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

[Serif]

So far I think the surface Zonai architecture are from flashbacks (mostly because I'm trying to manage my expectations for the scope of the game and we've done a similar song and dance during BotW's pre-release).

Worth noting one of the green overworld spirals shows up in that Great Plateau scene. We still don't know what purpose these serve of course.

In this 'Zonai' portion of the Forgotten Temple there is an entrance. This reminds me of the Temple of Time dungeon in Twilight Princess, you open a door in the main chamber of a familiar temple and enter an even deeper area.

It is puzzling why the Great Plateau has Zonai architecture - we can clearly see most of what it used to be and it is evidently not Zonai. No pointed columns or square patterns.

Hylian structures built over the original Zonai? Now I'm curious about the Temple of Time...

 

[HockeyBird]

Maybe the Great Plateau was once a sky island that landed on the surface a long time ago. It's of course found by Hylians and many of it the structures are rebuilt in the Hylian style. Then they also built the Temple of Time on top.

I don't think it's explicitly stated anywhere that all Temple of Times are the same one. It could just be a name given to any temple that holds a magical gateway or something. By the time of BOTW, its original function is largely forgotten, thought it is still used as a holy site.

 

[Christo750]

Oh damn what if the Great Plateau rises????

 

[Dardan Sandiego]

hm... did you try to reduce complexity with skalars?
2*BotW + 2*SS + MC = TotK

pls get your math out of my science

 

[eye0h]

Can someone summarise the most interesting things that they have been found out through this artbook? Not basic stuff like that girl who could be hylia but slightly more in depth discoveries.

 

[SpaceGodzilla]

been doing some science just need to get it peer reviewed before i can publish

As much as I would love this, even with the art leak, those last 2 are still very much speculation

 

[SpaceGodzilla]

Can someone summarise the most interesting things that they have been found out through this artbook? Not basic stuff like that girl who could be hylia but slightly more in depth discoveries.

weapon crafting/upgrade system

 

[Horror Kid]

Can someone summarise the most interesting things that they have been found out through this artbook? Not basic stuff like that girl who could be hylia but slightly more in depth discoveries.

Nothing is really confirmed but the following things got much more likely:

• themed dungeons (maybe 11, there are 11 symbols that are projected on a map of Hyrule in a building - we can see some of these signs already in the trailers in the world)
• Zelda in a more participant role, maybe playable (there seems to be a Zonai research team Zelda might be part of)
• weapon crafting seems for sure now
• time travel or local time shifts in specific areas
• Minish

 

[Serif]

"Armor polishing craftsman"

Seems they brought back this unused idea (from Creating a Champion)

(Technically not fully unused since you could do this with Octoroks - but nice to have an NPC to go to)

 

[ZeldaPY]

I was looking at this image and then comparing it to the analysis that Zeltik did in his theory about the Green energy swirls. I think this picture depicts the crystalized form of the green energy swirls.

When looking at the pictures of the rocks on the surface with the green energy swirls emanating from them in both its active form and de-active form from the trailer, I am thinking by reversing the flow of the green energy swirl, it will condense down into a crystalized form that we will then be able to use as our glue to hold together our machines.

This picture looks like a side view look at the green energy crystal either embedded still in the rock or in front of it to me.

But I also don't think this discounts the theory that they will also be used as fast travel points. We have seen a few other depictions surrounding these swirls with the one in the sky in the first picture and the one underneath the water in the second image.

Then we have the green swirls ability to hold down Gannondorf and even presumably it's ability to be absorbed directly into Links arm. And just looking at the last picture, it almost looks like a hole underneath the swirl on the pillar where link would stick his arm into to absorb the swirl into his arm? Big stretch I know... but going back to my first theory about the green energy being turned into a crystal, with the energy swirls coming out of the stones as seen on surface it just doesn't look like a fast travel point to me. But without the animation on what the fast travel sequence would look like, its too hard to tell. Does Link evaporate similar to BotW and then turn into a green energy swirl?

