The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a 2017 video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch and Wii U. Part of the Legend of Zelda series, his story happens in a place of the timeline long after any other installments of the series.

As usual, Link wakes up at the beginning of the game. This time however, he seems to wake up in a kind of hibernation chamber. And when he goes outside of the cave where the chamber was, he discovers something bad happened to Hyrule. Apparently, 100 years ago, an entity known as Calamity Ganon devastated the kingdom of Hyrule. It has been contained inside Hyrule Castle, but the time for his escape approaches. Guided by a disembodied voice, Link decides to go towards the castle.

The gameplay consists of being an open-world sandbox; if you can see it, you can get there with enough effort. As with most Zelda games, you can fight with an sword, shield, and a bow. But the twist is that nothing that you use will last forever, making the search for replace weapons an necessity. It's worth noting that gravity actually has an effect on your arrows in this game and that there are several types of arrows, such as Bomb Arrows and Shock Arrows. And there's also the newest addition, Ancient Arrows, which will obliterate standard monsters with one hit at the cost of taking their loot and weapon with them.

And addition to the traditional archery, swords, and shields setup, there's also two other types of melee available. Which is the spear, useful for striking enemies that are a few paces away from you. And the two-handed swords and axes, which tends to disarm your opponents or knock them down.

A sequel to the game, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, was released in 2023.

Tropes used in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild include:

• Abhorrent Admirer: The Great Fairies in this game are blatantly flirtatious towards Link whenever he visits them. But the relationship is one-sided since he cringes or screams as they upgrade his armor.
• Acrofatic: Kohga sports a rather prominent gut and he manages to be an agile warrior.
• Adaptation badass: Beedle, sort of. Unlike other incarnations who get around in a mobile shop vessel this version travels on foot carrying a HUGE backpack full of goods. As a result he's pretty ripped.
• Adaptation Distillation:
  • Many of the iconic features of The Legend of Zelda series such as the slingshot and hookshot and even the Triforce were omitted from ths entry.
  • And while there are elixers, none of them restores health; and your actual health needs to be restored by eating food or sitting in a hot spring as opposed to just cutting grass for hearts.
• Admiring the Abomination: In one shrine quest you meet a girl named Loone (appropriately named) who seems to have an strange fixation with guardians. Fortunately she at least has the good sense to never go near one.
• Adorkable: Link, full stop.
  • Paya as well.
  • Riju has a moment or two of her own.
• After the End: The game picks up one hundred years after Ganon devastated Hyrule.
• Amazon Chaser : You meet some outside Gerudo Town, who braved the desert in order to check out the ladies. But they can't get in because men aren't allowed.
• Amnesiac Hero: Link wakes up barely remembering anything other than his mission, but gains bits and pieces of his memories during the story.
• Amusing Injuries: If Link kicks open a chest while barefoot he'll hop about shaking his foot in pain.
• An Ice Person: There's an subspecies of Lizalfos with the ability to spit balls of Ice at Link. Fittingly, Link mostly founds them at the top of mountains or other snowy areas.
• A Child Shall Lead Them: The Gerudo are led by Riju, who ascended to leadership at a young age after the premature death of her mother.
• A Homeowner Is You: You can buy a house in Hateno Village for an exorbitant price and use it as a trophy room or an storage space for your weapons and shields.
• All Your Powers Combined: Each time Link frees a Divine beast the spirit of its champions grants him the ability to use their power.
• And Your Reward is Clothes:  Several shrines and side quests gives you armor sets.
• And your reward is food: Save someone from a monster and they'll thank you by giving you a meal or some elixir.
• Apocalypse How: Class 0, but Calamity Ganon wants to make it Class 4, if not even worse.
• Arm Cannon:
  • One of Windblight's Ganon defining traits is giant energy cannon on one of it's arms.
  • Being an amalgamation of his minions, Calamity Ganon has Windblight Ganon's cannon on one of his tentacles.
• Attack Its Weak Point: The conventional way of defeating a Stone Talus is to attack the black crystal on it's back.
• Audible Gleam: Whenever Sidon strikes a pose and grins, this happens to highlight his smile.
• Avenging the Villain: The Yiga really step up their attacks on Link after their leader Kogha gets defeated by having their Swordsmasters and archers randomly ambush you in most of Hyrule instead of solely relying on disguised travelers.
