Kingdom I put 100 hours into it over a month and I had a lot of these experiences. When I wasn’t trying to just go everywhere as fast as I could. I was just experiencing the surroundings and take in the world around me. That sort of experience which you can’t explain with regular words. But now you’ve said it I know that it’s like experiencing good poetry. It has no aim but it still provides you comfort and safety. And that’s what my experience with the emptier areas in Tears of the Kingdom. And now I’ve seen it explained out I think I need to return to Breath of the Wild to see the truly empty world of BotW and how it works in this way. Thank you for showing what is so great about Breath of the Wild and how a story isn’t necessary for a great story. Because poetry is all we need sometimes to be ok.

[@WritingwithAndrew]

You bet--thank you!

[@CynicalPear]

This was an amazing video! As someone who was still a very big fan of the emotional weight and loose story of Breath of the Wild, seeing it compared to poetry seems to fitting and I think your argument for it being as such, or at least containing elements of such, is very compelling. I would LOVE to see more video game related videos from you!

[@gersonsalinas7960]

Man this is such a good video, i think you got it absolutely right. And i think more videogames could be seen as poetry instead of a story. If anything they are more realistic than videogames that do tell a story, since the experience of a game is much more repetitive than a book or a movie. Games with strict narratives are always tough for me to get into because the moment to moment gameplay doesn't match the narrative being told (trying something many times until you do it right and sometimes my character completely abandoning the urgent plotline in order to complete a side mission)

[@WritingwithAndrew]

Thanks! I think there's a lot more lyricism going on in games than we give them credit for. I feel like I've noticed a shift towards "lore" rather than story, too, which feels like the same thing: mostly optional, background narrative elements can deepen an in-the-moment experience, but it's the experience itself that's at the core of those kinds of games.

[@Illysi]

How I’ve always felt about this at Tears of the Kingdom put into the perfect words. The feelings and messages I got from the memory segments always recontextualied what I was experiencing and deepened its meaning and the only way I knew how to describe this was to say it had a good story

[@PrixtoTNT]

With time I've come to appreciate a lot of BOTW's narrative elements. The fact that Link has no memories works great as a "link" between him and the player, since we want to discover what happened and he wants to remember it. The visual storytelling is beautiful in a tragic way. Seeing all the ruins of a destroyed kingdom feels really powerful, specially for how calm it seems, like with the nature taking over a lot of the old ruins. The wound was made a long time ago and it tries to heal itself, but the scars still remain. It is truly a "post post apocaliptic" world. I find the calm sadness of it all to be poetic in itself. The world itself is filled with things to do, and one of my favorite experiences was randomly coming across a Gerudo whose husband was on the verge of death and needed the guts of a huge dessert beast to be cured. Finding her, killing the beast, and returning felt like such a satisfactory heroic moment, and it didn't tie up with anything of the actual main plot. As you said, you're just living in the moment. Some of my most unforgettable experiences in this game are just being at the top of a tower during a sunset, looking at the landscape while listening to the sound of the wind as well as the futuristic yet nostalgic sounding music of the towers, and just being there. What a beautiful video. Thank you so much for making it

[@JEDonnert]

Why did I tear up from you just describing the beginning of the game? God I love this game so much! I never understood why people would say there wasn't much story when I felt so much while playing this game.

[@mmariann]

Oh man, I loved activating the towers. I'd always wait till there was a pretty sunrise or sunset so the activation scene was a gorgeous as possible.

[@bigbiggoblin2873]

A fresh take on this game. Thanks! It reminds me of discussions in the tabletop-rpg world (dungeons and dragons specifically) on linear games versus sandbox games. Many feel mainline adventures for the game focus too much on story and not player freedom. Viewing that discussion through your narrative versus poetry/experiential lens makes a lot of sense-and it lines up with my game mastering experience That planning narratives is often less rewarding than planning experiences. Instead , players make stories from the experiences they had in game. Thanks again!

