Finishing a game, whether completing the main story or tackling and outpunching the formidable boss at the end of a challenging journey, takes a long time to do. The same logic doesn't apply to speedrunners — a subset of gamers intent on finishing a specific game at the shortest time possible.
'Legend of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild' Speedrunning
These speedrunners have recently turned to Nintendo's latest Zelda outing, Breath of the Wild. While the game's open world outbursts with fantastic bravado, it appears that the mighty speedrunners weren't even daunted by the game's sheer scale in the slightest.
One particular speedrunner has managed to beat the game — meaning the player finished it to a point where the credits rolled — in just a little over 54 minutes, an impressive achievement given how many critics are saying that Breath of the Wild can be difficult at times.
To be exact, three speedrunners have beaten the game, which hasn't even been out for two weeks yet. Speedrunner Venick409, as reported by Polygon, claimed the record on March 11, finishing the game in just 54 minutes and five seconds. The speedrun is under an "any percent" completion goal, which means beating the final boss and completing the main story will count as finishing the game, irrespective of a player's completion percentage.
The speedrun by Venick409 came about a day after gymnast86 set the record for the open world game, finishing it in 58 minutes and one second. Another record, one from Orcastraw, immediately followed gymnast86's, though Orcastraw completed the game 5 seconds later than gymnast86. For the record, Orcastraw is the first to register the first complete speedrun of Breath of the Wild.
'Breath Of The Wild' Speedrun Controversy
Despite the impressive string of record-setting, a controversy has arisen within the Breath of the Wild speedrunning community. In Venick409 and Orcastraw's speedruns, they used the Smash Bros. Twilight Link amiibo, which when used in the game will gift Link a horse, which cuts his travel time significantly.
Some fans feel that the usage of amiibo for speedruns is a form of cheating, but others say that the gains by using the horse as a form of transportation is marginal. SethBling, another speedrunner, argues that while some fans might see using amiibo as cheating, the minimal gains fail to render it so. SethBling, for the record, made it to the game's boss in just 12 minutes.
Controversies aside, it's still impressive that speedrunners have managed to clock just under an hour to complete the game in its entirety, at least in terms of seeing the storyline unfold and battling the boss. It's highly likely that the record will be broken soon, possibly even by a significant cut.
Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is the first open world Zelda game ever released. It hit shelves March 3 for the Nintendo Switch and the Wii U, with the game a swan song of the embattled console. The Nintendo Switch, on the other hand, was released on the same day, and Breath of the Wild is its first major first-party title.
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