• Awesome but Impractical:
  • Ancient Arrows can kill just about anything that isn't a boss with one hit. but they're extremely rare and they're expensive to manufacture at the Akkala Ancient Tech Lab. And unless they're used on an Guardian; it'll vaporize regular monsters, which means that it'll be nearly impossible to harvest materials with them.
  • Boomerangs can be quite useful for hunting animals or attacking an archer. but the bad part is that they need some room in order to fly correctly and you have to be stationary until it returns to you; otherwise, it'll hit something solid or land elsewhere and you'll be unarmed and vulnerable.
• Back From the Dead:
  • Implied by the name of the shrine where Link was sleeping, "Shrine of Resurrection", though Purrah affirms he was only seriously wounded, averting the trope.
  • During the Blood Moon, Ganon resurrects enemies slain by Link so they can try to kill him again.
• Badass Princess: Zelda has fit the Trope before, but this is, without a doubt, the most badass version yet. She's been fighting Ganon nonstop for the past 100 years!
  • Mipha as well, being the Zora princess and one of the four champions.
  • Riju fits most aspects of this save for the fact she's no longer a princess but the de facto leader of the Gerudo tribe.
• Bad Moon Rising: The moon turns red when Calamity Ganon's power rises to its peak. During that time, known as "Blood Moon", the enemies who Link have slain are raised from the dead to fight for Ganon, between other nasty side effects.
• The bard: Kass.
• Bat Out of Hell: Keese, pests who appear at night, sometimes in large swarms. Electric, fiery, and icy versions exist too.
• Berserk Button: Don't touch Magda's flowers. If you do she will make you feel THE FLOWER'S RAGE!
• Big Beautiful Woman:
  • The Great fairies. Both literally and their plus-sized appearance.
  • Also Buliara, who's very tall and quite muscular.
• Big Ol' Eyebrows: King Rhoam has them, which Zelda inherited.
• Bittersweet Ending: Calamity Ganon is defeated, peace is restored to Hyrule and Link and Zelda are reunited at last. But the kingdom is still devastated and will take many years to recover its former glory, if ever. There's no guarantee the people will accept Zelda as their ruler. And Link and Zelda's friends are dead and Zelda will never be able to reconcile with her father. Plus there's the possibility Ganon will return some day and start this all over again.
• Blob Monster: Chuchus, blue blobs with yellow eyes. They also come in electric, fiery, and icy versions.
• Bloodless Carnage: To a cartoonish level: if Link kills a normal animal, the animal puffs and turns into a piece of meat. Furthermore if you kill one with a flame weapon it yields cooked meat.
  • Any time you come across someone getting attacked by monsters. Fail to reach them in time the worse that actually happens to them is they get knocked out and lay on the ground with stars swirling around their head and after a few moments they get up and are no worse for it.
• Blow You Away:
  • Revalli's gale is perhaps the most useful of the four abilities in it can create a powerful updraft wherever you need one to launch you up into the air.
  • The Korok leaf is pretty weak in battle but can be used to propel a raft across water and is also needed to solve some puzzles.
  • Similar to the Korok leaf is the windcleaver blade only it's more powerful.
• Boom! Headshot!:
  • An arrow to an enemy's head usually deals more damage than anywhere else.
  • And this is usually fatal to animals. 
• Boss in Mook Clothing: While the bosses in this game get their own health bars and theme music; Lynels don't have any of the these luxuries, despite being able to cut you down in a few hits and having a few thousand hit points.
• Boss Rush: Entering the throne room of Hyrule Castle before you've cleared all the Divine Beasts will cause the bosses of them to teleport to you to protect their master. They'll come at you in the following order if you didn't fight any of them: Windblight Ganon, Waterblight Ganon, Fireblight Ganon, and Thunderblight Ganon.
• Breath Weapon: What gives an Fire-Breath Lizalfos it's namesake is that it'll occasionally run after you, exhaling an jet an of fire.   
• Bullet Time: Draw a bow while in mid air and time will slow to a crawl for a few seconds, allowing you to take more precise aim. But this will also quickly empty your stamina gauge.   
• Bus Came Back: The Rito and the Koroks make their return nearly Two decades after debuting in The Wind Waker.   
• Call a Rabbit a Smeerp: The Gerudo have their own gender-specific terms. Women are called "vai" and men are called "voe".   
• Can't Get Away with Nuthin':
  • Link has to go all way back to the beginning of a path towards a shrine if he damages the flowers surrounding it. Even if the damage happens accidentally, like while fighting an enemy.
  • Take a swipe at a Goron with your weapon and he'll knock you to the ground.
