History Trivia / TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild

** Yunobo, Teba, Riju, and Sidon are collectively known as the "Modern Champions" or the "New Champions" due to their roles in helping Link reach the respective Divine Beasts of their region.
** Some circles of fans refer to Revali as "Ravioli". Likewise, some detractors refer to him as "Chicken Man" or "Cucco Man".

* KillerApp: ''Breath of the Wild'' was released as a launch title for the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch to kickstart the system's life. [[http://gonintendo.com/stories/278042-noa-pr-nintendo-switch-becomes-the-fastest-selling-video-game-s It led to the Switch selling over 906,000 units in the US alone after just a month]] (making it one of the fastest-selling consoles Nintendo has ever made), [[BrokeTheRatingScale and even had an attach rate of over 100%]] (with the assumption that some players either bought it in advance of finding a Switch for themselves, especially with Amazon discounts and other promotions, or picking up the [[LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition Limited and/or Master editions]]). By April 2018, the game had become the best-selling ''Zelda'' game of all time, with combined Switch and Wii U sales putting it over 10 million units sold (over half the total install base for the Switch itself up to that point), and the game retained a spot in weekly Top 20 best-sellers and occasionally Top 10 even that late, a trend previously only seen with super-popular Nintendo franchises such as ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' and ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}''.

** Both this game and ''VideoGame/HorizonZeroDawn'' are open world games with the advertising focusing on an archer character fighting giant mechanical enemies, and their respective release dates were less than a week apart, leading to inevitable comparisons and arguments over whether one would eclipse the other. In the U.K., at least, ''Horizon'' had sold better but has not quite matched the high reviews of ''Breath of the Wild''. In Japan, ''Breath of the Wild'' has beaten out sales of ''Horizon'' almost two to one, according to Famitsu.

** ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'' is notoriously similar to the game, to the point that one fan notoriously destroyed his UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 in outrage over the game. From the graphics to the gameplay to the enemy designs, a lot of things feel like a CaptainErsatz of BOTW's key elements. However, it does attempt to add a lot of its own flavor to the mix, such as focusing more on the magic side of the story, or making a different combat system. Ironically, ''Genshin Impact'' [[HilariousInHindsight was announced for the Nintendo Switch later on]], meaning that Nintendo themselves didn't have much of a problem with it, if at all.

** Fans sometimes claim that ''Breath of the Wild'' takes place in a period where the split timelines of the previous games have [[MergedReality remerged]] based on official materials that show it in a broad box below all three timelines. What the ''Zelda'' team actually intended was the game's timeline placement to be deliberately vague so that fans could draw their own conclusions (see ShrugOfGod below).

* GodNeverSaidThat: Quite a few gaming news publications reported either that Eiji Aonuma and Nintendo planned for "The Champions' Ballad" to take place in the post-story period and would deal with Hyrule being rebuilt, or that it would take place in the past before the Great Calamity; in both cases, the publications assumed that this would require the DLC having its own separate save file from the main game. The DLC actually meshes with the main game, takes place in the present, only revisits the past through extra flashbacks, and leaves the ending of the main game the way it is. But while the ''Zelda'' team were pretty tight-lipped about the DLC up until its release, they never said anything about it being separate from the main game. Crucially, many of the news stories claiming that Aonuma/Nintendo said it would be post-Ganon story don't provide any direct quotes along those lines.

** This would later get reflected in a 2019 update to the official ''Zelda'' timeline, in which all three of the series timelines end with ''Breath of the Wild''. As a result, the game ends up acting as a soft ContinuityReboot, so as to allow later entries in the series to start with a relatively blank slate.

* FollowTheLeader: ''Pine'', an upcoming game for the Nintendo Switch, is an impressive open-world action adventure simulation that feels very much like ''Breath of the Wild'' in its visuals and gameplay.
** ''Genshin Impact'' is notoriously similar to the game, to the point that one fan notoriously destroyed his UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 in outrage over the game. From the graphics to the gameplay to the enemy designs, a lot of things feel like a CaptainErsatz of BOTW's key elements. However, it does attempt to add a lot of its own flavor to the mix, such as focusing more on the magic side of the story, or making a different combat system. Ironically, ''Genshin Impact'' [[HilariousInHindsight was announced for the Nintendo Switch later on]], meaning that Nintendo themselves didn't have much of a problem with it, if at all.

* This is the second game in the franchise (the first being ''VideoGame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink'') in which original music composer Creator/KojiKondo wasn't involved at all, to the point that his name is nowhere to be seen in the credits. While in recent years he had stopped composing for the most part (in ''Twilight Princess'' and ''Skyward Sword'' he only made ''one'' track for each game), he was always present at least as a music supervisor. In ''Breath of the Wild'', however, Kondo's role was fulfilled by Hajime Wakai[[note]]A Nintendo veteran who had worked on several previous ''Zelda'' games[[/note]], while the actual composers were Manaka Kataoka[[note]]Who had already worked in ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSpiritTracks Spirit Tracks]]'', being this her second work in the franchise and her first as main composer[[/note]] and Yasuaki Iwata[[note]]Who works in the franchise for the first time, but had worked in ''VideoGame/SuperMario3DWorld'' and ''VideoGame/MarioKart8''[[/note]].

