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

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I agree, i am sure there's a lot that they aren't telling us. Not a fan of the 'greek' inspired style I'm seeing, but botw is easily the best game ever made so do whatever you guys want
Right? I refuse to believe that this game will be anything less than another revelatory title like BotW. They had 5 years of dev time!
 
Right? I refuse to believe that this game will be anything less than another revelatory title like BotW. They had 5 years of dev time!
I always think about the first trailer of Mario Odyssey, they didn't even reveal the captures (or cappy? not sure about cappy)
Can't waitttttt
 
“I think as we start to show a bit more of the game over the coming months to the next year or so, it’ll probably start to be a bit more apparent where this game stands on its own and what makes it so unique.”
 
I can’t wait to see if we’ll basically be able to run straight to the end boss or they won’t have that in the sequel.
Would you tho? As much as I loved the first botw I would literally spend at least 100 hours before going to the end boss (hoping it's a lot harder, almost Dread-like). The wait for the next zelda after botw2 will be so fucking bad.
 
Would you tho? As much as I loved the first botw I would literally spend at least 100 hours before going to the end boss (hoping it's a lot harder, almost Dread-like). The wait for the next zelda after botw2 will be so fucking bad.
I didn’t do it. I’m just curious how much of the same structure as the first game they will keep.
 
Would you tho? As much as I loved the first botw I would literally spend at least 100 hours before going to the end boss (hoping it's a lot harder, almost Dread-like). The wait for the next zelda after botw2 will be so fucking bad.
It's all about having the freedom of choice for me.

It's going to be interesting to see how they will tie classic dungeons (if they decide to include them) into the open-air format.
 
So how much do we believe there are two timelines with two different playable Links?
At this point anything is possible. They already showed a new form of gameplay where time can be reversed. I think I would like this as it opens up interesting opportunities to expand on the happenings of 10,000 years ago.
 
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So how much do we believe there are two timelines with two different playable Links?
This is how I think it will go down. Just one playable Link.

Malice corrupts Link's hand when he accidentally releases Ganondorf by entering his sealing chamber.

The power that has bound Ganondorf over the ages had been slowly waning, and he took advantage of their visit to his chamber to escape. A mini earthquake disrupted the cavern and caused Zelda and Link to fall. The hand chose to save them and break the seal, knowing that it’s power would soon run out otherwise.

The spirit (Hand) that sealed Ganondorf thousands of years ago is thus freed. This spirit becomes a companion to Link but doesn't merge with him instantly as we saw in E3 2019 trailer.

The hand agrees to aid Link on his journey. Link's hand is corrupted with Malice and the spirit fuses with Link to seal the corruption in his right hand to stop/delay it from spreading. This means that he can no longer wield the Master Sword.

The Spectral Hand contains the Malice within the gold symbols/jewellery on Link's right hand. This gives Link new powers but he still can't touch the Master Sword as there is an ancient evil embedded in his body. (Maybe Ganondorf steals the sword)

Link then must go on a journey to the skies, guided by the Hand Companion - where they visit sacred sites of a lost civilisation to revive the Hand's power and to eventually free Link of the corruption that is spreading from his arm to other parts of his body.

Link's new ancient outfit is a result of the first ceremony in the sky - we do not see an ancient hero.

As Ganondorf's power grows on the surface, the corruption in Link's arm is strengthened and spreads to his face and chest, disfiguring him and causing an internal struggle.

When the Malice is eventually cleansed, he can once more hold the Master sword - but the spirit will remain merged with his arm.

Zelda falls into the underworld at the beginning. From there, she embarks on a series of underground challenges which releases further islands into the sky - changing the landscape of Hyrule and expanding the scope of Link's journey in the skies.

-

It is revealed that the Sheikah tech had been powered by converting Malice to Sheikah energy using magic from the Zonai. This explains why Malice was continuously drawn out of Ganondorf’s body by the green magic, and up into the structure above. This deal had been going on for thousands of years, but the people of Hyrule had forgotten what the source of the energy was. This is why the tech fails at the beginning of the game. Zombie Ganondorf was essentially a giant battery. Calamity Ganon was Ganondorf taking advantage of this situation from his sealing chamber, infecting tech with unpurified malice.

