The Legend of Zelda is a treasured franchise that dates back to 1986, but its latest installment, Breath of the Wild, possesses a significant staying power. This game’s perspective of open-world mechanics has inspired numerous epics, such as Ubisoft’s Immortals Fenyx Rising and miHoYo’s Genshin Impact.
Even though the above-mentioned games have taken over the gaming community by storm, interest in Breath of the Wild has remained strong since the launch of Nintendo Switch. Players are playing it more and more due to the advent of community content, PointCrow’s Breath of the Wild multiplayer mod, aesthetically-pleasing combat clips, and discoveries about its game physics.
Breath of the Wild’s open-world nature implies several ways to go about Hyrule, providing a certain extent of replayability to the game. However, replaying the entire game from the beginning without retaining any progress from the previous run doesn’t sound charming, or does it?
So, you may wonder whether Breath of the Wilds has New Game Plus on PS4 and PS5.
Unfortunately, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild does not have New Game Plus on PS4 and PS5 or any other gaming platform for that matter. Nevertheless, it’s still possible for players to restart the game and have a fresh experience via the Hard Mode in the game’s DLC that increases the enemy difficulty and restructures Hyrule. It’s the closest thing to New Game Plus in the game.
Here’s more about the post-game content and what it means to start a new game in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Does Breath of the Wild have post-game content?
Yes, Breath of the Wild does have post-game. Like most open-world games, Breath of the Wild’s post-game triggers after the final cutscene following the defeat of the ultimate boss, Ganon. More specifically, players must beat Ganon in two forms: his premature form, “Calamity” Ganon, and the final form, “Dark Beast” Ganon.
There are a total of 17 main quests in Breath of the Wild, spreading across the mysterious land of Hyrule. To make your way into the post-game, you must beat the 17th main quest, Destroy Ganon, which is pretty self-explanatory.
Once you reach Hyrule Castle, follow the displayed instructions and storm the castle gates to gain entry. Subsequently, your primary objective is to infiltrate the castle’s interiors. Upon scaling the castle and stepping into the first floor of the sanctum through any door, you’ll face off against Ganon.
Upon defeating Ganon, you would’ve beaten the main story of Breath of the Wild, and an autosave file of your campaign just before the fight will get saved. This file will have a star on it, indicating the completion of the main story. Load this saved game file to enter the post-game to explore Hyrule and complete the remaining side quests.
Also, in post-game, you’ll find a notification displaying the total Main Quests, Side Quests, and Shrine Quests you have finished over the total available number. Additionally, you’ll find a percentage completion rate tally above the time on the map.
Can you still play Breath of the Wild after you complete the game?
Even though Breath of the Wild doesn’t have New Game Plus, you can continue playing the game after completing the main missions. Once you defeat Ganon, the end credits scene rolls, and the game takes you back to the main menu. Subsequently, you can load the most recent saved game file and resume exploring the Hyrule Kingdom.
The next section describes the various things you can do in Breath of the Wild after beating its main campaign.
What to do in Breath of the Wild after you complete it?
Players can do many things after beating the main story in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. You can aim for 100% completion of the game, which will require multiple runs as it’s practically impossible to complete every aspect in a single playthrough. In addition, you can also choose to indulge in any of the three DLCs.
Furthermore, Breath of the Wild contains the following DLCs.
- Bonus Extension Pass
- The Master Trials
- The Champions’ Ballad
After completing the main story in Breath of the Wild, you can engage in the following activities.
- Shrine Hunting
- Complete Eventide Island
- Gather All Memories
- Defeat All Optional Bosses – Hinox, Lynel, Talus, and Molduga
- Collect the 900 Korok Seeds
- Explore Hyrule Castle
- Obtain the Master Sword
There are over 120 Shrines in Breath of the Wild, and tracking each requires great precision and strategy. Moving on, you’ve most likely unlocked Eventide Island, so now it’s time to give up all your equipment and overcome the task of placing the three orbs on three altars.
As Breath of the Wild takes place almost 100 years after the first fight with Ganon and Link has awoken with no memories, players can go Memory hunting to learn about the significant events from the elapsed time.
What happens when you start a new game in Breath of the Wild?
Since there’s no New Game Plus in Breath of the Wild, your only shot at replayability is starting a new game. Hence, when you launch the game and reach its main menu, the following message gets displayed – “Overwrite Previous Data?” with two options, “New Game” and “Cancel.”
This is because The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild can’t store more than a single manually saved game at once. As a result, when you start a new game in Breath of the Wild, the last manually saved game gets overwritten, paving the path for a new campaign with zero progress.
Note: Although players can store a single manually saved game in Breath of the Wild, the game has several auto-saved game slots.
Create a second Nintendo account if you wish to start a new game while retaining progress from your previous campaign in Breath of the Wild. This way, you don’t need to overwrite saved data in the quest to start a new game.
About The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is an action-adventure game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch and Wii U consoles.
Breath of the Wild is part of the Legend of Zelda franchise and is set at the end of the Zelda timeline; the player controls Link, who awakens from a hundred-year slumber to defeat Calamity Ganon and save the kingdom of Hyrule.
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