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

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Do we have any theories yet as to why parts of the sky islands have fallen and continue to fall? I can’t decide if I think Gannondorf is going to be able to reach them or has reached them with his hatred and malice. I guess it stems from the fact that Link is always on the offensive and trying to track down what ever Evil plague has infested Hyrule, it would interesting to be on the defensive side in real time for once.

I think a lot of us have mentioned the need to have to actually be in a hurry or that our decisions would make a difference to the story, which I think is great, just not too much pressure like Majora’s Mask, because I want to be able to explore at my own pace.

Im kind of leaning towards that the sky islands were mostly connected at one point and have moved, I don’t think we will be able to actually move them back, but we did see we can rotate them. But what happened to make pieces of them start fall?
 
Irene said:
I think that what the Hinox has on its head, the blade horns the Bokoblins have, etc, they are all crafting materials. And I think the blob around the Hinox's neck is a bowl of glue. All used for crafting. It will be instead of monster parts.
Click to expand...
Yep I agree, I think a lot of the parts we need are going be either guarded my Monsters, parts of Monsters or in hard to find places on the surface and will ultimately take the place of finding Korok’s, different machine parts could make nice rewards too for quests or shrines if they exist, rather than just weapons.
 
Yavga said:
Maybe Ganondorf is trying to bring the Sacred realm down?
Click to expand...
I think it might be something along those lines or he is trying to reach them, but I wouldn’t expect him to be able to reach them, similar to why Hylia created Skyloft to keep everyone out of reach from Demise. Plus they are already falling or have fallen, so that’s the strange part to me. And if it is him, how is he doing it? Just doesn’t make sense to me.
 
The vibe I got from creating a champion book was that the BotW team was VERY passionate about the lore and worldbuilding, I won’t be surprised at all if a good amount of mysteries that lore theorists are pouring over have payoff in TOTK
 
ZeldaPY said:
I think it might be something along those lines or he is trying to reach them, but I wouldn’t expect him to be able to reach them, similar to why Hylia created Skyloft to keep everyone out of reach from Demise. Plus they are already falling or have fallen, so that’s the strange part to me. And if it is him, how is he doing it? Just doesn’t make sense to me.
Click to expand...

He shoots Bloodmoon bombs from the moon, kinda feels like if there wasn't anything still somewhat protecting the sky islands, he could've downed them in the intro cutscene. ^^
 
Irene said:
Thinking about the vehicle crafting again, and it makes me wonder if you can take the parts with you. You have to, right? Otherwise it would mean that you would have to look around and see what you have around you. Which would require the devs to strategically place things you can play around with here and there so you don't have to, like, drag stuff across the map.

Having huge crafting materials and machine parts "on you" like you would have boko horns or weapons, feels like one hell of an ask for suspension of disbelief. But hey.
Click to expand...

I've been thinking about the same thing, and I don't think Link will be able to just collect those crafting parts into his "magical pocket", especially those huge tires and wooden/iron platforms, he has to have a convenient way to carry them around. These're two possible solutions I came up with:

a. when Link finds those crafting parts, he can somehow summon a robot (like in Skyward Sword) and make the robot automatically carry those parts to designated places (infrastructures scattered around the world where you can register and freely customize vehicles, just like horse stables in BOTW).

b. Link carries these crafting parts himself utilizing his vehicles, then drives his loaded vehicle to those infrasturctures.

Since vehicle crafting is a new thing in TOTK, there must be some kind of tutorial section where Link builds his very first vehicle, which will be small and simple, but still have enough room to carry one or two crafting parts on it. As Link finds more crafting parts, he can build larger vehicles with more capacity, which allows him to carry more crafting parts...and maybe even NPCs.

In Red Dead Redemption 2, there're side quests where the player need to carry random NPCs on horse to designated places (such as injured NPC to a hospital). I think these kinds of quests are pretty suitable for TOTK, since from what we've seen so far, the world is basically ruined by Ganondorf, NPCs need to be evacuated to safer places, maybe shelters underground or up in the sky. And Link may need to ship goods and materials to those shelters with his vehicles too. it's kinda like Death Stranding, but more free, customizable and vertical.

In addition to carrying stuff around, customizable vehicles are also great for ground/aerial combat against a large group of enemies or a huge boss. It's difficult for players to control their directions and combat at the same time, now that you can attach weapons on your vehicles, you can just drive your vehicle while simultaneously shooting magical arrows and bombs towards flying dragons, like spaceship combat, easier to control.

