Spoiler The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - Pre-Release Spoiler Discussion Thread (Tag Story Spoilers)

[Suswave]

he went super saiyan 5

dragon ball

 

[lucapfstr]

The crafting system will definitely solve the issues with the first game’s durability system.

In ToTK, I’m thinking that the base you use for your weapon determines the durability while the attatchment determines the strength and abilities.

When a weapon you craft breaks, the attachment is destroyed, they act like consumables and you can have a multitude of attachments in your inventory. Meanwhile, the base (stick, sword, pole) is a part of a finite inventory much like it is now.

For a point of comparison, look at a game with craftable weapons like Minecraft. If it weren’t for enchanting, you wouldn’t even need to repair things as you could just make a new one.

I hope you can also uncraft and recycle attachments, or else players will hoard good attachments for when they get a good base.

 

[Phendrift]

I personally think they could have had their cake and ate it too by

Spoiler

basically splitting the game into two parts. Part I would have been the prequel people expected it to be, including the tragic ending. And only then then you'd have unlocked the alternate timeline that would have led into the events of Age of Calamity with time travel shenanigans and fanservice.

Ultimately, the game is still fun for what it is but it feels like it could have been better in this regard.

Yeah, I love AOC and don’t even hate the story that much like most do, but it’s craaazy that they didn’t do it like this

 

[Serif]

Remember that Italian VA who talked about voicing an 'ancestor of Daruk?'


And there's signs of some 'ancient Hyrule'

And might be a fire / Goron + Zonai temple with a symbol of a four eyed lizard, possibly the creature that inspired Vah Rudania's design in-universe

Hmm

 

[ZeldaPY]

Mini things I noticed in the Art Book and some mini theories that I don't think have been discussed yet. And Actually one of them just started out as DLC to a larger theory I had, but I had so many ideas for it, that it just became its own stand alone theory....

Hidden weapons in plain site:

Looking at these two Hats, they remind me of the weapons we are seeing on the monsters now and presumably will be able to craft our own weapons from those parts. But these are some serious lethal hats, I could imagine doing a spin move in close combat to slice enemies with your dangling half moon meat cleavers or charging the enemy head on with your spiked spear. I feel like the enemies will be charging at us a lot with their weapons on their heads as part of their new attack moves.
But seeing these two hats it begs the question, if this might be something we will be able craft ourselves and use in battle? It could be simple and these are one offs and only associated with the Shiekah in this game, but I don't think it would be too much of a stretch to see Link being able to have the same move sets as the Monsters and charge right back at them head first with a Spiked tip helmet. Like two buckhorn deers going at it type thing.

I mentioned earlier and think some others have probably mentioned this by now I assume, but Links flying costume eyewear looks so mechanical to me. In another theory I was talking about all the strange eyewear everyone was wearing, but I think this headwear will function as a zoom lens while flying; the image focuses on the eye which looks like it could be a lens to me.

This next image I just found strange the way it is presented in the Art Book which could mean nothing and I am making a bigger deal out of it then it needs to be. Its obvious a Sand Seal Helmet right.

There is a few odd things going with these images. At first when I glanced at it, I thought "Oh, cool a Sand Seal helmet." But looking at the display it's sitting on is strange because its not a flat or a smooth surface like you would expect. Its sitting on a landscape of sand, which isn't completely out of ordinary since it is a Sand Seal helmet, but just the fact that it has its own unique display makes me think it could be an important plot point, like the Thunder Helmet was in BotW.
The only thing I could see us needing a Sand Seal helmet for defense would be something like Earth creatures or Earth related magic against us. We already have the sand boots for traveling easier across the sand. So the other idea I had was to be able to tunnel down through the sand when wearing the Helmet. Also, first image of the helmet in the top left, the way it is sitting on the sand, kind of reminds me of what a dungeon entrance would look like and maybe we need the helmet to find it type thing.

I was looking at the time shift stones from SS and the symbol at the top of the Sheikah eye reminds me of this same symbol found above the Tear in the Art book. It doesn't confirm the Tears are time shift stones, but the whole set up of the Tear from the pedestal with the four prongs and the Tear floating above it, and from what looks like it is being activated by the artists animation looks very similar.

