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

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I know this has all been discussed to death, but as a huge Zelda fan that was disappointed by BotW, here are the things that I really want out of TotK:

1. Much greater enemy variety. So many cool weapons and abilities in BotW that weren't all that fun to use because you fight the same handful of enemies for hundreds of hours.

2. Something to negate the effects of rain on climbing, or a song to stop the rain. The best mechanic in the game was unfortunately taken away from you far too often due to slipping.

3. Proper dungeons, and at least 8 of them. Self explanatory, nearly everyone wants this. It doesn't feel like a Zelda without them. And better/more unique bosses please.

4. Make the world smaller, and denser. There is literally only one game I've ever played where I enjoyed vast expanses of nothingness, and that was Shadow of the Colossus. Too much empty space is the thing I hate most about open world games. I know they will probably do the opposite of this, but it's my list dammit! I hope they at least make the sky islands interesting. And if there is indeed an underground that it's not just miles and mild or drab brown and grey caves.

5. Less enemy camps. And make the rewards for completing them more worthwhile. I felt like 90% of the treasure chests in BotW for completing an enemy camp yielded unsatisfying rewards... Either weapon I already had a bunch of or a handful of rupees.

6. Better music. I liked the approach in BotW but not the execution. I'm a huge fan of ambient music and environmental noise/sound design, but I think they can do a lot better.

7. Have Link speak outloud a bit. I like the approach in story for BotW but it's weird having Zelda just talk at him and not say anything.

8. Fully playable Zelda. Let me choose her from the start, and play through the entire game as her. Completely different abilities and items. More magic based. The world should be designed in a way that accommodates both. I'm thinking of immersive sim games like Dishonored and Deus Ex. Would be huge for replayability, and is NOT an unreasonable request after a 6 year development period that is reusing so many things from the first game. If they refuse to let me play as Zelda, then Samus would also be an acceptable option.

9. Tweak the equipment degradation system a bit. It needs to be a bit more forgiving, but keep it in there please.

10. More visual variety to the shrines please. Much like they dungeons they all looked the same in BotW. Too much copy and paste visual design. And get rid of the combat challenge ones. Have there be a dedicated arena/colosseum for that kind of thing.

11. More super unique stuff peppered throughout the world. My favorite parts of BotW were The Great Plateau, Eventide Isle, Hyrule Castle, the 4 corner mazes, Lost woods, and the dark ruins.

12. Keep the Korak seeds or equivalent of them (Tears of the Kingdom?), but make more interesting puzzles to get them.

13. A greater variety of minibosses. Fighting Lynels, giant skeletons, and Stone Talus' over and over got old really quick.

Probably a few things I'm forgetting but that's a start. In any case I'd really like to see a proper trailer soon, and then media blackout. We're so close!
 
Hauke_von_Arding said:
I want my boss with a flying head and two hands seperated from his body. Even Mario Odyssey had it!
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✔️ Floating hands
✔️ Flying head (maybe)

Just pick a fight and you’re good

large.jpg
 
TheSpaceBetween said:
I know this has all been discussed to death, but as a huge Zelda fan that was disappointed by BotW, here are the things that I really want out of TotK:

1. Much greater enemy variety.

3. Proper dungeons, and at least 8 of them.

8. Fully playable Zelda.

9. Tweak the equipment degradation system a bit.

10. More visual variety to the shrines please.

11. More super unique stuff peppered throughout the world.

13. A greater variety of minibosses. Fighting Lynels, giant skeletons, and Stone Talus' over and over got old really quick.
Click to expand...
I agree with all the above, but this in particular:
TheSpaceBetween said:
2. Something to negate the effects of rain on climbing
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made me realize the hookshot would be good for the rain. They said the hookshot woulda negated the climbing mechanic (which I get) but having it tied to stamina (as someone suggested a while ago) might help keep people from cheesing it all the time, and then when it's rainy you'd have an alternative to climbing, rather than just having to abandon going vertical at all.

See? Hookshot would make sense in BotW.
 