So in my wildest imagination, TOTK basically equals to BOTW + RDR2 + Death Stranding + Star Fox + Vertical Exploration
 
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I like the idea of having to bring back the components we find to what would be the equivalent of stables in the game. Basically, once you bring them back once, you can then request them against from any stables, exactly like you would do with a horse.
One other element that could fit well with the concept is the idea that you have to "build" those stables or at least help at their constructions in the same way we did for Tarrey Town in BOTW.
Assuming the vehicles are going to be limited by whatever fuel they use, you can't venture too far away from those stables. So the more of those you have built across the map, the more ground (or sky :p) you can cover using those vehicles.
 
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I was looking at the Steel book cover more closely and a couple of things stand out to me at the bottom which we didn't see in the mural of the 2nd trailer. First, they appear to be all cusping hands in a circle in reference to Mural behind the logo. Next, it seems they are shown purposely Man, Woman, Man, Woman etc. It also looks weird that each side is facing towards the other side, almost like two tribes coming together. You would think if they were worshipping the God above them, they all would be looking up type thing.
hand-holding.jpg


I've also always thought that the figure on the Left has to be male, Some keep speculating that it is Hylia just in a form we haven't seen, but being taller, with larger hands and feet to me is a way of depicting a character as a male. So to me it depicts the Leaders of two tribes or races coming together forming a union, bond or agreement. Not Zelda on the Right and Hylia on the left. Now the Woman still could be Hylia, but the Male figure is not. Also I am convinced that the owner of the arm is indeed the character on the Left, which rules out Hylia in my opinion.

Mural.jpg
 
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ZeldaPY said:
I was looking at the Steel book cover more closely and a couple of things stand out to me at the bottom which we didn't see in the mural of the 2nd trailer. First, they appear to be all cusping hands in a circle in reference to Mural behind the logo. Next, it seems they are shown purposely Man, Woman, Man, Woman etc. It also looks weird that each side is facing towards the other side, almost like two tribes coming together. You would think if they were worshipping the God above them, they all would be looking up type thing.
hand-holding.jpg


I've also always thought that the figure on the Left has to be male, Some keep speculating that it is Hylia just in a form we haven't seen, but being taller, with larger hands and feet to me is a way of depicting a character as a male. So to me it depicts the Leaders of two tribes or races coming together forming a union, bond or agreement. Not Zelda on the Right and Hylia on the left. Now the Woman still could be Hylia, but the Male figure is not. Also I am convinced that the owner of the arm is indeed the character on the Left, which rules out Hylia in my opinion.

Mural.jpg
Click to expand...

I get the feeling that the right side loops back to the left side.
So are we about to create the cycle or destroy it ? Are those people trying to connect their hands, or did they just split ?
 
I really hope that the Zonai were cheated or double-crossed by the Sheikah so as to secure a power source for their tech. It would bring a much needed nuance to the story if Hyrule had been a quasi-colonial force against the ‘barbaric’ ancient Zonai civilisation (and help justify borrowing so heavily from mesoamerican aesthetics).
 
I wonder if those (i think) reddit rumours about Gamestop having a new Switch System SKU (the TotK OLED) listed for March 10th end up being true, that it means there's a TotK Direct close or on that day.

March 10th would be close to 2 months until release, similar timeframe where BotW got it's big story trailer during the Switch 2017 presentation.
Basically, within the timeframe where Nintendo would start to get serious about TotK ad promotion and so.

Sure, the TotK OLED could just be a normal Twitter announcement, but honestly, i think if they weren't planning to show TotK once more before launch similar to the Xenoblade 3 Direct, they could've announced the TotK OLED during last week's Direct as that would've given them more attention to it.
 
Bonejack said:
I wonder if those (i think) reddit rumours about Gamestop having a new Switch System SKU (the TotK OLED) listed for March 10th end up being true, that it means there's a TotK Direct close or on that day.

March 10th would be close to 2 months until release, similar timeframe where BotW got it's big story trailer during the Switch 2017 presentation.
Basically, within the timeframe where Nintendo would start to get serious about TotK ad promotion and so.