 

[NabiscoFelt]

"Armor polishing craftsman"

Seems they brought back this unused idea (from Creating a Champion)

(Technically not fully unused since you could do this with Octoroks - but nice to have an NPC to go to)

They also had this in Age of Calamity so not surprised it's in ToTK

 

[Captain Falcon]

Not necessarily, it could just be a flashback cutscene.

If it was one distinct shot I’d say you are right, but these are two very different scenes and it’s hard to believe they are both flashbacks.

 

[NabiscoFelt]

If it was one distinct shot I’d say you are right, but these are two very different scenes and it’s hard to believe they are both flashbacks.

The concept art could just be for the cutscene, they don't necessarily need to be in the same circumstances after all

 

[DecoReturns]

Age’s of Calamity menu theme was wonderful.

I hope Tears of the Kindgom’s soundtrack is great.

 

[Mango]

I don't think it's time travel. Consider how the weapon crafting works. It's about taking one thing and fusing it to another, the same with the vehicles, because of that I think it's something like two worlds or realms merging. That would explain the Great Plateau, it would also be a real clever way to change up the overworld while still having only one overworld.

 

[Deleted member 2]

Gotta be honest if I had early access to the game I'd
Rush through it as fast as I can
Only so I'd be able to tease things about it
On Famiboards. I wouldn't outwardly
Spoil people but hide small hints
Everywhere and then come release
I would quote myself and
Show people what was under their noses all along
Brining my elaborate plot to
A majestic end. Just to prove that while I
Could have spoiled Tears of the
Kingdom for them, I didn't.

Based

 

[Serif]

I think there's a poison element in the game.

These enemies have a new distinct variation with purply veins (caption on Like Like reads "sludge / slime / chemical ooze")

Tip of this Bokoblin horn resembles mushroom spores (Source)

With all the artwork of giant fungi, makes me wonder if Link can obtain natural ingredients and monster parts to craft weapons with poison effects. Perhaps there's an entire hazardous area underground littered with spores that threatens to poison Link.

Likewise there could be new recipes / antidotes for removing poison status.

 

[NabiscoFelt]

Age’s of Calamity menu theme was wonderful.

I hope Tears of the Kindgom’s soundtrack is great.

Age of Calamity's soundtrack is just highly underrated in general

I'd love to see some of the more action-y spins on BoTW music from that game influence ToTK

I think there's a poison element in the game.

These enemies have a new distinct variation with purply veins (caption on Like Like reads "sludge / slime / chemical ooze")

Tip of this Bokoblin horn resembles mushroom spores (Source)

With all the artwork of giant fungi, makes me wonder if Link can obtain natural ingredients and monster parts to craft weapons with poison effects. Perhaps there's an entire hazardous area underground littered with spores that threatens to poison Link.

Likewise there could be new recipes / antidotes for removing poison status.

The like-like in general seems like an indication of a poison area

 

[ZeldaPY]

I don't think it's time travel. Consider how the weapon crafting works. It's about taking one thing and fusing it to another, the same with the vehicles, because of that I think it's something like two worlds or realms merging. That would explain the Great Plateau, it would also be a real clever way to change up the overworld while still having only one overworld.

I tend to agree, this is where I was at before the art book as far it being more of a merging world scenario. It’s so easy to get sidetracked with ideas and theories because there is so much going on and how vague everything has been. I feel someone could make a pretty good argument for localized time travel, complete world time travel and merging worlds. The merging worlds fascinates me on how they would pull it off and offers the most unique gameplay and story potential in my opinion.

 

[Hairway to Steven]

I'd like to see some unbreakable weapons in this game (besides obvious things like bombs, boulders, and other runes).

 

[ZeldaPY]

I think there's a poison element in the game.

These enemies have a new distinct variation with purply veins (caption on Like Like reads "sludge / slime / chemical ooze")




Tip of this Bokoblin horn resembles mushroom spores (Source)


With all the artwork of giant fungi, makes me wonder if Link can obtain natural ingredients and monster parts to craft weapons with poison effects. Perhaps there's an entire hazardous area underground littered with spores that threatens to poison Link.

Likewise there could be new recipes / antidotes for removing poison status.

