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

[Spheromancer]

I think concerns of not being able to feel that same feel of exploration we felt for BOTW in TOTK are valid, but I also think Nintendo will knock this out of the park.

In my opinion (full of copium) this is how things will sort out:

The sky world explains itself. It will be vast and large. Not as big as surface Hyrule, but big enough to feel the feeling again. Figuring out how far you can glide, what angle you need to get from one island to the next, which islands are accessible etc. will provide enough of that feeling to be satisfactory. Climbing the sides of floating islands to line things up in order to float to another one will be awesome.

Then there's (hopefully) the underground. The patent for the ability to phase through objects above you screams underground for me. Not only is there a known height cap for this ability, but there's no way that Nintendo would give us the ability to get from Hyrule's surface to the sky islands with this ability. Thats what I think the structures with the green swirls we saw on Hyrules surface in the trailers are for. We'd use those and the reversal of certain stones to get to the sky area. Being able to look up and just zip up to islands would be too easy. I think that mechanic is almost 90% for underground.

Imagine having layers of uncharted underground we're exploring with the ability to zip up above you. You could be phasing into a new cavern, or you could end up in the middle of a bunch of enemies. You could be just one layer from Hyrule's surface and end up zipping into a familiar place. This ability paired with a vast underground with puzzles and confusing paths to the overworld are what gets me excited. I think, if done right, the sense of exploration from BOTW will be matched. Usually Nintendo does these things right. I'm beyond excited for what we see hopefully next week

 

[balgajo]

If they expand the map what kind of expansion you'd like? I'd love to see a new huge island, maybe in the out of bounds sea after Gerudo Desert. It would be a nice reward after crossing the desert.

 

[Edengamer23]

If they expand the map what kind of expansion you'd like? I'd love to see a new huge island, maybe in the out of bounds sea after Gerudo Desert. It would be a nice reward after crossing the desert.

I think the game will be more of a vertical map on top and below of what exists but yeah if they expand out a bunch of new islands in the sea to explore that would be really fun. Or maybe a new small region west of the desert idk. We could find out in the next trailer

 

[Magic-Man]

I think the best route to go with map expansions would be underneath the major mountains. A whole ecosystem could fit below Hebra Mtn for example.

 

[chocolate_supra]

I think the best route to go with map expansions would be underneath the major mountains. A whole ecosystem could fit below Hebra Mtn for example.

I like this idea.

 

[Awesomegames23]

Underwater caves would be so awesome.

 

[maidhhc]

underwater town/dungeon/city in an air bubble on the sea floor pls

 

[UndercoverSheikah]

The underground/sky layers theory feels more like "expansions" to the overworld to me rather than directly making use of the current overworld. Not to say there won't be any underground sections, but I don't think it will be expansive as you all think it is. Even if you do stuff in the sky/underground to change something on the surface, I still don't think it would be enough to satisfy a lot of people.

I'm still sticking with my time travel/ dual world theory. One of the themes I'm thinking they are going for is "unraveling the mysteries of BotW". Zonai is already pretty much confirmed. But how about the Gerudo heroines and Leviathans as well? The forgotten temple or the Citadel could easily become dungeons in the past. I could easily see any of these things turned into substantial side or main story content. A few pages ago someone mentioned they wanted to see Bullbos from TP make a return. But how are they gonna explain new animals suddenly appearing in the overworld? Every new animal introduced would have to be either underground or in the sky. With time travel, they can introduce a completely new set of flora and fauna without being limited to specific areas. Time travel would also allow for a whole new cast of npcs and completely different versions of towns. Restored castle town in the past anyone?

 

[balgajo]

underwater town/dungeon/city in an air bubble on the sea floor pls

I'd love something like the Oracle Zora Village again.

 

[Mango]

If they expand the map what kind of expansion you'd like? I'd love to see a new huge island, maybe in the out of bounds sea after Gerudo Desert. It would be a nice reward after crossing the desert.

I want the land itself to be expanded. Like in all directions. The sky is cool, but story wise it's clear that no one's been up there in a while, while the land itself is recent and could have villages set up by people who feld the calamity. Also I just like seeing all the different places named by random people, with some of them being references to past characters.

Plus I just want to see whats canonically out there.

 

[Kevin360]

The malice roids it and it's now a gigantic superboss that roams Hyrule's caverns hunting for Link

Think The Rat King from TLOU Part II.

 

[ReyVGM]

Zora's domain is going to be dry, death mountain's volcano is inactive leaving a bunch of lava caves open for exploration, the ice mountains have melted and flooded the gerudo desert.