* This is the first game in the franchise (not counting ''VideoGame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink'') in which original music composer Creator/KojiKondo wasn't involved at all, to the point that his name is nowhere to be seen in the credits. While in recent years he had stopped composing for the most part (in ''Twilight Princess'' and ''Skyward Sword'' he only made ''one'' track for each game), he was always present at least as a music supervisor. In ''Breath of the Wild'', however, Kondo's role was fulfilled by Hajime Wakai[[note]]A Nintendo veteran who had worked on several previous ''Zelda'' games[[/note]], while the actual composers were Manaka Kataoka[[note]]Who had already worked in ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSpiritTracks Spirit Tracks]]'', being this her second work in the franchise and her first as main composer[[/note]] and Yasuaki Iwata[[note]]Who works in the franchise for the first time, but had worked in ''VideoGame/SuperMario3DWorld'' and ''VideoGame/MarioKart8''[[/note]].

* FakeBrit: American Patricia Summersett voices Zelda with a British accent.

* Despite being the first of the Zelda games to have real ScienceFiction elements with the hyper advanced Sheikah technology everywhere (other than a few one notes of aliens in Majora's Mask), it was originally intended to be much more futuristic based on concept art of things like [=UFOs=]. Link's ancient bike in the DLC was another product of this. This was likely due to Nintendo dividing their subsidiary Creator/MonolithSoft in half to assist work on this game, who are infamous for their ScienceFantasy and AfterTheEnd stories.

* ActorAllusion:
** Creator/KateHiggins is most famous for playing Sakura Haruno, an energetic {{Ninja}} girl from ''Manga/{{Naruto}}''. In ''Breath of the Wild'', she plays [[spoiler:a young Purah in the final flashback of "The Champions' Ballad"]], who is also an energetic girl of the ninja-like Sheikah.
** Before being cast as Revali, Sean Chiplock (then known as [=SonicMega=]) had portrayed the similar-looking Falco Lombardi in ''Machinima/SmashKing'', one of the longest-running Super Smash Bros. Brawl machinimas since 2009. Like Falco, Revali is an arrogant, if benevolent blue bird who greatly enjoys flying and combat.

** ''Genshin Impact'' is notoriously similar to the game, to the point that one fan notoriously destroyed his UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 in outrage over the game. From the graphics to the gameplay to the enemy designs, a lot of things feel like a CaptainErsatz of BOTW's key elements. However, it does attempt to add a lot of its own flavor to the mix, such as focusing more on the magic side of the story, or making a different combat system. Ironically, ''Genshin Impact'' [[HilariousInHinsight was announced for the Nintendo Switch later on]], meaning that Nintendo themselves didn't have much of a problem with it, if at all.

** ''Genshin Impact'' is notoriously similar to the game, to the point that one fan notoriously destroyed his UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 in outrage over the game. From the graphics to the gameplay to the enemy designs, a lot of things feel like a CaptainErsatz of BOTW's key elements. However, it does attempt to add a lot of its own flavor to the mix, such as focusing more on the magic side of the story, or making a different combat system.

* ActorAllusion: Creator/KateHiggins is most famous for playing Sakura Haruno, an energetic {{Ninja}} girl from ''Manga/{{Naruto}}''. In ''Breath of the Wild'', she plays [[spoiler:a young Purah in the final flashback of "The Champions' Ballad"]], who is also an energetic girl of the ninja-like Sheikah.

** ''Genshin Impact'' is notoriously similar to the game, to the point that one fan notoriously destroyed his UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 in outrage over the game. From the graphics to the gameplay to the enemy designs, a lot of things feel like a CaptinErsatz of BOTW's key elements. However, it does attempt to add a lot of its own flavor to the mix, such as focusing more on the magic side of the story, or making a different combat system.

** ''Genshin Impact'' is notoriously similar to the game, to the point that one fan notoriously destroyed his PS4 in outrage over the game. From the graphics to the gameplay to the enemy designs, a lot of things feel like a CaptinErsatz of BOTW's key elements. However, it does attempt to add a lot of its own flavor to the mix, such as focusing more on the magic side of the story, or making a different combat system.

* DuelingWorks: Both this game and ''VideoGame/HorizonZeroDawn'' are open world games with the advertising focusing on an archer character fighting giant mechanical enemies, and their respective release dates were less than a week apart, leading to inevitable comparisons and arguments over whether one would eclipse the other. In the U.K., at least, ''Horizon'' had sold better but has not quite matched the high reviews of ''Breath of the Wild''. In Japan, ''Breath of the Wild'' has beaten out sales of ''Horizon'' almost two to one, according to Famitsu.

* RoleReprisal: In the Japanese version, Creator/YuShimamura reprises her role of Zelda from the previous console game, ''Skyward Sword''. And this time, she speaks fully instead of grunting sounds.

* This game is the first to include Sheikah other than Impa, and by extension the first to include male Sheikah.

* This game is the first to include Sheikah other than Impa, and by extension the first to include male Sheikah.

* This is the first 3D ''Zelda'' game to feature Ganon as the main antagonist without portraying his human form Ganondorf, barring a brief ContinuityNod to it. This is also the first ''Zelda'' game where [[spoiler:the final blow against him is dealt by Princess Zelda; while she had often helped out in previous battles against him, Link had always been the one who delivered the final blow to Ganon before now.]]