Since we are on the topic of poison and foliage I was wondering what your take was on these photos since I can't translate the descriptions. I find it interesting that they include some English in Child and Growing when describing the plant growth. It could be just a situation where they are showing the status state of the plant life and we will see them in various stages of growth at the same time. But it does leave the potential that there will be a more gradual growth of development after we clear an area of flora. I am thinking of how when you chop down a tree, it will just re-spawn later as the same tree.

And looking at the bottom adult plant, it reminds me of the Deku-Baba from SS

How cool would it be if the depictions are different stages of plant life that would be dangerous and actually attack us if we get too close them. It would be nice to have another element of danger besides just monsters and a few wild animals. The next picture is interesting because it tend to suggests to me that a plant above the surface will have roots that extend into the underground, further suggesting a seamless transition from the surface to the underground.

I base this theory off of the line break I put in the photo, which would represent the surface, with what looks like to be the base of this same plant from the trailer in the underground mining scene and this photo from the art book.

I am wondering if this could also be some type of mineral or sap that this particular tree produces that we can use as a resource. It would work well as we are traveling on the surface if we see this type of plant in the area, to then realize that a cave entrance must be near by to enter to go and harvest this resource.

 

[Golden]

Wasn't sure at first, but it's the same structure as in the trailer. Down to the trees, small pillars and patterns in the road. Hm.

Rewatched the 1:1 comparison and analysis vids - for sure the Great Plateau.

This might just be from a cutscene that tells what happened to Ganondorf the time he was sealed or first calamity. In the first teaser we saw flashes of his body being put on the stone structure so we know there will probably be some cutscenes from that time.

Also, we are really back at having no info smh. They even removed the Zelda trailer as their pinned Tweet for the Mario movie direct in 2 weeks. We probably won't have much more info until 3-4 weeks.....

I know they want to be secretive, but this is too much tbh.

 

[Deleted member 2]

Imo the secretiveness is just enough. Think about how much we're dying for more information for this game.

If another < 1 minute teaser came up, we'd be dissecting it like crazy.

 

[Serif]

Since we are on the topic of poison and foliage I was wondering what your take was on these photos since I can't translate the descriptions. I find it interesting that they include some English in Child and Growing when describing the plant growth. It could be just a situation where they are showing the status state of the plant life and we will see them in various stages of growth at the same time. But it does leave the potential that there will be a more gradual growth of development after we clear an area of flora. I am thinking of how when you chop down a tree, it will just re-spawn later as the same tree.

Some translations of these strange plant images

"Giant horsetail plant" (it's huge, almost as big as a Sheikah Tower by the scale, and there appear to be platforms)

"Giant fern"

"Mushroom object with lighting" (I think we'll be seeing these in an underground village)

"Hydra plants", they resemble the Hydra microscopic organism

It does show some of these at various stages of growing. The caption that talks about the growth of the hydra tree says 'observation diary'. I had wondered if they're incorporating some schedule mechanic (based on the bulletin board for weapons training), so not ruling out some kind of real-time plant growth.

The underground will be wonderfully bizarre and filled with oversized flora. I think this is their implementation of the "Minish' idea. Instead of having Link shrink down in size, portions of the underground are filled with gigantic variants of normal or even microscopic life so Link feels small in comparison.

 

[Riton]

"Giant horsetail plant" (it's huge, almost as big as a Sheikah Tower by the scale, and there appear to be platforms)

We can see this tree with plattforms in the trailer:

 

[Serif]

We can see this tree with plattforms in the trailer:

Nice. Getting Blackreach vibes.

I'm still looking for where this might be in Hyrule, lol. The white trees remind me of the Great Plateau area, near ToT.

 

[Mr_No_U]

"It's a shame we have to discard these old Guardian designs just because we went with the more robotic design."
"Yeah, I get what you mean, but they do look more like the sort of monsters you'd find underground."
"Underground monsters? Hmmm...."

 

[ZeldaPY]

We can see this tree with plattforms in the trailer:

I don’t think we will be climbing that one, but phasing our way up level by level.

 

[ZeldaPY]

"It's a shame we have to discard these old Guardian designs just because we went with the more robotic design."
"Yeah, I get what you mean, but they do look more like the sort of monsters you'd find underground."
"Underground monsters? Hmmm...."