  • If all previous entries in the Zelda series taught you one thing it's this; Do not mistreat the chickens!
• Cast From Hit Points: Drawing the Master Sword from its pedestal will drain your life meter. And if you have less that thirteen hearts attempting to pull it out will kill you.
• Chainsaw Good: One of the ancient weapons you can acquire is a combination of an sword and chainsaw.
• Chaotic Evil Excluding the Yiga Clan and the Guardians, there isn't any conclusive evidence that indicates that the monsters are directly serving Ganon, this time around. But this doesn't make them completely neutral, since they'll attack anyone that they meet.
• Chaste Hero: More than one female character has shown romantic interest in Link, yet he never reciprocates. Except possibly with Zelda.
• Charged Attack: The Guardian in the Soh Kofi Shrine has as last resort strategy a charged attack that leads to it to fire four consecutive laser beams on Link.
• Color-Coded Wizardry: The red Wizzrobes will burn you, the blue ones use the power of ice, and the yellow Wizzrobes fight by electrocuting you.
• Colossus Climb:
  • You need to climb up on a Talus and strike the black crystal in order to kill it. That is if you want to make it more challenging that simply blasting it with bomb arrows from a distance.
  • If you stun a Lynel you can then hop up on it's back and get in a few whacks before getting thrown off.
  • If you're stealthy enough you can climb up on a sleeping Hinox and steal the stuff hanging around it's neck without waking it.
• cool big sis:
  • Mipha to Sidon.
  • Purah to Impa.
• Cool bike: The Master cycle zero.
• Cool horse: Several, including the royal horse, Epona and even Ganondorf's horse.
• Comically Missing the Point: One of the students in the "Voe and you" class has the idea that the best way to matrimony is to kidnap a guy and strong arm him down the isle. The teacher is quick to point out that, no, that is not appropriate.
• Composite Character: Calamity Ganon has some of the abilties of the four scourges of the Divine Beasts. Such as Fireblight Ganon's fireball bomb and blazing cleaver, Waterblight Ganon's throwing spear, Thunderblight Ganon's lightning rods, and Windblight Ganon's arm-mounted cannon.
• Elemental rock-paper-scissors: The monsters with elemental abilities are vulnerable to their opposit element. For instance fire lizafos can be one-shotted with an ice weapon.
• Elite mooks: The silver monsters, who have higher hit points and hit harder than the red or green ones. Master mode ups this with gold monsters who are even tougher.
• Even the guys want him: Played with. Outside Gerudo Town a guy hits on Link. Granted Link was disguised as a girl at the time and the dude didn't know it.
• Expy: Direct descendant of the elder of the clan? A ninja? Incredibly bashful? Massive crush on the blonde protagonist? Are we talking about Paya or Hinata Hyuuga?
• Famous ancestor: Yonubo is Daruk's direct descendant.
• Five-man band: The five champions
  • The hero: Link
  • The lancer: Revali
  • The big guy: Daruk
  • The smart guy: Mipha
  • The chick: Urbosa
• Fantasy counterpart culture: Hylians are based off medieval Europe, the Sheikah feudal Japan and the Gerudo Arabian.
• Feed it a bomb: The best way to defeat a Mulduga is to stand on a rock and toss a bomb onto the sand. When the monster eats it detonate the bomb to stun it allowing you to get in a few whacks. Rinse and repeat.
• Hellish horse: The stal horses. The giant horse as well.
• Highly visible ninja: Aside from the ones that actually wear disguises the rest of the Yiga clan are pretty blatant with their blood-red outfits and masks.
• Hidden elf village: The Korok forest would count; It's centered in the lost woods where navigating is very difficult to anyone who doesn't know the secret.
• Hobbits: The Koroks, tiny (minus Hestu) mischievous little woodland creatures with a penchant for playing hide and seek.
• I'm a humanitarian: Hinoxes, when one looms over Link they lick their chops as if it's sizing him up for a snack.
• Intergenerational friendship: Zelda and Urbosa had this dynamic.
• Intrepid reporter: Traysi.
• Invisible to normals:
  • Wolf Link; regular Hylians can't see him.
  • The three dragons, While some characters comment on noticing their shadows apparently only someone blessed by the Goddess Hylia (I.E, Link) can see them directly.
  • Also this seems to be the case with the Koroks; the first one Link finds expresses surprise he could see it.
• King incognito: When we first meet King Roam he's disguised as an old hermit.
• Let's you and him fight: It's possible to lure one mini boss over to another and then you can just sit back and watch one kill the other.
