The Legend Of Zelda: Breath of The Wild DLC Pack 2 - The Champions' Ballad Review
The Legend Of Zelda Breath Of The Wild DLC Pack 2: The Champions Ballad
- Genre: Action/Adventure
- Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Wii U
- Reviewed On: Nintendo Switch
- Rating: PEGI 12, ESRB 10+
- Developer: Nintendo
- Publisher: Nintendo
The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild is an experience that has stuck with me since I first started playing on launch. Its innovation and willingness to take risks transformed the classic Zelda formula into one of the most influential games of the decade, with the promise of even more content packed onto the 50 hour adventure through DLC. Its first DLC pack, The Master Trials, added a challenge that allowed Link to fully realise the Master Sword’s true potential through a series of survival challenges, as well as additional gameplay features and outfits. This small 3-4 hour expansion was a blast to play through, but it still left us hungry for more due to the small size of the DLC. What we were all waiting for however, was the second expansion pack, The Champions Ballad. Thankfully The Champions Ballad was released on the 7th of this month and now that I have had the chance to go through and play everything the DLC has to offer, it’s time to see how this expansion compares to the Master Trials, as well as the main game.
The expansion begins with Zelda instructing Link to visit the place where he first received the Sheikah Slate. From here you will temporarily gain access to a powerful weapon fittinlgy named the “One-Hit Obliterator”. As the name suggests, the wielder is able to take down any enemy with a single blow, but the catch is that the user will suffer the same fate if struck by a foe. The goal of the first part of the DLC is simple, move to the four monster camps scattered around the Great Plateau and take down all adversaries, then complete the shrine challenges that appear. This initial challenge was insanely difficult at times. Not being able to take a hit against irritating enemies like Lizalfos and Blizzrobes was definitely not easy, and the shrines that appeared following these challenges were also on par with the top tier shrines in the main quest, making for some interesting, fun and challenging trials.
The next segment involves traversing the four corners of Hyrule in order to complete several Divine Beast challenges, which reward you with all new memories of the champions as well as a few upgrades. These challenges were quite difficult as well, with a couple new enemy encounters and even more shrines to take on. Disappointingly, there were several recycled boss fights which ended up being the least interesting part of the DLC in my opinion. The highlight of this middle segment is the added backstory to the champions through memories, it made me feel like I was able to get a better idea of what the champions were like and I was able to understand them and their personalities a little more.
The final challenge is an all new dungeon, a complex labyrinth that contains elements taken from the four Divine Beast dungeons from the main quest. I loved this challenge and there were several times that I really found myself stumped. This is all topped off with a boss fight that is arguably the best in the entire game, and of course the strange but nonetheless awesome Master Cycle Zero.
All in all, The Champions Ballad was a solid DLC with some great moments and some real challenging new trials. You can expect roughly 8-10 hours of play time in order to get through all there is to see in the DLC. Sadly, it didn’t shape up to be the story focused DLC we were all expecting, and it is let down by the recycled boss fights and minimal amount of new story content. Don’t let this detriment the overall experience though, as there are some awesome challenges to overcome and it all ends off with a spectacular finale.
