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

[karmitt]

Y'all gotta put threads on ignore if they bother you

Hell, I put the spoiler thread on ignore to cut out the temptation, and now it's like it doesn't exist! All hunky dorey

Correct. I did in fact delete Twitter, but the ignore feature and great moderation give me enough confidence I can stick around here.

As mentioned I tried blocking this site on my phone and the blocking was super aggressive - blocking bing among others despite not being in the list.

 

[Awesomegames23]

I’ll look at the artwork a couple weeks into TotK I’m sure.

“I think you are now ready, ready to see what leaked, 100 days ago.”

 

[SMALLVILLE BOY]

Happy Bday to the best videogame franchise of all time!

 

[Serif]

Just spitballing, from Purah's diary:

Work has finally begun on my anti-aging rune. If all goes to plan, I believe it will effectively reverse the aging process.

This technology will enable us to make retired warriors young again, thereby strengthening the Hyrulean army.

The beta version of my anti-aging rune is complete. I have already added it to the Sheikah Slate I made for myself.

I wonder, since Link's rewind power shown in the trailer glows yellow like stasis instead of green, if the momentum reversal is a rune developed by Purah similar to her anti-aging one, and was incorporated into his gauntlet.

I'm also guessing the Slate Zelda's holding in the art belongs to Purah.

 

[Onilink]

For Hylia’s sake, there’s a special place in Lorule for people who put the leaked artwork as their YouTube video thumbnail.

Shitstorm in this case are justified. Report these videos with the force of thousands suns

 

[Aether]

Happy Bday to the best videogame franchise of all time!

I honestly... dont get random "birthdays" for media products. decade? fine, i gess the global inpact.
Then again, birthdays for most people i know and like are a "comes and goes" thing.

Shitstorm in this case are justified. Report these videos with the force of thousands suns

Thats just an asshole move, to get more clicks. No spoiler in the title/thumbnail, but hint that there will be spoilers, so that people dont click it if they dont want to!

 

[reconceptualize]

@reconceptualize
This guy came to my door yesterday and I made the decision to take the red pill, otherwise I would love to still theorize here

"red pill"

 

[TheCongressman]

Just spitballing, from Purah's diary:



I wonder, since Link's rewind power shown in the trailer glows yellow like stasis instead of green, if the momentum reversal is a rune developed by Purah similar to her anti-aging one, and was incorporated into his gauntlet.

I'm also guessing the Slate Zelda's holding in the art belongs to Purah.

Maybe Purah's aging experiment goes wrong again and turns into a shrinking rune. Reusing the minish idea.

 

[chocolate_supra]

"red pill"

 

[Awesomegames23]

It should've been the red potion and blue potion

 

[Skies]

So 8 other people and I haven’t seen the leaks.

9 companions, so be it, we shall be the Fellowship of the Leaks.

The leaks will try and tempt us, just like the ring.

I would like to join this fellowship!

While last week was very chaotic for me, it helped me dodge the leak when it first came out. As of today I have only seen a a few pages by accident, but my eyes and mind have not been fully infected by the malice content know as the CE artbook. I plan to keep it that way until the next official Nintendo reveal.

 

[chocolate_supra]

So 8 other people and I haven’t seen the leaks.

9 companions, so be it, we shall be the Fellowship of the Leaks.

The leaks will try and tempt us, just like the ring.

I only saw the first little bit (the stuff we already saw in the trailers) and then dipped when I realized it was real, so I don't really count myself as having "seen the leaks."

So maybe I can be Faramir or something.

 

[Awesomegames23]

Ok so now we are the Fellowship of the Leaks + 4.

 

[Skittzo]

I would love to stay and chat but I feel I have the burden of knowledge.

 

[maidhhc]

Hopefully the next trailer will have enough overlap with the artbook that we can all have a reunification party - it's pretty likely

 

[Awesomegames23]

We were talking earlier about how there’s that 1 clip in the trailer that shows a sky island over an area south of Hebra, and we were speculating whether the island is covering some kind of expanded area. Just going to point out that there is a small bird that is flying as straight as an arrow towards the direction of that area. It’s hard to distinguish amongst all the blue wisps but you’ll know when you see it.

Edit: Actually there is like 7 birds.

 

[Skies]

Hopefully the next trailer will have enough overlap with the artbook that we can all have a reunification party - it's pretty likely

Yeah I am of the mindset that the majority of whatever leaked will be shown officially in some capacity before release.

