Collecting Korok seeds turned Breath of the Wild into a gorgeous hike

polygon.com:

I started chasing down all 900 Korok seeds, convinced that it was a fool’s errand. I imagined the process as a Sisyphean task. All I would do was mindlessly collect seed after seed after seed after… seed. I thought collecting them was for sickos and die-hard fans only. However, several weeks into my chase — which still isn’t over — I’m now convinced it’s actually the ideal way to enjoy The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

Now hear me out: I’m not saying that people who don’t go after the Korok seeds aren’t “real fans.” Far from it. Collecting seeds is a completely different type of gameplay from the mainline quest and the boss fights that came with it, which were challenging even as a seasoned Zelda fan who loves 3D action-combat games. In contrast to that, collecting the seeds has been a delightful and leisurely way to revisit Breath of the Wild in 2023.

Like any good hero, Link has a few tools at his disposal to take on this particular challenge. You will definitely need Revali’s Gale if you don’t want to spend copious amounts of time climbing. Additionally, I beat all the DLC for the game, so I had some important items like Master Cycle Zero (Link’s tricked-out motorcycle), a Korok mask that shakes when a seed is nearby, and the Travel Medallion, which allows you to place a teleportation waypoint anywhere on the map you’d like. I also, fortunately, had roughly 200 arrows starting out, since you have to play a minigame where you shoot fast-moving balloons to get many of the seeds. But among the tools, the most important resource I used was an online map that saves and tracks my progress.

Kind of like with playing Elden Ring, you need to be ready to laugh first and get frustrated second. It still kind of sucks