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Pre-Release The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Pre-Release Discussion Thread

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Serif said:
I think this is all tied with (a) the cloud barrier that the dragons fly through in the first game and (b) the Lens of Truth, its relation with the Shiekah and the eye imagery in these trailers, and how it can hide entire locations from view.
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I remember that SS's ground areas had the sky look clear despite the cloud barrier.

Maybe that is supposed to make everything above it invisible to everything underneath.
 
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Kevin said:
So my opinion is that we figured out the main core concept of Tears of the Kingdom. To recap:

As you progress through the game, you will need to rebuild the Sky Island. You will have the ability to raise chunks of Hyrule back into the sky. By doing so reverses time on said chunks which would explain why they look different once they are actually in the sky. The more chunks you raise, the more they will eventually start to connect together. In some of the shots, you see roads and pathways on the island chunks that do not connect to anything but upon rebuilding the entire sky kingdom, these will all form one large sky kingdom. Could be Skyloft, could be the original Zonai kingdom. Maybe the two are actually one of the same. As you send chunks back into the sky, there will be craters on the surface world that likely can be explored revealing secrets and underground stuff to explore.

The Tears of the Kingdom is exactly that. Each island chunk is a tear that has fallen from the great kingdom that once was. Also represents tears in a kingdom as it was ripped apart. Your job is to restore the original kingdom. This will play a major role in defeating the evil and what not. Don't know how the entire story will work out but I feel confident that the core gameplay loop is restoring a long lost sky kingdom likely tied to the Zonai race that was done dirty by Ganondorf. As you send each chunk back in time which propells the pieces back into the sky, the former kingdom slowly becomes restored. It's been clear since the first trailer that time mechanics play a huge role and that island pieces can be raises as you saw Hyrule castle lift from the ground leaving behind a crater. Now we have enough evidence and information to piece together the restoration of the sky island and original Zonai race that inhabited said land.
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WHOA, this is actually a really great theory!
 
Rubbersoul said:
That wasn’t what I was talking about….
I’m talking about taking land that wasn’t used for anything in botw and sending it back hundreds of thousands of years into the past until it’s its own thing. You wouldn’t be able to recognize anything. For instance, you tear a piece of the Faron jungle into the past and now it’s a high tech city. You tear a piece of gerudo desert into the past and now it’s an ocean that you can explore underwater. Completely different, it’s not a remix.
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Fair enough, I wasn't sure if you meant that or not. I actually think that there's a reasonable chance they do go this direction, and if they do it's all good by me. Once the topography of an area is entirely different, it's a new place, and I'm excited to explore it.

The Oroborous dragon could represent a world in the past and the world in the present as well as the Demise/Ganon cycle. Tears could be rips as well as the water from your eyes. I can see it.
 
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Quillion said:
If you won't be able to recognize anything, why not make it a whole new area?
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It's the thrill of discovery. You start with area A which you're familiar with, and then after it's altered you get to explore area B, which has more or less the same shape/boundaries but is completely different now.

There's a lot of appeal in exploring places you know of only to find they've undergone massive changes. See: Anor Londo in Dark Souls 3.
 
Skittzo said:
It's the thrill of discovery. You start with area A which you're familiar with, and then after it's altered you get to explore area B, which has more or less the same shape/boundaries but is completely different now.

There's a lot of appeal in exploring places you know of only to find they've undergone massive changes. See: Anor Londo in Dark Souls 3.
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Still though:
Quillion said:
If nothing about the area is recognizable in the past, it's pointless to make it an "alternate version" of an existing area.
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Quillion said:
Still though:
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Well I guess their idea in that case is you'd still have the region be in the same place on the map, and it would still fit where it previously did. It's just entirely different once you enter it.
 
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The contrast between the logo (where you have two snakes eating each other's tails in an Ouroboros-like fashion) and the big door links open (where it's a single snake with two heads meeting each other at the top) is really interesting to me. Surely some kind of symbolism about breaking a cycle?
 
Quillion said:
If nothing about the area is recognizable in the past, it's pointless to make it an "alternate version" of an existing area.
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Even though @Rubbersoul said "you wouldn't be able to recognize anything" I don't think they literally meant that a past version of an area wouldn't share landmarks or terrain in common with its future version. Dragon Roost Island is Ocarina's Death Mountain in the future, it shares some similarities with the cliffside platforms but is essentially a new area. It is 'unrecognizable' on the surface.