[@WritingwithAndrew]

Very cool, I like the idea of focusing on planning experiences first--thanks!

[@jonathanvelasco7332]

I never felt that botw didn't have a story or had a bad one. For me, discovering how we got there, what happened 100 years ago, was the story in itself. To this day, I can't see how people say that it doesn't have a story or a narrative or whatever they want to call it.

[@malina8921]

I agree! Especially since botw has so much environmental storytelling that does the 'talking'

[@turinmormegil7715]

Someone finally says what I keep telling people, but better and with more study than me: before criticizing negatively some media of any format and type, take a step back and reassess first if you understood what the author intended. People are too quick to pull the trigger just because something doesn't follow the usual structure or format, but they don't realize they are completely out of touch with what said media proposed itself to do. If it established its premises and objectives from the get go AND if it fulfilled them. Maybe it isn't bad, it's just that you thought it was going to be something else that it never even tried to, and as such, that you never even realized it was making an attempt towards. Criticizing based on expectations and not on the goals of a media will always cause attrition and a dissonance between you and the work you're analyzing. And generate criticisms that don't belong to anything related to the target of them. The ones that probably irks me the most are those that criticize lighthearted or comical media because of lack of seriousness; and the ones that criticize stories that have some individual entity filling in the role of pure evil, saying the stories and the antagonist in particular are bad because the later lacks motivation to his evil. This one irritated me in particular, because it's been some years now that suddenly, everyone believes that every media requires a humanly motivated antagonist with crystal clear character development, otherwise it's bad. This is such a narrow view or portraying a villain and it closes itself to any other form of doing so. Why can't villains be fearsome instead of relatable? I enjoy villains like darker portrayals of the Joker, but that doesn't mean traditional villains aren't good either. And God, do I love and old fashioned mute Dracula type or villain. But I digress. I want to finish disagreeing with you regarding your technical skills needed for the video. The proof of that is that initially I was only going to watch this for 2 minutes to see what's about and save it for later, seeing it was a long video. But then I got totally engrossed despite being an almost purely technical discussion about writing and by the time I looked, I had watched it almost whole 😅. I enjoyed this very much and ask you to please continue this type of Analysis.

[@WritingwithAndrew]

Thanks a lot--I'm glad it resonated, and I'll keep working on stuff like this

[@turinmormegil7715]

@@WritingwithAndrew I'll surely keep my eyes open for more, then

[@EnigmaticGentleman]

I remember people were really mad over the second games narrative being derivative of the first, when the way I see it its setting up the experience of discovering a long lost civilizations hidden worlds, instead of the first game where the Shiekah and Old Hyrule were pretty well documented.

[@gabrielgian6207]

It pretty much recontextualizes the first game while being almost an antithesis of it in tone and gameplay. While the first one was a melancholy tale that wanted to make you feel frail before death machines, the second has you creating death machines yourself, so you can finally overcome the true evil lurking underneath (the advertising's focus on the sky being masterfully deceiving).

[@Edelstein22]

Honestly, unlocking the towers is one of my favorite things to do in replays. The music combined with the way the camera moves to reveal the space that lies ahead is absolutely beautiful and goosebump-inducing. I really like your approach to 'reading' the game, it does make me stop and appreciate my surroundings every time I pick it up even when I'm actually on some kind of mission as opposed to just wandering around, which I also do a fair bit even after all this time. Thank you for this fantastic analysis of my favorite game.

[@stevepot]

Expanded my worldview! Plot vs Narrative vs Poetry is just like Logos vs Mythos vs Melos! Philosopy, Mythology and Art never fail to be the most important things humans created (and are created by)!

