The introduction of cooking and item combinations in recentThe Legend of Zeldaentries has one major flaw. It’s no secret how the most recentZeldagames have heavily pushed for a heightened sense of freedom and experimentation in comparison to its predecessors. FromBreath of the Wild’s Runes, toTears of the Kingdom’s Ultrahand, toEchoes of Wisdom’s Echo ability, it’s all in the service of encouraging the player to explore the land of Hyrule in their own way.
Therefore, the implementation of cooking and smoothie mixing in these titles certainly falls in line with this focus.The range of different concoctions and effects that these creations bring is a great way for the player to let loose and experiment, while making use of the items that are probably clogging up their inventory. As great as this addition has been to theZeldaseries, there’s one glaring aspect to its implementation that proves to be a detriment to eachZeldagame’s overall difficulty.
How Meals & Smoothies Work in BOTW, TOTK, & Echoes Of Wisdom
Meals & Smoothies Offer A Variety Of Benefits
Meals and smoothies feel like a great addition to their respectiveZeldagames thanks to how they benefit the player’s journey. Whether Link approaches a cooking pot inBOTWorTOTK, or Zelda orders from a Business Scrub inEchoes of Wisdom,creating recipes initially seems like a simple task used to either complete a quest or free up inventory space. InBOTW, for example, most players' first instance of cooking will be to obtain the Warm Doublet from the Old Man, thereby protecting them from the Great Plateau’s freezing cold mountains.
However, the main benefit that cooking or smoothie mixing provides is the many status effects that are included within these meals orsmoothie recipes. Finding the right combination of items to mix together can result in a variety of boosts, from increased attack or defence, faster swimming speed, extra stamina, or resistance to extreme weather conditions. This serves as the main incentive for the player to use this mechanic in theseZeldagames, withBOTW,TOTKandEchoes of Wisdomoffering a variety of side quests and challenges to help the player discover useful recipes.
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Meals and smoothies work tremendously when focusing on their status effects, encouraging experimentation by consistently rewarding the player for their ingenuity.It helps to add a level of strategy to each respectiveZeldatitle, as players will use certain recipes and their effects to aid in battle or to access previously dangerous areas. The way players use these effects to ease their journey feels natural, and adds to the sense of freedom that moves through every part ofBOTW,TOTK, andEchoes of Wisdom.
Meals And Smoothies Made Battles Far Too Easy
Health Replenishment Could Be Easily Exploited
Despite how well implemented the status effects are,the meals and smoothies falter when it comes to their need for health replenishment.Echoes of Wisdomseverely reduces hearts dropped by enemies to encourage players to use smoothies, whileBOTWandTOTKforce the player to rely solely on the items and meals at their disposal. At first, this doesn’t seem like a major problem, instead only adding to the experimentation and strategy of the cooking and mixing mechanics.
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The problem lies in how this can be easily exploited in eachZeldagame. There’s essentially no limit to how much a player can choose to cook a meal or mix a smoothie, and the abundance of items the player will naturally collect (especially inBOTWandTOTK) means that a player can easily create dozens of recipes at once. That’s not to mention the huge levels of health included within some of the recipes, with somemeals inBOTWandTOTKgranting temporary hearts,causing difficulty to plummet so long as players maintain a constant supply of food.
Even creating meals and smoothies isn’t required for significantly lowering difficulty in the newerZeldagames; individual ingredients restore hearts as well.
This simple exploitation removes any sense of tension that may come with enemy encounters in theseZeldagames, as the player has near limitless health. The usual strategic, cautious approach that’s probably expected will instead vanish asplayers simply throw themselves into battle, pausing and consuming a meal or smoothie every time they happen to get hit, until they eventually emerge victorious. This one flaw within the mechanic results in the creation of a glorified easy mode for eachZeldagame that severely undermines the rest that these titles have to offer.
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A Different Approach Should Be Taken For Health Replenishment
Official art of Link leading Princess Zelda through the sewers inThe Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.
The problem of health replenishment inBOTW,TOTK, andEchoes of Wisdomis indicative of a larger change that’s needed to the cooking and mixing mechanics. Its implementation can work wonders as a strategic tool with the many status effects that can aid in the player’s journey through Hyrule. Unlike health replenishment, similarstatus effects cannot be stacked, and so they can’t be exploited in the same way, making their inclusion feel far more natural. Maintaining a focus on status effects and removing health replenishment would certainly make meals and smoothies fit far more comfortably in futureZeldaentries.
Meanwhile, restoring the traditional method of health replenishment that was adopted by previousZeldaentries may be the way to go. As familiar as it may be, there’s no denying the heightened tension this brings to battles when the player doesn’t have an aid to immediately fall back on. Moreover,the reward of dropped hearts upon defeating an enemy provides a sense of accomplishment and respitethat just can’t be replicated byBOTW’s,TOTK’s, orEchoes of Wisdom’s easily exploitable meals or smoothies.
Ultimately, the use of item combination and cooking is a worthy inclusion in theZeldaseries. The encouragement of experimentation that it provides is fitting for the more open approach taken by the most recentZeldaentries, which is unfortunately brought down by how exploitable its health replenishment is, preventing the feature from reaching its full potential. However, if rectified, cooking or mixing in futureThe Legend of Zeldaentries will serve as a useful tool in the player’s journey to restoring peace to Hyrule.
The Legend of Zelda
The Legend of Zelda franchise follows the adventures of Link, an elf-like Hylian, and Princess Zelda as they protect the land of Hyrule from the evil warlord-turned-demon king Ganon. The series is known for its mix of action, adventure, and puzzle-solving elements, often revolving around the collection of the Triforce, a powerful relic left by the goddesses who created Hyrule. Each game features different incarnations of Link and Zelda, maintaining core elements while introducing new characters and settings.