So it's kind of a really cool scenario. It's nice to know more information is out there and people are hyped about it. I like reading the non-spoiler reactions. And if I accidentally see something else while browsing, it's not the end of the world. It will just spoil the next Zelda reveal, which I plan to watch anyways.

 

[Pakooly]

nvm

 

[Awesomegames23]

Analyzing every frame in the last trailer now seems so innocent, lol.

 

[merp]

Happy Bday to the best videogame franchise of all time!

Is this you?

 

[Awesomegames23]

Is this you?

It's probably Nate

 

[totofogo]

I know this isn't official, but the mini-map is cute and I might have to get it

 

[merp]

It's probably Nate

Don't Hate the Nate.

 

[chocolate_supra]

It's probably Nate

Nate the GreatHair

 

[Horror Kid]

I am tainted by the leak, but I promise nothing here is hinted at in any shape or form in the artbook. These are mostly not new ideas, I know – but the discussion seems to wind down here anyway…


Alright:
What if we really have to destroy the blood moon because otherwise the land is just overrun again and again by stronger and stronger monsters?
They are out of ideas and just crash the whole damn thing on the planet (nod to Majora's Mask) and by that cause a huge flood.

Or we need to do some kind of cleansing ritual to wash away the malice by endless rainfall and that would raise the sea level as well (= tears of the kingdom – this would explain why they considered the title a spoiler…).

The incentive for doing sidequests would be huge in this case. You could help all people of hyrule fleeing to a safe island in the sky (maybe an expanded tarrey town). Otherwise, they would drown in the flood, if you go to the end boss right away. A bad ending that would earn its name - I would say...



Flooding Hyrule like in Wind Waker kept me further thinking and now I already want a third game in the BotW/TotK style and with this map - but even more drastically changed. I just love the artstyle and the world building and would like to have a continuation of that.
I am playing Subnautica – Below Zero right now (loved the first one) which might explain my dreams.

So Hyrule is almost completely submerged, only the mountaintops are left as islands. The sky islands descend and agglomerate to form a few regular islands with unique flora and fauna. Let another 1000 years pass. Hyrule is now covered by reefs and underwater vegetation, all the old ruins, towns and hyrule castle are completely overgrown and degrading further.
Let me explore that ocean subnautica-style with upgradeable diving gear, getting deeper and deeper until we swim through the deepest caves (that might now be in TotK), using a weird Sheikah/Zonai submarine in the endgame.
Let me fight giant enemy crabs and hellish deep sea creatures. These leviathans we only have seen the bones of in BotW swim once again through the ocean. Maybe they could perfect navigation and combat underwater like they probably do now for the air.

And on top of all that make the land mass west and north of hyrule one giant new explorable island, where horse riding is once more a good means of transportation, and there you have a more classic Zelda gameplay approach.

Should be a new Link anyway – so finally use a female Link please.
And not Ganon/Ganondorf or anything like that again. Create a new and unique threat (no ideas right now).

That's all I ask, thank you

 

[Awesomegames23]

I had no clue that there is a snow bowling mini game in BoTW until today. Am I alone?

 

[Mr_No_U]

I had no clue that there is a snow bowling mini game in BoTW until today. Am I alone?

BotW has several minigames. Do you know about the other ones?

 

[Awesomegames23]

BotW has several minigames. Do you know about the other ones?

Yes, but I never knew about the bowling one until earlier today. I don’t know how I missed it, although once I did everything in Tabantha and Hebra I didn’t really go there much since I didn’t really find those areas appealing to wander around.

 

[maidhhc]

hate to be this guy, but I wonder if they’ve already started production on the next Zelda? does anyone know how this usually works?

 

[Golden]

hate to be this guy, but I wonder if they’ve already started production on the next Zelda? does anyone know how this usually works?

Probably not. I feel like they might have DLC for this one and are probably finishing the game and planning ideas for it. They will debut soon after the release of TotK imo.

 

[Awesomegames23]

hate to be this guy, but I wonder if they’ve already started production on the next Zelda? does anyone know how this usually works?

I don’t think so, I think they polish the game almost up until the time the game hits the cartridge printers. BoTW was finished just under 2 months before it was released apparently, so I guess TotK will be done in a couple weeks or so, I.e. gone gold.

Edit: I imagine some of the team is currently finishing up TotK and other parts of the team are working on DLC.

 

[karmitt]

hate to be this guy, but I wonder if they’ve already started production on the next Zelda? does anyone know how this usually works?