If Faron jungle was an ancient city we get to explore we'll probably recognize certain cliffs and bodies of water which means the developers have the advantage of reusing a world layout, but it becomes a new area to explore. Likewise if pieces of Gerudo Desert were an ocean then mountains in the present become shorelines in the past.

If this pans out I think it'll be like the Timeshift areas in Skyward Sword on steroids.
 
So while rewatching all the footage we have so far, I fee like the only real like wide shots of expansive land we’ve seen are of Central Hyrule. And then the few shots we get of standing on sky island and looking at Hyrule we’re above the same area near Thundara plateau with those mushroom like rock formations. Maybe I missed something in the trailer (the scenes on death mountain and in Faron woods don’t really show a lot of the surrounding terrain).

Others have already mentioned the focus of what they’re showing is very small, but even the parts of the world map from BotW that they’re showing seem to be in a very limited area. It just absolutely feels like they’re hiding stuff and I’m curious if there’s more significant changes outside this central area? (I’ll try not to get my hopes up too much but I think there’s the possibility that outside of central Hyrule we might see more differences)

But even now we see the missing Deku tree and the giant cyclone over the great plateau?
 
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To piggyback on @Kevin's post, I imagine that there's seven sky "lands" that you have to raise up via quests/dungeons on the surface and below. There's seven tears shown near the mysterious figure in the trailer. You're essentially building your own open world. Maybe it's connected to the malice in Death Mountain and Hyrule Castle? Raising these lands up from the ground leads to new areas to explore on the surface (the craters). Each island in the sky contains new quests, towns, enemies, etc. The final boss is on a separate island above it all. You don't have to unlock all the islands to hit the final boss.
 
Magic-Man said:
To piggyback on @Kevin's post, I imagine that there's seven sky "lands" that you have to raise up via quests/dungeons on the surface and below. There's seven tears shown near the mysterious figure in the trailer. You're essentially building your own open world. Maybe it's connected to the malice in Death Mountain and Hyrule Castle? Raising these lands up from the ground leads to new areas to explore on the surface (the craters). Each island in the sky contains new quests, towns, enemies, etc. The final boss is on a separate island above it all. You don't have to unlock all the islands to hit the final boss.
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....

Guess how many regions there are in BotW, outside of Central Hyrule which @Beelzemontheworld just pointed out is more or less all we've seen so far in the footage:

7
 
Skittzo said:
....

Guess how many regions there are in BotW, outside of Central Hyrule which @Beelzemontheworld just pointed out is more or less all we've seen so far in the footage:

7
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Oh shit. So there's probably major changes to the seven regions, probably a dungeon in each. Complete the dungeon, break open the sky. Rinse and repeat.
 
Speaking of the map, remember the labyrinths? They rewarded the Barbarian set. Weren't these also tied to the Zonai?

zelda-labyrinth-north-lomei-labyrinth-island-south-loemi-4857-1515513256953.jpg


Similar kind of dragon imagery as the Zonai ruins

qj84suqz4gx41.jpg


Are we pulling these huge islands back into the sky? Are these actually gigantic pillars? What is even happening in this game
 
Serif said:
Speaking of the map, remember the labyrinths? They rewarded the Barbarian set. Weren't these also tied to the Zonai?

zelda-labyrinth-north-lomei-labyrinth-island-south-loemi-4857-1515513256953.jpg


Similar kind of dragon imagery as the Zonai ruins

qj84suqz4gx41.jpg


Are we pulling these huge islands back into the sky? Are these actually gigantic pillars? What is even happening in this game
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So this is a topic of debate amongst Zelda theory people on YouTube. They definitely feature motifs from the Zonai and include Zonai clothes as a reward. But the dragon/swirl designs are actually slightly different in these mazes. The art style is just a bit unique compared to every other Zonai ruin. Because the maze-like designs are reminiscent of the shrines, there's a theory that these mazes were actually made by the Sheikah emulating Zonai imagery.

