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

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It's crazy how little we know when you stop and think about it. Take one example: towns. Will they be the same on the surface, expanded, or missing? Are the NPC still there, with new dialogue? And what about the sky islands, who lives up there, what kind of NPC can we encounter there?

We know a very basic premise: it's the old Hyrule with stuff in the sky. But even that gives us almost nothing about the why or how.
 
Charamiwa said:
It's crazy how little we know when you stop and think about it. Take one example: towns. Will they be the same on the surface, expanded, or missing? Are the NPC still there, with new dialogue? And what about the sky islands, who lives up there, what kind of NPC can we encounter there?

We know a very basic premise: it's the old Hyrule with stuff in the sky. But even that gives us almost nothing about the why or how.
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Im making myself this same questions, Im sure some of this questions will be answered with the next Big trailer.
Pavolink said:
I know this is irrelevant, but…

…the game is #1 best sellers of Amazon Mexico webpage.
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We Mexican Zelda fans are the best.
 
Imagine when they showed that first trailer in 2019 you were told the game was a May 2023 release.

I presumed a lot of the groundwork had been done with BotW and that the game had been in development since 2017, so was expecting it to be out by even late 2020 in a best case scenario. Then Covid happened which I’m sure had a big impact on a game like this.
 
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Charamiwa said:
It's crazy how little we know when you stop and think about it. Take one example: towns. Will they be the same on the surface, expanded, or missing? Are the NPC still there, with new dialogue? And what about the sky islands, who lives up there, what kind of NPC can we encounter there?

We know a very basic premise: it's the old Hyrule with stuff in the sky. But even that gives us almost nothing about the why or how.
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yeah. its honestly really exciting.
 
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its also exciting to see Link opening that huge ass door by himself. It could be possible they made that animation just for that particular scene but personally I doubt it.

dungeon crawling in big temples intensifies
 
Pflaumenmus12 said:
its also exciting to see Link opening that huge ass door by himself. It could be possible they made that animation just for that particular scene but personally I doubt it.

dungeon crawling in big temples intensifies
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Like people have speculated there’s probably 7 dungeons. I just really hope for some underwater exploration. Some people have to realize the Zelda team is probably the best team at Nintendo at listening to feedback.

All the issues people had with BotW I expect to be resolved in TotK
 
Dark Cloud said:
Like people have speculated there’s probably 7 dungeons. I just really hope for some underwater exploration. Some people have to realize the Zelda team is probably the best team at Nintendo at listening to feedback.

All the issues people had with BotW I expect to be resolved in TotK
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No more weapon durability then?
 
I think weapon durability will be back, probably improved. I think the primal axe that "caveman" Link is carrying in the last trailer will be one of his weapon set, I like the fact that in BoTW all the costumes have their own weapon set. Im very excited to see the new costumes and the new weapons in ToTK.
 
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Pflaumenmus12 said:
its also exciting to see Link opening that huge ass door by himself. It could be possible they made that animation just for that particular scene but personally I doubt it.

dungeon crawling in big temples intensifies
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I think that door opening will be the "step out of the cave" moment for the sky islands. So it might be unique.

... then again when I saw Link riding a sand seal and fighting a Molduga in a trailer I thought "there's no way this is dynamic gameplay this has to be scripted".
 
Charamiwa said:
I think that door opening will be the "step out of the cave" moment for the sky islands. So it might be unique.

... then again when I saw Link riding a sand seal and fighting a Molduga in a trailer I thought "there's no way this is dynamic gameplay this has to be scripted".
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I highly doubt that. Nintendo wouldn’t show that off so easily at this moment.
 
My one worry with the underground is that, yes it will be big and great to explore but at the same time it would be "dark" in this sense, no big sun like parts like they were in BOTW overworld etc.
 
LukasManak22 said:
My one worry with the underground is that, yes it will be big and great to explore but at the same time it would be "dark" in this sense, no big sun like parts like they were in BOTW overworld etc.
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I could see that the underground would play a bit different than the usual overworld BotW gameplay loop, more close with less options like you have in those three giant mazes in BotW.

It would also fit thematically, given that the underground might be fully corrupted and have a suspension feeling compared to the free overworld.
 