• Magitech: The ancient Sheikah technology borders on this.
• May-December romance: Played with in another one sided instance; Even though Link and Paya are physically the same age chronologically however Link is a century her senior.
• Medieval stasis: Justified in this case as Hyrule is still recovering from the Calamity. But even before the Calamity Hyrule still wasn't much more advanced than any other entry in the series. And it's been 10,000 years since the last time Ganon reared his head.
• Named after somebody famous: Tech researcher Robbie was named for the late Robin Williams, who was such a big fan of the Zelda series he named his daughter Zelda.
• Never live it down: The fact Ganon was once one of their own is a very sore point for the Gerudo.
• Non-malicious monster: The lynels, possibly. While they are, undoubtedly aggressive they seem more territorial than actually evil and might not even attack as long as you keep your distance and don't draw a weapon.
• No sell: Some armor, once upgraded twice will offer complete protection against the element they guard against. For instance the flamebreaker armor will make Link completely immune to fire
• Off-screen teleportation:
  • The old man at the beginning; Every time he sends Link to a specific location he always ends up there before Link does. Justified as it turns out he's a ghost.
  • And then there's Kass. Fast travel from one spot where he is to another and the bird will be there ahead of you. He'd have to fly faster than light to do that.
• Parental substitute: Urbosa filled this role for Zelda after the death of the latter's mother.
• Pig-man: The Bokoblins, moblins and hynoxs all have porcine features.
• Razor wind: The windcleaver blade can do this.
• Small role, big impact: Kass, the Rito bard. He shows up in key places and offers clues that help Link solve certain puzzles, most of which reveal hidden shrines. Also Kass's old mentor, as it's his desire to finish his late teacher's work that drives each side quest Kass is involved in.
• Throwing your sword always works: If you toss a weapon on the verge of breaking at an enemy it'll deal double the damage.
• Ugly guy's hot daughter:
  • Zelda obviously inherited her mother's looks, thank Hylia.
  • There's a similar dynamic between the Zora King Dorephan, a huge, old, fat monarch, and his daughter Princess Mipha, who is both prettier and less fish-like than the other Zora. Incidentally, Dorephan's son Sidon is also good looking and an in-universe Chick Magnet, implying either that Dorephan was better looking long ago or that the kids got their looks from their unseen and unmentioned mother.
• Winged humanoid: The Rito are of the wings-for-arms and feather-fingers variety.
• Why did it have to be snakes?: Daruk had a fear of dogs due to being frequently chased by them when he was a youngster.
• Yin-yang siblings: Purah is the fun loving elder sister to the much more serious Impa.
• You are what you hate: According to the folks of Hateno village Purah does not like children. So it's a bit ironic she ended up accidentally turning herself into one.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Urbosa references Ocarina of Time when she says that her Divine Beast was named after an Gerudo sage.
  • South of Hyrule Castle you'll find the ruins of Lon Lon ranch.
  • During a ceremony, Zelda makes references to others Links' lives:

Whether skyward bound, adrift in time, or steeped in the embers of twilight, the sacred blade is forever bound to the soul of the hero...

• Contrived Coincidence: It was rather fortunate that Link awoke from hibernation right before Zelda's power to restrain Calamity Ganon started to weaken. If not, he would have broken free and finish destroying Hyrule.
• Convection Shmonvection: This is actually zig zagged. It's averted with Link needing protective gear to safely explore the scorching sands of the Gerudo Desert and the volcanic Eldin region.But it's played straight when he has an blazing hot sword strapped to his back and he barely feels anything aside from a mild resistance to the cold.
• Cyber Cyclops:
  • The Guardians are mechanical enemies with an single, blue eye that can fire lasers.
  • Also, the four scourges of the four Divine Beasts have the same thing going on, except that they have an mask around their eye.
• Cool Old Guy: Robbie, he comes complete with a rock lit motive.
• Dark-Skinned Redhead: The Gerudo.
• Dead All Along: The Old Man in the Great Plateau is a dead king. More exactly, King Rhoam of Hyrule
• Deal with the Devil: What got the entity inside the Horned Statue an eternity of imprisonment by the goddess Hylia; she didn't like he was making outrageous deals like exchanging life for money, or the reverse.
• Defector From Decadence: In Kakariko village you meet a man who, in a side quest is revealed to have been a Yiga sent in as a spy only to pull a heel-face turn after falling in love with and marrying a Shiekah girl. The Yiga did not take his defection well.