[@christonadams9046]

There was an interview with Eiji Aonuma, the producer of Breath of the Wild and the Zelda series, years ago before the game released where he said he wanted to make BotW in a way where players can make their own story and, after watching this video, I think the team achieved that. The way you'll tackle the main quests, side quests and the world in general is the narrative you the player are making for yourself. Really is poetic

[@jimmahgee]

I love this perspective. Uo until now I had just been saying “I like the vibes”, which is similar, but sounds much less sophisticated… probably because it is!

[@WritingwithAndrew]

Eh, what's sophistication good for? Poetry's all about the vibes

[@GoodBloodGames]

That first sentence is an absolute banger.

[@b0tsbby]

Genuinely you explain the essence of BOTW’s ‘storytelling’ so well. Everything I wish I could say but never found the words and more. Amazing to discover how a game that embodies this feeling (not necessarily theme) of grief and loneliness, could easily embody or amplify feeling of hope and community based on how I decide to play, how I feel that day, the choices I make. Would love to know your thoughts on TOTK and if it’s succeeded as either a narrative or lyric as well.

[@StarWarsUnited123]

literally my favorite game of all time. the most important piece of art/media to me. helped me thru some tough times and still does.

[@micheller3251]

I love this so much! The memories also make a lot more sense when you understand them as emotional vignettes or moments of reminiscence instead of a series of events being retold. The player is the one putting a narrative together from what little information is given, but the memories themselves are centered around Zelda's feelings in each of these places: anger, frustration, sadness, desperately clutching to any hope, feeling inadequate, etc. Sure when you put them in order you can kind of see a character arc in Zelda's journey to awaken her powers, but that's not the important part. When I played BOTW, I felt like I was in Link's shoes, going through somewhat familiar but mostly forgotten spaces, remembering and associating specific places with happier or tougher moments spent silently supporting a friend going through some really vulnerable moments. I think this aspect of vulnerability is not as valued as it could be by players who complain about the story.

[@Joel-co3xl]

Very interesting, thank you. I've always been partial to lyricism I think but have lacked the vocabulary to express it I remember watching "3 Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" with some friends once. They hated the ending and I found it hard to explain how despite the movie ending before the natural resolution of the plot, I really enjoyed, well, the poetry of it: sort of a resignation, letting go and reaching some semblance of peace despite the fact in life bad things can happen for bad reasons

[@WritingwithAndrew]

Very cool--lyricism's fun once you start noticing it pop up all over the place

[@juanfevasquez]

This is a gem of a video. Thanks for the work you put into this for us to enjoy!

[@WritingwithAndrew]

Thank you--I appreciate that!

[@milo_thatch_incarnate]

I'm new to gaming, and so far I've tried Animal Crossing, Skyrim, BOTW, TOTK, and Hogwarts Legacy. The Zelda games and Howarts are the ONLY ones I've stuck with and come back to again and again so far, I think for precisely this reason. Playing other games, I feel like I have to jump back into whatever task or mission I'm on. No choice. But when I open Zelda, it's with excitement and anticipation that I'm about to revisit my very own _Studio Ghibli world._ I can do whatever I want, go wherever I want, and not be constantly pressured to DO... _anything._ I LOVE that. It feels like a REAL WORLD I can visit to relax. Many of my favorite films are the same way: a very simple story that is more about capturing experiences and feelings than telling a riveting new plot. And those are the ones I return to again and again and again, because the WORLD there is one I want to revisit. Films like Only Yesterday, The New World, Coraline, La Belle et La Bete, James Cameron's Avatar, and Lord of the Rings come to mind. The plot in each of those films is great, but I don't really return to them for the plot. I return to them because I want to feel like I'm IN that world. BOTW, TOTK, and Hogwarts Legacy are the same way.

[@WritingwithAndrew]

Very cool--I'm not very well acquainted with film generally, but that's a compelling connection

[@carlosalvarado6271]

After watching years of Zelda videos, you, Professor finally gave a new and fresh take on BOTW. This was great.

[@WritingwithAndrew]

Hey thanks!