It could just be a callback type thing, but It looks like to me this is after the Tear has been activated. Maybe we are not collecting them, but just activating them. It would lend some credence to the theory of localized time jumping. I also had thought that Gannondorf's minions were mining to collect raw material for their own weapons, which could be the case, but maybe they are also searching for the Tears as well. It would make sense story wise if Gannondorf wanted to return back to the point in time before he was sealed by the hand.

 

[ZeldaPY]

Remember that Italian VA who talked about voicing an 'ancestor of Daruk?'


And there's signs of some 'ancient Hyrule'

And might be a fire / Goron + Zonai temple with a symbol of a four eyed lizard, possibly the creature that inspired Vah Rudania's design in-universe

Hmm

The more evidence that pops up, I don’t see how we are not getting themed dungeons at this point.

 

[sanstea]

Remember that Italian VA who talked about voicing an 'ancestor of Daruk?'


And there's signs of some 'ancient Hyrule'

And might be a fire / Goron + Zonai temple with a symbol of a four eyed lizard, possibly the creature that inspired Vah Rudania's design in-universe

Hmm

It would fit right in. Rauru is coming back as a name (and likely sage) and Nabooru and Ruto are already in BotW's lore as sages who apparently fought alongside Link and Zelda against a "wicked being" long before the Divine Beasts existed.

Maybe the dungeons in TotK are the trials from the sages of that time the hero had to endure in order to defeat that wicked being.

 

[sanstea]

It all makes sense.

 

[Serif]

[... observations ..]

I didn't even notice that was a Sand Seal helmet haha. Sand traversal in BotW got cumbersome when you had to bomb the poor fellows or sneak up on them to grab hold of. What if this is the sand equivalent of the wingsuit - easy traversal by 'swimming' in the sand?

The more evidence that pops up, I don’t see how we are not getting themed dungeons at this point.

I've observed at least four distinct themed exteriors/interiors that share Zonai architecture while being reminiscent of the four tribes (Gerudo, Zora, Goron, Rito). BotW team are already on record for 'trying to create themed dungeons with the Divine Beasts, so this may be them committing to that concept.

It would fit right in. Rauru is coming back as a name (and likely sage) and Nabooru and Ruto are already in BotW's lore as sages who apparently fought alongside Link and Zelda against a "wicked being" long before the Divine Beasts existed.

Maybe the dungeons in TotK are the trials from the sages of that time the hero had to endure in order to defeat that wicked being.

I just assumed this was referencing the events of Ocarina of Time.

 

[ZeldaPY]

I didn't even notice that was a Sand Seal helmet haha. Sand traversal in BotW got cumbersome when you had to bomb the poor fellows or sneak up on them to grab hold of. What if this is the sand equivalent of the wingsuit - easy traversal by 'swimming' in the sand?


I've observed at least four distinct themed exteriors/interiors that share Zonai architecture while being reminiscent of the four tribes (Gerudo, Zora, Goron, Rito). BotW team are already on record for 'trying to create themed dungeons with the Divine Beasts, so this may be them committing to that concept.


I just assumed this was referencing the events of Ocarina of Time.

I like swimming in sand as a possibility, maybe they all left town once Ganondorf shows up so we need a faster way to get around. It would be funny if that’s finally the first time we hear Link, making the same honks and grunts the Sand Seal makes as Link is swimming in the sand.

We were at 7 sages before right, still needing another 4 to make the math correct for the 11 glyphs And or dungeons. Well there you go, add in another 4 for the sages that the Devine beasts were named after…

 

[sanstea]

This game got me feeling like Einstein in the early 1900s trying to make sense of light, time and space.

Two serpents feeding off each other in an endless cycle. One can't exist without the other.

The future can't exist without the past and the past can't exist without the future.

The heroes of the future have to exist to defeat the evil of the past. The evil of the past has to be defeated for the heroes of the future to exist.

Link and Zelda have to go back in time to seal Ganondorf so the future can take place for Link and Zelda to exist in the future to defeat and seal Ganondorf in the past.

The Zonai are the Deus Ex Machina to make this convulted time loop possible.