Sure, the TotK OLED could just be a normal Twitter announcement, but honestly, i think if they weren't planning to show TotK once more before launch similar to the Xenoblade 3 Direct, they could've announced the TotK OLED during last week's Direct as that would've given them more attention to it.
Click to expand...
The OLED editions/special editions are announced separately with no addition footage (at least that's how it was previously).
I don't believe it's March 10th because you know MARIO DAY. But, if TotK is playable at PAX East (March 23-26th) that means we will get something before then, gameplay too since they will debut it before people will get their hands on it at PAX.

The whole February is Kirby, after Kirby is out everything is open. The first two weeks of April would I doubt too since Mario Movie is releasing early April (I know these are different things but I doubt Nintendo would talk about TotK when everyone will be talking about Mario Movie). Which leads me to believe it's either second/third week of March really.
 
LukasManak22 said:
The OLED editions/special editions are announced separately with no addition footage (at least that's how it was previously).
I don't believe it's March 10th because you know MARIO DAY. But, if TotK is playable at PAX East (March 23-26th) that means we will get something before then, gameplay too since they will debut it before people will get their hands on it at PAX.

The whole February is Kirby, after Kirby is out everything is open. The first two weeks of April would I doubt too since Mario Movie is releasing early April (I know these are different things but I doubt Nintendo would talk about TotK when everyone will be talking about Mario Movie). Which leads me to believe it's either second/third week of March really.
Click to expand...

Dunno if that Mar10 day stuff would really matter if Nintendo were to decide to hold a worldwide TotK Direct that day, especially since it's "only" a thing for NoA, and short of some ad tweets for Mario games it's not like they did a lot with that "holiday".

But as i said, it's of course entirely likely the TotK OLED being only a Twitter announcement.
 
LukasManak22 said:
The OLED editions/special editions are announced separately with no addition footage (at least that's how it was previously).
I don't believe it's March 10th because you know MARIO DAY. But, if TotK is playable at PAX East (March 23-26th) that means we will get something before then, gameplay too since they will debut it before people will get their hands on it at PAX.

The whole February is Kirby, after Kirby is out everything is open. The first two weeks of April would I doubt too since Mario Movie is releasing early April (I know these are different things but I doubt Nintendo would talk about TotK when everyone will be talking about Mario Movie). Which leads me to believe it's either second/third week of March really.
Click to expand...
I know it's very minor in the grand scheme of things, but Bayonetta Origins releases on March 17th.
Would Nintendo really overshadow its release with new ToTK footage?
 
ZeldaPY said:
Thinking about SS for a second and our new ability to reverse objects to there previous state I just had a thought that you triggered with this post that I think is a real possibility.

The pieces of the vehicles have fallen from the sky because they were not there in BotW, and instead like in skyward sword we had to have that Robot fly down and pick things up for us, we simply use our reverse object power on the parts and they return to the sky to where they were either in their completed form again or in front of the Green Golom who puts them back together for us. The Green golom has the same symbol on him as the parts, so he could be the one makes the machines for us. The Golom has always seemed friendly to me and his long claws/ hands alway reminded me of the worker robots in the desert in SS when we use the time shift stones.
Click to expand...

That's an interesting idea. This might explain vehicle creation, because assembling a vehicle by hand via a 3rd person game is kind of tricky without help. You at least need a car lift type thing to suspend the frame up in the air as you add parts to it. I thought that could be another power of Link's, but an assistant probably makes more sense. The golem having a hollow cage for a body could be a container for something perhaps.
 
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GamerInHeart said:
I've been thinking about the same thing, and I don't think Link will be able to just collect those crafting parts into his "magical pocket", especially those huge tires and wooden/iron platform, he has to have a convenient way to carry them around. These're two possible solutions I came up with:

a. when Link finds those crafting parts, he can somehow summon a robot (like in Skyward Sword) and make the robot automatically carry those parts to designated places (infrastructures scattered around the world where you can register and freely customize vehicles, just like horse stables in BOTW).

b. Link carries these crafting parts himself utilizing his vehicles, then drives his loaded vehicle to those infrasturctures.

Since vehicle crafting is a new thing in TOTK, there must be some kind of tutorial section where Link builds his very first vehicle, which will be small and simple, but still have enough room to carry one or two crafting parts on it. As Link finds more crafting parts, he can build larger vehicles with more capacity, which allows him to carry more crafting parts...and maybe even NPCs.