One way or another though they're definitely connected
 
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Glom said:
  1. Faron
  2. Gerudo
  3. Tabantha
  4. Hebra
  5. Eldin
  6. Akkala
  7. Lanayru
  8. Necluda
That's 8.
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This site doesn't include Tabantha it seems:

zelda.fandom.com

Region

Regions are the collective name for several recurring locations in The Legend of Zelda series.[1][name reference needed] There are eight geographical Regions in Breath of the Wild. They are: Akkala Central Hyrule Eldin Faron Gerudo Hebra Lanayru Necluda There are also fifteen Regions based on...
zelda.fandom.com zelda.fandom.com
 
Skittzo said:
This site doesn't include Tabantha it seems:

zelda.fandom.com

Region

Regions are the collective name for several recurring locations in The Legend of Zelda series.[1][name reference needed] There are eight geographical Regions in Breath of the Wild. They are: Akkala Central Hyrule Eldin Faron Gerudo Hebra Lanayru Necluda There are also fifteen Regions based on...
zelda.fandom.com zelda.fandom.com
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Tabantha is a subregion of Hebra, like Great Plateau is a subregion of Central Hyrule.

This is the full map when you zoom out. 7 + 1. We're still cooking.

show
 
Serif said:
Tabantha is a subregion of Hebra, like Great Plateau is a subregion of Central Hyrule.

This is the full map when you zoom out. 7 + 1. We're still cooking.

show
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It's so beautiful. Christmas, that's when I'm going to play it again. I'm also going to get the map that came with Creating a Champion framed and hang it above the TV.
 
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So yeah, it feels like the 7 seals go with the 7 regions not named Central Hyrule, probably representing 7 dungeons, 7 bosses, 7 sages, and likely 7 sky islands/continents that are created before or after you deal with that region's dungeon.
 
I'm gonna repost a couple things I've said in other threads months ago because I think it's kinda relevant to the current stuff:

Okay actually

I love BotW in hindsight and after a few playthroughs but while I was in the middle of playing it for the first time I remember feeling a little let down that there was a massive world to explore but really only four "dungeons." Granted, the way they went about them was awesome (especially the ones where you could still see the vastness of Hyrule outside of them) but I remember finishing all the Divine Beasts and the Master Sword and thinking "okay, this is like getting the pendants and the master sword in LttP, this is where the second part of the game opens up!" but it.. wasn't. I was nearly done. The bulk of the game was in the exploration and meandering and the fact that entire areas like Faron, Hebra, and Akkala didn't have their own "dungeons" (which I was certain the Springs of Power, Courage, and Wisdom would open up), left me feeling like it was sort of half-empty in a way. Empty of what I was expecting from a Zelda game, anyway. Granted in hindsight and in subsequent playthroughs knowing what the game was now, I adore it. It's phenomenal.


I know now the point of this game is meandering and not letting a narrative dictate the game, but when I heard they were going to "use the same map" I thought it'd be a chance for some of those areas to shine! Maybe there is a dungeon in Akkala now, maybe there's a whole other area inside one of the massive Hebra mountains, maybe some of the little settlements like Lurelin will have a significant role, maybe a couple new towns have spread out from some stables! All sorts of new ideas hit me as to how they could freshen up the map and make exploring "the same place" a second time be fun and surprising.

Then that sky trailer hit. And I guess all bets are off now. I have no idea what they're doing anymore, how far they're going to take this, but I know I'm gonna love it because I was already down for essentially the bare minimum. 😅
 
If parts of the sky really are accessed by tearing parts of Hyrule apart and rising it to the sky, by the end of the game, Hyrule is gonna look messed up.
 
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Idk about some of these ideas. Surely the ruins are things that have only fallen near the start of the game? So instead of the locals talking about towers and shrines that activated, they'll be talking about all the shit that landed in their fields.

The idea of fixing up the islands is good though, you could identify gaps in the island and then dive down to find the missing pieces.
Not sure if it's been said but I'm guessing the new 'towers' are the pointed centres under some of the islands. But will you climb up them or down them?
 
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Nintendo has got you all, you're so preoccupied with all the island and mechanics and back in time stuff that you completely forgot about the dungeons.
 
If there's anything I'm getting out of the speculation surrounding this game is that the developers really do like the number 7 don't they
 
What if

The green vials thing Link has on his hip, what if those were a way to temporarily power the Master Sword and what gives it that green blade, which is necessary to deal the final blow to the bosses of this game?

This way, the Master Sword acts more like a key item while still in Link's inventory, until you eventually restore it in the late game.
 