LukasManak22 said:
My one worry with the underground is that, yes it will be big and great to explore but at the same time it would be "dark" in this sense, no big sun like parts like they were in BOTW overworld etc.
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Not a Skyrim fan per se, but Blackreach in that game kinda opened my eyes to how colourful and "bright" the underground can be. I don't doubt that the Zelda team could think of plenty of options for alternative light sources and artificial suns!
 
I was just thinking about that 2d prototype engine they made for BotW styled in the Classic Zelda game, think they expanded on that for the sequel?

Seems hard to me seeing as the game is all about the vertical axis now which can be harder to translate to 2D.


the-legend-of-zelda-breath-of-the-wild-gdc-prototype-yfus.png


Would love to see a standalone release sometime, maybe as a special game&watch themed release or something else.
 
Yavga said:
I believe the mural is all and the fact that there are 7 sages (except for BotW who has in fact 8 but 1 of those statues was broken)
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Are you talking about the seven heroines plus the one missing in Gerudo? Were they ever properly connected to the sages.

ALBW also had 8 sages sort of. Or at least, there were 7 sages plus Zelda, whereas in OOT and ALTTP there were 6 sages plus Zelda.

On a separate note, we need to stop saying that Nintendo had been withholding the name for so long due to spoilers. It was Bill Trinen during an IGN interview who said this,

"As for why we’re holding back on the name, you’ll just have to stay tuned because, obviously, Zelda names are kind of important,” Trinen says during our interview. “Those subtitles… they start to give little bits of hints about maybe what’s going to happen."
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It is clear that he's just bullshitting. The talk about names being spoilers is more of a general statement, not specific to this game.

If Nintendo had even decided on the name by that point, they no doubt wanted to save the reveal for a more important point in the marketing buildup. Look at the buzz they got from the name reveal. You don't squander that by giving it up two years before the game's release.
 
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Serif said:
I've been thinking about how the underground, sky, and surface all play into each other, piggybacking off Kevin's post from earlier about restoring the Sky kingdom. My speculation is after Ganondorf reawakens due to the seal being broken, he spreads Malice throughout the Hyrule underground which seems into the surface and wreaks havoc, and either he or the deity reveals the cloud barrier.

Link is taken up to the Sky Kingdom ruins to recuperate from the Malice attack, obtain his new gauntlet and be informed by either the deity (spirit arm), Zelda, or some other NPC that because of Ganondorfs Malice weakening the magic seal, pieces of the Sky Kingdom ruins have fallen to the surface.

Link is able to use the new rune to reverse the flow of time of an object, and can use it to pull chunks of the islands back up. Once the ruins of a certain area have been put together, he can use a more powerful version of that ability to rewind it to a previous ancient state, which may end up being a new location like a dungeon, city, or landmass with shrines. Within this could be green energy which can combat Malice, possibly in a highly concentrated and potent 'teardrop'.

Link can then use his surface phasing rune to dive underground, or he can pull chunks of Hyrule to the Sky to reveal caverns going underground. By entering these underground passages he could destroy a Malice "nest" (I'm thinking Doom) with a partially restored Master Sword or green energy.

Progression could be determined by ridding the land of Malice and restoring the original Sky Kingdom. I also think Ganondorf will attempt to resurrect himself to his original living body, and will get more difficult the longer you take to reach him since he's further along his resurrection.

But also I have so many questions, like why Ganondorf was even kept around in the first place under Hyrule Castle generating Malice. Was it to prevent his reincarnation? Or is something sinister going on?Calamity Ganon seems to have been a puppet the whole time.

(I need to go to bed)
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This was a very enjoyable and plausible read
 
I really don't think the idea of "re-building" the sky kingdom makes any sense. As far as we know the reversal mechanic isn't time based but movement based - the patent describes it as - "perform return movement to return to previously recorded positions and orientations, sequentially backward" - it's nothing to do with time. So it explains moving objects back into the air where they came from but it wouldn't magically restore them to their former glory. Also you'd be talking about moving huge amounts of land mass. It's quite clearly only going to be used on similar items to what statis / magnesis was - I think that theory is way off.

I think it will go more along the lines of something like this -

- We have already seen some kind of malice eruption causing Hyrule Castle to float up in the air (probably due to the unsealing of Ganon underground which we see in Trailer 1). I assume this also actually happens concurrently all across Hyrule, a kind of chain reaction explosion of malice flowing through the (previously undiscovered) underground, the epicentre being Hyrule Castle.