The Zonai will play a role, perhaps living as an alternative civilisation underground. Maybe they will help Link to learn more about Ganondorf and how he can be killed/sealed.

The main map might be disfigured by Malice and turned into more of a horror-themed area. Perhaps there will be a heaven-above/hell-below theme.

Maybe Link will visit skies, seas, underwater, Minish etc while Zelda goes through different worlds below. They work together to affect the surface and grow in strength and gain new powers. Hopefully there will be an ongoing mystery that is put together piece-by-piece.
 
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This is how I think it will go down. Just one playable Link.

Malice corrupts Link's hand when he accidentally releases Ganondorf by entering his sealing chamber.

The power that has bound Ganondorf over the ages had been slowly waning, and he took advantage of their visit to his chamber to escape. A mini earthquake disrupted the cavern and caused Zelda and Link to fall. The hand chose to save them and break the seal, knowing that it’s power would soon run out otherwise.

The spirit (Hand) that sealed Ganondorf thousands of years ago is thus freed. This spirit becomes a companion to Link but doesn't merge with him instantly as we saw in E3 2019 trailer.

The hand agrees to aid Link on his journey. Link's hand is corrupted with Malice and the spirit fuses with Link to seal the corruption in his right hand to stop/delay it from spreading. This means that he can no longer wield the Master Sword.

The Spectral Hand contains the Malice within the gold symbols/jewellery on Link's right hand. This gives Link new powers but he still can't touch the Master Sword as there is an ancient evil embedded in his body. (Maybe Ganondorf steals the sword)

Link then must go on a journey to the skies, guided by the Hand Companion - where they visit sacred sites of a lost civilisation to revive the Hand's power and to eventually free Link of the corruption that is spreading from his arm to other parts of his body.

Link's new ancient outfit is a result of the first ceremony in the sky - we do not see an ancient hero.

As Ganondorf's power grows on the surface, the corruption in Link's arm is strengthened and spreads to his face and chest, disfiguring him and causing an internal struggle.

When the Malice is eventually cleansed, he can once more hold the Master sword - but the spirit will remain merged with his arm.

Zelda falls into the underworld at the beginning. From there, she embarks on a series of underground challenges which releases further islands into the sky - changing the landscape of Hyrule and expanding the scope of Link's journey in the skies.

-

It is revealed that the Sheikah tech had been powered by converting Malice to Sheikah energy using magic from the Zonai. This explains why Malice was continuously drawn out of Ganondorf’s body by the green magic, and up into the structure above. This deal had been going on for thousands of years, but the people of Hyrule had forgotten what the source of the energy was. This is why the tech fails at the beginning of the game. Zombie Ganondorf was essentially a giant battery. Calamity Ganon was Ganondorf taking advantage of this situation from his sealing chamber, infecting tech with unpurified malice.
That's an incredibly awesome theory. Have you thought of it yourself?
 
Man... Breath of the Wild left me amazed and begging for more. Land, air and underground seem to be covered now so what's next? I really hope we can swim underwater this time, all that's left after that is interdimensional and straight through time!
 
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I really loved the idea of shrines but I want them to expand on that idea because shrines felt like little nuggets of an actual dungeon experience. I want to see traditional style Zelda dungeons and shrines coexisting in this sequel.

The divine beasts were pretty underwhelming and samey. The only one I truly enjoyed was the Gerudo one, and the boss there was very unique and enjoyable. Unlike the other 3 bosses that just felt uninspired to me.

I get botw was all about breaking conventions but now I want to see them take what they have and infuse it with the classic Zelda experience, as well as improving and building upon the features of botw.
 
