One of my favorite aspects of Breath of the Wild is the subtle worldbuilding achieved through the use of environmental exposition. This barren version of Hyrule is filled with ruins and the remnants of a forgotten war 100 years ago, or at least forgotten by the Hero of the Wild. Seeing these old, ruined villages makes you wonder what tragedy must have taken place there, or what could have happened to the innocent people who once called this place their home. Even finding the shell of an ancient Guardian makes you ponder about what could have happened to make such a monster fall.
One of my favorite locations to have stumbled upon was one of the old battlegrounds, Fort Hateno. What I love about this location is just how much information we can gather just by looking at the environment. Obviously, once we unlock this forgotten memory, we know that this is the battlefield where the Hero of the Wild fell 100 years ago. However, even without the unlocked memory, there are still plenty of discoveries left to investigate and leave us only to theorize just how brutal this battle must have been.
Fort Hateno sits south of Kakariko Village and just east of the Dueling Peaks. The fortress sits in between two large rock formations, giving it a rather defensive position, protecting the path that leads right to Hateno Village. Of course, I am sure the fortress was not constructed with giant automatons that fire lasers in mind as a possible threat. Just the sheer number of the deactivated Guardians speaks volumes. We, the player, know how difficult it is to fight just one Guardian in Breath of the Wild, so to see an entire battlefield that was once full of them, it is no wonder why the Hero of the Wild fell here.
Another point of interest I noticed was the various wooden logs propped up where the fortress had once crumbled. I imagine the walls slowly being blown away, but the pressure of the enemy was so great that they had no choice but to desperately reconstruct the fortress wall. Can you imagine being in the heat of battle, building your main line of defense up in the midst of all that chaos? And to think that these soldiers were here long enough to construct such things. Who knows how long these soldiers were actually here, constantly fending off Ancient Guardians to what seemed like no end?
However, I think the saddest part of this battlefield is that it represents the fruitless victory that once took place here. The fort still stands, crumbling and withered, but it still remains. Hateno Village rests at the top, unscathed and protected by the fortress that did its job. However, Hyrule still lost. There was a victory to be celebrated here, but seeing the rest of Hyrule laid to waste, it would seem this victory was virtually pointless. The only thing left here is the pale echo of a hollow win.
There is much to explore in the ruined Hyrule in Breath of the Wild, and this game truly is a masterclass in environmental exposition. Fort Hateno serves as just one of the many locations that can tell us a lot about what happened in the past, and help immerse us in the broken, war-torn world we explore throughout the game.