Alright Fami, it's time for another one of my superficial conversation starters that I won't be able to contribute to myself right away because of work! But for those of you who can...I challenge you to list your favorite and least favorite Zelda titles - as in, the actual name of the game - and why.

Breath of the Wild is perhaps the most perfect title imaginable for that game, so while it may be recency bias, it's up there. Ditto for Twilight Princess, in hindsight. I love the name A Link to the Past but the relevance is okay at best.

Least favorite is easily Adventure of Link, followed by...maybe Skyward Sword? But Adventure of Link is too easy a target. If I'm limiting myself to subtitles with key items or mysticism, my least favorite probably is Skyward Sword or Wind Waker, but there isn't a god-awful one in the bunch.

Weirdly, I think Tears of the Kingdom will become one of the best in context, and I'm glad Nintendo didn't use a cringe "______ of the ______" title
 
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LURVING the 7 regions = 7 tears = 7 dungeons idea. Link's hip vial holder has place for 8 vials though...

One other interesting notion: the Zonai left Boar (power), Owl (wisdom) and Dragon (courage) statues all over Hyrule. The mysterious person in the murals (that I like to call Blupee Person) does look a little Owl-like, and Dragons are already playing a big role in the thematics of the game so far. Not sure what this'd entail.

Serif said:
If this pans out I think it'll be like the Timeshift areas in Skyward Sword on steroids.
Click to expand...

I would adore that. The movable Timeshift stones are especially astounding.
 
Dragoncaine said:
Alright Fami, it's time for another one of my superficial conversation starters that I won't be able to contribute to myself right away because of work! But for those of you who can...I challenge you to list your favorite and least favorite Zelda titles - as in, the actual name of the game - and why.
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A Link to the Past.

Makes no sense. I get that at the time it was the prequel/origin story of the series, but there was no time travel or anything happening. That's a bad name for a game, one that makes no sense after 5-10 years.


Ocarina of Time should've been called A Link to the Past, since Link goes back and forth to and from the past. Or, well, future, but you know what I mean.
 
BY2K said:
What if

The green vials thing Link has on his hip, what if those were a way to temporarily power the Master Sword and what gives it that green blade, which is necessary to deal the final blow to the bosses of this game?

This way, the Master Sword acts more like a key item while still in Link's inventory, until you eventually restore it in the late game.
Click to expand...
This is a good idea. It could be that, when you take out the Master Sword, the vials on your hip release their green liquid and add to the blade of the Master Sword. Maybe you get a tear/magic vial from each boss? So after each boss, your Master Sword gets a bit better. You get the blade shown in the logo, if you choose to beat every temple (please) boss.
 
Skittzo said:
A Link to the Past.

Makes no sense. I get that at the time it was the prequel/origin story of the series, but there was no time travel or anything happening. That's a bad name for a game, one that makes no sense after 5-10 years.


Ocarina of Time should've been called A Link to the Past, since Link goes back and forth to and from the past. Or, well, future, but you know what I mean.
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Ocarina of Time is classic, but I completely agree that the ocarina itself doesn't convey enough as to the actual happenings of the game. It's why I prefer the title Majora's Mask - at least that's the core embodiment of evil and antagonism in that game.
 
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I think it's worth remembering that the number of sages got messy in Botw. The 8th heroine represents a lost sage, either cast out or forgotten for some reason.

The canisters holster holds 8 vials, so if those are for tears, maybe there's 8 tears for 8 sages.
 
Dragoncaine said:
Alright Fami, it's time for another one of my superficial conversation starters that I won't be able to contribute to myself right away because of work! But for those of you who can...I challenge you to list your favorite and least favorite Zelda titles - as in, the actual name of the game - and why.
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Nice one
First, I've only played ALL of the 3D ones.

My favorite: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
The king of Zelda dungeons to me. It's perfect. Every dungeon is memorable to me. The soundtrack, OH GOD, the soundtrack is AMAZING! I love the story, the characters, the items! If I can say something bad about it, it is a little to easy maybe? Specially the boss fights.

My least favorite: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
It's far from being bad, but It is my least favorite. Too linear, slow, some bad design choices (TENTALUS). The mudic is ok but I think I expected too much since the previous one was Twilight Princess. Flying should be fun, It wasn't for me.
Again, it's far from being a bad game. Zelda games are top quality.
 