So far I’ve seen some encouraging signs as far as us getting enough enemy variety this time around. Plus I can’t imagine we have seen the only flying enemy in the game, that Glyok on the bridge has a huge set of wings as well. I think these four fit in very well with the vibe I’m getting from the plant life we were just discussing as more pre-historic mutations that went extinct type thing.

 

[LonkFromPA]

"It's a shame we have to discard these old Guardian designs just because we went with the more robotic design."
"Yeah, I get what you mean, but they do look more like the sort of monsters you'd find underground."
"Underground monsters? Hmmm...."

The stuff of nightmares, I love it!

 

[T.Rygra]

"It's a shame we have to discard these old Guardian designs just because we went with the more robotic design."
"Yeah, I get what you mean, but they do look more like the sort of monsters you'd find underground."
"Underground monsters? Hmmm...."

Imagine stumbling upon one of these while exploring underground or diving. Really hope they are in

 

[T.Rygra]

I think there's a poison element in the game.

These enemies have a new distinct variation with purply veins (caption on Like Like reads "sludge / slime / chemical ooze")

Tip of this Bokoblin horn resembles mushroom spores (Source)

With all the artwork of giant fungi, makes me wonder if Link can obtain natural ingredients and monster parts to craft weapons with poison effects. Perhaps there's an entire hazardous area underground littered with spores that threatens to poison Link.

Likewise there could be new recipes / antidotes for removing poison status.

I think there's a strong possibility of something like this being located under BotW's two areas with giant mushroom-like structures (one near Rito and one in Hebra if I remember correctly)

 

[Cevan]

Nice. Getting Blackreach vibes.

I'm still looking for where this might be in Hyrule, lol. The white trees remind me of the Great Plateau area, near ToT.

I think this is most definitely Central Hyrule, close to the plateau but not quite. there's an area called Lake Kolomo with these same trees, it's also the location of one of the memories in Breath of the Wild, but the body of water here looks more like a river than a lake, so I'm not entirely sure

 

[Serif]

I think this is most definitely Central Hyrule, close to the plateau but not quite. there's an area called Lake Kolomo with these same trees, it's also the location of one of the memories in Breath of the Wild, but the body of water here looks more like a river than a lake, so I'm not entirely sure

So we've seen at least three pieces of Zonai architecture on the surface (Great Plateau, the Balcony, this shrine). If these are flashback scenes I'm curious about the sort of event taking place at what looks like a little tea table.

 

[Dark Cloud]

"It's a shame we have to discard these old Guardian designs just because we went with the more robotic design."
"Yeah, I get what you mean, but they do look more like the sort of monsters you'd find underground."
"Underground monsters? Hmmm...."

I think we’ll see something akin to these

 

[Pennington]

I'm quite surprised that this thread is only twenty pages long. I haven't read the contents of it because I don't want to be spoiled myself, but I guess that either people don't have much to speculate on, aren't really the speculating type, or just prefer to go in as blind as possible.

 

[Lord Azrael]

I'm quite surprised that this thread is only twenty pages long. I haven't read the contents of it because I don't want to be spoiled myself, but I guess that either people don't have much to speculate on, aren't really the speculating type, or just prefer to go in as blind as possible.

It's because the contents aren't really spoilery in the first place lol, there is not that much new to discuss

 

[Golden]

I think we’ll see something akin to these

These new monster lean more towards this already so i feel like maybe something similar.

 

[ZeldaPY]

I keep noticing details every time I skim through this book.

In case the camels and sand seal art weren't indicative enough

Gerudo temple fo' sho'

Could we get a 'tear' from every tribe?

Gerudo, Rito, Zora, Goron, Sheikah, ... Korok?, Hylian / Zonai? That would make 7. Or the remaining 2 don't have to line up with a tribe.

I keep noticing more and more from this two photos as well, what stands out to me as well are the two giant swords book marking this "tear". They are an exact copy of the swords held by the 7 Heroine's. A lot has been speculated already about the 7 Heroine's, including the mysterious 8th Heroine, so I won't add anything to those points but it would make sense to me that this is just a story, or myth, that hasn't been told yet. And will play out in some way in TotK.

