Breath of the Wild - Champions' Ballad - Part 1

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Let’s return to Hyrule for the second part of the DLC for Breath of the Wild – this time, we’re going to delve into memories and face some fiendish trials – with twists.

Whilst I was skeptical about download content for Breath of the Wild (the history of DLC is that usually you need to buy it in order to have a complete game experience, or even to simply complete the game), Nintendo wisely ensured that their DLC merely enhances and adds to the game. If you decide not to bother with the DLC, you can still thoroughly enjoy everything Breath of the Wild has to offer. For me… I wanted the extra experience. The first half of the DLC added a Master Mode (for those pyschos who want an extra challenge) and the Trial of the Sword, which I am two thirds of the way through (more on that another time), as well as adding several new pieces of equipment, such as masks. One of these, Majora’s Mask, would prove most useful for the first part of the Champions’ Ballad.

Now, it goes without saying that there will be spoilers ahead. If you don’t want to know anything of this, stop reading. If you want to follow my adventure as it unfolds, read on!

It all begins simply enough. I was contacted by Princess Zelda, who asked me to return to the Shrine of Resurrection. A quick teleportation later and I’m right back where the game started, wondering what’s in store. Zelda spoke to me again, speaking of how strong I’d become and of the chance to awaken yet more power. A four-pronged trident – the aptly named ‘Obliterator’, appeared, as a gift for me.

Except, this is a Zelda game and things are never that simple. When I took hold of this weapon, my hearts – previously maxed out, were reduced to just one quarter of one heart – in short, one hit from any enemy and I’d be dead. Therein lay the key feature of the Obliterator – it could kill any enemy with one hit, but if you got hit, even once, you’d die. The map directed me to certain points, scattered around the Great Plateau, with a number of enemies – thankfully straight forward ones (no Lynels or Hinox to contend with here!) to fight. Killing the enemies would reveal a shrine – one with a slightly different appearance.

I decided to clear all the enemies and reveal all the shrines before tackling the shrines themselves – a combination of Majora’s Mask (that convinces enemies you’re not a threat) and the Stasis ability of the Sheikah Slate allowed me to clear the baddies without too much trouble – though I ended up using quite a few Ancient arrows to take care of a Wizzrobe that was loitering in one particular area. Once all the foes had been slain, it was time to dive into the shrines.

At this point I still had the Obliterator in hand, so I was still vulnerable to the slightest injury. It was therefore prudent to be careful when crawling through the shrines. The very first one was pitch black and involved both lasers and Guardians – once again Stasis proved my friend when fighting, whilst it was important to be nice and cautious when moving around all the traps that the shrine offered up. There was also a surprisingly easy combat trial and a trial involving using Magnesis to grabbing a specific orb from a bunch of random orbs and spikey balls that kept rolling down a couple of platforms. Once again this proved quite straight forward, but the worst trial was still lurking.

I’d actually had a couple of goes at this trial, before deciding to move on for a bit. It would not be wrong to say this was probably the toughest trial so far, with the idea being to use Magnesis and Stasis to make my way over spike pits, spinning cogs and moving platforms – with spikes surrounding them. Finally, for an added ‘thrill’, there was the pursuit – a wall of spikes pursuing me as I navigated other spikes. Yay. I don’t mind declaring this the most annoying trial thus far, but eventually I got through it and was able to move on.

Upon stepping out of the shrine the Obliterator in my hands shattered, sending four different bolts of light in different directions. Four unique pedestals appeared, signalling the next part of my journey.