In Red Dead Redemption 2, there're side quests where the player need to carry random NPCs on horse to designated places (such as injured NPC to a hospital). I think these kinds of quests are pretty suitable for TOTK, since from what we've seen so far, the world is basically ruined by Ganondorf, NPCs need to be evacuated to safer places, maybe shelters underground or up in the sky. And Link may need to ship goods and materials to those shelters with his vehicles too. it's kinda like Death Stranding, but more free, customizable and vertical.

Customizable vehicles are also great for ground/aerial combat against a large group of enemies or a huge boss. It's difficult for players to control their directions and combat at the same time, now that you can attach weapons on your vehicles, you can just drive your vehicle while simultaneously shooting magical arrows and bombs towards flying dragons, like spaceship combat, easier to control.

So in my wildest imagination, TOTK basically equals to BOTW + RDR2 + Death Stranding + Star Fox + Vertical Exploration
Click to expand...
Personally I think the vehicles are not nearly a big enough focus of the game and game mechanics to warrant a section in the tutorial. It feels like it's just an extension of the existing freeform crafting system, i.e. octorok balloons and such.
 
Homura said:
I know it's very minor in the grand scheme of things, but Bayonetta Origins releases on March 17th.
Would Nintendo really overshadow its release with new ToTK footage?
Click to expand...
Completely forgot about Bayonetta Origins, not really sure with this one but they will probably do it after that then (?).
 
PSA, if you have a smart TV hooked to a surround system: please watch the newest trailer on there. So much more of the music can be heard, and it feels like bathing in sound. also go watch a few Ghibli movies on there, Mononoke onward have OSSOM surround mixes as well
Serif said:
@manfromthedam
Here's the .m4a which when imported into Audacity will show all the surround sound channels.
How I got it: Use youtube-dl to extract "--audio format best" from the Japanese Tears of the Kingdom Trailer #2.
Install FFmpeg for Audacity prior to importing.
Hearing the deconstructed version is a joy, I can hear the little flutes in the background of the main theme.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the instructions! RIP my Mac using butt though, no youtube-dl for me. But your file works like a charm.

First of all: I friggin' love music mixed in surround. Don't get to hear it often. Gawd I hope they did that for the entire soundtrack.

Doing some digging on these channels is so much fun! One thing I heard: during the final part of the music in the trailer (the "Ganon" tritones part, 1:50 onward) you can hear Zelda's breathing on once of the channels. Kinda weird? Also interesting.
 
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maidhhc said:
I really hope that the Zonai were cheated or double-crossed by the Sheikah so as to secure a power source for their tech. It would bring a much needed nuance to the story if Hyrule had been a quasi-colonial force against the ‘barbaric’ ancient Zonai civilisation (and help justify borrowing so heavily from mesoamerican aesthetics).
Click to expand...
I totally buy 'barbarian' as xenophobic moniker from the ancient Shiekah / Hylians (or the Zonai are the true ancestors to Hylians) just as the Romans called anyone or anything non-Roman 'barbarian' (wearing long pants? how barbaric). The Zonai appear to be this fusion of Mesoamerican, Classical Greco-Roman and Shinto Japanese influence. Their aesthetic is a breath of fresh air after the Jomon inspired Sheikah - which was also cool looking, I've just spent hundreds of hours in that world.

manfromthedam said:
Doing some digging on these channels is so much fun! One thing I heard: during the final part of the music in the trailer (the "Ganon" tritones part, 1:50 onward) you can hear Zelda's breathing on once of the channels. Kinda weird? Also interesting.
Click to expand...
I'm ordering a surround soundbar (not enough room for rear speakers unfortunately, I have to compromise). because this and Metroid Prime's 5.1 mix are convincing me that not having surround means I'm missing out on a big part of the sensory experience of gaming. The sound design of BotW is impeccable and it continues here - the echoey chambers of the underground and cave areas are more evident. I also thought I could decipher the chanting at the end through reversal or tempo changes but even if it's Japanese, it's no Japanese I've ever heard.
 