Awesomegames23 said:
I like GameXplain, but this is kind of trash. It COULD be delayed, but it is not at all likely to be delayed.
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It's funny that I don't remember anyone doing these videos when they dated New Horizons 9 months before release even one month more than ToTK date given to release period.
Also, I don't know why everyone is using past Zelda games delayed as an examples. None of these has been given a solid date. Funny how they don't even mention that ToTK was rated already.
 
Awesomegames23 said:
I like GameXplain, but this is kind of trash. It COULD be delayed, but it is not at all likely to be delayed.
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Yep, and it COULD also be shadowdropped next month. 🤣 Yeah, there's precedent for Zelda games being delayed, but there's also precedent for Nintendo up and shuffling an announced schedule and releasing a game months early!

*runs to youtube to make a video right quick*
 
Just a random cute idea, I think in the brief interlude of peace between BotW and TotK the children of the various tribes should form their own "Bombers' Secret Society" like in Majora's Mask, and they give you a Bombers' Notebook to track sidequests and NPC interactions, with 'Collectopedia' cards like in Xenoblade 3.
 
LukasManak22 said:
It's funny that I don't remember anyone doing these videos when they dated New Horizons 9 months before release even one month more than ToTK date given to release period.
Also, I don't know why everyone is using past Zelda games delayed as an examples. None of these has been given a solid date. Funny how they don't even mention that ToTK was rated already.
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And with how popular Zelda is, we can just look at manufacturing lines. If manufacturers are still planning on manufacturing, then obviously there isn't a delay, but now less than 4 months outs, if it does get delayed, then they'll know before we do.

That french website fnac said last week that they're getting a restock on Feb 3rd or something, so Zelda amiibo are being made as we speak. The Zelda restock was on twitter back in May, so amiibo plans haven't changed, and in my opinion, they'd be one of the first manufacturing lines to change their schedule if the game got delayed, but they haven't (publicly at least). I'd say the likelihood of Zelda being delayed at this moment is closing in on 1%.
 
I just realized another great excuse for the hookshot in TotK (and I'm sorry if this was already mentioned and I missed it):

With the sky islands being dotted all over the place, spaced apart and at different altitudes, the hookshot would be a great way to traverse up into and across the sky in a way that climbing and gliding wouldn't work for.
 
Awesomegames23 said:



I like GameXplain, but this is kind of trash. It COULD be delayed, but it is not at all likely to be delayed.
Click to expand...

I don’t remember a past Zelda game being delayed after a release date being announced.

I agree that after the teasers and basically no info is odd to get the exact release date eight months prior, but I doubt about a Zelda delay after the past one.

Unless something catastrophic happens in the coming months, I’m sure that the game will be in our hands on the date.
 
chocolate_supra said:
I just realized another great excuse for the hookshot in TotK (and I'm sorry if this was already mentioned and I missed it):

With the sky islands being dotted all over the place, spaced apart and at different altitudes, the hookshot would be a great way to traverse up into and across the sky in a way that climbing and gliding wouldn't work for.
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Yes and the bottom of those islands with the weird shape, some with what looks like antennas hanging on them are just begging for Link to a grappling hook, hook shot mechanic on them.
 
From what I recall BotW doesn't really have any 'swinging' physics involving Link, like swinging with the grappling hook or whip in Skyward Sword and Wind Waker. You could swing other objects with magnesis, but there aren't any moments where you can manipulate Link's own velocity or momentum with a rope. That seems ripe for some physics puzzles involving a grappling hook, and as a Spider-Man like traversal method.

I havent' actually played Monster Hunter Rise but that wirebug looks pretty similar to what I imagine.

show
giphy.gif

vub1dzi302461.jpg


Source.

I was thinking about this cause I finished Kunai recently, and the grappling momentum in that game was fun :p
floorislava.gif
 
Just thinking about a mix of Spider-Man web-swinging and BotW's climbing in TotK mix with some perhaps wall-running from Jedi Fallen Order and I morph into Homer Simpsons salivating about food.
 
