Rearranging the Champions' Ballad

The Champions' Ballad was the second DLC Pack for Breath of the Wild and offered a series of main quests at its core, which culminated into the "Final Trial", where at the end you receive the Master Cycle Zero and one final memory from Kass. This was very climactic and worked quite well as a "mission pack" for Breath of the Wild, something that most players are approaching after they were already done with the game.

However, if you put this content in the context of the base game, then it might not feel as good. If your goal is to get the Master Cycle Zero as soon as possible, then you already will have to clear all four Divine Beasts just to get things started, but then the game still makes you go through over a dozen trials just to enter the "Final Trial". The Master Cycle Zero becomes this carrot on a stick, where you might get frustrated by how many things you need to do in order to obtain just one item. At least this is how I feel at the moment, while replaying the game.

Given, each part for the Divine Beasts let's you upgrade the corresponding Champion ability and you will get a new memory, so you're not just doing it for the Master Cycle Zero alone. But these parts are good enough to stand on their own, where it probably would have been better to split this into two completely independent quests, so you can just do things in any order you like. This was the new norm with Breath of the Wild to begin with, but the DLC is a lot more structured like the main quests in Skyward Sword, where you always have to check a series of boxes before you can proceed. So, here is how I would have changed things to make the contents more fun and accessible...

 

The Ultimate Trial

This is essentially the One-Hit Obliterator Trial and the Final Trial, only that they are played in succession. After clearing all Divine Beasts, Monk Maz Koshia calls you to the place where your adventure began: the Shrine of Resurrection on the Great Plateau. Now, it never really made much sense that Maz Koshia can just summon Ganon's minions, while  the whole "instant Game Over" part is just not fun, so this is where most of the redesigning is happening.

The idea is still to isolate you on the Great Plateau once more, like in the beginning of the game, to see how much you've grown since the start of your journey. You will still obtain the One-Hit Obliterator, but unlike in the original version of the DLC you can now choose to unequip it and use any other weapon. Also, getting hit with the One-Hit Obliterator in hand won't disable fairies and you can still use all the Champion abilities, including Mipha's Grace. So, not every mistake wielding this weird weapon will result in a Game Over.

The One-Hit Obliterator also acts as a key for the big dungeon and you will need to clear four new shrines in order to truly activate it. These will be the same shrines as in the original, but you're not tasked with taking down Ganon's minions to access them. During this trial all normal enemies will be gone from the Great Plateau and instead Maz Koshia has released four groups of Guardians, where Link needs to destroy them all to access the shrines.

These Guardians are not infected by Malice, so they glow in this orange light. They also won't make the Master Sword glow (unless it always glows after completing the Trial of the Sword), and – in this special case – they can't be destroyed with a single Ancient Arrow. It will cause major damage on them, but you will still need multiple shots to defeat them. The only way to destroy them in one hit is the One-Hit Obliterator, but this weapon still comes with a massive drawback. It's really about risk vs. reward in this version, instead of something that gets forced onto the players. How you will defeat these Guardians is up to you and this trial is simply giving you an interesting option on top.

Overall, it makes more sense that Maz Koshia would be able to summon Guardians like this, and it also makes sense to do this from a story perspective. It was Guardians who have nearly killed Link 100 years ago, where now it's time for him to face his fears and to prove that he is able to overcome these foes.

For each group it uses different types. Guardian Stalkers are used for the Ruvo Korbah Shrine behind the Temple of Time, where there is a big open field for them to roam around. A group of Guardian Turrets will be defending the Rohta Chigah Shrine, near the Great Plateau Tower. It's also quite an open area, where they will have the opportunity to target you from a large distance. And a group of Guardian Skywatchers will patrol the Forest of Spirits, where you can use the trees to hide from them and to try to get closer to them on your mission to open the Yowaka Ita Shrine. Finally, for the Etsu Korima Shrine at Mount Hylia you will have to face a mixed group of all three types.

The dungeon will be the same as the "Final Trial", however, where at the end you will face Maz Koshia and obtain the Master Cycle. It only has a different name, because it technically isn't the "final trial", depending on how you do things. This is even true for Breath of the Wild, already.

And obtaining the Master Cycle Zero is really what this is all about. You get the bike as a reward for completing Maz Koshia's trials and that's it. There is no big story aspect to this or new cutscenes, where all of that is still part of...

The Champions' Ballad

This is essentially the rest. After clearing all four Divine Beasts, you are told by Zelda that you can go and visit them to face the past. So, you can approach any of the Divine Beasts and this will summon one of the pedestals that show you where the trials are.

It wouldn't use the symbol of the One-Hit Obliterator, of course, because these things are completely unrelated in this version. So, these platforms and the shrine would probably make use of the corresponding Divine Beast symbol.

The trials play out mostly the same, but I wouldn't use Guardians for the one trial from Mipha, because we will already be having plenty of these Guardian group fights on the Great Plateau. Instead, there should be a special Hinox waiting at Upland Zorana, a Silver Hinox. (In Master Mode those would be replacing the Black Hinox and a Gold Hinox would await you instead.)

Otherwise it's really the same thing. So, you will fight the Blights again under special conditions, upgrade the Champion abilities to have them recharge faster, and listen to the different songs from Kass. Once you've done all four, you can meet with him on the Great Plateau and receive the final memory, as well the Picture of the Champions. So, most of the changes and restructuring are really just there to make the Final Trials its own, separate thing.

You can choose to go for the Master Cycle Zero first or you can go and upgrade the Champion abilities first, whatever suits you best. Maybe you want to use the Master Cycle Zero for the Champions' trials. Maybe you want the faster recharge of the Champion abilities for fighting all those dangerous Guardians during the "Ultimate Trial". This really should be up to the player what comes first, just like in the entire rest of the game. And this is really the gist of the matter.