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You’re going to unlock sky islands as you progress through the game and by the end there will be an entire floating continent. Mark my words
 
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What if more and more of the ground gets sent up over the course of the game, leading to the reformation of Skyloft and thus a looping of the timeline wooooaaaaaah

no but really, what if? WHAT IF
 
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I really believe that their main challenge for this game is marrying the open-air formula and the physics-chemistry engine of BotW with traditional dungeons and items of the classic 3D games.
 
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BotW was one of the greatest gaming experiences I've ever had, and gave me the kind of enjoyment from a game I thought I'd left behind in childhood. As someone who started with LoZ on the NES, it was the most pure form of Zelda to me - what I'd always wanted.

That said, I can't help but echo some posters in here that I'm currently really disappointed with where this sequel is going. I thought there were two reasonable ways to approach things after BotW - a quick turnaround sequel in 2-3 years based in the same Hyrule but slightly altered on the same engine with the same game mechanics - similar to Majora's Mask. Or moving on completely to the next kind of Zelda in 5 years or more. New art style, new visuals, new characters, new game mechanics etc. Instead, it feels like we may be getting the latter, but it will have taken more than 5 years.

By far the most important part of BotW for me was exploring a new world. That's why the DLC fell so flat- because it didn't add more of what I loved - exploration of new places. (I thought the DLC was poor, and the very worst part of BotW, maybe the ONLY bad part, especially the terribly thought through hard mode). Whereas an average 3d Zelda might take 40 hours to beat, I, like many people, put way over 100 hours in BotW's Hyrule. In fact, personally I put about 250 hours into it. I know it back to front. A remix of that map with floating islands above it and caverns below it is absolutely not going to give me that sense of "newness" that I crave.

Furthermore, remixes of worlds are one of the game design tropes that personally leave me cold. Controversial, but Link to the Past was such a crushing disappointment to me as a kid because of the Dark World (yes, I'm that rare Zelda fan that disliked LttP at release - and still does. Shout out to Kyle Bosman) Metroid Prime 2 was made worse with a similar mechanic. It never works for me. I don't get excited to see minor changes in the same level/map.

However! I was so down on BotW before release. I thought that if they had interesting towns or NPCs they'd show them, and that the graphics were terrible. I had no faith that the Zelda team which had fallen so far behind current design trends by the time of Skyward Sword would take on the insanely difficult open-world task and blow past all the current developers of those games. Of course, I was proven wrong on all counts. So I still believe. But right now, I'm disappointed with what I've seen and disappointed with how long it has taken.
 
What I want the most from this game is better and more varied rewards for exploration. HP/stamina upgrades are cool, but it gets old after a while, and the koroks always giving you the same thing started to get redundant too. BotW's world is so wonderful that exploring it is kind of its own reward, but the experience would be incredibly elevated if we had lots of other interesting prizes to find.
 
I think in general across the board what BotW lacked what variance and diversity with bosses, rewards, enemies, dungeons, etc. I’d like to think much of that is corrected in BotW 2 with how long it’s taking and we’ve seen them use the same Hyrule so far.
 
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Just give us a different overworld thats all I want. Played BOTW 1 for hundreds of hours and I am tired of that map
 
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BotW was one of the greatest gaming experiences I've ever had, and gave me the kind of enjoyment from a game I thought I'd left behind in childhood. As someone who started with LoZ on the NES, it was the most pure form of Zelda to me - what I'd always wanted.

That said, I can't help but echo some posters in here that I'm currently really disappointed with where this sequel is going. I thought there were two reasonable ways to approach things after BotW - a quick turnaround sequel in 2-3 years based in the same Hyrule but slightly altered on the same engine with the same game mechanics - similar to Majora's Mask. Or moving on completely to the next kind of Zelda in 5 years or more. New art style, new visuals, new characters, new game mechanics etc. Instead, it feels like we may be getting the latter, but it will have taken more than 5 years.

