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[Update] Nintendo counts down to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild's DLC release

Update: Days four and five

[Update] Nintendo counts down to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild's DLC release

I think it's evident that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is one of the most beautiful and brilliant games in recent history, and its DLC offers up that extra bit of excitement.

With the DLC (pack one) on the way this week, Nintendo's done something pretty cool to help count down to Friday 30th. Each day one of the hardworking visionaries behind BOTW will be releasing blog posts featuring information related to the upcoming DLC.

Let's take a look at what's coming.

June 29th - Majora's Mask

On this, the final day, before DLC pack one's release, BOTW's Producer Aonuma, is chatting about Majora's Mask.

Like the appearance of Tingle, the cursed mask first came to light in The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. Aside from creeping us out, especially at night, Majora's Mask has one very useful function, as Aonuma explains.

"When you acquire this mask in the Master Trials and equip it, it has the effect of making minor enemies like Bokoblins, Moblins, and Stal enemies think that Link is part of their group, so that they won't attack Link. (Although Kilton might complain: "You're hurting my business!") If you're not good at combat, I recommend you try this mask out."


June 28th - Tingle's Outfit

The fourth day brings us closer to the seat of Tingle's outfit as Game Designer, Shirakawa, talks us through what this'll bring to the story.

First appearing in The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, Tingle gathered an unexpectedly large fan following consisting of people who love him and people who hate him.

Shirakawa says, "Tingle's not your typical Nintendo character, and if we wanted to create a game with him as the main character, then we were going to make him do and say things typical Nintendo characters would never do! That's the goal we set for ourselves, and it was...very...challenging. But one thing is clear: Tingle made his mark on the world of Hyrule, and now Link is dressing up as Tingle! I'm so proud! When you wear all 3 pieces of Tingle's Outfit together, they grant you the "Night Speed-Up" effect. So please try on Tingle’s Oufit and run around at night."

June 27th - Midna's Helmet

On the third day of Nintendo's countdown Art Director Takizawa takes centre stage to talk about Midna's Helmet. If you're not caught up with the DLC, Midna's Helmet can be found in one of the chests hidden in the world of BOTW - good luck finding it.

Initially appearing in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Midna was Link's partner. It was the first time a 'buddy' character had been created in the franchise that would stick by Link AND battle with him, side-by-side.

When writing about the helment, Takizawa says, "The actual Midna's Helmet was the physical manifestation of extremely powerful shadow magic passed onto the royal family of an alternate world, but when Link equips it in the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild game, it will add "Guardian Resist Up" to Link's defense."

Though the helmet will be pretty useful against Guardians, Mr. Takizawa suggests you use it while exploring the world with Wolf Link...which would be very, very badass in my opinion.

June 26th - The Master Trials

In The Master Trials you can earn the armour of a Phantom - a type of knight which appeared in The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass and The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (Nintendo DS). In those games, the armour worn by the knights doesn't take damage when attacked from the front.

"One of our initial ideas was to include a type of gameplay that would let you sort of play tag with unbeatable enemies in dungeons. In the finished game, Link would actually die with just one attack from a Phantom, so it required Link to advance through The Temple of the Ocean King by hiding from them and sometimes using traps to his advantage," Iwamoto, Assistant Director of BOTW said. "Come to think of it, that's somewhat similar to his relationship with Guardians, isn't it?"

This time around you can don the Phantom armour and it'll increase Link's attack power. Apparently there are other armours (like Tingle and Midna) based on previous The Legend of Zelda games, but we'll have to wait to find out about those.

June 25th - Korok Mask

Interestingly, the Korok Mask is styled after the Koroks in 2002's The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (GameCube).

"During development, we started saying things like, "It would be fun to discover something if it were placed at a location like this, don't you think?" Initially, we placed some random rocks in spots like these, just as an experiment," Fujibayashi, Director of BOTW states. "...we concluded that simply placing rocks somewhere isn't intriguing or challenging enough to be rewarding, even if you were to find them. Instead, we suggested hiding some small creatures there for the finding. So that's how these Koroks, who would normally only live in Korok Forest, ended up scattered across remote areas of Hyrule."

As for the Korok Mask's purpose in this wild world, aside from looking like one of the family hidden Koroks will actually begin to shake if you walk past its location, giving you more of an insight as to where to find it.

Emily Sowden
Emily Sowden
Emily is Pocket Gamer's News Editor and writes about all kinds of game-related things. She needs coffee to function and begrudgingly loves her Switch more than she lets on.