The 15 Most Awesome References in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

From the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Image from Nintendo Switch version taken by C. Wassenaar and via Nintendo.

8. The Goddess Hylia

We’ve already mentioned that Din, Farore, and Nayru don’t get many references in Breath of the Wild. However, the fourth goddess, Hylia, plays a major role. The Goddess Statues you can find all around the world are of her, and basically look like smaller models of the giant statue in Skyloft from Skyward Sword.

Hylia’s role is to protect the land that bears her name, Hyrule, for the goddesses. She, per Skyward, created the Master Sword … well, the Goddess Sword, before that Link went and found some sacred flames and made it the actual Master Sword. It’s a long story.

Notably, there’s also a huge statue of her in the Temple of Time. It’s how you learn Goddess Statues are where you can obtain more Heart Containers and Stamina. That’s not quite new, either, though.

In Skyward, you drop the Hylia statue down outside the Temple of Time, which is close enough to make the point rather obvious. Previous iterations, like Twilight Princess and Ocarina of Time, however, didn’t have a goddess statue in them. (Twilight even turns the Temple of Time into a dungeon!) As for the ruins of the Temple of Time that you find in Breath? Those bear a close resemblance to the Temple’s form in Ocarina.