Awesomegames23 said:
It'd be kind of neat if we get a hookshot but it only has a relatively small amount of chains at first, so it can't fire far. Throughout the game we can find extra chains in the world (like korok seeds but maybe there's only 100 chains) in chests and gradually improve the hookshot. Some chests are guarded by enemies, are underwater, etc.. so we can gradually get a much more useful hookshot.
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Oh I love this idea! Give it to me Nintendo!

Jencks said:
Glide -> hookshot onto something and swing upward -> glide
Click to expand...

You are reading my mind! There are so many ways to implement this and have it not break the game.

Remember the spider-man type of swinging they had taken out? Maybe don't let the hook shot attach to stone but only shrubbery and other such materials. Imagine a canyon that can't be traversed above or below for what ever reason. But only in the rain plants tend to grow along the canyon walls and it's only because of a hook shot or double hook shoot that you can grapple across plants to make it through to some neat new area.

SMALLVILLE BOY said:
The Ox is out of the ordinary, just look at his/her tail(looks more like a dinosaur tail), also he/she is very big(elephant size).

9849-33093-1035075-2019-06-12-030011-full-1-orig-1-full-1.jpg
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The way that animal is packed to the brim and from what little we've seen I'm expecting one or two full on underground cities in this game. Link and Zelda look set for a long journey and maybe we don't interact with that animal much in the actual game but I'm given the impression we will be in this underground world for long stretches if we want to be.
 
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A friend of mine sent me a thing and I tried to type "holy shit" in response but my phone tried to autocorrect it to "hookshot" so I guess these algorithms really do learn us
 
Awesomegames23 said:
They could do TOTK joy-cons (could be bought separately), maybe a light green or light blue Switch lite (unlikely since TOTK oled is likely real), TotK earphones (BOTW got earphones made by Astro), and I think BOTW got about 9 Amiibo so TOTK could get similar.
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Specifically about amiibo, Nintendo has massively scaled back the amount of amiibo released so it's unlikely we get anywhere near as many. If I counted right, a eye watering 28 amiibo released in 2017, Vs 9 last year.
 
Still thinking that the paraglider might be more of a later game item in this one, like the Master Sword in Botw. I guess the handshot would be your way to reach lower islands via their walls if so. Stone bird might be your first way to get back to Hyrule
 
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I feel like if the Ox has a gameplay presence, that would indicate there will be a rework of how inventory works. But what would the animal carry that we wouldn't be able to carry in our pouch?

I think if Zelda was playable, her inventory might be more survival based with limited resources. But I don't think they would go that route otherwise.
 
It's kind of crazy that, as some might call him an "overused villain", we haven't seen Ganondorf in the flesh since Twilight Princess. 17 years ago, 18 this year in November.
 
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BY2K said:
It's kind of crazy that, as some might call him an "overused villain", we haven't seen Ganondorf in the flesh since Twilight Princess. Twenty-Two years ago, Twenty-Three this year in November.
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It probably does feel that long, but I'm 25 and Twilight Princess was new when I was 8. 😜

But yeah 17 years is a long time to have seen the human Ganondorf. I like how Wind Waker and Twilight Princess depicted different sides of him in alternate timelines. The TotK looks to be this almost inhuman conqueror, leaking malice.

Calamity Ganon was this cool force of nature, with its eyes watching Link amidst pools of Malice, but it lacked a human identity. With the sequel deliberately shifting things from the first game, I want to see G'Dorf's personality especially compared to the nicer Gerudo people we've interacted with.
 
Anyone else hoping this game uses voice acting more heavily? Like NPCs having some dialogue while minding their own business and some non cinematic story sequences having VA.
 
ArchedThunder said:
Anyone else hoping this game uses voice acting more heavily? Like NPCs having some dialogue while minding their own business and some non cinematic story sequences having VA.
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Personally, no. I find it really jarring when wandering around hearing NPCs when the voice doesn't fit the character model or the context is slightly off or the same lines are repeated by different characters in different locations.