[@ShayanQ]

Wow, this video perfectly put into words what I enjoy in media. The slice of life, the now, the moment. Sweeping narratives are fun but the moments that truly hit are the momentary and "unimportant" I think that's why I often prefer fanfiction to the original media, as it often focuses on the smaller moments, the day to day, the status quo.

[@WritingwithAndrew]

Very cool--and thanks!

[@AlexanderORiordan]

As someone who has been writing stories all my life, always interested in poetry but never understanding it, I felt like you finally explained it to me in a way that makes sense.

[@apoet-y6c]

This was a very pleasant video. I've never played the game, but I think I got to experience some of its poetry in this video. It sounds like a great way to break writer's block-- relax while playing a game for a little bit, then write a poem on the experience you have.

[@WritingwithAndrew]

Thanks--that's not a bad idea! Sometimes I find that I can write more productively if I decide on a topic and then do something else for a while and let my brain work on it in the background, so I think there's something to that

[@wrainb0]

Amazing video. Described why I love this game so well. I always knew it felt different from other games, but I could never figure out why. Because it’s poetry, not narrative. A revelation. Thank you!

[@WritingwithAndrew]

You bet!

[@SophiaWuvHeart]

Botw to me was such an emotional experience, and as you said such amazing poetry. I'm playing Totk and I feel even more invested at the mystery of what I'm going to discover from those moments

[@braydenjones6561]

This was a super awesome take on describing the literary quality of Breath of the Wild's gameplay -- its variableness and emergent possibilities. I've always thought that Breath of the Wild had a beautiful story. Those memories don't feel removed from the game -- they seem to enhance the game and your understanding of the current state of the world, as you mentioned. To me, there seems to be a large outline of a story, with a lot of variableness in between. The outline is this: Link wakes up in the shrine of ressurection (with little to no memory of what happened before), 100 years after the events of Calamity Ganon seizing the castle. Link goes to all four of the divine beasts, regaining memories along the way, and receiving help from the past champions who died. Then he fights Calamity Ganon (and wins). When I think of the story of the game my mind goes to this. When I think of the gameplay, however, that is where it feels like it really varies. It's "up in the air" during the game what will happen. So, it feels like a strong narrative after the fact, recalling the game's story in full, but the actual in-game experience feels very variable or lyrical, like you mentioned. All of the memories set the stage for these key moments in the game (getting the divine beasts, defeating Calamity Ganon, etc.), as well as the feeling you have about the game as you play, as you so excellently described. I love music and I often try to make analogies between musical composition and writing. I think it can hold powerful insights to compare the two. (I'm not a author/writer but it feels instinctual to relate them to each other). Brandon Sanderson has said that the three main elements of story are: Plot, Characters, and Setting, and that they are glued together by Conflict. I think similarly, the three main elements of Music might be: Melody, Rhythm, and Harmony (similarly forming, or being glued together, by 'conflict' or tension/resolution). The way that you described Breath of the Wild as being lyrical or poetic made me think of impressionism in music. To step away from this point briefly, I feel like a lot of modern music is sadly stripped of melodiscism and structure. It is very "in the moment". I often think of it as "a wall of sound". It might sound good in the moment, but it is difficult or impossible to recall later on (whereas "stories" or melodies are inherently more memorable). It essentially is only "setting". There is a strong focus on harmony and not too much else. But musical impressionism, from the early 1900s, seems to be different than this. It also seems "more in the moment" but in a different way, perhaps in a more "poetic" way. It is often still stripped of melodiscism and structure, but in a way that feels to make sense. I think it is a greater focus on "Character". Its all about the "impression" or experience you have (using musical imagery), but it still often has melodic fragments ("narrative" elements) and it still employs rhythm. Characters in stories are variable -- they have their base personality, beliefs, desires, etc. that might stay more rooted or constant, but they also are able to make various decisions from day to day (and even experience different emotions/moods from time to time). They shape, or heavily influence, the story based on what they decide to do, but they still exist on their own. We often see characters through the lens of story, but they should have a depth to them that is removed/distinguished from the events of the story alone. (Characters shaping or influencing the story is like how melody is a marriage of pitch and rhythm. Characters are agents that drive a story along. Similarly, rhythm is extremely important in melody, as everything in music happens over the passage of time and rhythm is all about when something should occur in the music). I think this might capture the feeling of what is occuring with Link. We experience everything he is seeing and encountering, from moment to moment, but not with much rigidity in terms of plot that forces him to do to any number of things in any certain order. The exact line-by-line story is up to interpretation, like in a poem, since every player has a slightly different experience. There are micro-narratives that occur, that add to the larger narrative of everything that happened before the game up to its end. P.S. Maybe I'm rambling, though. Sorry if I am!