Skittzo said:
Personally I think the vehicles are not nearly a big enough focus of the game and game mechanics to warrant a section in the tutorial. It feels like it's just an extension of the existing freeform crafting system, i.e. octorok balloons and such.
Click to expand...
I disagree. Vehicle/weapon crafting clearly plays a huge part in TOTK imo. I mentioned tutorial because I thought Link needed his initial vehicle to carry components for crafting more advanced vehicles, and a nice little tutorial seemed like a convenient way to give Link just that. But maybe you're right, maybe there's no need for a tutorial, and Link will just be given his initial vehicle by someone, like the weird bird-like stone platform shown in title review trailer, it could be one of the initial vehicles Link will obtain. There seems to be plenty of room for carrying some small components and materials on it.

It's actually not that weird that TOTK features quests where Link has to carry something (whether its components, materials, or even NPCs) in order to make something happen. Because in BOTW we already had those quests, such as carrying sheikah orb to initialte a shrine or carrying an ice cub in the desert as a side quest, which were pretty painful to complete since when Link was carrying those things, he lost all his combat abilities. But in TOTK, since we have weaponized vehicles now, those kinds of quests will make more sense imo.
 
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GamerInHeart said:
I disagree. Vehicle/weapon crafting clearly plays a huge part in TOTK imo. I mentioned tutorial because I thought Link needed his initial vehicle to carry components for crafting more advanced vehicles, and a nice little tutorial seemed like a convenient way to give Link just that. But maybe you're right, maybe there's no need for a tutorial, and Link will just be given his initial vehicle by someone, like the weird bird-like stone platform showed in title review trailer, it could be one of the initial vehicles Link will obtain. There seems to be plenty of room for carrying some small components and materials on it.
Click to expand...
I'm curious, why exactly do you think that? The vehicle stuff has taken up maybe 5-10 seconds of the 10-15 minutes of footage we have, and none of the secondary marketing like social media posts or CE contents or website description or anything like that even makes mention of it.
 
Skittzo said:
I'm curious, why exactly do you think that? The vehicle stuff has taken up maybe 5-10 seconds of the 10-15 minutes of footage we have, and none of the secondary marketing like social media posts or CE contents or website description or anything like that even makes mention of it.
Click to expand...
Cause the vehicle part is the "big reveal" part of the trailer, the cover of the trailer highlights one of the vehicles as well. And the official website of TOTK did mention "mysterious vehicles" (and "never before seen weapons")
https://www.zelda.com/tears-of-the-kingdom/
 
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Serif said:
I'm ordering a surround soundbar (not enough room for rear speakers unfortunately, I have to compromise). because this and Metroid Prime's 5.1 mix are convincing me that not having surround means I'm missing out on a big part of the sensory experience of gaming. The sound design of BotW is impeccable and it continues here - the echoey chambers of the underground and cave areas are more evident. I also thought I could decipher the chanting at the end through reversal or tempo changes but even if it's Japanese, it's no Japanese I've ever heard.
Click to expand...
I went through a few of these three years ago, and the conclusion I drew was: they're not worth it. They rely on psychoacoustic tricks to convey a sense of depth, but they didn't give me any of the definition and "bathing in sound" feeling I was after. I'd recommend getting a good 2.1 set instead.

I went for a Samsung soundbar with support for wireless rear speakers - paramount, because I didn't want to wire my studio up for them. Works like a charm. Not sure how constrained your space is, but my monitor is 2.5 meters removed from my rear speakers so I'm quite close to them, but it works just fine (you can often reduce the volume of rear speakers separately). It's delicious.
 
So, thought that i just had.

As it's been pointed out, we now have 3 different types of magic. Blue/Sheikah/Hylia, Red/Malice and now Green/Zonai, a .... Triforce ... of magic (ha!).
Watching the trailer again (within a reaction video, my guilty pleasure), the scene where Link lifts the tire out of the puddle, the effect comes directly out of his arm.

So my theory (which prolly someone already had) is that Link actually lost the skills from the Sheikah Slate he had in BotW 1, but can manipulate things with his Zonai powered arm.
I think Link can somehow "emulate" some of the effects the slate skills had, for example instead of bombing a wall to unlock a path, he manipulates time until the path isn't blocked anymore.

Thing is, unless Sheikah stuff like the towers, the slate or even the titans aren't working anymore, which i massively doubt, it could really mean that Zelda is playable and that she's the one using the slate abilities from BotW 1.

What i'm also curious is wether Links arm is "only" Zonai powered. The story parts of the trailer seem to show that Link looses his arm and the Master Sword to a massive malice attack. He's all roughed up on his right shoulder side in the parts where he jumps after Zelda.
I guess this is from the beginning of the game.
 