• Deflector Shield: Daruk's protection creates an energy shield that's capable of reflecting any attack, even a laser blast from a Guardian Stalker.
• Dem Bones: The Stalkoblins are reanimated corpses made entirely of bone, without one piece of flesh visible.
• Despair Event Horizon: Zelda goes through this after seeing the kingdom of Hyrule ravaged by the forces of Calamity Ganon; and the deaths of her father, her friends, and an untold number of citizens. It's only after seeing Link being mortally wounded from fending off a hoard of corrupted Guardians that snaps her out of this.
• Disney Villain Death: Instead of meeting an graphically violent demise, Master Kogha gets knocked into a bottomless pit by an metallic ball that he summoned. 
• Distinguishing Mark: Paya was named for a papaya seed-shaped birthmark she was born with, the location of it causes an great deal of embarrassment for her. (It's on her butt.)
• The Dreaded:
  • The Zora tribe fears the Lynel that's patrollling Shatterback Point on account that it's vicious, it's close to their village, and that they're against the Shock Arrows that it uses.
  • Due to their role in nearly destroying Hyrule an century ago, it isn't rare to see someone mentioning how dangerous Guardians are; even though they are entire fields filled with their lifeless hulks, the people of Hyrule are still scared of them.
• Drowning My Sorrows: In the tavern of Gerudo Town, there is an drunken patron who's constantly moaning about her terrible luck with dating men.
• Eldritch Abomination: Calamity Ganon's three forms: The first one is a boar-shaped spirit that's circling Hyrule Castle. The second is arguably the scariest of the three; with a skeletal face, multiple arms, and an abdomen that seems to incorporate parts and weaponry from the ancient Guardians. Andhis third form is an enormous boar comprised entirely of dark energy.
• Everything's Worse with Bears: The bears in this game are dangerous. As in, they will actively try to slash at you with their powerful claws if you anger them. And considering how Bokoblins uses them as calvary in certain areas of Hyrule, you're basically facing twice trouble once you knocked the monsters off their bears. 
• Everything's Worse with Wolves: While this trope is kind of downplayed, the wolves will take turns attack you. But they easily telegraph their attacks by barking and the pack can be driven off by killing one of them.
• Face-Heel Turn: The Yiga clan were originally Shiekah who turned against their kin and swore loyalty to Ganon.
• Fetch Quest: There's too many side quests in this game to list each example that qualifies. But generally speaking, their more along the lines of killing an specific group enemies, showing off an weapon, or giving someone an few items that isn't easily found nearby.
• The Fighting Narcissist: Revali has let his status an skilled archer and being the only Champion who can freely fly go to his head, which is why he normally speaks to Link in a arrogant tone.
• Fingerless Gloves: Zelda wears them, apparently only because it looks cool.
• Foreshadowing: One side quest has an NPC sending you to climb to the top of an stable to find out what was causing lightning to frequently strike it. It turns out to be an axe embedded in the statue on top of the stable. Nearby, there is a Shrine quest that requires you to place an metallic object on top of a hill in order to attract a lightning bolt to reveal the shrine. Incidentally, both quests rewards you with two different pieces of lightning-resistant armor.
• Game Breaking Bug: Or at least there would eventually be one. It would be entirely possible to clear Hyrule of every enemy, chest, resource, and weapon out there. But the game would probably crash from trying to keep track of the mass-depletion of content. Plus, this will eventually leave you out of conventional weaponry. Which is why the developers used the Blood Moons as a method to respawn everything in order to prevent these situations from happening.
• Genki Girl: Purah. And judging by some journal entries she was like this even before getting de-aged.
• Glass Cannon:
  • While all of the weapons Link picks up have limited durability and break after prolonged use. The ones that fits this tropes is the Royal Guard equipment, Ancient weaponry, and the Dragonbone Moblin Club; on account of the first two being fragile and powerful while the club hits hard, but it doesn't last long.   
  • Only the Master Sword is indestructible and has an decent attack power. And it becomes stronger when it's near an corrupted Guardian. But the sword will eventually lose it's charge and becomes inactive for ten minutes.
• Go for the Eye:
  • Hinoxes, since it'll deal an fair amount of damage and stun them; but they will cover it if Link deals too much damage to them
  • But this is also the method to finish off an Stalnox, since it'll eventually become it's only vulnerability.
  • And this is an easy way to reset the charge of an Guardian's laser before it fires.
  • And it's also the place where Ancient Arrows can destroy them with one hit.