 

[Ramako]

Zelda is easily my favourite game franchise, and OOT and BOTW are 1a and 1b on my favourite games of all time, but I'm weirdly not nearly as hyped for TOTK as I expected to be. I'm not really sure why other than the fact that BOTW was so good that I can't imagine how they can top it, other than refining it.

I remember poring over pre-release images for Majora's Mask. It seemed so full of mystery, and despite using all the same assets, it ultimately ended up being a huge departure from OOT. While it still felt like Zelda, it brought so much innovation to the table. So far everything I've seen of TOTK looks like more BOTW but with a couple of new mechanics. I'm sure there are major elements of the game they haven't revealed yet. I feel like we still know next to nothing about this game.

 

[lucapfstr]

1,333 days since that first trailer :')

Do we know if they did mocap for the first game? Either way its kind of a big deal that they did this for a teaser, I guess it was cheaper than hand-animating

 

[Serif]

Do we know if they did mocap for the first game? Either way its kind of a big deal that they did this for a teaser, I guess it was cheaper than hand-animating

They've been using motion capture since Ocarina of Time, so most likely.

 

[Romancedawn]

They've been using motion capture since Ocarina of Time, so most likely.

I remember reading about that. I spoke to Bill Trinen years ago and said I loved the use of motion capture in Twilight Princess. He said there was no motion capture, just the animations got smoother. Which after looking at it again I could see that it wasn't as smooth as motion capture would have been but because of OoT I assumed for sure motion capture was used in TP. Was OoT just the sword fighting based in mocap and then not used in a later title like TP? Maybe Bill don't what he talking' about!

 

[Serif]

I remember reading about that. I spoke to Bill Trinen years ago and said I loved the use of motion capture in Twilight Princess. He said there was no motion capture, just the animations got smoother. Which after looking at it again I could see that it wasn't as smooth as motion capture would have been but because of OoT I assumed for sure motion capture was used in TP. Was OoT just the sword fighting based in mocap and then not used in a later title like TP? Maybe Bill don't what he talking' about!

Motion capture is listed in the credits of Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword, and Breath of the Wild. Not for Wind Waker, which makes sense.

This may even be a photo of their setup for SS.

 

[ZeldaPY]

It’s calling me! I can’t stop thinking about it!

 

[Jersh]

I've finally gotten around to doing a SS HD hero mode run to play along with a friend who received the title for the holidays, and man, playing this game with the TotK teasers on my mind is bringing up specific memories of pre-release SS hype I had nearly forgotten about.

For context, SS came out when I was in 8th grade, and was the first console Zelda I actively looked forward to. My introduction to Zelda - not counting Smash - was coming home from school to find my older brother playing the GCN version of Twilight Princess one day, sometime in the year between its release and receiving our Wii for Christmas in 07. Between then and 2011, I managed to play through every prior 3D Zelda; TWW with a used copy, and OoT/MM on virtual console. I also enjoyed the DS Zeldas.

Like many others, I dreamed of a Great Sea-esque sky, with a full Zelda overworld below. Particularly, when Goddess Cubes were shown off and the idea of connectivity between the two worlds was thrown at me, my imagination ran truly wild; I thought you might send land down down to access new areas, unlock things more intricate than chests in the sky from the surface, maybe even a dungeon that required going back and forth between the two. Perhaps descending from a specific spot in the sky could get you into a closed off area on the surface, or even vice versa.

Obviously, SS is a tightly designed game with linear areas that didn't lend itself to these ideas. I quickly realized this upon release, and still loved it for what it was; of the traditional 3D Zeldas, it just might be my favorite (though it's so hard to choose!). Its dungeons go a long way for me. However, that untapped potential was still there, and I occasionally thought about it and was bummed we probably wouldn't see a Zelda game achieve it.

For some reason, it didn't hit me in the E3 2021 teaser, or when playing SS HD the following month. But these sky islands open up that potential again, and that has me pumped. The open world is also a much better vehicle for that type of gameplay than Skyward Sword was, so I have some faith we'll at least see a little bit of those ideas, even if it's not a regular occurrence. Hell, it's arguably even the obvious thing to do in a BotW follow-up that features sky islands.

Now, if they do those things and give me good dungeons... May really can't come soon enough.

 

[manfromthedam]

Like many others, I dreamed of a Great Sea-esque sky, with a full Zelda overworld below. Particularly, when Goddess Cubes were shown off and the idea of connectivity between the two worlds was thrown at me, my imagination ran truly wild; I thought you might send land down down to access new areas, unlock things more intricate than chests in the sky from the surface, maybe even a dungeon that required going back and forth between the two. Perhaps descending from a specific spot in the sky could get you into a closed off area on the surface, or even vice versa.