I’m sure they’ve started in the way that not every idea is going to make it into this game, but perhaps not formally.

I do think Nintendo should be aiming to reduce the time between future major Zelda releases, and that hypothetical would require them to have dedicated groups starting in earnest 2-3 years before the nearest game releases.

 

[Awesomegames23]

The people who've seen the leaks being consumed by them

The Fellowship resisting the leaks

 

[kvetcha]

I just beat Vah Rudania in a fresh playthrough, theme is beaut.


I laugh whenever I read 'this game has no music.'

It’s an incredible soundtrack, imo. I feel like the only people I hear regularly trashing it are folks whose definition of ‘good’ translates to ‘hummable.’

 

[LukasManak22]

The people who've seen the leaks being consumed by them

The Fellowship resisting the leaks

we are strong

 

[HockeyBird]

The people who've seen the leaks being consumed by them

The Fellowship resisting the leaks

we are strong

 

[M4tthieu]

I am questioning about the souls we saw in the underground scene of the trailer, why are they here? And why the mokoblin is digging rocks? Maybe ennemies are looking for souls or nox gems?

If i remember, Rinkuto (a french zelda youtuber) theorizes that nox gems could be souls.

Or maybe they are looking for tears, we dont know the nature of the seven tears that we can see on the wall. Could they be souls of the seven sages? in that way, Ganon orders to his fellows to search these sage tear/soul.

i like to think tears of the kingdom may link to souls of the people of hyrule who die in the tragic events of the kingdom .

 

[Spheromancer]

I know this is weird to say and might be a hot take, but I think I actually RECOMMEND looking at the Artbook if you're excited for this game. I personally was on the fence, but I looked at every image and I do not regret it at all. It only gives more questions than answers, and does a better job of marketing the game than some of the trailers.

Its worth keeping in mind that the artbook comes out WITH the game. This is not like Creating a Champion or a Strategy Guide for the game. Its not meant to show any big plot points or major spoilers. I'm 100% confident that nearly everything shown in the book will be revealed one way or another by future trailers or marketing material. Half the fun of a Zelda game to me is the speculation that comes before its release, and this only makes that so much more fun with all the content that provides questions in the book.

Obviously do what you want, and if you're excited to go into the game blind obviously stay away. But personally I would much rather this Artbook than a Zelda Direct blowing out the game and giving us tons of gameplay. I really hope they don't do that, because thats the type of stuff that can ruin the magic of playing a game for the first time. What the artbook does only gives me more excitement for the game than I already had. I just had to say this somewhere

 

[LukasManak22]

I know this is weird to say and might be a hot take, but I think I actually RECOMMEND looking at the Artbook if you're excited for this game. I personally was on the fence, but I looked at every image and I do not regret it at all. It only gives more questions than answers, and does a better job of marketing the game than some of the trailers.

Its worth keeping in mind that the artbook comes out WITH the game. This is not like Creating a Champion or a Strategy Guide for the game. Its not meant to show any big plot points or major spoilers. I'm 100% confident that nearly everything shown in the book will be revealed one way or another by future trailers or marketing material. Half the fun of a Zelda game to me is the speculation that comes before its release, and this only makes that so much more fun with all the content that provides questions in the book.

Obviously do what you want, and if you're excited to go into the game blind obviously stay away. But personally I would much rather this Artbook than a Zelda Direct blowing out the game and giving us tons of gameplay. I really hope they don't do that, because thats the type of stuff that can ruin the magic of playing a game for the first time. What the artbook does only gives me more excitement for the game than I already had. I just had to say this somewhere

Nice try, but we champions are not going anywhere from this thread.

 

[chocolate_supra]

It’s an incredible soundtrack, imo. I feel like the only people I hear regularly trashing it are folks whose definition of ‘good’ translates to ‘hummable.’

I hum songs from BotW all the time

 

[Dardan Sandiego]

I'm extremely intrigued by what looks like Gleeok. There's some key differences between traditional depictions, most notably the fiery heads. BotW had a ton of elemental variations (and Age of Calamity doubled down) so I'm wondering if we could have ice and electric variants as well. Also, in Phantom Hourglass one head attacked with fire and the other with ice. Now I'm imagining a super strong Gleeok with all three elements combined.

 

[Silent]

I’ve been pretty tempted to take a peek in the art book threads, haha. Part of the reason is just wanting to know what everyone else thinks. It’s fun to enjoy this stuff with other people, so there’s definitely some feeling of being left out.