I just assumed this was referencing the events of Ocarina of Time.

I didn't think much about it either before because why should one, but Rauru is coming back in TotK. Definite possibility now.

 

[Phendrift]

It would fit right in. Rauru is coming back as a name (and likely sage) and Nabooru and Ruto are already in BotW's lore as sages who apparently fought alongside Link and Zelda against a "wicked being" long before the Divine Beasts existed.

Maybe the dungeons in TotK are the trials from the sages of that time the hero had to endure in order to defeat that wicked being.

It’s definitely interesting that Ruta and Naboris are the only “known” ones in lore, when the other two are also named after sages from prior games. were Darunia and Medli forgotten?

That said, I do hope this doesn’t end up being a direct reference to OoT with characters from it in the game

 

[Skittzo]

It’s definitely interesting that Ruta and Naboris are the only “known” ones in lore, when the other two are also named after sages from prior games. were Darunia and Medli forgotten?

That said, I do hope this doesn’t end up being a direct reference to OoT with characters from it in the game

Considering this is almost certainly the downfall timeline Medli was not a sage, at least as far as we know. I can totally see Darunia becoming Rudania over time though.

 

[Hairway to Steven]

Does anyone have pictures of that mushroom lady?

And how do upload photos from hard drive on here?

 

[Serif]

We were at 7 sages before right, still needing another 4 to make the math correct for the 11 glyphs And or dungeons. Well there you go, add in another 4 for the sages that the Devine beasts were named after…

The 11 geoglyphs + 1 ancient temple reminded me of the 12 labors of Hercules:

1. Slay the Nemean lion.
2. Slay the nine-headed Lernaean Hydra.
3. Capture the Ceryneian Hind.
4. Capture the Erymanthian Boar.
5. Clean the Augean stables in a single day.
6. Slay the Stymphalian birds.
7. Capture the Cretan Bull.
8. Steal the Mares of Diomedes.
9. Obtain the girdle of Hippolyta, queen of the Amazon.
10. Obtain the cattle of the three-bodied giant Geryon.
11. Steal three of the golden apples of the Hesperides.
12. Capture and bring back Cerberus.

Perhaps there's some prophecy of a hero fulfilling 11/12 tasks throughout the overworld, and seven (or one) of the tasks is collecting or activating the 7 tears here:

These other tasks could be like larger shrine quests, some involving dungeons, others involving overworld events.

 

[sanstea]

Yeah, I woudn't expect more than 7 "dungeons".

The art book only focuses on 4 dungeon environments so I could even see 4 again being the number of "main dungeons" with stuff like the pirate ship being elaborate shrines.

I don't think the Zelda dev team thinks in terms of number of dungeons anymore, but rather the number of puzzle environments which can vary greatly in size or length.

 

[Mango]

I might have said this before, but I feel like the magatama are not like the dungeon rewards but are the replacements of the spirit orbs and you'll need seven of them this time instead of four.

I don't think they'd include something like the end game vessel in which you place the main artifacts in a art book like this.

 

[Magic-Man]

11 Dungeons:

• 5 "traditional" dungeons in the style of the earlier 3D games. Probably Water/Fire/Sand/Earth/Forest.
• 5 "new" dungeons in the style of Hyrule Castle/Eventide Island in BOTW. More exploration and out of the box thinking than puzzle solving. One main goal, figure out how to get to it.
• 1 final dungeon to end the game.

That's what I'm hoping for at least.

 

[Captain Falcon]

Dumb question, but how many past Link’s have there been? Just wondering if there may be a connection to the tears / the map as I feel like it’s pretty close to 11.

 

[Truno]

I'm thinking that the pirate ship could be handled in two ways:

Wind Waker Style: A sidequest that features a small-scale encounter
Phantom Hourglass Style: A mini-dungeon featuring a unique boss

 

[ZeldaPY]

The 11 geoglyphs + 1 ancient temple reminded me of the 12 labors of Hercules:

1. Slay the Nemean lion.
2. Slay the nine-headed Lernaean Hydra.
3. Capture the Ceryneian Hind.
4. Capture the Erymanthian Boar.
5. Clean the Augean stables in a single day.
6. Slay the Stymphalian birds.
7. Capture the Cretan Bull.
8. Steal the Mares of Diomedes.
9. Obtain the girdle of Hippolyta, queen of the Amazon.
10. Obtain the cattle of the three-bodied giant Geryon.
11. Steal three of the golden apples of the Hesperides.
12. Capture and bring back Cerberus.