• Gory Discretion Shot: Played for laughes with the "Dubious Food" meal, which is apparently so gross, that it has an pixilated icon.
• Great Big Book of Everything: Although the Hyrule Compendium is more of an digital database, it still keeps track of the flavor text of whatever you've photographed and tells you where you can generally find animals, monsters, and items. Plus, you can set the Shiekah Sensor to accurately search for anything that's registered in it.
• Grievous Harm with a Body: Moblins will sometimes grab a nearby bokoblin and throw it at you.
• Hero of Another Story: All four of the Champions qualify, each having gained heroic prestige among their own peoples long before meeting Link.
• Heroic Mime: While this is the first Zelda game to have voice actors, Link, as always, remains silent.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • The easiest way of taking down a Guardian is parrying their attack with a shield, reflecting their energy beam attack back on them.
  • When Kohga is on the verge of defeat, he conjures a huge spiked ball to crush Link with, only for it to roll over and knock Kohga into a bottomless pit instead.
• Humongous Mecha: The Divine Beasts are robots constructed to fight Ganon, to be piloted by Champions.
• Hundred-Percent Completion: Do you want to really complete this game? In addition to completely exploring Hyrule, you need to collect every Korok Seed and clear every side quest. And there's also the challenge of entering every shield, weapon, bow, arrow, wildlife, materials, and all of Link's memories into the Hyrule Compendium.  
• Improbable Aiming Skills: Courtesy of the Lynels. While they can fire their bows the normal way, their solution for losing their line of sight on you is to fire their arrows straight into to sky in order to have them rain down on you. Needless to say, you can't do this with their weapons, and this is actually more accurate than their usual brand of archery.
• Improvised Weapon: Link can use wooden sticks and spoons as weapons.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Paya clearly has some romantic feelings for Link, but she keeps them an secret from him because she thinks that he is in love with Zelda.
• I Was Quite a Looker: In Gerudo Town, you meet an elderly denizen who relates her tale of turning a lot of heads in her youth; but over time, she began to notice she wasn't doing it as much as before and the attention eventually ceased. And the sad part is that she travelledto in search of her soul mate, but never found him.
• Lady Land: Gerudo Town has an ancient law that prohibits men from entering the village.
• Large and In Charge:
  • Dorephan, king of the Zora, is gigantic, despite the fact his race have more humanoid proportions.
  • Also Kohga, leader of the Yiga clan.
• Large Ham: Kohga, who comments that Link is standing in his favorite napping place when they meet and it gets worse from there.
  • Prince Sidon as well.
• Laser Blade: Ancient weaponry relies on shaping pure energy into varying shapes, such as blades and barriers.
• Lethal Chef: Link encounters one of these who's apparent method of cooking involves tossing gem stones and machine parts into the pot. And the results are usually inedible.
• Level Grinding: Although it's for items, not levels; you're gonna be doing a lot of this if you want to upgrade your armor and to earn some money.
• Lovable Coward: Yonubo, on account on being the only timid Goron.
• Male Gaze: In one of the memories, Zelda is on her hands and knees to examine a flower; while Link is right behind her, examining her ass!
• Mars Needs Women : Or rather Venus needs men. Being a one gender race, the Gerudo need Hylian men to procreate with. There's even a classroom in town where Gerudo are taught how to pick up guys.
• May-December Romance:
  • Ancient technology researcher Robbie and his wife have at least an fifty year difference between them.
  • Mipha is in love with Link when they were both young; but Zoras can live for nearly 200 years, while Hylians generally last for around 80 years, which means that their relationship would've ended around halfway through Mipha's natural lifespan.
• Mecha-Mooks: Kind of justified: Calamity Ganon don't seems to have tried to make any allies and, in fact, seems to not desire one since it wants to kill every living thing in Hyrule; so his mooks are the robotic Guardians, and even then he seems to have enslaved them more because he didn't want to risk having them as enemies than because he desired them as subordinates, because apparently they helped in defeating him before.
• Miniature Senior Citizens: Impa has the size of a small child.
• Money Spider:
  • Talus are huge rock-monsters who yield lots of gems when destroyed.
  • Kill enough mobs, and eventually silver versions of them will appear that, while harder, drop gemstones. In Master Mode, Gold varieties appear that are even tougher but drop more.
• More Dakka:
  • The Duplex Bow fires two arrows in quick succession while only consuming one arrow from your inventory.
  • While the Lynel Bows simultaneously launches three or five arrows in an spread pattern.