By far the most important part of BotW for me was exploring a new world. That's why the DLC fell so flat- because it didn't add more of what I loved - exploration of new places. (I thought the DLC was poor, and the very worst part of BotW, maybe the ONLY bad part, especially the terribly thought through hard mode). Whereas an average 3d Zelda might take 40 hours to beat, I, like many people, put way over 100 hours in BotW's Hyrule. In fact, personally I put about 250 hours into it. I know it back to front. A remix of that map with floating islands above it and caverns below it is absolutely not going to give me that sense of "newness" that I crave.

Furthermore, remixes of worlds are one of the game design tropes that personally leave me cold. Controversial, but Link to the Past was such a crushing disappointment to me as a kid because of the Dark World (yes, I'm that rare Zelda fan that disliked LttP at release - and still does. Shout out to Kyle Bosman) Metroid Prime 2 was made worse with a similar mechanic. It never works for me. I don't get excited to see minor changes in the same level/map.

However! I was so down on BotW before release. I thought that if they had interesting towns or NPCs they'd show them, and that the graphics were terrible. I had no faith that the Zelda team which had fallen so far behind current design trends by the time of Skyward Sword would take on the insanely difficult open-world task and blow past all the current developers of those games. Of course, I was proven wrong on all counts. So I still believe. But right now, I'm disappointed with what I've seen and disappointed with how long it has taken.

I wouldn't say I'm disappointed by what they've shown so far, but I can't lie, I have a part of me that is worried. Like you, I generally do not like world remixes. The only way I think they can make this work is if Botw's old map is supplemented by an another map's worth of new locations: underground, underwater, and in the sky. But if that were the case, they have a whole new map's worth of content, why not use another location and start fresh? Did they really keep it solely for story purposes? It doesn't really add up to me yet.
 
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Them developing the game for so long can only mean something big right? This much time on top of having an engine ready with already lots of experience. I realise a big open world like botw does require a lot of bugtesting though. So yeah that probably also plays a big role.
 
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This is how I think it will go down. Just one playable Link.

Malice corrupts Link's hand when he accidentally releases Ganondorf by entering his sealing chamber.

The power that has bound Ganondorf over the ages had been slowly waning, and he took advantage of their visit to his chamber to escape. A mini earthquake disrupted the cavern and caused Zelda and Link to fall. The hand chose to save them and break the seal, knowing that it’s power would soon run out otherwise.

The spirit (Hand) that sealed Ganondorf thousands of years ago is thus freed. This spirit becomes a companion to Link but doesn't merge with him instantly as we saw in E3 2019 trailer.

The hand agrees to aid Link on his journey. Link's hand is corrupted with Malice and the spirit fuses with Link to seal the corruption in his right hand to stop/delay it from spreading. This means that he can no longer wield the Master Sword.

The Spectral Hand contains the Malice within the gold symbols/jewellery on Link's right hand. This gives Link new powers but he still can't touch the Master Sword as there is an ancient evil embedded in his body. (Maybe Ganondorf steals the sword)

Link then must go on a journey to the skies, guided by the Hand Companion - where they visit sacred sites of a lost civilisation to revive the Hand's power and to eventually free Link of the corruption that is spreading from his arm to other parts of his body.

Link's new ancient outfit is a result of the first ceremony in the sky - we do not see an ancient hero.

As Ganondorf's power grows on the surface, the corruption in Link's arm is strengthened and spreads to his face and chest, disfiguring him and causing an internal struggle.

When the Malice is eventually cleansed, he can once more hold the Master sword - but the spirit will remain merged with his arm.

Zelda falls into the underworld at the beginning. From there, she embarks on a series of underground challenges which releases further islands into the sky - changing the landscape of Hyrule and expanding the scope of Link's journey in the skies.

-

It is revealed that the Sheikah tech had been powered by converting Malice to Sheikah energy using magic from the Zonai. This explains why Malice was continuously drawn out of Ganondorf’s body by the green magic, and up into the structure above. This deal had been going on for thousands of years, but the people of Hyrule had forgotten what the source of the energy was. This is why the tech fails at the beginning of the game. Zombie Ganondorf was essentially a giant battery. Calamity Ganon was Ganondorf taking advantage of this situation from his sealing chamber, infecting tech with unpurified malice.