Serif said:
@manfromthedam
Here's the .m4a which when imported into Audacity will show all the surround sound channels.
How I got it: Use youtube-dl to extract "--audio format best" from the Japanese Tears of the Kingdom Trailer #2.
Install FFmpeg for Audacity prior to importing.
Hearing the deconstructed version is a joy, I can hear the little flutes in the background of the main theme.
Click to expand...
Anyone looking for a cleaner version of the music, without voice-over, follow Serif's instructions and disable the center channel. Don't forget to pan channels 1 & 5 hard left and 2 & 6 hard right. TASTY.
 
Two thoughts have occurred to me:

1) Horns.

We're seeing a lot of emphasis on "horns" on the enemies. New unique horns for each enemy type, even different ones for each different variant within those types, and the new towers appear to have giant horns on top too. If you think about it in terms of visual imagery, "horns" may be sort of the opposite of "tears". In a cave drawing for instance, a tear is a droplet shape you see below eyes/heads, whereas a horn is an upturned droplet shape you see above a head. I think horns will be important symbolically least.


2) Goop.


Green goop = zonai magic = Courage
Blue goop = sheikah tech = Wisdom
Red goop = ganon malice = Power

Thematically, this is a game of rock paper scissors.

Malice/Power > Tech/Wisdom- In BOTW the malice is able to corrupt and reprogram the sheikah tech
Tech/Wisdom > Magic/Courage- We've seen hints that the Zonai were conquered or forced out by the Hylians, who likely relied on Sheikah tech. This is speculation more than actual proof.
Magic/Courage > Malice/Power- The green arm was able to seal Ganondorf, only stopping when rescuing Link (presumably). Also obviously Link is given the green magic to help defeat Ganondorf once and for all, presumably.
 
Bonejack said:
I wonder if those (i think) reddit rumours about Gamestop having a new Switch System SKU (the TotK OLED) listed for March 10th end up being true, that it means there's a TotK Direct close or on that day.

March 10th would be close to 2 months until release, similar timeframe where BotW got it's big story trailer during the Switch 2017 presentation.
Basically, within the timeframe where Nintendo would start to get serious about TotK ad promotion and so.

Sure, the TotK OLED could just be a normal Twitter announcement, but honestly, i think if they weren't planning to show TotK once more before launch similar to the Xenoblade 3 Direct, they could've announced the TotK OLED during last week's Direct as that would've given them more attention to it.
Click to expand...
I really hope so, I would love to have another meaty trailer that soon. Since all I’ve done for the last week is pretty much think about this last trailer, the week flew by, feels like the direct was yesterday.
 
Skittzo said:
Two thoughts have occurred to me:

1) Horns.

We're seeing a lot of emphasis on "horns" on the enemies. New unique horns for each enemy type, even different ones for each different variant within those types, and the new towers appear to have giant horns on top too. If you think about it in terms of visual imagery, "horns" may be sort of the opposite of "tears". In a cave drawing for instance, a tear is a droplet shape you see below eyes/heads, whereas a horn is an upturned droplet shape you see above a head. I think horns will be important symbolically least.


2) Goop.


Green goop = zonai magic = Courage
Blue goop = sheikah tech = Wisdom
Red goop = ganon malice = Power

Thematically, this is a game of rock paper scissors.

Malice/Power > Tech/Wisdom- In BOTW the malice is able to corrupt and reprogram the sheikah tech
Tech/Wisdom > Magic/Courage- We've seen hints that the Zonai were conquered or forced out by the Hylians, who likely relied on Sheikah tech. This is speculation more than actual proof.
Magic/Courage > Malice/Power- The green arm was able to seal Ganondorf, only stopping when rescuing Link (presumably). Also obviously Link is given the green magic to help defeat Ganondorf once and for all, presumably.
Click to expand...

I think the horns were mainly created to make enemies more unique. It looks like a moblin in the trailer tries to fling Link in the air with his bull horns, just like a bull. So if each tier of bokoblin and moblin has a different kind of horn, then they won’t just be tiers with more health and better weapons, but they will fight differently depending on their horns.
 
Skittzo said:
Two thoughts have occurred to me:

1) Horns.