[@jazibunart]

I would love to see more of a lyrical anaylsis on more games! Such as Journey, or Shadow of the Colossus, or even Psychonauts with the way the theming of the levels adds that feeling of poetry to the narrative!

[@WritingwithAndrew]

Thanks--I'll make a note of it!

[@thedramaticbarbie9786]

I have always been a fan of what I thought was the narrative of the game, the memories part, and never understood the hate people had on it. Every time I logged in to the game I always thought on how Link will feel with this experience, waking up, not remembering who you are but little by little you regained your memories while creating new ones. You're video was amazing at explaining the true potential of the experience the game offers. Is definitely one of the most interesting videos on the game that I have seen, I am looking forward to other videos about other video games.

[@WritingwithAndrew]

Thanks--I appreciate that!

[@Nu_Merick]

botw and totk really had you paint your own story from the experiences you had in the world, and i have COUNTLESS moments that were exclusive to ME playing MY way. It's done very well and MANY ppl just dont see that or just want a retelling of twilight princess. while im not against it, but doing that EVERY game will get dull. BotW and TotK are fresh and needed after the criticism skyward sword had gotten in the past with it being hand-hold-y and linear...

[@jackatk]

This is an incredible video! I haven’t seen anyone explain this game so well! I could never really tell why I liked this game so much, but you put it perfectly. Wonderful job!

[@WritingwithAndrew]

Thanks!

[@jakebrantley8889]

Breath of the Wild was the first time I really got to "live" in Hyrule, which is all I wanted to do my whole life. Therefore, my ideal Zelda game.

[@tidepoolqueer]

oh my gosh - i've been looking for a framework expressing my feelings on story/narrative. you provided one *beautifully* AND in the context of breath of the wild. lovely!!!! i will never forget riding my sweet bone horse in the darkness in BOTW for the first time.

[@WritingwithAndrew]

Thanks--I'm really happy to hear it!

[@JenXBeauty]

The towers!!!!! Yes! The towers are my first quest for those beautiful moments of music and stillness. Excellent video! Bravo, Andrew!

[@jo-ui3ly]

i have been waiting for this video for YEARS!! thank you so much for putting into words what i always knew about breath of the wild. poetry instead of narrative is the perfect way to describe this game, i love it with my whole heart. thank you for sharing!!

[@cleberjunior7793]

This video just caught me in a way that I wasn’t expecting! Can’t even put in words.

[@MichaelaJungheim]

Thank you so much for this!!!! I absolutely love BOTW and TOTK but I was really sad about people criticizing their stories. This explanation just makes so much sense! Again, thank you so much for backing up this wonderful game!

[@WritingwithAndrew]

You bet!

[@TheSuperrespect13]

Hello sir, would it be possible to do a video on Studio Ghibli? There is just something that i cant put into words....