• Ms. Fanservice: In a game that isn't that sexual, Urbosa walks around using a scarf as a skirt and using only small breastplates to cover her torso. Without mentioning the high heels.
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous:
  • There is an few variants of the Guardian Scouts who wields up to three weapons with their three arms.
  • Calamity Ganon has three main arms for his elemental weaponry and three more growing out of his back for fighting Link in close combat. 
• Mundane Utility: While the elemental melee weapons are powerful in combat, the fire and ice versions can help Link fight off the extreme temperatures if he equips them. And the fiery ones can be used for cooking food and starting fires.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Aside from its negative effect of resurrecting slain monsters, the Blood Moon has some beneficial effects. Mainly providing an unlimited source of money and ingredients in the form of monster parts and other collectibles.
• Non-Malicious Monster: The three dragons, merely getting close to one can cause some damage, yet none of them mean you any harm.
• Older Than They Look: Purah has the looks and the size of a preteen thanks to an experiment Gone Horribly Right.
• Our Centaurs Are Different: Lynels have the lower half of an horse (and the coloration of an zebra, in one case) and the upper body of an human, with an lion's face and mane that has an pair of horns growing out of it's skull. And they are among the toughest enemies in the game.
• Our Goblins Are Different: The Bokoblins more or less fit the Tolkien model in the sense that they're marauding, malicious creatures that are deadlier in groups and pose a constant threat for anyone who is exploring the wilderness.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Most of the monster masks that Kilton sells do work on their coresponding species, although the monsters are generally confused and convinced by the shoddy craftsmanship. But the sole exception are the Lynels, who will eventually figure it out and start attacking Link out of anger.
• Plant People: The Koroks, being based off of trees.
• Please Put Some Clothes On: Paya will give this reaction if Link talks to her while shirtless.
• Properly Paranoid: Brigo has an justifiable reason to fear the end of the world, and he notices the right signals for it.
• Prop Recycling: The 3D models for most of the Koroks are the same ones that were used in The Wind Waker
• Purple Is Powerful: The silver monsters, enemies that are much stronger than the regular ones have purple markings on their bodies.
• Ragdoll Physics: Anytime Link gets hit by a heavy blow or tumbles down a slope, he takes damage as he rolls.
• Rapunzel Hair: Riju's hair extends down to her ankles, and it would probably be longer if it wasn't braided.
• Rated "M" for Manly: With an love for mining in the volcanic heat, rock-climbing, fighting the native Igneo Talus as an test of strength, and just living near an volcano; this is the best way to describe the Gorons. 
• Reality Ensues:
  • Link isn't immune via Exposed to the Elements; his health will become lower and he can even die of cold if you don't keep a heat source(like a flame) near him, or make him wear adequate clothes for cold.
  • Where most Zelda games have an Precision-Guided Boomerang, the boomerangs in Breath of the Wild fly in an specific arc when you throw them and you have to manually catch them as they're flying back to you.
  •  In an deviation from the No Arc in Archery concept of game design, gravity does have an noticeable effect on arrows. Which means that you have to aim your shots an little bit above whatever you're aiming at in order to hit something that's around 20 yards away from you.
• Resurrection Immortality: It doesn't matter how many times that they're slain or if they've been killed as the Blood Moon rises, the monsters will continually be revived until Ganon is defeated.
• Ribcage Ridge:Throughout Hyrule, you'll find the skeletal remains of the leviathans and possibly a few other creatures, one of which vaguely looks like Levias from Skyward Sword. 
• Sand Is Water: Sand Seals, Moldugas, and the Electric Lizalfos are able to swim through the sands of Gerudo Desert as if it was the ocean.
• Scenery Gorn: Throughout Hyrule, there's plenty of decimated towns and fortresses; and most of these can be blamed on the Great Calamity.
• Scenery Porn: On the other hand, the natural landscape of Hyrule is truly majestic and is relatively untouched by Calamity Ganon's rampage.
• Sealed Good In A Can: Link has spent an century recovering from the wounds that he received during the Great Calamity inside the Shrine of Resurrection, which is an sealed caved located in an remote area of Hyrule.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: The Entity inside the Horned Statue is a demon that makes deals with people. You could argue people were only foolish to make deals with her...until the point where she takes one of Link's heart containers to force him into a bargain.
• Sealed Evil in a Duel: Zelda spends a century trapped in Hyrule Castle, constantly trying to restrain Calamity Ganon.
• Secret Secret Keeper: Koko, Dorian's older daughter, is well aware that her mother is dead; but she chose to keep this to herself for the sake of her father and younger sister.
