Intro –

Have you ever played a game once, put it down, and almost vowed never to pick it up again—until one day, you decide that you do? Well, that’s what happened to me. I started my replay of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and even though I haven’t played the game in five years, there are some things I remember and some things I don’t.

For example, I still remember how to swing a sword and hold up my shield for defense. To some extent, I also remember how to dodge.

However, once I started getting back into the game, a wealth of things started coming back to me, but more on that later. One thing I specifically remember having trouble with was the Flurry Rush. I was an ace of spades at pulling it off in Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, but BOTW is another story.

I still feel there are things I don’t fully remember how to do like I did 60 months ago, but I also feel that the longer I keep playing, the more likely it is that everything will eventually come back to me.

Today, I come before you to share my experience of what it’s like coming back to BOTW after five years away. I’ll be honest: part of me feels like the controls—and the game in general—should’ve come back naturally.

If you’re ready, let’s go.

Rememberance From 5 –

As I was playing and getting back into the game again, I felt like I had to relearn what it meant to interact with each Shrine puzzle and use basic movement in order to get through. For example, using the paraglider inside the Shee Vaneer and Shee Venath Shrines.

And despite remembering how to get rid of certain enemies, I had to try to remember which bombs are good for which situations. But that’s the beauty of playing the game again because I felt like it was all coming back to me. Another example is using the Remote Bomb on Blue Bokoblins. They’re tougher to kill, so dealing with them requires a little ingenuity.

Things as simple as trying to hold food in my hands so I could cook it—that was where the “fun” was. I kept dropping the food, and I really wasn’t trying to. It got to a point where I had to literally stop, think for a second, then go back to holding the food again, this time training myself not to drop it anywhere that wasn’t a cooking pot.

The bigger thing about remembering how to play is that pushing a button by mistake can reveal something as simple as how to throw a weapon or tell you when one is on the verge of breaking.

I do feel like remembering certain pieces of BOTW helps without taking away from the actual adventure. It was in the Ta’loh Naeg Shrine that I was shown how to actively dodge, as well as how to activate the Flurry Rush, which will be useful as I continue through the game. Overall, I’m feeling good about the replay so far, even if I feel like I’m having to remember critical pieces of information all over again.

Hyrule Still Surprised Me After the Absence –

After not picking up the game for five years, exploration felt a little overwhelming. I was still able to recognize certain areas, but there were times when I thought certain Shrines were in places they weren’t, like Kaya Wan Shrine in the Lanayru Wetlands and Rota Ooh Shrine on the southern border of Central Hyrule.

There were also Shrines I felt like I could get to but decided against because I had to remember that just because I know where a Shrine is doesn’t necessarily mean I’m ready to make the journey there yet.

When I was trying to find the Dueling Peaks Shrines, I felt like it was great rediscovering how to get to them again. There was a great sense of accomplishment in having to climb a mountain—or the side of one—that was the size of Godzilla’s thigh. I remember looking through my Sheikah Slate scope, finding Shrines near me, and realizing that some were going to require me to reach a little farther than others.

In my opinion, I did forget a lot of the routes and secret paths leading to certain places, but that overwhelming sense of discovery made me feel like if I can rediscover certain Shrines—or even figure out how to reach certain ones without risking certain death—I can rediscover the others. I felt a flame inside me reignite into a blaze of motivation.

Different Approach to Gameplay After 5 Years –

I do feel, in some way, shape, or form, that my gameplay habits, as well as my overall experience, have changed how I approach Shrines and upgrades. For example, a lot of the DLC armor in the game I put off-limits until I felt like their “help” was earned or until I wanted to feel them out before giving them a chance.

When it comes to combat, I’m erring on the side of caution. I’m either going in with my shield up or executing a Flurry Rush to avoid getting killed by a small Guardian. Everything has felt a lot more reactive since I got back into the game.

As far as making different decisions compared to my first playthrough? Absolutely. Revisiting my earlier point about the Shrines, I’m putting some of them off until much later in the game. It’s not because I can’t get to them now with my renewed knowledge, but because I feel like I bum-rushed, for lack of a better word, through certain places that I probably shouldn’t have during my first run.

Somehow, I made it work, but I’m not trying to do the same things I did back then. I’m even going after the Shrines in the specific areas I’m currently venturing through instead of drawing outside the lines, as it were.

I’ve definitely reached the point where I love being able to travel back long distances using the Shrines. Simply put, it beats walking all the way back in a particular direction.

But I also feel like that’s a double-edged sword because when I do choose to walk back, I’m able to recognize familiar pieces of land. Sometimes that even triggers my Shrine Sensor in areas I’ve already traveled through, which has made backtracking fun.

Conclusion –

To wrap up, rediscovering a lot of what I forgot over the last five years has been a great discovery on its own because I feel like I can now go through the rest of the game knowing exactly what feels familiar and when to go off my instincts instead of just running blindly. There’s still some unpredictability in terms of what awaits me as I make my way forward, but I do feel like I’m doing things differently this time instead of trying to cram everything into one simple run.

To me, this isn’t about repetition so much as it is a reawakening of knowledge that, after five years, can come rushing back to me in many ways. I’ve learned that no matter how long you’re away from a game, that knowledge can be restored as long as you’re willing to put in the time—especially if the game is a treasured favorite like this one is to me.