We're seeing a lot of emphasis on "horns" on the enemies. New unique horns for each enemy type, even different ones for each different variant within those types, and the new towers appear to have giant horns on top too. If you think about it in terms of visual imagery, "horns" may be sort of the opposite of "tears". In a cave drawing for instance, a tear is a droplet shape you see below eyes/heads, whereas a horn is an upturned droplet shape you see above a head. I think horns will be important symbolically least.


2) Goop.


Green goop = zonai magic = Courage
Blue goop = sheikah tech = Wisdom
Red goop = ganon malice = Power

Thematically, this is a game of rock paper scissors.

Malice/Power > Tech/Wisdom- In BOTW the malice is able to corrupt and reprogram the sheikah tech
Tech/Wisdom > Magic/Courage- We've seen hints that the Zonai were conquered or forced out by the Hylians, who likely relied on Sheikah tech. This is speculation more than actual proof.
Magic/Courage > Malice/Power- The green arm was able to seal Ganondorf, only stopping when rescuing Link (presumably). Also obviously Link is given the green magic to help defeat Ganondorf once and for all, presumably.
Click to expand...
Could you put this in a spoiler tag? All this talk of horn goop is obviously NSFW.
 
Classic "and at this point I'm afraid to ask" post here.

I've played through BotW four full times (twice on Wii U, twice on Switch, twice to 100% completion) and I cannot remember the Zonai at all. In fact I don't ever remember seeing the word "Zonai" anywhere - maybe in a placename? Yet they have dominated discussion since the first trailer. Did I miss something?

Seeing people talk about them so freely like they were a big thing makes me feel like we all played different games, lol

Seriously though... were they actually in BotW? Who were they? Where does all that speculation come from?
 
Heron said:
Classic "and at this point I'm afraid to ask" post here.

I've played through BotW four full times (twice on Wii U, twice on Switch, twice to 100% completion) and I cannot remember the Zonai at all. In fact I don't ever remember seeing the word "Zonai" anywhere - maybe in a placename? Yet they have dominated discussion since the first trailer. Did I miss something?

Seeing people talk about them so freely like they were a big thing makes me feel like we all played different games, lol

Seriously though... were they actually in BotW? Who were they? Where does all that speculation come from?
Click to expand...
lol i had the same confusion & question a couple threads ago, here's the answer I got: https://famiboards.com/threads/the-...aunches-may-12th-2023.3772/page-5#post-398341

the question i still find myself wondering about is how everyone is so confident that that guy is ganondorf.......
 
Heron said:
Classic "and at this point I'm afraid to ask" post here.

I've played through BotW four full times (twice on Wii U, twice on Switch, twice to 100% completion) and I cannot remember the Zonai at all. In fact I don't ever remember seeing the word "Zonai" anywhere - maybe in a placename? Yet they have dominated discussion since the first trailer. Did I miss something?

Seeing people talk about them so freely like they were a big thing makes me feel like we all played different games, lol

Seriously though... were they actually in BotW? Who were they? Where does all that speculation come from?
Click to expand...

I don't have the book, but the Zonai are mentioned in the Creating a Champion book, that's how we know all those mysterious structures and ruins around Hyrule were created by the Zonai. I don't believe the word "Zonai" is even said once in BoTW like you said.
 
ZeldaPY said:
Do we have any theories yet as to why parts of the sky islands have fallen and continue to fall? I can’t decide if I think Gannondorf is going to be able to reach them or has reached them with his hatred and malice.
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Not sure if anyone’s mentioned it, but it’s an interesting thought: ganondorf appears to want to go upwards, into the sky, bringing the castle with him. On the other hand, parts of the sky islands fall down (whether by structural collapse or by ganondorf directly). Maybe the “end goal” of the game is to stop him from reaching the sacred skies because he’ll be able to take control of everything there? Maybe the skies have some significance to him because it’s weird why he’d want to go upwards otherwise without a purpose
 
Okayge said:
Not sure if anyone’s mentioned it, but it’s an interesting thought: ganondorf appears to want to go upwards, into the sky, bringing the castle with him. On the other hand, parts of the sky islands fall down (whether by structural collapse or by ganondorf directly). Maybe the “end goal” of the game is to stop him from reaching the sacred skies because he’ll be able to take control of everything there? Maybe the skies have some significance to him because it’s weird why he’d want to go upwards otherwise without a purpose
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Omg what if this is happening in real time Bowser's Fury style, with the castle constantly visible and rising, and you need to rewind time to postpone it Majora's Mask style
 
Heron said:
Classic "and at this point I'm afraid to ask" post here.