• Shipper on Deck: There is an side quest that takes place on a mountain west of Lurelin Village where Link has to start an relationship between an shy Hylian man and a nearby Gerudo traveler. 
• Shock and Awe: Electrical Keese, as the name makes it obvious. They'll try to shock Link by contact, but don't have other forms of attack.
• Sleep Cute: Zelda does this in one of the memories, falling asleep while leaning against Urbosa. That is until Urbosa wakes her up by calling down an lightning bolt to strike nearby.
• Starfish Robots: The Guardians have way more than four limbs and have cephalopode-like heads
• Super Drowning Skills: Link's ability to swim is handled rather realistically; he can swim as long as his stamina wheel holds out. Bokoblins, however, swim about as well as anchors, and it's relatively easy to defeat a group of them by luring them into water. Lizalfos, however, can swim like fish and often ambush Link from water.
• Take That: One towards all of the 100% completionists out there. You can spend weeks scouring all of Hyrule for 900 Korok seeds and what do you get for finding them all? A stinky lump of golden poo!
• Teens Are Short: Any character Link meets who isn't the same age as he is will likely be at least a head taller than him.
• They Killed Kenny Again: Thanks to the resurrective effects of the Blood Moon you can slay every monster ad infinitum.
• Turns Red;
  • After draining half of Windblight Ganon's health, it summons four small drones to amplify it's main arm laser attack and to redirect it's own shots between them to attack from another angle.
  • Waterblight Ganon starts hanging upside down to become harder to hit. It also summons cubes of ice as an means of harassing you. And if you're fighting inside Divine Beast Vah Ruta, the scourge floods the room to put you at an disadvantage.
  • The Scourge of Divine Beast Vah Rudania, Fireblight Ganon, sets its giant cleaver ablaze once its lost half it's health. And it also gains an defensive energy barrier and the ability to throw more fire at you.
  • After Thunderblight Ganon has lost half it's health, it not only electrifies it's weapons and gains the ability to create an electrical deathtrap, it also starts fighting smarter by faking the usual dash attack to negate Flurry Rush with an delayed strike with it's shield.
  • In addition to actually turning red when he's on the ropes, Calamity Ganon also becomes invulnerable, save for an small window as he attacks.
• Trick Arrow: Link can use arrows that have elemental powers, like ice, fire and lightning.
• Ugly Guy Hot Wife: At the end of the side quest where Tarrey Town is fully built, you attend the wedding of Hudson and Rhodson. Being an Gerudo, Rhodson is an gorgeous spouse; Hudson, not so much. 
• The Undead: The "Stal" enemies are the skeletal remains of monsters who only appear at night. And the only way to truly beat them is to destroy their skulls.
• Wall Crawl: Link can climb up practically any natural surface, provided that it's dry and isn't at an extreme angle.
• Warp Whistle: Courtesy of the Shiekah Slate, you can teleport to any Shrine, Divine Beast, and Tower that you've visited.
• Weakened by the Light: Undead foes only come out at night, unable to stand the sun.
• Wham! Line: Practically every time you meet a traveler, and you discover who they belong to Yiga Clan, they drop one. Because they are a clan of ninja assassins whose whole purpose is killing Link, and after dropping the line they attack you
• Wholesome Crossdresser: In order to stop one of the Divine Beasts, Link has to enter Gerudo Town, disguised as a girl.
• Wide Open Sandbox: It's what this game is built upon. If you can see it, you can get there with an little bit of effort.
• Worthless Yellow Rocks: The Gorons don't care an lot for the gemstones because they taste bad in comparison to the rocks that they normally eat. Plus, they haven't found an practical use for them. Which is why they sell them to the other races, who uses them as jewelry.
• Would Hurt a Child: The Yiga Clan were threatening to kill both of Dorian's daughters if he doesn't spy for them.
• You Kill It, You Bought It;
  • Link can use the weapons of the monsters that he kills. But sometimes, it's as simple as knocking the weapon out of their hands.
  • And this also applies to whatever food that they were cooking.
  • But this is taken literally with the purple-eyed skull chests: You have to kill all the monsters in that area in order to open it. Even if you managed to knock one of them off an cliff and it survives the fall, you have to kill him in order to unlock the chest.
• Zerg Rush
  • In certain areas of Hyrule, there are huge swarms of Keese that will circle around you before attacking en masse.
  • While Bokoblins tend to run after you once an member of their encampment spots you, they generally spread out an little bit as every one them closes the distance.