[@WritingwithAndrew]

I'll put it on the list (that'll require some homework on my part, though 😉)

[@user-vc1km3es2z]

Please keep posting original video essays, Andrew, this one is great! Here's what I gleaned from this one, having digested it for a couple days now: •The tyranny of narrative is such a cool concept especially paired with the visual you chose to represent it. I'm now reading McKee's "Story", and this essay is such a good chaser. While McKee is a terrific writer he is firmly on the tyrant's side, frequently exhalting the virtues of her majesty the Story. I feel like I am getting much more from his book, now having a salient understanding that he's overlooking something important and beautiful in his teaching -- ie poetry! •It has long been my goal to write a TTRPG campaign that feels like a poem. I look to Brennan Lee Mulligan's "Wizard, Witch and the Wild One" as major inspiration for this. He just conjures a world, so wonderous and serene that the act of merely inhabiting it is sublime enough. The plot is great, but I'd wager it's not the main appeal. This is what I think TTRPGs should more often strive to be -- livable poems, lyrical works rather than narrative ones. This essay helped me formulate this important definition of what I strive to acheive :) Thanks teach, yet another delightful video in the books. You don't miss!

[@WritingwithAndrew]

Thanks for the kind words--hopefully, more stuff like this is on the way. It's fun (for me at least 😆)

[@tinyninja7716]

This is something I've always felt was there with breath of the wild, but I could never put it to words as beautiful as you did here. Absolutely phenomenal video and analysis!

[@SeniorLady]

Thanks so much for this explanation. I'm a long-time Zelda player and I love, love BotW - but I didn't understand or recognize that I was experiencing poetry: I just knew that it evoked a lot of love.

[@gabriel.4lves]

I am a big fan of breath of the wild and a poet myself. I think your video and is amazing, genius analysis. You made me realize a lot of things about the game's poetry. In fact I wouldn't think about it alone, although I felt it while playing.

[@WritingwithAndrew]

Thanks a bunch!

[@joelturnbull9005]

I’m so glad to see you talking about this game! I finally purchased it earlier this year, and I also consider it the best game. I’m loving your take on ditching the narrative paradigm for the experience of it; it seems exactly right.

[@WritingwithAndrew]

Thanks! It's a winner--fun for sure, but resonant in a way that I don't usually think of video games as being

[@annalisei4924]

There's the concept of haunting the narrative, but I think BOTW is an example of an experience being haunted BY the narrative. We only get glimpses of the story of 100 years ago, but everywhere we go, we see the way it shaped the new Hyrule that Link has found himself in.

[@Clever_viper]

This video moves me deeply. I’m one of those people that felt that BotW left me with a vacuum inside for its lack of narrative. I’m someone who’s always expecting a story and a plot, in particular with games like Zelda which stories have been marking since 1998. Yet with BotW I’ve always felt like either the game is not as good as Ocarina, Majora or Twilight, or I played it wrong. And tbh, I did have moments where I just lived in the moment but never gave them the special place in my heart that they probably deserved since I was expecting something else from the game. I’ll take this new insight about lyrical experiences and go play TotK that I haven’t been able to finish and see if I can find new love for these games

[@WritingwithAndrew]

Very cool--and, for what it's worth, I probably need to give TotK another shot too

[@itsasecrettoeverybody]

Some games make me feel emotions for its plot and characters like Xenoblade games. Breath of the wild made me feel emotions just for being there and I being there with it helping link to carry the pain and sadness of Hyrule while he helped me to carry my pain and sadness of losing someone I care. Even if I don't feel saved like Hyrule, it was a great moment in time that I will keep carrying with me. I believe the tsunami that occurred in Japan before this game came out, shaped how this game was structured. And like it helped me to endure my pain, while I was trying to help link to heal Hyrule, it may had helped some Japanese to endure their pain after the tragedy too. It was sublime and at the same time sad. It was one of my favorite video game experiences.

[@aminparker01]

ゼルダの伝説はビデオゲーム史上最高のシリーズであるだけでなく、 リンクというキャラクターもビデオゲーム史上最高のキャラクターだ。

[@bleachelf]

I LOVE this. I played hundreds of hours of this game for no other reason than to keep experiencing it. To find new little nooks I hadn't noticed, to listen to the phenomenal soundtrack, to revisit spots I liked, to do ... whatever I wanted.