Perhaps there's some prophecy of a hero fulfilling 11/12 tasks throughout the overworld, and seven (or one) of the tasks is collecting or activating the 7 tears here:

These other tasks could be like larger shrine quests, some involving dungeons, others involving overworld events.

Yep, love the 12 Labors of Hercules concept. We still have the confusing vials as well, where each disk section appears to be made up of 5 sections each For 8 vials. So we possibly have 40 of something we have to do along the way to complete these as well, so perhaps 5 to 1?

 

[NabiscoFelt]

I might have said this before, but I feel like the magatama are not like the dungeon rewards but are the replacements of the spirit orbs and you'll need seven of them this time instead of four.

I don't think they'd include something like the end game vessel in which you place the main artifacts in a art book like this.

Eh, you can place an end game vessel at the very beginning of the game though (Metroid Prime is a good example)

 

[ZeldaPY]

I'm thinking that the pirate ship could be handled in two ways:

Wind Waker Style: A sidequest that features a small-scale encounter
Phantom Hourglass Style: A mini-dungeon featuring a unique boss

We also have the Sand Ship in SS

I could see them doing something crazy with the ship, maybe even making it fly, or we have the ability to modify it with our parts and build crazy things out of it.

This made me think of that crazy post that was making the rounds a few weeks back about how this sky island looked like a stable in the sky. I had commented at the time that it looked more like a ship to me because the optical illusion of how it looks like its on the water.

 

[ZeldaPY]

This game got me feeling like Einstein in the early 1900s trying to make sense of light, time and space.

Two serpents feeding off each other in an endless cycle. One can't exist without the other.

The future can't exist without the past and the past can't exist without the future.

The heroes of the future have to exist to defeat the evil of the past. The evil of the past has to be defeated for the heroes of the future to exist.

Link and Zelda have to go back in time to seal Ganondorf so the future can take place for Link and Zelda to exist in the future to defeat and seal Ganondorf in the past.

The Zonai are the Deus Ex Machina to make this convulted time loop possible.

Imagine if the Marketing department for this game actually wrote something as creative and thought provoking as this to promote the game. Let’s just hope they weren’t all too busy playing RDR2 to try and get marketing ideas from it like the Devs were for their inspiration.

 

[Serif]

It's the Song of Storms paradox again.

 

[Spheromancer]

I just noticed Link in this photo lol. This place is fucking massive

 

[Mango]

Dumb question, but how many past Link’s have there been? Just wondering if there may be a connection to the tears / the map as I feel like it’s pretty close to 11.

Skyward Sword
Minish Cap
(A unseen but mentioned Link in the backstory of Four Swords)
Four Swords
Ocarina of Time/Majora's Mask
Wind Waker/Phantom Hourglass
Twilight Princess
Spirit Tracks
ALttP/OOX/LA
ALBW/TFH
TLoZ/AoL
Four Swords Adventures
BOTW/ToTK

12, 15 if you include the FS backstory one, The Hero of Men from Minish Cap, and the Tapestry Hero from BOTW.

Eh, you can place an end game vessel at the very beginning of the game though (Metroid Prime is a good example)

I mean you can, but it seems weird we haven't seen what is replacing the Sport orbs but have seen what's replacing the Shrines. Also the mural technically has 9 tears. To me personally I think the tears/magatama will be the spirit orb replacements, but they won't be exclusively locked behind the shrines, and they may not be exclusively or even at all, used to upgrade stamina and health. If each full vessel requires seven then to me that would make a pretty good system to give Link new power ups or enhancing the powers he has.

Of course I could be wrong, it just seems like a leap to assume they have to be tied to dungeons.

 

[Serif]

Of course I could be wrong, it just seems like a leap to assume they have to be tied to dungeons.

It's the presence of one at a pedestal of the Gerudo temple that makes me associate them with dungeons.

