News: Expansion Pack Announced for Zelda: Breath of the Wild Page 1

Expansion Pack Announced for Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Today Nintendo has announced that upcoming Switch launch title, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, will be getting an expansion pack, taking advantage of its massive open-world environment.

The 'expansion pass,' available for purchase on day one for both the Switch and Wii U editions, will be released in three stages. Players who purchase the pass will receive three new treasure chests (in the Great Plateau region) straight away - one of which includes a Nintendo themed item for Link to wear, whilst the others will include a helpful item.

The main content will come in summer and during the holiday season later this year. The first will offer a new Cave of Trials challenge, alongside a hard mode and, perhaps most intriguingly, a new 'feature' for the game map. The second pack promises a new original story, which will include all new dungeons, and should definitely increase the life span of the much-anticipated AAA title.

The Expansion Pass is available to purchase from March 3rd for £17.99. Nintendo has stated it will not be possible to purchase these packs individually.

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Azuardo 14.02.2017#1

A Cave of Trials, a hard mode, and a "feature for the in-game" map. I'm astonished this is DLC for a Zelda game. Terrible stuff. I'm not seeing any justification for putting a difficulty mode behind a paywall. That shit should is patched in for free in nearly every other game if it's not already built in.

If you can justify the new story content (which I assume won't be huge) is worth the £20, then okay, you get the other stuff on top of it anyway, but it's not the point in the slightest. Disappointing stuff from Nintendo. Hopefully the game is so damn good that I will forget about this, but I don't think Zelda vets will be happy at all about having to pay for a hard mode. I think many of us would want to jump into a hard mode immediately. To charge for it is gross.

( Edited 14.02.2017 16:28 by Azuardo )

RufDogRacing 14.02.2017#2

I agree, I'm not sure who they were going to win over by announcing this now.

I feel inclined to vote with my wallet, since I don't want to see Nintendo doing regular DLC for their franchises. Despite the fact that what they have done in the way of DLC has been very good, I just can't stand the idea that this will be the new norm for them. Granted, that's a standard practice for most other developers, but still..

( Edited 14.02.2017 16:32 by The Strat Man )

Tom Barry [ Reviewer - Editor - Resident Sim-Racer @ Cubed3.com ]

Renan 14.02.2017#3

I can't say I'm particularly happy about this at all. I get that DLC has become an industry staple for better or worse, but Nintendo's locking away content that should otherwise be in the base game behind a paywall.

I've been super hyped for BotW since the first trailer but this is an enormous disappointment.

Azuardo 14.02.2017#4

Nintendo needs to be called out and confronted about things like this. Journalists don't ask enough hard-hitting questions or demand proper answers. The next time a journalist speaks to Reggie, or whoever the hell at Nintendo, they need to ask them what they are playing at by doing things like this. You don't charge money to your loyal customers for difficulty modes. We've put up with enough BS from Nintendo for years.

Marzeee 14.02.2017#5

I'm mostly happy with this, personally. It's exactly what I was hoping for, considering they've spent so many years crafting the world.

Even though I'm sure the game is packed with loads of content, I still feel for all that development time they should get the most out of that world or use the engine again like they did with Majora's Mask. The potential to have new stories taking place in it, possibly like Rockstar did with GTA IV's expansion content is great I feel. There's not really much information about it yet, so there's no way of knowing how much content it will include with the new story content. I'm optimistic about it though after the great Mario Kart 8 DLC.

As for the difficulty option being locked behind a paywall, I can definitely understand peoples frustration with that, it's not so good. Hopefully the other content will make it worth it though. I personally never play Zelda on hard difficulty and I enjoy it on regular. Apparently Breath of the Wild is going to be more challenging than previous Zelda games anyway.

I'll be probably waiting till the holiday's to pick it up, if I do decide to get it. I want to see what we actually get first. There's not much details about it. Either way, I feel the potential for this is great.

Luna Eriksson 15.02.2017#6

Unsure how to feel about this. For 20 bucks it sure sounds like a good deal to be honest. If the new story lives up to my expectations that alone would justify this package.

The difference between illusion and reality is vague to the one who suffers from the former and questionable for the one suffering form the later.

RufDogRacing 15.02.2017#7

If they're going to start DLC on the regular, the new story needs to be beefy and of a very high standard. It needs to be up there with The Witcher 3s expansions, Heart of Stone and Blood and Wine, at the very least.

Like Marzy says, if the open-world really has that much potential, and the main quest is not lacking in length or intrigue, then by the time winter rolls around it'll probably be an exciting prospect. On the other hand, a DLC story, plus the announcement Mario has been pushed to next year- that'll go badly. Smilie

Tom Barry [ Reviewer - Editor - Resident Sim-Racer @ Cubed3.com ]

Cheesing It Up 15.02.2017#8

It sounds like the day-1 DLC was only added so that they could say that have some DLC for day 1. The later stuff sounds fine, although possibly a bit pricey depending on the level of content.