[@kaputmortuum]

Always nice when someone recognizes the real talent...

[@redwing1300]

One of my favorite videos I’ve ever seen. I’m a big Zelda fan and you perfectly explained why this game is so amazing. Keep it up

[@corey2232]

I love the Zelda series, but I've always thought the games failed in the story department. They all have their own little twist on things, but everything else largely stays the same. Majora's Mask will always be my favorite, but I appreciate that BotW & TotK finally gave us voice acting & better developed side characters.

[@c_lars_02]

@@corey2232 Personally I've never felt they've failed. They aren't exactly ambitious, but to me they fulfill their purpose of supporting the gameplay and getting invested (to some substantial degree, at least) quite elegantly in most cases

[@VinceLyle2161]

You got me. I planned to go to the grocery store, but I had to watch all the way to the end. And I was thinking about my favorite moments in Breath of the Wild and my favorite poems, especially "Aristotle," by Billy Collins, that toys with narrative structure and turns it into a congerie of images, that last one of which always tears me apart. And I think I want to play it again, concentrating on just being in that world, being in the moment, letting it all just happen.

[@WritingwithAndrew]

Very cool--but I do hope you got those groceries! 😅

[@keaton52257]

Honestly one of the best KZbin videos I’ve seen in my life; almost life changing. Thank you for this intelligent perspective that I wish I could’ve concluded myself. BotW is now much higher ranked among my favorite Zelda games. Please continue making amazing content like this.

[@WritingwithAndrew]

Thanks for the kind words--I'll do what I can!

[@EmL-kg5gn]

I absolutely love botw because I feel like it lets you explore the questions stories leave us with. You inherently read a narrative from the perspective of hindsight, when someone has been able to make sense of things and tell them in a way that you can make sense of. Even if they try to capture the unknowing the memory of confusion is always different than the moment itself was. But what was it like to be those characters? Surely they were they just like us, living with a true sense of uncertainty? I think if you empathise and identify with Link you can play through a version of the story more from the point of view of a character. It lets you experience what it might be like if you were Link, if that’s how you choose to play it

[@blakecombden9063]

Lighting the towers was one of the more meaningful experiences for me too, but for a different reason. There is definitely a sense of accomplishment when the cutscene shows the lights turn blue and the area you've just discovered, but for me it was, for the first few towers at least, the build up when you press A. The classic Zelda opening a chest music playing when a drop of energy lands on your Sheikah Slate, ending with the "duh-nuh-nuh-nuuuhhh" and updating the world map, but in an unfamiliar, mysterious, and almost eerie way. A lot say it goes on for too long, and that tune has a history of that, but when I lit up my first tower back in 2017, the combination of a classic zelda tune on piano with the futuristic feel of the tower and the Sheikah slate, made me believe this was indeed Zelda, but a new take on it, and it was so exciting. The developers wanted each player to experience the gameplay in a different way, and they achieved that with its open world, but whether intentional or not, they made each player experience the moments of the game in a different way too. This was a great video and you offered a new perspective a game I already adored, and I adore and appreciate the game even more now. Thank you. I'm sure this has been asked already, but I would be interested in a Tears of the Kingdom video. There may be nothing new there in terms of a subject in one of your videos, but if there is, I'd watch that video immediately. Take care!

[@WritingwithAndrew]

Thanks--I'm definitely going to have to spend more time with Tears. So who knows when, but it'll probably happen eventually 😅

[@megxkat9140]

This video has inspired me to get into poetry (after I had decided I didn't like it and would never touch it again from school experiences) - I never realised that all of the games, movies, and life experiences I seek are all lyrical and not story driven, and that poetry is just another form of that. Thank you! :)

[@WritingwithAndrew]

That makes my day--definitely go dive into some good poetry! Thanks!

