I have a confession to make: I have logged over 600 hours on Breath of the Wild. I got the game last year (September 2017) as one of two games that I got with the Nintendo Switch. I wasn’t expecting to play the game as much as I have up to this point as I hadn’t played a Legend of Zelda game for several years.

The last game I had played that was in the franchise was Ocarina of Time on my Nintendo 3DS. I wasn’t expecting the game to be as good as that, nor was I looking for an open world game. I didn’t know ANYTHING about the game when I first started playing it on the way home from GameStop.

I was in for a huge but great surprise when finding that I could do things on my terms.

You know, instead of following a linear plotline that takes you to point A to point B by a certain time. I got to explore the world and just take my time in figuring out where things are in the world map.

But, back to my confession: I’ve logged over 600 hours in the game. That’s, well, a lot.

I’m sure you’re wondering what one can even do in this amount of time. Why would anyone want to play a game this much instead of other games in their collection? I’m here to answer that question. This is for the both of us, I can promise you!

What would I even do in 600 hours?

For those who are unfamiliar with the game at this point, Breath of the Wild is an open world game. You can take things at your own pace when completing quests and the like. This is a lot of what I did, especially the more times I went through the plot. I’ll admit this as well: I’m on my 4th playthrough of the game at the moment as of September 2018.

The one thing I don’t like the game is that I’m not able to go finish other things once you completing the main storyline. When the storyline is done, you’re taken back to the main screen. I’m still looking for a way to continue finding Korok seeds and finding all the shrines after defeating the storyline. If there isn’t one, I’ll be fine with it and take longer going through the side quests before defeating Ganon.

I also farm Lynels and Bokoblin guts for the properties they give when making elixirs. I like selling them for some rupees, I’ll happily admit it. The more Lynel guts and other Lynel parts you use, the more rupees you’ll get when you sell them.

That’s how I spend most of my time when playing the game other than fighting Stone Talus(es) and finding new shrines I haven’t found in previous playthroughs. I’m still trying to find about 20 of them that are still undiscovered on my current file.

Why have I played the game so much?

The other question I’ve gotten from other players and my brother is why I play the game so much more than other games on my bookshelf. I’ve been obsessed with it from the first time that I played it. I’ve asked myself over and over why I’m obsessed with it but I have no answer for you at this point.

I think it’s just my love for the open world aspect that I haven’t really noticed with other games other than Dragon Quest Heroes II. I just feel rushed to get to my destination for the plot by a certain point in other games without the open world mechanic. Plus, playing the game and other games, in general, help me get my mind off my real life for a while.

I’m sure you’ve had troubling things in your life that you’d like to step away from every once in a while. Having an anxiety disorder and an autoimmune disease means my body tends to hate me from time to time as well.

Playing video games, especially Breath of the Wild, helps me focus my mind on other things instead of what part of my body happens to be in pain. I have video games to thank for that, as do we all! Thank you to Nintendo and to all who put their hearts into the games we gamers know and fall in love with each day.