- This results in 6 or 7 major eruptions on the surface - Hyrule Castle rises up and 6 or 7 other places on the map experience a similar event - creating some floating debris and gaping chasms filled with malice (we also see Death Mountain in some shots is spewing out malice which gives credence to this theory). These locations will serve as the "dungeons". The debris that goes flying into the air from these eruptions will be what enables Link to ride up and initially discover the sky islands (once he has the rewind power).

- Link will need to get something to clear out the malice from these areas before proceeding down into the depths to go looking for Zelda (who we see in the trailers falling down deep into the underground - see you in the end game again Zelda lol).

- That will lead him up into the sky islands which will house the equivalent of Shrines - in the second trailer we see some potential hints of this. Whatever he collects up there will allow him to clear the Malice from the 7 eruption sites (and no doubt learn of the 7 artifacts needed to stop Ganon which also happen to be in these locations).

- Clearing the malice from the chasms allows him to go searching for Zelda down there - and they serve as more full on dungeons as well as big new areas to explore.

So you have the loop of needing to go up to get down with the original map providing a chance to forage for supplies, do more involved, multi layered quests for townsfolk, take on enemy encampments and discover in general what's changed - the malice eruption obviously freed up some nasty critters lol and there will also be smaller underground sections on the OG map that opened up via the malice eruption, accessed by dispelling the malice simply as you would in the first game (i.e shooting / bombing the eyeball things) which gives some incentive to keep exploring.

In general I think the emphasis will shift a bit from exploration of the OG map to more quest based adventuring. And then the Sky Islands will be shrine like where part of the puzzle is getting to them. And then the cleared out caverns will be big new areas to explore with dungeon like elements to them.
 
Serif said:
But also I have so many questions, like why Ganondorf was even kept around in the first place under Hyrule Castle generating Malice. Was it to prevent his reincarnation? Or is something sinister going on?Calamity Ganon seems to have been a puppet the whole time.
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The Sheikah were converting his Malice to the blue energy to power their technology?
 
The only thing I thought was lacking was the lore in BOTW, because sure, you collect the memories and try to make sense of what happened during the calamity but even then I felt like the main story could've been even more fleshed out. For instance, I don't even think that the game mentioned what the Triforce actually was. So if there's one thing that I believe will be heavily a part of this new game, it's the story. I personally think that the story they made in Age of Calamity was really, really good and well thought out, and I'd love to see that same level of lore used in Tears of the Kingdom. I just want more cutscenes (without making it an entire movie-game)!
 
Okayge said:
The only thing I thought was lacking was the lore in BOTW, because sure, you collect the memories and try to make sense of what happened during the calamity but even then I felt like the main story could've been even more fleshed out. For instance, I don't even think that the game mentioned what the Triforce actually was. So if there's one thing that I believe will be heavily a part of this new game, it's the story. I personally think that the story they made in Age of Calamity was really, really good and well thought out, and I'd love to see that same level of lore used in Tears of the Kingdom. I just want more cutscenes (without making it an entire movie-game)!
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The Triforce is not explicitly mentioned, no, but that doesn't bother me. This game is supposed to be set so many tens of thousands of years after the rest of the timeline(s) that all past events have faded into myth. It's not the first time where we've seen a Hyrule that doesn't understand the power of the Triforce anymore. I would however be a bit disappointed if the sequel doesn't involve re-discovering that knowledge. After all, they seem to be discovering the real truth behind "Calamity Ganon" in this game.
 
Yavga said:
I was just thinking about that 2d prototype engine they made for BotW styled in the Classic Zelda game, think they expanded on that for the sequel?

Seems hard to me seeing as the game is all about the vertical axis now which can be harder to translate to 2D.


the-legend-of-zelda-breath-of-the-wild-gdc-prototype-yfus.png


Would love to see a standalone release sometime, maybe as a special game&watch themed release or something else.
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it was always a testing environment to test the chemistry engine and game flow. probably nothing to expand on there
 
LukasManak22 said:
We know this since March. Aonuma said it in delay announcement.
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I know, but at the time I thought it was a simple "and more!" type thing, but now with the PR saying the same thing, I guess it's about something else, something they haven't shown yet.

