Breath of the Wild: Wolf Link and Guardian amiibo

Before I share my general impressions about the gameplay and game world of Breath of Wild, I want to focus on another detail: the amiibo usage. Early on I have been know for being opposed to the whole amiibo idea, even calling them a scam, as long as they don't fulfill certain standards. amiibo should ideally bring the figurine to live ingame, instead of just unlocking some content. It should offer something fully optional, not taking away from those, who like to complete their games, but don't want to track down amiibo to do so. At the same time it also should give you a nice incentive to use the amiibo regularly. All of this together is hard to pull off and Nintendo miserably failed a couple of times with this, where I really got worried as a fan.

But not in Breath of the Wild. The Wolf Link idea is perfect. That's how you implement amiibo! If I didn't have the Wolf Link amiibo already, I would gladly buy one.

It's not just some physical DLC lock, you scan the wolf figurine and you get freaking Wolf Link in the game as a companion. That's so beautiful and it looks amazing, even though Fallout already did the dog thing. It's really nice to have this, but at the same time you won't miss anything crucial, if you don't have the amiibo. Well done!

I also like, how they incorporated the hearts from the Cave of Shadows into the thing. The better your record is, the longer Wolf Link will be able to stay at your side. I do have a 20 hearts record, but I wonder, if the floors and Hero Mode will make any difference. You can get 20 hearts on floors 6, 20 or 40. You can also play through the Cave of Shadows in Hero Mode or not (all other records are not saved on the amiibo and should be irrelevant). Maybe the wolf does the most damage, when you reach floor 40 in Hero Mode and only minimal damage at default...

Anyway, there also have been three more amiibo announced for the game. Archer Link, Horse Link and the Guardian. I'm only really interested in the Guardian one:

Those creatures are terrifying and it would be nice, if the amiibo somehow helps you against them. As some kind of cheat. It also could be a way to make the game harder like the Ganondorf amiibo in Twilight Princess HD. It could simply spawn one of these monsters right were you are, if you want some crazy challenge. That would be another good use of amiibo, where I wouldn't mind purchasing the figurine.

I suppose the Horse Link amiibo could summon a horse and the Archer Link amiibo gives you arrows - similar to the Link and Toon Link amiibo in Twilight Princess HD, or even a new bow, if you need one. I don't think that these two amiibo will be all that interesting, but let's see.