The way BotW handled things was absolutely fine for me.
 
BY2K said:
It's kind of crazy that, as some might call him an "overused villain", we haven't seen Ganondorf in the flesh since Twilight Princess. 17 years ago, 18 this year in November.
Click to expand...

If you're only counting 3d Zelda's, sure, but then that's only two games...

Ganondorf was the main villain in Hyrule Warriors, and showed up to hijack the game in cadence of hyrule. And that's not counting Remakes.

(And even then, Ganon and Ganondorf are the same person, and Ganon showed up in several if not most of the other games released since.
 
I suspect this should have been discussed extensively here already, but something really intrigues me. When Nintendo announced "the sequel to Breath Of The Wild in development" I thought that was cool because there were things I wanted to see (better dungeons, more elaborate bosses, ambitious storytelling ) and that the idea of a sequel made it possible to achieve it more quickly.

I have no problem with giving the developers all the time they need. On the contrary, it's one of the reasons why I love Nintendo. But I honestly can't understand how a "sequel", to use Nintendo's terms, can have a longer development time than Breath Of the Wild, which basically invented a whole new paradigm for the series.

Again, I have no problem with the development time itself, but if it's long, then better do something other than a "sequel", in my humble opinion.
 
boodream said:
I suspect this should have been discussed extensively here already, but something really intrigues me. When Nintendo announced "the sequel to Breath Of The Wild in development" I thought that was cool because there were things I wanted to see (better dungeons, more elaborate bosses, ambitious storytelling ) and that the idea of a sequel made it possible to achieve it more quickly.

I have no problem with giving the developers all the time they need. On the contrary, it's one of the reasons why I love Nintendo. But I honestly can't understand how a "sequel", to use Nintendo's terms, can have a longer development time than Breath Of the Wild, which basically invented a whole new paradigm for the series.

Again, I have no problem with the development time itself, but if it's long, then better do something other than a "sequel", in my humble opinion.
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It has been discussed before, yes, and the general consensus is Nintendo haven't shown their whole hand yet with regards to the sequel and its mechanics.

I think in general, it was a mistake to ever assume a "sequel" in the way that Forbidden West is a sequel. People expecting a Majora's Mask style sequel were seemingly ignoring the fact that Majora's Mask was a very different game from Ocarina of Time. Part of that was the rapid development only allowing for four dungeons, sure, but I think Nintendo had the awareness that a game constrained by the same engine, reusing the same assets, would need to be different on a fundamental level to still feel fresh.

The general assumption on here seems to be that once we start to get some real details of Tears of the Kingdom, it will be obvious where all that development time went. I'm not so sure on that. It's conceivable to me that a lot of time was eaten by a combination of COVID and just pure experimentation. I think that's both the strength and weakness of Zelda: The developers will spend a lot of time experimenting with core mechanics before they even begin building. It means they usually have great ideas, but it doesn't guarantee a game that is full of meat on its bones as less time will have been spent on that part (and Breath of the Wild itself is an example of this!).
 
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TheSpaceBetween said:
I know this has all been discussed to death, but as a huge Zelda fan that was disappointed by BotW, here are the things that I really want out of TotK:

1. Much greater enemy variety. So many cool weapons and abilities in BotW that weren't all that fun to use because you fight the same handful of enemies for hundreds of hours.

2. Something to negate the effects of rain on climbing, or a song to stop the rain. The best mechanic in the game was unfortunately taken away from you far too often due to slipping.

3. Proper dungeons, and at least 8 of them. Self explanatory, nearly everyone wants this. It doesn't feel like a Zelda without them. And better/more unique bosses please.

4. Make the world smaller, and denser. There is literally only one game I've ever played where I enjoyed vast expanses of nothingness, and that was Shadow of the Colossus. Too much empty space is the thing I hate most about open world games. I know they will probably do the opposite of this, but it's my list dammit! I hope they at least make the sky islands interesting. And if there is indeed an underground that it's not just miles and mild or drab brown and grey caves.