And no, it's not freaking space. Zelda is not sci-fi, it's high fantasy.
 
Yavga said:
I was just thinking about that 2d prototype engine they made for BotW styled in the Classic Zelda game, think they expanded on that for the sequel?

Seems hard to me seeing as the game is all about the vertical axis now which can be harder to translate to 2D.


the-legend-of-zelda-breath-of-the-wild-gdc-prototype-yfus.png


Would love to see a standalone release sometime, maybe as a special game&watch themed release or something else.
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They did not build all mechanics and ideas of BotW in that style to test it, it was the initial test for the playstyle and interactions, to see if it would be fun befor investign a lot of time in developing an engine for it. Then they made BotW. No need to expand on an prototype when they have BotW as a sign that it works, and can prototype stuff in that game where it directly translates.

Bythe way: they should release that, just to hold us over.
 
I just noticed that the vials on Links belt have an eye above them. It's pupil glows green and looks like the eye on Links shield. I'm starting to believe those vials contain the tears, or "tears of the kingdom".
 
Dark Cloud said:
So has everyone given up on playable Zelda? Lol
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If she is playable, that feels more like story trailer or final trailer material. They wouldn't even need to show much. They could just have a cutscene of her and then the camera zooms out to a behind the back view and then the trailer cuts off there. People would go wild.
 
WestEgg said:
I’m leaning towards it being less likely now, though I won’t be surprised if it’s present in some form, either in certain story sequences or as a DLC campaign.
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DLC where it’s only Zelda would be great. Link goes on vacation and stuff happens would be cool.
 
Dark Cloud said:
So has everyone given up on playable Zelda? Lol
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I think she will be playable still. I can see the team giving her a literal Sheik character arc or equivalent. I don't think the Zelda team would have given her a new design if she was just going to be chucked down a hole for Link to rescue her the entire game. In BOTW, Zelda was in the story through Link's memories, but I don't think they'll just put more memories of Zelda for Link to remember, so I think they have to involve her in the story again, and everyone wants her to be more involved than in BOTW.

If Zelda does escape the hole she fell into, and maybe we will play as her to get out, she'll see all the crap Ganondorf did to Hyrule. The first place Zelda would go to is Kakariko village to consult Impa, in my opinion. Since it seems Zelda can't use the triforce anymore, and now that the Sheikah technology is gone, she would probably feel helpless to help Hyrule. That's where she will try to train as a Sheikah ninja/monk, and become Sheik. Or maybe she gets a Sheik arc with her training as a Zonai fighter.
 
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RealUncleNintendo said:
When are they actually going to show us more of the game? Maybe a big trailer for game awards? Zelda direct? These little teasers are killing me…
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Could be Game Awards, could be at a potential Switch 2 reveal in early 2023, the next Direct around February/March 2023. I'd say those are the 3 options.
 
Considering we saw Zelda falling deeper into the ground below Hyrule castle I could see a scenario where the presence of the malice underground is very strong and it’s creating some sort of barrier keeping her stuck down there and keeping Link out of the deeper part of the underground. So maybe there’s points in the overworld/the underground (that link would be able to explore) where you’re able to connect with Zelda who’s in the deepest parts of the underground malice where she can do shrine like things/explore this dungeon like deep underground and change things in the overworld/sky that Link could then explore.

I’m trying to think of how they could make character switching work, and I feel like it needs each character to have their own area they can explore but you also need like specific spots where you do the switching idk I don’t really expect to be able to play as Zelda in the overworld/sky doing the same stuff as Link
 
I guess it's been discussed a lot already, but I'm really hoping we can dive and do some underwater stuff this time. Even if it's kinda limited and they don't, like, build a whole dungeon around it. I just hope it's a feature. Proper fishing with a rod would be great too!
 
ILikeFeet said:
Sometimes mysteries should stay mysteries. Over-explaining things ruins a lot of the mystique
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Agreed on a certain degree, but when the main story in Botw was only that cutscene of the tapestry, and when you see how much lore they haven't used for the main story and cutscenes... it's kind of frustrating. As a result, a lot of people said the story was lackluster in Botw. Just hope they dig deeper in the sequel.
 
