This is going to be a more personal blog than most, because The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild means more to me on a personal level than most games I do for the show. I won't be talking much about the game itself here, but of course there is a 3 hour podcast link at the bottom of this blog for all of that. Instead, I'd just like to reflect a bit. Video games have always been one of my favorite hobbies, but in 2015, that started to wind down. In 2015, I packed my whole life into two suitcases and moved to South Korea to teach English. Gaming was so important to me that my one carry-on bag included my Xbox 360 and my Wii U. I bought a voltage converter as soon as I arrived so that the different voltage from the outlets in Korea wouldn't fry my consoles. And then....I just didn't play much.
I spent the next few years playing games very sparingly. I picked at Dark Souls 2 but ultimately gave up. I played Xenoblade Chronicles but again, gave up before the end. I had the distinct feeling, especially after I felt burned out by Xenoblade Chronicles, that I was just done playing games. It wasn't like I was suddenly busy- I lived alone in a studio apartment and spent a lot of time watching tv and traveling, but video games had just lost their magic. And then....I heard about a new Zelda game. The Legend of Zelda has been one of my all time favorite series, ever since I played Link's Awakening on the GameBoy as a kid. So I remember having the distinct thought, "I'll play this, and then I'll sell my consoles and move on". So I bought Breath of the Wild for my Wii U and settled in for my last video game.
Obviously since I'm writing a blog about episode 72 of a gaming podcast, that's not how it all worked out, and I can directly attribute it to Breath of the Wild. It was a truly magical experience playing it back in 2017, and despite some of my worries about revisiting it in 2023, it remained just as joyous the second time around. And when we finally got a release date for Tears of the Kingdom, I knew that this game had to be a part of Tales from the Backlog. So joining me for episode 72 are Jake and Cameron from the Pre-Order Bonus podcast (Website, Twitter). It's a big game to break down the way I like to do, but I'm very happy with the result.
You can listen to episode 72 of Tales from the Backlog (The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild) in the player below, or you can follow the links to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podcast Addict, Stitcher, Google Podcasts or search "Tales from the Backlog" in your favorite podcast app!