While I hope for significant overworld changes in general, I'm thinking that this connectivity will be the main draw - the Great Plateau is already elevated weirdly, and I'd imagine that parts of the map will move up properly this time.

Skyward Sword quality dungeons in a BotW framework... that'd be something amazing. Especially if they find even more ways to make what in other games would be scenery interactive & useful.

How was Hero Mode? I've got a save file standing by to dive into it but haven't started yet.

 

[Riton]

 

[Irene]

It’s calling me! I can’t stop thinking about it!

Is that a 3D print? If that's so, it's legit stunning.

 

[ZeldaPY]

Is that a 3D print? If that's so, it's legit stunning.

I wish it was, can you imagine… I’ve seen some pretty decent 3D prints floating around the Internet, but I would want to wait until we get to see the complete version of the Master Sword. We don’t even know yet what the final look of it will be as it will probably look slightly different depending on what state it’s in plus the Z still covers part of the Sword in the Logo.

I will lose it if we get to see Link using it for the first time in the trailer, maybe they tease us with a partial view of it‘s completed form as not to spoil it since it’s probably a mid-game type thing. I’m still hopeful after we get our first trailer we start to get Twitter drops of screen shots and possible official art work, which doesn’t seem like it would be that difficult to do since so far Nintendo seems hell bent on going low budget for their biggest game this year.

Unlike the Mario movie where it feels like it’s the only thing that’s important to the Nintendo Marketing department right now which only comes out a month earlier, that official movie poster they just released is pretty amazing looking with all the detail it shows.

 

[Kevin]

I need to sit down and I'm already sitting down...

 

[Charamiwa]

I need to sit down and I'm already sitting down...

Cool video, interesting musings on the ouroboros motif. Though the fact that we're back talking about the timeline means new info can't come soon enough!

 

[Hairway to Steven]

I want to see Nintendo put more effort into the NPC design in this game. BOTW's NPC cast overwhelmingly consisted of Miis cranked out from a random soulless generator. Really disappointing.

I would also love to see Hyrule Castle Town fully rebuilt and explorable. But I know I'm not gonna get that. I just miss the series' medieval setting overall. Leave the futuristic stuff for Metroid or Xenoblade.

 

[Kevin]

Cool video, interesting musings on the ouroboros motif. Though the fact that we're back talking about the timeline means new info can't come soon enough!

Yeah I agree. Hopefully this week we start getting real answers to this game. I don't need the whole thing spoiled or anything like that, just want a good meaty look at "what's new" and a taste of the story and world. Still this video I found to be highly interesting and kind of gave me chills. I was really disappointed in the story in BOTW which felt very minor. If TOTK has a bigger grander story then it could go down as my favorite Zelda of all time. Well assuming the game itself delivers as well. I'm asking a lot here but I remain hopeful.

 

[ZeldaPY]

I need to sit down and I'm already sitting down...

Zeltik by far has the best content, I could listen to him all day. The only problem I have is that The logo does not show two dragons eating each others tails. It definitely symbolizes and references an Ouroboros but I see it more as a references to a Spiral and or depicting one dragon ascending and the other descending which is what they do in BotW and what we will be doing in TotK. We simply don’t have enough information to assume a lot of what is stated in the video, especially that Hylia is the new figure we see. I like the theory but there are a lot of big assumptions that go with it.

 

[maidhhc]

I want to see Nintendo put more effort into the NPC design in this game. BOTW's NPC cast overwhelmingly consisted of Miis cranked out from a random soulless generator. Really disappointing.

I would also love to see Hyrule Castle Town fully rebuilt and explorable. But I know I'm not gonna get that. I just miss the series' medieval setting overall. Leave the futuristic stuff for Metroid or Xenoblade.

Yeah I wanna see some weird faces

 

[Serif]

I thought there were plenty of fun NPCs outside of the usual civilians. Bolson and the carpenters, Sayge from the dye shop, Purah, Robbie, Impa, Paya, Kass and his kids, the Champion descendants, Kilton, Dorephan and that grumpy hammerhead Zora, Buliara, the Owl chief, the Goron chief with the bad back, &c.And that's off the top of my head. I hope the sky islands have an interesting civilization to visit.

 

[TheMoon]

make more Miis. I'm not having this Mii-slander.

 

[Hairway to Steven]

Yeah I wanna see some weird faces

They don't even have to be weird.

I just want some memorable character designs. I want to be able to tell who's who and actually have a reason to remember their names.