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Let's assume Zelda is playable, how do you think that would work in the context of this game? Zelda games have had other playable characters before but they were always with Link and only for very specific occasions, like in dungeons. In BOTW 1, they were very committed to the open world gameplay. Everything was experienced through Link's eyes and exploration was all driven by the player's choice. If Zelda is playable, would you be able to between her and Link at anytime, each exploring their respective locations? GTA V had 3 playable characters you could switch to at any point although all three occupied the same open world and they would roam about when you weren't playing as them. How would story progression work? Would you need to finish something in Link's story to continue something in Zelda's and vice versa? That would stray away from the freedom BOTW 1 had. If Zelda is only playable in certain segments, that too would stray away from BOTW's open world design.
 
HockeyBird said:
Let's assume Zelda is playable, how do you think that would work in the context of this game? Zelda games have had other playable characters before but they were always with Link and only for very specific occasions, like in dungeons. In BOTW 1, they were very committed to the open world gameplay. Everything was experienced through Link's eyes and exploration was all driven by the player's choice. If Zelda is playable, would you be able to between her and Link at anytime, each exploring their respective locations? GTA V had 3 playable characters you could switch to at any point although all three occupied the same open world and they would roam about when you weren't playing as them. How would story progression work? Would you need to finish something in Link's story to continue something in Zelda's and vice versa? That would stray away from the freedom BOTW 1 had. If Zelda is only playable in certain segments, that too would stray away from BOTW's open world design.
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Zelda is in the shadow realm now and has to escape the clutches of evil, I totally didn't think this up because of Birth by Sleep.

Edit: to make it slightly more interesting while in the shadow realm she can interact with certain environmental things in order to open up a new path for Link who sees events happen but has no clue who or what makes them happen.

Edit2: because we saw Zelda being in the shadow we automatically ASSUME she is helping Link but it was actually Tingle all along but the player never knows this only die hard fans who collect every tear (9000 this time) get to see this in a mural.
 
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HockeyBird said:
Let's assume Zelda is playable, how do you think that would work in the context of this game? Zelda games have had other playable characters before but they were always with Link and only for very specific occasions, like in dungeons. In BOTW 1, they were very committed to the open world gameplay. Everything was experienced through Link's eyes and exploration was all driven by the player's choice. If Zelda is playable, would you be able to between her and Link at anytime, each exploring their respective locations? GTA V had 3 playable characters you could switch to at any point although all three occupied the same open world and they would roam about when you weren't playing as them. How would story progression work? Would you need to finish something in Link's story to continue something in Zelda's and vice versa? That would stray away from the freedom BOTW 1 had. If Zelda is only playable in certain segments, that too would stray away from BOTW's open world design.
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Yeah I think the biggest hurdle to playable Zelda is maintaining the spirit of Breath of the Wild. That’s partly why I had mentioned above the idea of needing to go to specific spots to be able to switch if Zelda is kept to her own playable area. That could keep the seamlessness of the exploration gameplay. Like as link part of what you’re looking for now instead of maybe shrines is these points in the overworld where you’re able to connect with Zelda and then play as her. That does become kind of limiting in that when playing as Zelda you might have to return to that same spot you started at.

But I guess considering that and also the plot justification you could have the main part of of gameplay involved with the “dungeon”plotline. Like as the divine beasts had the approach section we could start as Link on the overworld, do some stuff surrounding the “dungeon”, find a specific “switch point”, play as Zelda to open the dungeon for link (either activating something below to open it, send the dungeon itself up, activate something in the sky, etc) as welll as just having her there for doing shrine like equivalents which are removed from the plot. Then she can also have some sort of role in the final confrontation approach.

Not that I think it will happen this way or at all, but just spit balling. But I think there’s probably ways they can deal with the plot issue and maintaining the spirit of exploration BotW

Edit: also because I don’t really see there being shrines in Hyrule again the equivalent can be relegated to the sky and the underground and wherever Zelda might find herself
 
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RealUncleNintendo said:
When are they actually going to show us more of the game? Maybe a big trailer for game awards? Zelda direct? These little teasers are killing me…
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I don't see it happening at the game awards. Most we can expect there is probably a Mario movie trailer.

Nintendo has made it clear it has no interest in bringing the goods to Keighley events.
 
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