5. Less enemy camps. And make the rewards for completing them more worthwhile. I felt like 90% of the treasure chests in BotW for completing an enemy camp yielded unsatisfying rewards... Either weapon I already had a bunch of or a handful of rupees.

6. Better music. I liked the approach in BotW but not the execution. I'm a huge fan of ambient music and environmental noise/sound design, but I think they can do a lot better.

7. Have Link speak outloud a bit. I like the approach in story for BotW but it's weird having Zelda just talk at him and not say anything.

8. Fully playable Zelda. Let me choose her from the start, and play through the entire game as her. Completely different abilities and items. More magic based. The world should be designed in a way that accommodates both. I'm thinking of immersive sim games like Dishonored and Deus Ex. Would be huge for replayability, and is NOT an unreasonable request after a 6 year development period that is reusing so many things from the first game. If they refuse to let me play as Zelda, then Samus would also be an acceptable option.

9. Tweak the equipment degradation system a bit. It needs to be a bit more forgiving, but keep it in there please.

10. More visual variety to the shrines please. Much like they dungeons they all looked the same in BotW. Too much copy and paste visual design. And get rid of the combat challenge ones. Have there be a dedicated arena/colosseum for that kind of thing.

11. More super unique stuff peppered throughout the world. My favorite parts of BotW were The Great Plateau, Eventide Isle, Hyrule Castle, the 4 corner mazes, Lost woods, and the dark ruins.

12. Keep the Korak seeds or equivalent of them (Tears of the Kingdom?), but make more interesting puzzles to get them.

13. A greater variety of minibosses. Fighting Lynels, giant skeletons, and Stone Talus' over and over got old really quick.till

Probably a few things I'm forgetting but that's a start. In any case I'd really like to see a proper trailer soon, and then media blackout. We're so close!
Click to expand...
I suspect you may get a few of these changes you want. For me I only agree with 1, 3, 11 and 13, and wouldn’t want a lot of the changes you propose. I think everyone would would have a different point of view depending on what they like most in the style of game play they enjoy.

I was in the same boat for a long time after I tried playing BotW for a 2nd time and I had my own long laundry list of things I wished the game would approve upon. I still see several of these types of posts everyday, but I have come to a point where I just appreciate the game for what it was for me which was a beautiful world to explore and to get lost in. It was also a style of gameplay in an open world that had never been done before as well as the Zelda team did it, which is why it won so many awards.

I have a feeling the Zelda Team will accomplish this again but this time it will be done with the unique ways we explore the sky and possibly the underground if they use the ceiling phase through mechanic to its fullest potential and what ever crazy mechanics they cook up. There’s nothing wrong with wanting some changes or wanting some of the old Zelda formats to return because I am one of them too, I just see a lot of people possibly setting themselves up for a big let down if the game remains mostly the same play style.
This is more of a general statement then directed at anyone with a long wishlist because it’s fun to theorize and talk about possible game play elements. I think you said it best in that we just need some answers soon so we can a look forward to what is actually going to be in the game finally.
 
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Serif said:
hookshot.png


If I'm not hallucinating that faint green glow off the tree branch, then I'm guessing Link's arm itself is the grappling device with specific points you can latch onto indicated by the spirit energy.

Though even if I am hallucinating, I'm guessing it anyway cause it's a cool idea. What better way to 'grab' and 'reach' with than with one's own magic arm? :p
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could you mark where you see a green glow? I don't see anything.

Serif said:
linkconcept13.jpg


Wonder how far they'll take this.

The Shiekah Slate was a diegetic means of representing the map, a camera, and 'apps' on a device via the runes. I don't think the arm will be used in the same way, it's entirely possible that Link will use paper maps, physical bombs and maybe even a pictograph box instead of relying on Shiekah tech, just going off the aesthetics of this new world he's visting.

I think it'd be a nice contrast to BotW1 to focus this time on classical antiquity and magic based powers.
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the bombs were so good though, I don't see them going back to either not having bombs at all or using bombs that work differently/are oldschool consumables (speedrunners just had a heart attack).