 

[Hairway to Steven]

I thought there were plenty of fun NPCs outside of the usual civilians. Bolson and the carpenters, Sayge from the dye shop, Purah, Robbie, Impa, Paya, Kass and his kids, the Champion descendants, Kilton, Dorephan and that grumpy hammerhead Zora, Buliara, the Owl chief, the Goron chief with the bad back, &c.And that's off the top of my head. I hope the sky islands have an interesting civilization to visit.

Those characters were more the exception than the rule, though.

 

[Serif]

Those characters were more the exception than the rule, though.

In a game with dozens of NPCs scattering the open world, I'm not sure how many I expect to be memorable. I think in my post I've already listed at least ~15 characters.

 

[Jencks]

I thought most of the NPCs were well designed. The Gerudo and Rito in particular felt hand crafted, which is rare for an open world game.

 

[brainchild]

I've finally gotten around to doing a SS HD hero mode run to play along with a friend who received the title for the holidays, and man, playing this game with the TotK teasers on my mind is bringing up specific memories of pre-release SS hype I had nearly forgotten about.

For context, SS came out when I was in 8th grade, and was the first console Zelda I actively looked forward to. My introduction to Zelda - not counting Smash - was coming home from school to find my older brother playing the GCN version of Twilight Princess one day, sometime in the year between its release and receiving our Wii for Christmas in 07. Between then and 2011, I managed to play through every prior 3D Zelda; TWW with a used copy, and OoT/MM on virtual console. I also enjoyed the DS Zeldas.

Like many others, I dreamed of a Great Sea-esque sky, with a full Zelda overworld below. Particularly, when Goddess Cubes were shown off and the idea of connectivity between the two worlds was thrown at me, my imagination ran truly wild; I thought you might send land down down to access new areas, unlock things more intricate than chests in the sky from the surface, maybe even a dungeon that required going back and forth between the two. Perhaps descending from a specific spot in the sky could get you into a closed off area on the surface, or even vice versa.

Obviously, SS is a tightly designed game with linear areas that didn't lend itself to these ideas. I quickly realized this upon release, and still loved it for what it was; of the traditional 3D Zeldas, it just might be my favorite (though it's so hard to choose!). Its dungeons go a long way for me. However, that untapped potential was still there, and I occasionally thought about it and was bummed we probably wouldn't see a Zelda game achieve it.

For some reason, it didn't hit me in the E3 2021 teaser, or when playing SS HD the following month. But these sky islands open up that potential again, and that has me pumped. The open world is also a much better vehicle for that type of gameplay than Skyward Sword was, so I have some faith we'll at least see a little bit of those ideas, even if it's not a regular occurrence. Hell, it's arguably even the obvious thing to do in a BotW follow-up that features sky islands.

Now, if they do those things and give me good dungeons... May really can't come soon enough.

If I get all of this and a real underground network it will be the best game of all time for me. Underwater, outer space, and sacred realm exploration would be bonuses. I can't wait to learn more about this game!

 

[maidhhc]

omg imagine reversing the movement on an asteroid (or some satellite debris) and riding it back up out of the atmosphere and into star-studded orbit

 

[SMALLVILLE BOY]

omg imagine reversing the movement on an asteroid (or some satellite debris) and riding it back up out of the atmosphere and into star-studded orbit

 

[Deleted member 2181]

They don't even have to be weird.

I just want some memorable character designs. I want to be able to tell who's who and actually have a reason to remember their names.

I get what you're saying, but I've felt for a while now that this issue was exacerbated by the camera. It never comes in close for dialogue.

Actually a minor frustration I've had with many games since returning to gaming.
Shenmue figured out how this shit should work in the 90s.

 

[Jersh]

How was Hero Mode? I've got a save file standing by to dive into it but haven't started yet.

I'm probably a weird one to ask lol. I think I played this game six times on the Wii (alternating normal and hero), so for me it's just yet another run through.

Like most takes on the mode, it feels hard to start but quickly balances out as you adjust to play a little more defensively and gain hearts faster than enemy damage scales up. There's a couple things that make SS's take on it unique though:

-Once you find a heart medal, you can opt to take it with you to make hearts appear as normal, at the expense of an adventure pouch slot. Ultimately this probably just makes it easier, but having the choice is interesting.

-It also functions as a new game plus; the Skyward Strike stays upgraded from the endgame (and is hilariously as strong as the Master Sword from the start), and while equipment upgrades don't carry over, treasures do - so you can upgrade things right away if you take enough with you, even things that are normally gated behind getting to certain areas (tumbleweeds, dusk relics, etc.).

