Switch 2’s Zelda Notes Feature Misses The Point Of The Games

Nintendo has given a number of Switch 1 games some extensive upgrades on the Switch 2, but none more so than The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and its sequel, Tears of the Kingdom. Not only do both titles look and run much better on the new hardware, with crisper visuals and smoother frame rates, they can also sync up with a brand-new companion service called Zelda Notes. But as novel as some of its features can be, the service often contradicts the games’ most captivating qualities–their sense of discovery.

Accessed through the Nintendo Switch mobile app, Zelda Notes offers a suite of features to supplement your adventure in Hyrule. You can view detailed records of your own playthrough, including the number of enemies you’ve slain and materials you’ve collected, as well as global stats to see how you stack up with the wider player base. The service also has its own achievements system in the form of medals, which are awarded when you hit different milestones (such as using Zonai powers 1,000 times), along with a function to share items and autobuild designs with other players.

All of this is neat, but inessential; you can play through either title without once consulting the app and your adventure would not feel any less fulfilling. However, one feature that does have an appreciable impact on the experience is Navigation. On top of being a repository of personal stats, Zelda Notes can effectively act as a GPS for your game, leading you to a specific point of interest or collectible. As you’re exploring Hyrule, the service displays your current location on the map along with an extensive list of things to discover around the kingdom, from shrines and cave entrances to different treasures and enemies. Select a destination–such as a Korok you’ve yet to find–and the app will guide you there with audio directions, helping you mop up any collectibles you’ve missed or had trouble locating.

On one hand, this seems like the most compelling reason to use Zelda Notes, especially for completionists. Both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are vast games, with an overwhelming number of shrines to activate and other secrets to discover, so having a means to track down any you’ve overlooked (without having to go through the inconvenience of Googling the solution) is a boon. And indeed, it works fairly well. Aside from the occasional syncing quirk, the feature is intuitive and simple to use, which makes it temptingly easy to fire up when you’re, say, struggling to suss out where your shrine radar is trying to lead you. And yet, as I was testing out Navigation, I couldn’t help but feel like I was cheating.

Much of the appeal of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom stems from their freeform, open-ended structure; both are designed to continually stoke your curiosity, encouraging you to stray from your current objective with breathtaking landmarks and other enticing diversions. Exploration is very much a reward unto itself, and the most satisfying discoveries often occur when you indulge a whim and venture off the beaten path. In this respect, the entire purpose of the Navigation feature runs counter to what makes these games so special. Being able to pinpoint a shrine you’ve missed and simply follow directions there is convenient, but it undermines the sense of discovery that makes these games so enthralling.

What’s more, both titles already offer in-game ways to track certain objects, which are better at preserving the spirit of adventure than Zelda Notes’ Navigation feature. On top of the aforementioned shrine radar, there’s the Korok mask, which will rattle when you’re in the vicinity of a hidden Korok. Both of these do a fine job of nudging you in the right direction without overtly spoiling the solution, offering helpful guidance while still allowing you to feel the satisfaction of discovering things on your own. Navigation removes that entirely, which in turn diminishes the sense of accomplishment when you do finally locate the object you’re seeking.

The same can also be said of the Daily Bonus feature. Once every 24 hours, Zelda Notes allows you to spin a roulette of perks that can be applied within the game. These range from buffs like a temporary boost to defense or speed (much as you would get from consuming a meal), to even the ability to repair a damaged weapon. The latter is not as overpowered as it may initially sound; the odds of actually pulling it are fairly slim, and it’s only good for one use. Still, its availability flies in the face of one of the games’ core design elements. Controversial as it may be, weapon degradation is integrally woven into the fabric of the gameplay, reinforcing the need to continually poke around the world and gather whatever resources you happen upon. Having a means to repair a weapon, as limited as it is, circumvents this carefully designed system in a way that cheapens the experience.

To be fair, the available perks are hardly game-breaking. One seven-minute speed buff will make very little difference in the grand scheme of your adventure, and the fact that you can only spin the roulette once a day ensures these bonuses cannot be abused. It is, in effect, no different from obtaining meat and other materials by scanning an Amiibo figure–a small gift that amounts to little more than a minor convenience. Even so, when the systems underpinning the gameplay feed into each other as meticulously as they do in these two Zeldas, any free advantage–however slight–feels counterintuitive.

Nintendo had to tread a very fine line with Zelda Notes, designing a service that provides some helpful ancillary features that enrich the experience for core players, but can safely be ignored by those who wish to preserve the satisfaction of discovering things on their own. To that end, it achieves the intended results. Zelda Notes offers enough supplemental functions to make it a handy companion app, particularly for those who just want to check off any remaining collectibles and have no compunctions about spoiling their location. But when the games the service is tied to are so deliberately designed to foster ingenuity and inquisitiveness, it may be more fulfilling not to use it at all.

As I was scanning the map in Zelda Notes, I spotted a cluster of Koroks I’d yet to find not far off from my current location. It would have been very easy to navigate directly to each one and check them off my to-do list, but I decided to close the app, put on the Korok mask, and set off with no particular destination. And along the way, I stumbled upon a cave I’d never noticed before.

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