So, now that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is up and out for the Wii U and Nintendo Switch, gamers have already begun attempting speedruns to blast through the game as quickly as possible. And you won't believe some of the crazy things speedrunners are doing to beat Breath of the Wild faster.
Polygon is reporting that various speedrunners have already managed to beat the game with any percentage on the story in under one hour, specifically on the Wii U version. They've managed to shave off 31 seconds playing on Nintendo's older console, but there hasn't been any real explanation behind that. Some thought it could have been due to the inventory screen, but it was revealed that the Wii U and Nintendo Switch share the exact same inventory screen setup and the Wii U does not get to use the GamePad to display the inventory and map separately in Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild compared to the Nintendo Switch.
Some suspect that the difference between the two systems could be load times, but no one has said just yet. They've also found that using the German language version of the game knocks off 10 seconds overall going from start to finish.
The real kicker, and the real controversy, comes from the use of Amiibos in Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The speedrunning community is currently up in arms about the use of Amiibo in order to complete the game faster than usual.
Specifically, people are using the Twilight Princess Link Amiibo in order to access Epona and race to Hyrule castle in order to defeat Calamity Ganon. According to the article, speedrunner Venick409 pointed out that using the Amiibo to access Epona will shave off anywhere between 40 and 50 seconds, so, close to a whole minute. This has allowed some speedrunners, such as Venick409, to beat the game in 54 minutes and five seconds.
Completing the game in under an hour using the Amiibo was frowned upon by some, with speedrunner SethBling commenting that casual audiences watching speedrunning games might see it as "cheating".
Over on the Speedrun.com site, they list the top speedruns for the game and note whether or not DLC or Amiibo were used to help aid in the speedrun. According to their top five list of speedrunners for Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, only two of the top five have used Amiibo to aid them in their times, both of which managed to complete the game in under an hour. The two include Venick and Orcastraw, both of whom hold the first and third position on the chart as of the writing of this article.
Speedrunner gymnast86 did not use the Epona Amiibo in order to complete the game, and managed to beat Breath of the Wild five seconds faster than Orcastraw.
This has sparked the debate as to whether or not Amiibo are seen as cheating, since you can instantly activate them in the game and reap the benefits of having a horse to travel faster in the game. However, some have stated that the horse doesn't drastically change the game all that much.
Some of the commenters brought up a really good point, stating that speedrunners oftentimes glitch, bug and exploit many aspects of a game in order to shave off time for their speedruns, so using an Amiibo doesn't seem like cheating any more than accessing teleporting glitches, cheesing through the credit screens or falling through the floor. And, they make a good point.
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