-If you don't take a heart medal, the relative lack of safety on the surface would make you more conscious of bringing potions with you - until you discover that you can fully heal anytime you come across a... seat. Seriously, any stool you find in the overworld can be used to fully heal as often as you want.

Ultimately, it's more Skyward Sword. If you like replaying Zeldas, it'll help keep it a little more fresh. If you don't, I don't think it'll help very much.

 

[maidhhc]

yuppa

 

[TheCongressman]

I had hoped that the mii Hylian system would be used for character creation in the Botw Battle Royal, but I guess that's not gonna happen...

 

[TriGen]

It seems like it’s going around that Micromania had a description pop up in its app that says "Explore Hyrule to search for The Tears of the Kingdom". It has more, but that’s the only new info I’d say. The fact that the Tears indeed a physical thing you collect. I’m not French so I can’t confirm myself. I think it’s also possible it’s just a description they made up as well.

 

[bathynomus]

How much time do you all think is gonna have passed in this game since BOTW? Six months? Five years?

Would be cool to see the existing towns flourishing since Calamity Ganon’s defeat. If it’s been a few years, they could have changed quite a bit.

 

[balgajo]

Saw the Zeltik video. Loop part was already discussed. But really liked his theory about Hylia.

One thing I’m thinking after the video. In SS Zelda falls to begin her journey from Hylia to Zelda. And now she may be falling again to go from Zelda to Hylia.

 

[Mango]

I need to sit down and I'm already sitting down...

This video pissed me off. The sky islands aren't being raised in ToTK, we can clearly see this. The idea that they are is just an assumption people have made because of Hyrule Castle being pushed up by Malice. The islands themselves are ancient implying they've been around for eons and haven't just been raised, and there continues to be nothing in any of the trailers to suggest time travel of any kind. Moreover his assumption that Zelda must time travel if she's the one on the mural, completely ignores the series long established habit of prophetic foreshadowing, which is at its strongest in BOTW.

Moreover the claim that,

"Zelda's role in the story had been kept incredibly secret"

Is a silly statement to make when the whole game has been kept incredibly secret. Not only that there's ample evidence to make the claim that the figure in the mural is the same one who owns the green hand, which presumably spent eons holding Ganondorf down, and not being Hylia.

 

[ReyVGM]

It seems like it’s going around that Micromania had a description pop up in its app that says "Explore Hyrule to search for The Tears of the Kingdom". It has more, but that’s the only new info I’d say. The fact that the Tears indeed a physical thing you collect. I’m not French so I can’t confirm myself. I think it’s also possible it’s just a description they made up as well.

It's an incredibly generic description. Change the name of the game to any other Zelda and change "search for the Tears of the Kingdom" for "search for the medallions/pendants/musical instruments/whatever" and it would still fit that Zelda game perfectly.

 

[joveroy]

 

[Awesomegames23]

This video pissed me off. The sky islands aren't being raised in ToTK, we can clearly see this. The idea that they are is just an assumption people have made because of Hyrule Castle being pushed up by Malice. The islands themselves are ancient implying they've been around for eons and haven't just been raised, and there continues to be nothing in any of the trailers to suggest time travel of any kind. Moreover his assumption that Zelda must time travel if she's the one on the mural, completely ignores the series long established habit of prophetic foreshadowing, which is at its strongest in BOTW.

Moreover the claim that,

"Zelda's role in the story had been kept incredibly secret"

Is a silly statement to make when the whole game has been kept incredibly secret. Not only that there's ample evidence to make the claim that the figure in the mural is the same one who owns the green hand, which presumably spent eons holding Ganondorf down, and not being Hylia.

I agree pretty much with what you wrote here. The sky islands seem like they are going to be in the sky for the entire game. It could be the Sacred Realm, I.e. the golden land, and its untouched by evil, however Ganondorf is using his malice to push the castle up to the sacred realm, that’s my theory. Obviously studio Ghibli movies are massive pieces of influence and inspiration for the Zelda team, so this could literally be a “Castle in the Sky” kind of thing.

I’m not sure where all this Hylia nonsense came from, but it’s strange so many people are seriously or even mildly convinced it’s Hylia. I think the sky lady is most likely somebody new, and is probably who the hand belonged to a long time ago like you wrote.

Whatever agreement the mysterious sky lady and ancient Zelda struck is a mystery. In my opinion, I think the sky lady agreed to keep Ganondorf in an arrested state with her magic, while Zelda would use her sealing power (passed down in her bloodline) to stop Ganon. What happened after that is much more speculative.

 

[Hauke_von_Arding]

I hope the sky islands have an interesting civilization to visit.