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To call the world of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild colorful is an understatement. It’s chockfull of vibrant personalities, like sexy shark people and booty-shaking tree monsters. The most touching of all of these, though, may be the bridge-guarding Brigo, whose thoughtful mental health advocacy has struck a chord with all kinds of players.
Brigo is a stern-faced Hylian hanging around Proxim Bridge. When Link first runs into him, he’s muttering something about the end of the world.
“We’re doomed!” he shouts, before immediately walking that back — maybe because he’s afraid of being judged as a doomsday truther, or maybe because he’s naturally conflicted. Either way, Brigo enlists Link’s help to stay apprised of any potentially apocalyptic events by the end of their conversation, and Link carries on his way toward Hyrule Castle.
But Brigo and Link’s chat doesn’t have to stop there. Players discovered that trying to jump off the bridge and into the water below catches Brigo’s attention. His automatic response to Link’s seeming suicide attempt is a mix of outrage and encouragement, as captured by this tweet from Dorkly’s Tristan Cooper:
If you stand on the edge of a bridge, this guy will try to talk Link down from suicide. He even offers to help talk you through it pic.twitter.com/c2xkY6HgzB
— Tristan Cooper (@TristanACooper) March 11, 2017
If Link ignores Brigo and goes ahead with it, he’ll face the guard’s ire upon his return to Proxim Bridge, Cooper showed in a follow-up tweet:
If you jump off the bridge after this guy tries to talk you down, you get different dialogue when you see him again. I feel awful now. pic.twitter.com/gXbIPXsQdi
— Tristan Cooper (@TristanACooper) March 11, 2017
The scene’s since gone viral, with many heaping praise on Breath of the Wild’s suicide prevention efforts.
“I've had friends commit suicide. I never wanted to feel useless ever again so I took some lessons on suicide prevention,” wrote a Reddit user. “This is accurate. Thank you Nintendo, for caring.”
The changing dialogue hopefully won’t convince players to send Link plummeting to his death in the hopes of finding out what Brigo has to say — instead, let’s point to this tiny event as another example of Breath of the Wild’s magic. Watch the whole thing unfold in the video below, which comes from a let’s play series about the game. Brigo shows up around the 12-minute mark.
