It was a perilous trek for me, going up those rainy hills. I was still new to Breath of the Wild and I had been learning the harsh lessons of the wild; Lizalfos were constantly pelting me with electric arrows, dealing a shocking amount of damage. But I soldiered on, as the Zora had been pushing me in this direction for a while now; they’re quite a persistent bunch.
Finally, I reached the top, and while I expected to find Zora’s Domain, what I didn’t expect was for it to take my breath away.
My inner explorer felt a huge amount of glee at seeing this sprawling domain. Every inch of it was absolutely beautiful, and I was more than eager to find every single little secret I could, as I was prepared to be in this locale for as long as I possibly could. Concurrently, this was the first actual “town” that I had found, as I managed to skip the Sheikah Village as well as Hateno. Getting to talk to all the Zora and see a town full of NPCs was an exciting treat.
One of the aspects of the location that sticks out to me is simply the design of the location. It’s an almost entirely symmetrical city, with wavy paths on each side and a nearly full large circle on the outside area. All of this leads to the back where a giant fish statue awaits. What makes this even more amazing is both how the village itself is more inlaid in the ground, as well as the game almost forcing you to find this location in a specific way just so you’ll see it for the first time from above and from the front.
As the domain is inlaid inside a mountainous region, the outer area is full of steep cliffs and hills and — unsurprisingly — mountains. More impressive however is the massive waterfall: you could easily mistake it for just a single stream when in fact it consists of multiple. This area is almost always raining, so climbing the surrounding areas is nearly impossible, but the rain here does do a lot for the atmosphere.
Zora’s Domain was never my favorite town in previous Zelda games and I really couldn’t say why. I don’t hate these locations — far from it — but they’re not usually high on my list. However, Zora’s Domain in Breath of the Wild has something special. It nails the aesthetics and atmosphere, the Zora are all diverse and unique, and it’s just a fun place to run around and explore.
Plus, if nothing else, Prince Sidon lives here and let’s be honest, that automatically makes this location the best location in the game.
