Most Tragic Backstory
This week marks the release of both Horizon Zero Dawn from Sony and Guerrilla Games, and Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, from Nintendo. Despite being on different systems and having two different vibes, their release proximity have drawn plenty of comparisons between the two. But instead of comparing their mechanics or open worlds, let’s do it by their protagonists: Horizon’s Aloy and Wild’s Link. Oh, and Hanzo from Overwatch, just so we can declare this an Archer-Off!
If you’re afraid of having Horizon Zero Dawn or Breath of the Wild spoiled for you, don’t worry! This will just cover general story stuff revealed by the trailers.
As Oliver Queen and both Hawkeyes have shown us, in order to be a proficient archer, you need one hell of a sad backstory. Aloy’s is fairly simple: Horizon Zero Dawn is set 1,000 years into the future, where robotic animals have taken over the world and a small number of surviving humans are split up into tribes. She was born as an outcast shunned by her Nora tribe, never knowing her own mother. The game opens with little Aloy being derided by her tribe, and as a kid, no one would interact with her — unless it was to throw rocks at her.
In the Overwatch fiction, Hanzo Shimada has been groomed from childhood to be the leader of the Shimada clan following his father. The training turned him into a precise marksman, warrior, and strategist. If that sounds like a cushy gig, that’s because it was… until he was ordered to kill his younger brother Genji, the carefree black sheep of the family. Genji survived Hanzo’s attack, and became a cyborg ninja. Hanzo, thinking his brother died at his own hand, grew disillusioned with his family, abandoning them and traveling the world to restore his honor.
Then there’s Legend of Zelda’s Link, the only veteran of the trio. Link’s backstory is rather complicated, to a point. As the Hero of Time, he’s constantly in a cycle of timelines wherein he fights Ganon (or Ganondorf) and saves Princess Zelda along with the world. It can certainly get exhausting, especially when you consider the many friends that he’s lost in each adventure. As Breath of the Wild opens, he’s been in a century-long sleep with zero memory of what he last did, but he’s still got to stop Calamity Ganon from breaking free from his prison and destroying the world.
Winner: Aloy
Yeah, Link being in the worst version of Groundhog Day is some dark stuff, sure, but he’s also dealt with similar stuff before. Hanzo, your life may suck, but you only had the change of heart after you thought you’d killed your brother, so that’s all on you. Plus, he’s actually still alive. Aloy doesn’t really have anyone, save for her guardian Rost, and even that relationship is strained thanks to her unending fascination with technology and the Nora tribe’s taboos against said tech. Being ostracized her whole life has defined her entire persona, and sets her off on her grand journey.
Bows
An archer is only as good as their bow. Without it, all they’ve got is just sticks with pointy bits on the end. Not only are bows perfect for long range, obviously, but in the hands of the right person, they can also be a pretty good melee weapon.
Hanzo knows this the best; in his Overwatch animated short, “Dragons,” he manages to wrap his bow around the necks of several enemies and incapacitate them. And despite what you would think from how the Shimada brother looks, his bow is actually quite modern and powerful, not at all made of wood. Plus, with the default blue and yellow color scheme, the bow looks like a stingray, and that’s pretty cool.
In Horizon Zero Dawn, Aloy has different kinds of bows she can go through. She starts with the one given to her by her guardian Rost as a child, but over the course of the game, she gets unlocks different types of bows, which then have their own ranks.
As Link, well, it’s a Legend of Zelda game. He’s always had a bow in the previous games, and that extends to Breath of the Wild. Like our redheaded machine hunter, he can buy different types of bows throughout the game. However, his bows will break after repeated use, thanks to the new durability system.
Winner: Link
The Hero of Time has been through a lot of bows in his decades of life, and all of them have served him well. Most of them have been able to get upgraded to a Bow of Light by the end of the game, and there’s no doubt that some version of this will happen in Breath of the Wild as well. If you need someone to tag a guy hundreds of feet away, Link is likely gonna be your man.
Arrow Variety
As any Legend of Zelda player knows, Link has acquired a variety of arrows with each game. Common ones across the various games include fire, light, and ice arrows. Breath of the Wild will feature these as well, along with an electric arrow, one with an energized tip, and who knows how many more.
Overwatch’s Hanzo is no stranger to arrows, either. Besides just the regular one that he uses to headshot enemies like a champ, he also has a sonic arrow that marks the location of enemies, and a scatter arrow that splits off and ricochets off walls. His arrow is also used to activate his Dragonstrike Ultimate, summoning a giant blue dragon to take out any enemies unfortunate enough to be in its path.
Horizon Zero Dawn gives Aloy multiple arrow types, too. She uses their special traits — like explosive or tearing — to exploit certain robot weaknesses. There are other arrow types in the game for her to fight the machines with, but we won’t spoil for them for you.
Winner: Hanzo
When you have an arrow that unleashes a giant blue dragon, there’s not really anything else that can compare.
Fashion Style
You may think that this isn’t important, but it is. Every archer has an iconic look, whether that’s the simple black t-shirt and jeans combo that Clint Barton rocks, or Green Arrow’s padded armor and hood, you can tell them all apart from each other. All three of our archers here definitely have their own style, that’s for sure.
Link has his iconic green style across all the Zelda games, and he certainly has a default one that’s seen in most of the Breath of the Wild footage, but he can change clothes at any point. Take a look at this Gerudo outfit, for example. It’s… something.
All of Overwatch’s characters have a series of cosmetic skins that they can wear in the game, and Hanzo is no different. Some of them are just simple color swaps of his default outfit, while others give him a wolf skin, make him look like a demon, or reveal what he looked like as a young man. His greatest skin, however, is his jacket and side buzz that he rocks in the holiday comic.
Like the others, Aloy has a default look in Horizon Zero Dawn, but her outfit can be changed throughout the course of the game. She could look like she stepped off the set of The 100, a Coachella attendee (as seen above), or she could look like she’s part of a cult.
Winner: Hanzo
No, Hanzo doesn’t win this award because of his winter outfit in the Reflections comic. Okay, well that’s a lie, but he also has some of the coolest alternate skins in Overwatch, especially during Halloween.
Overall Winner: Hanzo
When all is said and done, the Shimada brother is the best archer you could ask for in gaming. He may take a lot of time to learn, but once you do, it pays off, and you’ll be one of the best snipers in your team while you play Overwatch. He may not take down giant robots like Aloy or save the world from total destruction like Link, sure, but he makes up for that by trying to redeem himself for past sins. And by being able to summon a giant, blue dragon.
Who’s your favorite video game archer out of these three? Let us know in the comments below.
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