At its core, The Legend of Zelda series has always been best classified as a fantasy series. But at its core, the story of the series has always been fairly simple. The world is endangered, and Link must save it. But Breath of the Wild is a bit different. You see, in the story of the game, the Kingdom of Hyrule did face a major danger from Ganon.

The video-game designer Shigeru Miyamoto once called the land of Hyrule "a miniature garden that you can put into a drawer and revisit anytime you like." Miyamoto conceived Hyrule, the setting for Nintendo's Legend of Zelda series, in 1986, and though its layout has changed often in the intervening decades, its ambiance of bucolic, occasionally threatening whimsy hasn't. Neither has the company's understanding of Zelda's essential purpose: to bring the great outdoors--the rollicking hills, the whispering caves, all that breezy, alfresco escapade--indoors. In recent years, Miyamoto, who is now sixty-four, has retreated to the position of Zelda's overseer, relinquishing control to younger directors inside the clandestine, Willy Wonka-esque factory that is Nintendo's Kyoto headquarters. But Hyrule remains indelibly his.

I hate open world games, as a general rule. As someone with not a lot of free time, I like my games to be direct and challenging, taking me from level to level in an orderly fashion. Which is one reason why I find myself playing games like Dishonored or the Wolfenstein series time and again. I can go start to finish in a direct route, and the game rarely asks me to deviate course or worse - find a bunch of random materials and craft them. So I should hate The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. It's a sprawling, open world game with little direction except knowing you have to fight Ganon at the end.

Survival in Nintendo's fantasy epic for Wii U and its latest device -- Nintendo Switch -- requires a different set of skills compared to previous entries in The Legend of Zelda's 31-year run. You have to mind your stamina. You must preserve your weapons lest they break apart. And you need to cook your own food. It's a major reason why Breath of the Wild is one of the best launch titles for a new video game console ever, not to mention a journey worthy of Zelda's glorious reputation.