The Zonai will play a role, perhaps living as an alternative civilisation underground. Maybe they will help Link to learn more about Ganondorf and how he can be killed/sealed.

The main map might be disfigured by Malice and turned into more of a horror-themed area. Perhaps there will be a heaven-above/hell-below theme.

Maybe Link will visit skies, seas, underwater, Minish etc while Zelda goes through different worlds below. They work together to affect the surface and grow in strength and gain new powers. Hopefully there will be an ongoing mystery that is put together piece-by-piece.

I think this is fantastic. Thanks for putting these thoughts together.
 
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What I want the most from this game is better and more varied rewards for exploration. HP/stamina upgrades are cool, but it gets old after a while, and the koroks always giving you the same thing started to get redundant too. BotW's world is so wonderful that exploring it is kind of its own reward, but the experience would be incredibly elevated if we had lots of other interesting prizes to find.
I've never really understood this argument.

BotW had more items, weapons, and armor pieces than any zelda game by about 10 times. All of which actually mattered. Unlike other zelda games, where it was so easy that pieces of heart barely mattered. Here, your strength and stamina matter. Your armor sets matter. Your weapon really matters (until it breaks). And yes, the game was filled out with korok seeds, which are a minor thing - but which are always presented as a minor thing.

Moreover, the biggest reward of all was finding a new shrine and knowing there would be an amazing piece of game design inside. (Okay, well, 80% chance of that and 20% chance at a shitty fight lol). Or finding a new quest chain which would lead you to some super-cool place.

I have never - ever - felt so rewarded by an open world game and I play all the GTAs, all the Ubi-games.

I just don't know what more you'd want? What more than life/health upgrades, shrines, korok seeds, pieces of armor (and cohesive sets, too!), quests etc?

I can only think (and I've thought this for a long time) that it's the intrinsic repetitiveness of open world games that convinces people that there are no real rewards. That no matter what you earn from doing your thing, it'll never be enough because over 80 hours you'll get so used to it that you end up wanting more.
 
I've never really understood this argument.

BotW had more items, weapons, and armor pieces than any zelda game by about 10 times. All of which actually mattered. Unlike other zelda games, where it was so easy that pieces of heart barely mattered. Here, your strength and stamina matter. Your armor sets matter. Your weapon really matters (until it breaks). And yes, the game was filled out with korok seeds, which are a minor thing - but which are always presented as a minor thing.

Moreover, the biggest reward of all was finding a new shrine and knowing there would be an amazing piece of game design inside. (Okay, well, 80% chance of that and 20% chance at a shitty fight lol). Or finding a new quest chain which would lead you to some super-cool place.

I have never - ever - felt so rewarded by an open world game and I play all the GTAs, all the Ubi-games.

I just don't know what more you'd want? What more than life/health upgrades, shrines, korok seeds, pieces of armor (and cohesive sets, too!), quests etc?

I can only think (and I've thought this for a long time) that it's the intrinsic repetitiveness of open world games that convinces people that there are no real rewards. That no matter what you earn from doing your thing, it'll never be enough because over 80 hours you'll get so used to it that you end up wanting more.

Hearts and stamina don't actually matter that much when you can just cook stuff that will give you all the hearts and stamina you want. I didn't like that aspect of the game because hearts are supposed to be a big deal in Zelda.

You get lots and lots of weapons and a lot of the same ones, it isn't that exciting. Especially since they're disposable. I don't really mind weapons breaking, but that does undermine their value as rewards.

I think the game would benefit from a more robust material and upgrade system. Rare parts for crafting great equipment would be cool. Dark Souls come to mind. Also as in DS, it would be better if your equipment broke but wasn't lost, and it also costs you materials to fix it. That's just one obvious possibility of things they could give as rewards, I'm sure the designers at the Zelda team could come up with other stuff. Although that particular aspect has always been a weak point in the franchise, at least we're past the chests with useless rupees.
 
