Zelda Breath Of The Wild The Master Trials DLC Review

With a strong launch, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild seeks to grab hold of you once more with The Master Trials DLC. Is the DLC worth the asking price, or should you just stick with the base game? Check out our Zelda Breath of the Wild The Master Trials DLC review and make your choice.

Zelda Breath Of The Wild The Master Trials DLC Review

The Master Trials DLC adds a few key changes to that game and a new hard mode. First off, you get The Trial of the Sword, which gives you a bunch of challenges to help you strengthen your Master Sword. This is only accessible if you already have the Master Sword, obviously. The base game also has added new items, armor, and masks for you to find throughout the world. It could be argued that a few of these items should be free, especially the Korok Mask that alerts you to nearby Koroks. The biggest change to the game is the new Master Mode, which is a harder difficulty for the base game. One of the best things about Master Mode is that is in a different save file, so you don’t have to lose your original data to play it. Now the big question is: Is all of this worth the $20 asking price? You cannot just buy this DLC; you need to season pass to access it.

Let’s start off with the Trial of the Sword. If you experienced the Eventide Island challenge, you will be somewhat experienced with what the trial has to offer. When you access the trial, you are teleported to another realm without any weapons, clothes, or food. You do still have your runes, but the Amiibo one will not work. The objective is very simple: kill all the enemies without dying to progress. You have to use stealth to find a weapon and start your killing. This starts off simple enough, with only a few enemies. As you progress, the enemies get more challenging and your resources get more scarce. Healing supplies are pretty rare, so defense is a high priority for these trials. They are broken up into three parts, so you aren’t ultimately doing a 45 room rush.

You have the Beginning Trials, the Middle Trials, and the Final Trials. Obviously, you need to beat the previous Trial to access the next stage. At first, it is pretty simple and you will most likely clear the Beginning Trial without much trouble. It is pretty much a straight forward fight with standard enemies and a couple bosses. The middle and final trials, however, add more difficult enemies, minor puzzle mechanics, and weather effects that will kill you if you don’t have the right resources. After beating each boss on a stage, you will be rewarded with chests of gear and a cooking pot to make some much-needed meals. The one bummer is the fact that room does not change. If you die to something you didn’t expect, and you make it back to that room, the same enemy or obstacle will be there. Still, this is a much-welcome addition to the game and adds a new layer of challenge for players seeking more.

My personal favorite part of this DLC is the new items and outfits. If you are a fan of the Zelda series, there are tons of throwbacks to old school Zelda games here. Majora’s Mask, Midna’s Helmet, Phantom Armor, and even Tingle’s outfit make an appearance here. Outside of that, they also added a Travel Medallion that lets you pick a spot to travel back to any time you want, and the previously mentioned Korok Mask. All of these items are hidden, and you have to solve the puzzle given to you in the rumor journals to find them. Of everything added to the game in the DLC, most of this could have been added for free. You can certainly get through the game without any of this, but these are some of the best looking items in the game. You also get the Hero’s Path Mode, which shows you your path on the map over 200 hours of gameplay. This can be helpful if you are missing a few shrines.

Master Mode is where the most dedicated fans of the game will end up going. This means starting off from scratch and literally asking for more punishment this time around. Enemies are stronger and regenerate HP, there are more of them, and the placement of higher end enemies has changed up. While I can’t say 100% one way or the other, it felt like my weapons early game was breaking much more quickly. This could have just been because even Bokoblin took multiple weapons to defeat. Enemies now also have floating platforms for archer posts, which are pretty fun to fight on. If you thought the game was just a little too easy, Master Mode will give you the challenge you are looking for. It was not uncommon to die in one or two hits until later in the game. Everything you earn is burned up much quicker, making Master Mode quite stressful at times. There are some really strong enemies roaming around the Great Plateau, so keep your eyes open noobies.

If you are a fan of Zelda or even Breath of the Wild, this DLC is a great addition to an already great game. If you were looking for some sort of story content, you will not find it here. $20 might seem a bit steep, but the content provided here will give you many hours of fun.