Zelda BotW: Don’t Do It, Link!!
Last week, I left Link just as he was breaking out into the big, wide world. Today, I want to tell a story of a single incident that colored this experience for me in a good way.
As I started exploring the world outside of the sheltered plateau, the breadth of the calamity really started to set in. Yeah, I know that NPCs kept telling me the story of how Hyrule fell 100 years ago. I saw the ruins and busted down walls and everything.
But it wasn’t until I got into the ruined outposts, saw the remains of the giant, time-torn flags, and just the desolation what was once strong forts and civilization that the scope of this really hit me. This was accented all the more upon meeting a single random NPC on a bridge.
I hadn’t seen another person in a long time (not counting the Old Man). This was the first I’d met outside the starting area. In fact, when I saw a shape on the bridge in the distance, I wasn’t sure if it wasn’t just another monster.
It wasn’t. It was a lonely, friendly bridge guard named Brigo.
I chatted with Brigo for a while, and he told me about how he’d seen the towers rise up in the distance. How this was a portent for something bad to come. And how there was something strange on the island area out along the middle of the river over which the bridge spanned.
I could see a rusted-out Guardian husk lying on that island, but I wasn’t sure if that was what Brigo was talking about or not. So, to get a better look, I jumped up on the bridge railing.
What happened next was both completely unexpected and charmed my socks off.
Brigo saw Link jump on the bridge railing.
I didn’t realize this until Brigo started shouting at Link, an equivalent of “Don’t jump! Don’t do it!”
I was amused at poor Brigo’s expense, but also completely blown away by this exchange. Here was an NPC who was just out to do his job, talking Link down from the edge. Of course, the drop wasn’t very far, and I had a paraglider, but he didn’t know that.
What a bro.