Jencks said:
Glide -> hookshot onto something and swing upward -> glide
Click to expand...
so Batman Arkham City

Awesomegames23 said:
..........so there’s a group of bokoblins in the distance, and you use your magic arm to throw a barrel in the air. What for? Easy, you freeze it in midair so you can then hookshot onto it, since your arm can turn into a hookshot. Are you gonna paraglide to the bokoblins now that you got some height? Maybe in BOTW, but you open a portal below you that you dive into while firing bomb arrows and that portal opens up right above the bokoblins’ camp so now you’re falling into a giant explosion and instead of hitting solid ground you phase through the ground to go underneath the bokoblins so you can re-merge from below them and finish off the survivors that survived your bomb-arrow diving portal rush......


Like I said I don’t want to go off the rails with speculation.
Click to expand...
The Legend of Just Cause

chocolate_supra said:
I hope they bring back some of the classic bosses. I really miss Dodongo and Gohma.
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they can keep gohma's nasty spider ass where they left it!
Awesomegames23 said:



I like GameXplain, but this is kind of trash. It COULD be delayed, but it is not at all likely to be delayed.
Click to expand...

man they're really hurting for clicks with this concern troll nonsense. "we have absolutely nothing to talk about so let's throw a stupid thought out there that has no chance of happening but will definitely feed into concern troll agenda that brings engagement!"
Linkstrikesback said:
Specifically about amiibo, Nintendo has massively scaled back the amount of amiibo released so it's unlikely we get anywhere near as many. If I counted right, a eye watering 28 amiibo released in 2017, Vs 9 last year.
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of which half were monster hunter sunbreak amiibo even! I'm not even expecting any new amiibo for this. Maybe you get the new Link + one wild card.
ArchedThunder said:
Anyone else hoping this game uses voice acting more heavily? Like NPCs having some dialogue while minding their own business and some non cinematic story sequences having VA.
Click to expand...
nah, 100% no rando NPCs with voiced lines. story/big quest cutscenes only.
 
For those pessimistic about TOTK, the reality is we know very little about the game. We know it takes place in the same Hyrule as BOTW (with Sheikah towers / shrines now gone) but with the addition of sky islands and more (caves/underground?). We know Link’s arm has been corrupted in some way and will likely enable certain abilities. It appears that time manipulation of objects and phasing through objects are two of those said abilities. Arial combat also appears to be something that will occur while up in the skies. Finally, we know it will have a greater focus on story, but what that means for gameplay we have no idea.

All that being said, we know absolutely nothing of how the game will be structured from an objective standpoint. In BOTW, the primary goal was to defeat Calamity Ganon and pretty much everything else is optional. But completing the 120 shrines, four Devine Beasts, 15 Sheikah towers, and various side quests are what filled up the map and made exploring so special. To me, it’s very clear that TOTK will have a very different hook to it than just pure open-ended exploration. There aren’t going to be 120 shrine like things to find up in the sky. What is the purpose of these islands and how might they connect to the surface world (or underground world)? What are you trying to accomplish in this game and how does it tie to the main objective?

I know many have speculated that we’re heading back to the “collect seven things” of previous Zelda games and there is good reason to believe that. But that alone won’t work in a world this large. There have to be other things to do to keep the moment to moment gameplay interesting, in terms of exploration, puzzles, and combat. And it’s those gameplay elements we do not know yet and they won’t simply be rehashes of what was done in BOTW. There are big things about this game that Nintendo is hiding and I think we are going to be truly blown away once we see its final scope.
 
Linkstrikesback said:
If you're only counting 3d Zelda's, sure, but then that's only two games...

Ganondorf was the main villain in Hyrule Warriors, and showed up to hijack the game in cadence of hyrule. And that's not counting Remakes.

(And even then, Ganon and Ganondorf are the same person, and Ganon showed up in several if not most of the other games released since.
Click to expand...

I do not count spin-offs as they are not part of the main story and Ganondorf the man is a lot more interesting than Ganon the beast.
 
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