I've played through BotW four full times (twice on Wii U, twice on Switch, twice to 100% completion) and I cannot remember the Zonai at all. In fact I don't ever remember seeing the word "Zonai" anywhere - maybe in a placename? Yet they have dominated discussion since the first trailer. Did I miss something?

Seeing people talk about them so freely like they were a big thing makes me feel like we all played different games, lol

Seriously though... were they actually in BotW? Who were they? Where does all that speculation come from?
Click to expand...

Awesomegames23 said:
I don't have the book, but the Zonai are mentioned in the Creating a Champion book, that's how we know all those mysterious structures and ruins around Hyrule were created by the Zonai. I don't believe the word "Zonai" is even said once in BoTW like you said.
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Zonai are mentioned a few times in BotW, in item descriptions and location names. Zonai ruins being a pretty obvious one in the Faron region IIRC. I think the Barbarian armor mentions Zonai too, and suggest that the labyrinths were made by the Zonai. EDIT: turns out the barbarian set doesn't mention "Zonai" by name but rather "warlike" civilization from the Faron region. Which is obviously meant to be Zonai, as indicated in Creating a Champion.

Faron = Farore= Goddess of Courage thus backing up my Zonai goop = courage theory

slide's said:
lol i had the same confusion & question a couple threads ago, here's the answer I got: https://famiboards.com/threads/the-...aunches-may-12th-2023.3772/page-5#post-398341

the question i still find myself wondering about is how everyone is so confident that that guy is ganondorf.......
Click to expand...

I swear I've seen some marketing material indicating that that's Ganondorf, but I can't remember anymore... But considering he's the apparent source of the Malice, and the Malice is what formed Calamity Ganon, and the only time Ganon took human form he was called Ganondorf... it feels like a pretty obvious conclusion.
 
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This is an interesting read:

zelda.fandom.com

Zonai

The Zonai are a prehistoric civilization whose existence was first indicated by ruins and an Armor Set in Breath of the Wild.[1] They appear fully in Tears of the Kingdom, where they are said to have been descendants of the gods who came from the sky. The Zonai are an ancient tribe who came from...
zelda.fandom.com zelda.fandom.com

So the Zonai do have crests that represent the Triforce, with Boars being power (boar=pig=ganon), owls being wisdom and dragons being courage.
 
It's pretty clear it's Ganondorf. He's below Hyrule Castle, where Ganon is emerging from, and he's covered in Gerudo symbols. It's Ganondorf.
 
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Skittzo said:
Zonai are mentioned a few times in BotW, in item descriptions and location names. Zonai ruins being a pretty obvious one in the Faron region IIRC. I think the Barbarian armor mentions Zonai too, and suggest that the labyrinths were made by the Zonai. EDIT: turns out the barbarian set doesn't mention "Zonai" by name but rather "warlike" civilization from the Faron region. Which is obviously meant to be Zonai, as indicated in Creating a Champion.

Faron = Farore= Goddess of Courage thus backing up my Zonai goop = courage theory



I swear I've seen some marketing material indicating that that's Ganondorf, but I can't remember anymore... But considering he's the apparent source of the Malice, and the Malice is what formed Calamity Ganon, and the only time Ganon took human form he was called Ganondorf... it feels like a pretty obvious conclusion.
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Oh yeah you’re right, I forgot about that mention of the Zonai Ruins. I don’t believe the barbarian armour mentions Zonai, I think they just say they were worn by members of a mysterious tribe or something.
 
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palemire said:
Omg what if this is happening in real time Bowser's Fury style, with the castle constantly visible and rising, and you need to rewind time to postpone it Majora's Mask style
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This would give me so much anxiety and would really screw up the "hang out, explore, vibe" feeling that I love from BotW. That mechanic was the thing that made me dislike Majora's Mask and if they revisit it (because I know a lot of people love it) I'd hope they don't do it in an open-air mainline game.
 
I don't actually think the "Zonai" are gonna be a part of ToTK. The race was created specifically to be mysterious, so in my mind either:

A: they'll be revealed/retconned into being the ancient ancestors of the original Hylians, the people who lived alongside Hylia.

B: their tech, assuming it's theirs, will show up but the race itself won't.
 
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