I stumbled upon this opus yesterday, and it was a breathtaking piece. Definitely made me cry. I turn 36 this fall, and I did actually play the first NES game on the original console. I never did beat it, it was way too hard, even with the players guide to help me. Spectacle Rock always killed me. Boo. But I have been playing Link to the Past on a SNES Classic with my 5YO son this summer—we’ve beat that sucker at least five times. And he had a Zelda birthday party, too. We don’t have a Switch because my DH is finishing up his BS on his off hours—he would probably fail his classes if we had a modern console in the house. So, I have watched others play Breath of the Wild on YouTube. It’s hardbexause I would explore things differently and linger (and cook!) a lot more than they do. All that to say, I think your novella here is pretty much perfect. And I know it was a lot of hard work... so well done. I cried with Zelda at the end. And I felt better afterwards. :)

Not sure if you still go back to these reviews now that the story has been finished for quite some time, but I just wanted to leave my thoughts here in case you do. I followed this story as you were publishing it since around chapter 16 until the very end. It helped me get through one of the hardest semesters of my life, and continues to help me as I deal with sudden trauma and grief of my own. In that moment of imminent loss, when I felt so powerless and distraught, the end of the knight’s oath suddenly popped into my head. And although I had felt so alone, I felt understood in that memory. So I guess what I’m trying to say is thank you. Thank you for sharing this beautiful, tragic story that has clearly resonated with so many people. Because despite how painful this story is, it is still a story of hope: That even if wounds to the heart never fully heal, life is still worth living.

That was very heartfelt to me, despite the fact I am relatively young, My family
Didn’t get any newer consoles when I was younger, we had a NES, and a Super Nintendo or whatever it is that had Yoshi’s Island, but on the NES(don’t quote me on what it’s called) I played I think, a Link between worlds, and honestly? I loved it, it seemed unique and enticing to me, and recently I got to play BotW on my cousins switch, I gotta say It actually hurt seeing Hyrule castle all messed up

*tears roll down cheek* this story packed everything in like a package coming from China, so stuffed you can almost see the tape ripping at the seams. I loved every chapter as much as the next and while I didn't crush this in one night like some others I read it over a week's time and it bewildered me to think it had come to an end. The character development, and storyline *the cherry on top* oppress all other fanfic I've read, absolutely brilliant writing has totally and utterly won me over to your side. My only complaint was the shortness and little ammount of actual zelink pairing at the end, but I suppose that wasn't this stories purpose and I can find it elsewhere. This is a story to be planted into the bookshelf of fanfics I have dedicated hours to reading and I look forward to reading your other work and future work nonetheless.

Cheers
Caige MounseyCM

Ahhh this is a genuine feeling of hate... The feeling of looking at the ever dwindling count of chapters left, I have learned to hate this feeling over the years. It's quite rare to find a novel, fan fic, one shot, short story or any form of writing that captivates readers in immensely interesting characters and plots, this is an example of such. Something like this brings child like desires forth, a longing for it to never end and continue adding kindling to my inner fire. And longing for such things is the reason I hate the end of ecstatic writing, no matter the story. Nonetheless this is the reason I read, I long for stories I can read front to back, cover to cover, and still enjoy again and again. So thank you for gifting such pleasures to me, it warms me up inside knowing I've found a new author to depend on for this trickling sweetness, my ambrosia, Eden's Apple and nectar that feeds my life and brings joy to the countless nights and days of downtime.

I haven't seen your other work, but if it's anything like this, I will hope to be sending more comments and such to works in progress. Aswell as to proudly say if someone who shares my initials publishes a book I hope to buy a signed copy, and proudly have it on my shelf.

Cheers
-CM

Nearly half done the novel you've decided to enlighten the world with, and I'm still wondering why you don't write for money and instead leave a gift of literature for us to read and stumble upon. Your word choices are fanaticaly descriptive, the character development and story is so well done I can almost put myself into their shoes as If I was being told this stuff by Zelda myself, and the plot integration is to die for. Not to mention the working in of the memories. It's just bloody brilliant and has a spark of humanity that's so Damn relatable. it continues to leave me speach less, so thank you for leaving this here for us to read.

~ that was an adorable chapter :3 I should draw the part where Zelda pokes her tongue out at link -

:D what have I stumbled upon, 778 favourites and 776 bookmarks... That means a lot of people really liked this and that's its super good, and 200k words hehehe quality and quantity mixed together.

This shits gonna be epic

This was INCREDIBLE. As soon as I finished playing Breath of the Wild I had to immediately seek out stories like this, not just to fill in the gaps but to know that I wasn’t the only one struck by what a powerful story it was, disconnected as the memories were. Your writing is incredible, the emotion so powerful. I l stayed up late reading “just one more chapter”. I adore how you included so many characters and gave them life where in the game they were just a mention. Misko and Kohga in particular. I’m having trouble expressing just how much I loved reading this - I laughed, I cried, I truly felt sorrow and terror and heartache. Thank you so much - this was a masterpiece and I’m so sad that I’m done reading it.

I wish I could say I had regrets about finding this fic, because I blasted through the whole thing in one night and now have to go to work on three hours of sleep. That would be a lie, though, because I loved this from beginning to end. It checked all the boxes I was looking for in a post botw zelink story. I loved how you handled Link's memories, and how instead of just rehashing the ones seen in game you seamlessly created the scenarios around those memories. I personally loved the way you characterized Link and Zelda! Zelda's breakdown when she refused to go back to the castle was a punch in the gut, and the way you interpreted her battle with Ganon will make me feel even guiltier dicking around doing side quests going forward. The way you showed Link and Zelda's relationship was paced perfectly as well, and by the end I was just so happy. Sleep deprived, but happy.

I'm glad I've given this story the time of day it deserves. 3 Playing Breath of the Wild left me with a hole in my heart that needed to be filled in what I believe should be the storyline. You filled that hole. G

Truly, one of the best stories I've ever read. Stumbled upon it on archive of our own and was over the moon to hear it was already published, couldn't get my hands off it. Furthermore, being a child of OoT myself, I truly understand what you meant.
Thanks for the time and effort you put into this!

Love it like all of your other fics even though I''m reading this 2 months late. 10/10!

Wonderful, wonderful, just wonderful. I, too, grew up on Ocarina of Time, and fell into a complete sense of wonder when the first scenes of Breath of the Wild opened up. A second childhood, if you will. Your story is like the unofficial BTS version of this game for me. Almost canon, at this point. Thank you so much for your hard work, and congratulations on having the power to bring your imagination to fruition.

Thank you for writing a story that filled in so many things that went unsaid in the game. I loved playing BotW and being able to read such a wonderful, well written story that captured my love for it was truly a joy. Great work!