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Right? I refuse to believe that this game will be anything less than another revelatory title like BotW. They had 5 years of dev time!

My two cents. I don’t think it will be revelatory since it’s a direct follow up, but rather doing a damn fine job building on it. Like Majora’s Mask, which to me was a brilliant follow up. Refining, adding, and some new ideas to give an even better experience. I’m super excited.
 
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That’s a big reason why I could see it this year, especially if it makes its release in 2022. Game Awards is too huge of an opportunity to miss promoting it.
What I see happening is the game releasing alongside the Switch 4K, which personally I think will come March 2023. If that's the case I think there's a huge chance we don't see the game again until E3 2022.
 
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I've posted about this before but for me the biggest question is how and to what extent they're going to reuse the original overworld. There's so much space there and even if they pepper it with altered environments (like the castle lifting up) and new enemy variants, it's still gonna feel like the same place.

This has a lot of potential, we could see more of the Zonai area, especially if it gets unearthed. Imagine if there is a Zonai city underground still thriving for example. But it could also leave the game feeling like a BotW 1.5.

Obviously, this is a worst-case scenario and I have faith Nintendo have been spending the last five years wisely, but until I see more I'm gonna worry lol.
 
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I really like this style. I was never fan o cel shading for Zelda kind of kill the vibes I like for the series. Always thought that a more realistic lighting(like 3d Mario, Kena, 3d animation movies) fits Zelda better.

But nowadays I'm sick about cel shading on Nintendo games that are using this mix with a different shading in the world X the characters.(BOTW, Astral Chain, Xenoblade 2 and DE). I really hope they move on after BOTW 2.
Still dreaming of a day we get that style knowing Nintendo will never do it.
 
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Indeed. Some Zelda fans that got the Switch and BotW at launch, including me, are ready for a new game and a new system.

the moment they said "they hoped to get it out in 2022" that all but confirmed it for me.

4k/60fps Zelda yall!
Yeah with all the rumors and hearing games could be or want to be done by end of 2022 feels like the Wii U situation again. Nintendo is taking their time and elongating the release of BotW 2 because they want it to launch with the next system.
 
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the moment they said "they hoped to get it out in 2022" that all but confirmed it for me.

4k/60fps Zelda yall!
I'm guessing switch dane is early 2023. Also zelda at 4k 60 is amazing I tried botw on the cemu emulator and it was breathtaking
 
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I'm curious to see how Nintendo handles a cross-gen release, if that's actually what it comes to. They've never done it just to make a game more shiny. Twilight Princess and Breath of the Wild received slight gains, but looked largely the same between their two systems. (The performance of the launch version of Breath of the Wild wasn't too far off from the performance of the Wii U version.)
 
I'm curious to see how Nintendo handles a cross-gen release, if that's actually what it comes to. They've never done it just to make a game more shiny. Twilight Princess and Breath of the Wild received slight gains, but looked largely the same between their two systems. (The performance of the launch version of Breath of the Wild wasn't too far off from the performance of the Wii U version.)
I expect a high res/framerate mode when you have the switch cart in Dane Switch. Maybe two boxes for each system but the same game on each branded cart
 
I expect a high res/framerate mode when you have the switch cart in Dane Switch. Maybe two boxes for each system but the same game on each branded cart
I meant more from a marketing standpoint. They've never really worried about clarifying which version of a game they're showing, as even the Zeldas have looked basically the same.

Of course, I suppose you could argue we've already gotten used to this; Switch Lite owners don't question watching docked Switch footage in every trailer. The difference will be significantly larger, though.
 
I meant more from a marketing standpoint. They've never really worried about clarifying which version of a game they're showing, as even the Zeldas have looked basically the same.

Of course, I suppose you could argue we've already gotten used to this; Switch Lite owners don't question watching docked Switch footage in every trailer. The difference will be significantly larger, though.
I don't expect this to be any different from Twilight Princess or Breath of the Wild. Just 60fps and 4k output. And then fallback to the usual move of showing Dane Switch boxart and system
 
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