 

[Awesomegames23]

When we get our next trailer, I’ll be able to hear from people who looked at the art book whether or not a lot of the art they’ve seen was in the trailer. If it was, great I’ll look at the art work, if it wasn’t then it’s a good thing I didn’t look at the art work (besides the first few initial images that appeared in this thread).

I get that the art book doesn’t really have spoilers, but we’ve waited nearly 4 years (or 6 years) for this game, refraining from the art book will help keep the cherry on top of this sundae that much sweeter when the game comes out in 80 days.

 

[Layalseif]

I bet the CE for the next Zelda game ain't getting an art book, lol.

They'll ship it out separately in the future. Like Xenoblade 3 Collector's Edition. The limited edition items were sent separately. In the future, the game will release first and then limited editions items will release without the game.

 

[Skittzo]

I'm extremely intrigued by what looks like Gleeok. There's some key differences between traditional depictions, most notably the fiery heads. BotW had a ton of elemental variations (and Age of Calamity doubled down) so I'm wondering if we could have ice and electric variants as well. Also, in Phantom Hourglass one head attacked with fire and the other with ice. Now I'm imagining a super strong Gleeok with all three elements combined.

I want the defeated heads to pop off and float around like in Zelda 1.

 

[hk-rara]

I know this is weird to say and might be a hot take, but I think I actually RECOMMEND looking at the Artbook if you're excited for this game. I personally was on the fence, but I looked at every image and I do not regret it at all. It only gives more questions than answers, and does a better job of marketing the game than some of the trailers.

Its worth keeping in mind that the artbook comes out WITH the game. This is not like Creating a Champion or a Strategy Guide for the game. Its not meant to show any big plot points or major spoilers. I'm 100% confident that nearly everything shown in the book will be revealed one way or another by future trailers or marketing material. Half the fun of a Zelda game to me is the speculation that comes before its release, and this only makes that so much more fun with all the content that provides questions in the book.

Obviously do what you want, and if you're excited to go into the game blind obviously stay away. But personally I would much rather this Artbook than a Zelda Direct blowing out the game and giving us tons of gameplay. I really hope they don't do that, because thats the type of stuff that can ruin the magic of playing a game for the first time. What the artbook does only gives me more excitement for the game than I already had. I just had to say this somewhere

I am getting the CE so I know at one point I will be looking at the artbook, but I kinda wanna wait until I have it in my hands to appreciate it. I also don't really feel the need to look at the artbook right now lol I also feel like I have weird personal opinions regarding leaks lol like the potential leaked oled I looked at in great detail, but feel no need to even glance at the artbook early. I am also good at reading general summaries of the book, but don't want to see the art. idk why I feel this way lol

 

[Serif]

When we get our next trailer, I’ll be able to hear from people who looked at the art book whether or not a lot of the art they’ve seen was in the trailer. If it was, great I’ll look at the art work, if it wasn’t then it’s a good thing I didn’t look at the art work (besides the first few initial images that appeared in this thread).

I'll make an album of the pieces in the art book that overlap with the next trailer

 

[maidhhc]

As someone who did look, and enjoyed looking, I do really understand people who want to hold back. Even if the spoilers aren’t huge - 200+ pages of images does provide a lot of information - and shows plenty of crazy designs that would be fun to encounter unexpectedly in-game.

I can’t decide if I regret it or not - but I do really love speculating on the puzzle pieces atm.

 

[TheCongressman]

I still haven't seen any of the leaks. idk if it will last for months, but at least it sounds like there's nothing too major if a few pics show up somewhere.

People keep saying since it's a collectors edition book, it was meant for people to look at it before they play... But how many people would do that? I'd be putting the game in as soon as I got it, and look at the book later. Not to say it isn't made for people look at right away, I just wouldn't.

 

[Golden]

I'm extremely intrigued by what looks like Gleeok. There's some key differences between traditional depictions, most notably the fiery heads. BotW had a ton of elemental variations (and Age of Calamity doubled down) so I'm wondering if we could have ice and electric variants as well. Also, in Phantom Hourglass one head attacked with fire and the other with ice. Now I'm imagining a super strong Gleeok with all three elements combined.

Oh god, electric gleeok i would RUN.

As for the artbook, i don't think seeing some of it will ruin anything. But i do think going for the 200 pages can be spoilery in the end, you will ruin some surprises that won't be in the trailers for sure.