 

[RagnarokX]

We also have the Sand Ship in SS

I could see them doing something crazy with the ship, maybe even making it fly, or we have the ability to modify it with our parts and build crazy things out of it.

This made me think of that crazy post that was making the rounds a few weeks back about how this sky island looked like a stable in the sky. I had commented at the time that it looked more like a ship to me because the optical illusion of how it looks like its on the water.

The pirate ship is almost certainly landlocked. They likely took screenshots from the exact location they wanted it and painted it over it and the way Lurelin appears in the background it's gotta be around here:

The ladder into the captain's quarters doesn't make sense if it's mobile.

 

[ZeldaPY]

I hadn’t really looked too closely at this photo before, being at the very beginning of the book, just noticed it only shows the back of Link in his underwear w/ the broken Master sword. This makes more sense to me as the opening equivalent to BotW with Link running out of the cave and onto the great plateau. As much as I want there to be a story continuation from the end of BotW and be able to play through the point leading up to Gannondorf waking up, we just haven’t seen any indication that this will be the case. So sadly, I think Link might just be waking up on the table to start the game as the first playable portion.
I could still see a 5 minute opening cutscene of them discovering Ganondorf because both Link and Zelda seem to know what’s going on, so that’s a relief that it’s not, I forgot again, type thing.

 

[ZeldaPY]

The pirate ship is almost certainly landlocked. They likely took screenshots from the exact location they wanted it and painted it over it and the way Lurelin appears in the background it's gotta be around here:

The ladder into the captain's quarters doesn't make sense if it's mobile.

That makes sense, I hadn’t thought about the ladders and it is strange that it’s not clearly shown on water. I just thought they wanted to show the cool details of the underbelly of the ship. It’s interesting tho, that for it to be an ancient ship, looks like it’s still in sea worthy condition. It’s definitely hinting at some game play aspect in my opinion rather than just an interesting place we visit, but I would accept major mini boss battle location as an alternative…

 

[RagnarokX]

I just noticed Link in this photo lol. This place is fucking massive

It makes you think "giant door" even though it can't possibly be a door because it's partially broken and you can see the earth behind it... Whenever I see it it makes me think of that part of Tomb Raider 2 where, after going on a globe-trotting journey where you recover a key from a sunken ship and use the key on what looks like a giant golden door in a Tibetan monastery... it opens a tiny wooden door next to the giant golden "door".

 

[Dark Cloud]

All this speculation is great…

 

[maidhhc]

I just noticed Link in this photo lol. This place is fucking massive

Looks a bit like a monument to the gate of time

 

[BY2K]

I just noticed Link in this photo lol. This place is fucking massive

Really curious to know what this is. But we can clearly tell those nobs are dials. But dials for what?

 

[SMALLVILLE BOY]

Really curious to know what this is. But we can clearly tell those nobs are dials. But dials for what?

Sun and Moon, it looks like a time machine mechanism.

 

[maidhhc]

Really curious to know what this is. But we can clearly tell those nobs are dials. But dials for what?

Maybe it's a combination lock puzzle - we use the arm to rotate each dial to the correct symbol and a door opens / chest appears / portal materialises

 

[Serif]

It's obviously the gate to Termina.

 

[Linkstrikesback]

Spoiler

How would you expect her to come up with this brilliant plan? Terrako time-travelled from the point where Link died 100 years before the future champions existed. As far as anyone in the AoC timeline knows the world ended in the original timeline and there are no future champions to call on. The big problem is how did Terrako know about them and how did it summon them even though the timeline had already been changed? How did the future champions know what was going on? Hell, why would you even call them for backup in the first place? All they did in BotW was provide VERY minor support to Link compared to the past Champions. AoC's story is in service to having characters you remember and not much more.

Spoiler

Because she spent her entire youth studying guardians to the point where you could easily suggest she's among the foremost experts on how they work and nobody would bat an eye. You have her program the robot to do it. It's really that easy. It's already provided them with information about the future, you just make sure prior to that at some point that it also shows the future champions.

Literally anything would be better than it happening for meeting an arbitrary sadness quota on a robot she herself built anyway.