[@wademurphy2817]

This is the first video of your's that I have watched and I want to say that I genuinely loved it

[@WritingwithAndrew]

Thanks!

[@memel8171]

botw is my favourite game of all time and i've watched a lot of video essays about it over the years but yours really blew me away. it's so well put together with so many interesting points. thank you so much for sharing your thoughts!!

[@StarlitWitchy]

We watched your video about "getting poetry" so were very interested in this. Thank you for your perspective on poetry, and on simply being in the moment. This was a really interesting watch. We like hearing your perspective on these things which differs from ours, so we subscribed! Looking forward to hear more of what you have to say🥺

[@WritingwithAndrew]

Thanks!

[@poisontango]

So, what I'm getting from this: A story asks, "Where are we going?" A poem says, "We're here. Enjoy the moment." In BotW, the story happened. You lost. The war ended. Now, you're here, in a world that's moved on from you. Enjoy the hauntingly beautiful moment. That's what I got out of the game, anyway.

[@WritingwithAndrew]

Nice--I like that way of putting it

[@nyemikeonukwu6964]

Well said.

[@aicnerolf]

what a great way of explaining what is playing breath of the wild! you put into words something i felt but didn't know how to explain. great video!

[@jasonpeterson3860]

While it does lack a prescribed story, Breath of the Wild’s open world empowers you to create your OWN story. I went here, and then I found this, and then I defeated that, etc.

[@puercopotter32]

Nunca se me hubiera ocurrido pensar en este juego como poesía. Y no había pensado en la poesía como lo presentas en este video. Muchas gracias, mes has dado en qué pensar

[@pepeparamorito]

That's a new perspective for me and something that really describe how I experienced the game but I didn't had the words to explain it. Thank you so much for your video and sharing your knowledge.

[@WritingwithAndrew]

You bet!

[@donavancarlson4849]

Thank you, this video changed my fundamental understanding of my favorite game. I used to think that the weak narrative was failure of the game but now I can see that it was more about the amazing gameplay moments that stick with me now.

[@WritingwithAndrew]

Sure thing!

[@paolobuoso2155]

The possibility of free interpretation of the poetry in BOTW connects to the main objective that developers wanted to achieve, be able to create you own adventure. This video actually helped me to understand that the developers not only give you freedom in the gameplay but also in the narrative, or as you said, in the poetry. Making your own choises doesn't influence the story but only your own perception of the experience you are having. I've never thought about this interpretation, really a good video!

[@uniquely_mo]

Honestly, I think BotW has an amazing story. Do you have to go looking for it? Partly, yes. But that’s because players want different things from games - ie combat, puzzles, story etc. Those who just wanted to ‘beat the game’ didn’t want to go out of their way to find story. But those like me actively sought those things out, and explored every area. I found it a very emotional and moving story, and I was perhaps drawn to it due to a particularly difficult time of my life, but I would often escape “into the wild” for hours and days at a time. I currently have over 2K hours in BotW and I don’t think I’ll ever tire of it. It’s truly special. TotK is a good game, and genius in many ways. But I found it too ‘busy’ for me, and have returned to BotW ETA: I did really enjoy your take on all of it. Not sure I’ve ever listened to someone talk about poetry before, so that was fascinating

[@yapdog]

I've never played the game, but I'm really diggin' this expansion of your content, meeting stories where they live. Fantastic, Andrew😁

[@WritingwithAndrew]

Thanks!

[@Gonzalo_Broto]

What a wonderful analysis of this brilliant game, Andrew. In more ways than one, Breath of the Wild resembles the experience of poetry, for you will not encounter two gamers who have had the same emotional response to the game. As with poetry, the experience is deeply intimate and personal, untranslatable, yet, at the same time, very familiar and relatable.

[@lijmoo]

I feel like I've just had a revelation (like awakening Link's memories) about story and poetry in general! Really insightful perspective on one of the greatest games 👌