I mean, y'all remember when Zelda 64 became Ocarina of Time?
I was like.
"wtf is an ocarina even"
Wasn't even sure how to pronounce it.
Like I was 10 give me a break.
But it seemed like a pretty weird name.

Now I think it's beautiful. "Ocarina of Time", so evocative. Because of the game itself? idk.
That's how it goes with Zelda titles, innit.

I can't think of a bad one. If I was forced to choose, I'd pick Tears of the Kingdom, but that would be a premature take and I will probably end up loving that one too once I have more context.

Let me think.
I like "Phantom Hourglass" most, maybe. Mysterious! Fantastical! Slightly sinister!
I don't like... Well, I don't "The Adventure of Link", are we counting that? I suppose we probably aren't.
"The Minish Cap". It just seems very, uh, rote and formulaic as far as titles go, and it doesn't sound nice just by itself imo.
 
TheCongressman said:
I think it's worth remembering that the number of sages got messy in Botw. The 8th heroine represents a lost sage, either cast out or forgotten for some reason.

The canisters holster holds 8 vials, so if those are for tears, maybe there's 8 tears for 8 sages.
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Ganondorf was prophesized as the last of the 8 sages but cast out due to his evil. dun dun dun

nah I'm only joking. but if I were to follow your theory here, maybe the deity on the mural is the last tear?
 
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Cerlinho said:
Nice one
First, I've only played ALL of the 3D ones.

My favorite: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
The king of Zelda dungeons to me. It's perfect. Every dungeon is memorable to me. The soundtrack, OH GOD, the soundtrack is AMAZING! I love the story, the characters, the items! If I can say something bad about it, it is a little to easy maybe? Specially the boss fights.

My least favorite: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
It's far from being bad, but It is my least favorite. Too linear, slow, some bad design choices (TENTALUS). The mudic is ok but I think I expected too much since the previous one was Twilight Princess. Flying should be fun, It wasn't for me.
Again, it's far from being a bad game. Zelda games are top quality.
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I can't wait to finally experience Twilight Princess when I finally emulate it early next year! I would've bought the Wii U ports if they came to Switch, but oh well. What about your favorite and least favorite Zelda subtitles, like the name itself?
catonkatonk said:
I mean, y'all remember when Zelda 64 became Ocarina of Time?
I was like.
"wtf is an ocarina even"
Wasn't even sure how to pronounce it.
Like I was 10 give me a break.
But it seemed like a pretty weird name.

Now I think it's beautiful. "Ocarina of Time", so evocative. Because of the game itself? idk.
That's how it goes with Zelda titles, innit.

I can't think of a bad one. If I was forced to choose, I'd pick Tears of the Kingdom, but that would be a premature take and I will probably end up loving that one too once I have more context.

Let me think.
I like "Phantom Hourglass" most, maybe. Mysterious! Fantastical! Slightly sinister!
I don't like... Well, I don't "The Adventure of Link", are we counting that? I suppose we probably aren't.
"The Minish Cap". It just seems very, uh, rote and formulaic as far as titles go, and it doesn't sound nice just by itself imo.
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Yeah, I should probably edit my selection. Adventure of Link really shouldn't count. It should probably be any of the games from Link's Awakening/ALttP onward that reference the item or a mystical subtitle.
 
Cerlinho said:
Nice one
First, I've only played ALL of the 3D ones.

My favorite: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
The king of Zelda dungeons to me. It's perfect. Every dungeon is memorable to me. The soundtrack, OH GOD, the soundtrack is AMAZING! I love the story, the characters, the items! If I can say something bad about it, it is a little to easy maybe? Specially the boss fights.

My least favorite: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
It's far from being bad, but It is my least favorite. Too linear, slow, some bad design choices (TENTALUS). The mudic is ok but I think I expected too much since the previous one was Twilight Princess. Flying should be fun, It wasn't for me.
Again, it's far from being a bad game. Zelda games are top quality.
Click to expand...
There's something about the more "realistic" 3d Zelda(oot, mm, tp) that Nintendo really knows how to handle the tone. The contrast between dark/lighthearted sections, dungeon ambience, atmosphere, creepy characters. It's something so unique that I can't find playing other games.
It's a bummer they don't like that approach. Hope they can make a Twilight Princess sequel 20 years later like ALBW.

My favorite is Oot and least favorite it's a tie between SS and BOTW. Though I like all of them.
 
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