 

[Deleted member 2]

Spoiler

How would you expect her to come up with this brilliant plan? Terrako time-travelled from the point where Link died 100 years before the future champions existed.

It's easy

Spoiler

In her investigation into the robot, she discovers data and memory banks (maybe in the form of magical images or something like R2D2's hologram). Through this she learns that it's from the future.

Doing this, she makes a risky move and sends a message to the future, not knowing if there would even be anybody around to receive it. Fortunately, thanks to a closed bootstrap paradox, there are people there to meet it, because at that point in the future they'd already gone back to the past to help save it which allows them to be born.

It's seriously not hard to think of something that makes sense and feels satisfying and aligns with the characters. I just don't feel like they really did.

 

[Mr_No_U]

Too many Tears

 

[Raccoon]

I recently got my last few towers in botw and realized that I had spent the whole game collecting the tears of the kingdom

in totk will we collect the breath of the wild?

 

[HockeyBird]

Too many Tears

Tears of joy

 

[Dardan Sandiego]

I recently got my last few towers in botw and realized that I had spent the whole game collecting the tears of the kingdom

in totk will we collect the breath of the wild?

yeah, "breath" of the wild…

 

[Serif]

I don't have a well-developed hypothesis about the Nintendo Sheikah Slate USB-C charging cable stuff, this is just me gathering my thoughts, even if I or others have repeated them elsewhere.

Toribodai (鳥望台) Reel Proposal

Bottom right text "cord light emitting part"

One literal interpretation of the characters 鳥望台 is "bird lookout" (there's even a real life place called as such).

The 'light emitting' may be a form of data transfer, like we've seen.

In the trailer screenshot the cord is being drawn up from below the makeshift transport pad. The Sheikah Slate is not attached and Link doesn't have it in this scene.

The new artwork of Zelda shows the Sheikah Slate front and center:

So one end of the reel is connected to the Slate, the other... I have no idea.

Certainly the camera will have more involvement in performing some kind of observational tasks (bird lookout -> bird's eye view?)

The reel goes underground and the Slate is used to map out the subterrain?

I would prefer if Link weren't the one handling the Slate.

 

[Skittzo]

I don't have a well-developed hypothesis about the Nintendo Sheikah Slate USB-C charging cable stuff, this is just me gathering my thoughts, even if I or others have repeated them elsewhere.

Toribodai (鳥望台) Reel Proposal

Bottom right text "cord light emitting part"

One literal interpretation of the characters 鳥望台 is "bird lookout" (there's even a real life place called as such).

The 'light emitting' may be a form of data transfer, like we've seen.

In the trailer screenshot the cord is being drawn up from below the makeshift transport pad. The Sheikah Slate is not attached and Link doesn't have it in this scene.

The new artwork of Zelda shows the Sheikah Slate front and center:

So one end of the reel is connected to the Slate, the other... I have no idea.

Certainly the camera will have more involvement in performing some kind of observational tasks (bird lookout -> bird's eye view?)

The reel goes underground and the Slate is used to map out the subterrain?

I would prefer if Link weren't the one handling the Slate.

I really think it's a way to "hand off control" to Zelda.

 

[Suswave]

Really curious to know what this is. But we can clearly tell those nobs are dials. But dials for what?

there’s your time travel

 

[HockeyBird]

I really think it's a way to "hand off control" to Zelda.

I was thinking something similar. The new slate is a big mystery. We've only seen it in artwork. It's not visible in any of the trailers. Presumably Zelda has it at the beginning as her official artwork suggests but again, we don't see it in the trailers. So it's either in her pouch or it's been removed from the trailers but that would be odd since why remove it and then reveal the new slate in the artwork moments later?

Regardless, I think there is a possibility that there are multiple slates. But here's a crackpot theory: there are multiple slates but also there is only one. But how is that possible? Time travel baby! Link picks up the one from their timeline while Zelda finds that exact same slate in a different time period. It can communicate with itself through time via some magic bullshit.

 

[Dardan Sandiego]

Both Zelda and Link have a slate each and they use it to communicate with each other. The slates work like an etch a sketch.

 

[Dark Cloud]

Maybe all this speculation is wrong and it makes it even better when we find out the truth when we play the game