Perhaps each Heroine was tasked with protecting their particular "Tear." Or maybe the "Tears" actually represent their individual Spirit or power and by collecting them we are able to utilize their power, kind of like the Champions abilities. Coincidently as I am heavily speculating with this post, one of the Orbs found in that trail had a familiar symbol on it....which to me looks like one of these "Tears."

 

[Serif]

I keep noticing more and more from this two photos as well, what stands out to me as well are the two giant swords book marking this "tear". They are an exact copy of the swords held by the 7 Heroine's. A lot has been speculated already about the 7 Heroine's, including the mysterious 8th Heroine, so I won't add anything to those points but it would make sense to me that this is just a story, or myth, that hasn't been told yet. And will play out in some way in TotK.

Nice, it really is a perfect match.
There is a sword among the geoglyph symbols, though it appears closer to Death Mountain on the map.

 

[Truno]

This room looks way too intricate and grand for a simple Shrine reward. I'm thinking this is the final room of a dungeon

 

[Peleo]

Someone just posted the coolest theory I've seen about the new map system:

 

[ZeldaPY]

Someone just posted the coolest theory I've seen about the new map system:

I have been trying to come up with different theories on my own on how we would uncover the map as I have posted several but I've never really been all that happy with them, they have been more like place holders in my mind to me until something comes along to add to them.
This is definitely a very interesting theory, I like the imagination and thought process. Since I am not one to shy away from delving into speculation, I have a few thoughts on this theory. If I am understanding correctly by reading the last paragraph and looking at the imagery presented, that we are expected to be tethered to our glider or some other unknown flying apparatus via cable, while it fly's above us mapping the surrounding surface area?

I like the idea of slowly uncovering the map based on where we have been, which is really no different then a lot of other games where the map is completely blacked out until you travel across that portion of the map. Which if you think about it, is not all that different than the hero's path addition added in the DLC for BotW as you could track exactly where you have been, so this could function in that capacity where un mapped portions represent an area you haven't visited yet as an easy visual reference to return to at a later time.

It starts to break down for me where we have to be tethered to the machine or glider. Not sure I like the idea as a whole, what might seem like a neat novelty at first will pretty quickly become cumbersome over time especially with such a large map. There is concept art for BotW which shows what they call a "flying dragonfly," which I am guessing would function similar to the Beattle in SS. It would make more sense to me be able to use the Sheikah slate remotely to control our glider or Beattle type machine. I am not sure we will need to uncover much as far as an actual map on the Surface of Hyrule regardless if we have a semi-different map due to time travel or just simply from our ability to see most of it from the sky.

I could definitely see a lot of potential uses for underground and even in the sky. Similar to SS you were able to fly into small tunnels and crevasses to activate switches and it was a lot of fun to use in this regard, except for the ungodly motion controls. It would also be fun to use it on the Sky Islands to fly underneath the island we are standing on to view potential openings and or landing spots. Especially because given the Art book photos of the islands with lots of them having roots growing on the sides of the islands, and from the Title reveal trailer with link scaling up the side on a root, I don't think the sides of the sky islands will be a climbable surface. So the possibility to map the unground and maybe a 3D replica of each of the sky islands type thing without being tethered seems more feasible to me.

I think all of us are getting really close with a lot of our theories and a portion or bits and pieces of our theories are going to be correct the more information we get, its probably just not going to be in the way we expect them to play out. So we march on with the theories!

 

[Raccoon]

the absolute best thing they could do for this game is give you the old map and have you mark the differences yourself

 

[Dark Cloud]

There’s gotta be something different with the map I’d imagine. I can’t see us doing the towers thing again to open the map. We’ve seen this Hyrule. I know it has changes

 

[Kevin]

There’s gotta be something different with the map I’d imagine. I can’t see us doing the towers thing again to open the map. We’ve seen this Hyrule. I know it has changes

I feel like everything about this game is still weird and we still don't really know anything even with the new trailer and leaked artbook. Something doesn't add up but I have no idea what exactly.

 

[Dark Cloud]

Plus I’m just thinking about the map of Hyrule. There has to be an underground map. How will that look? Will we unlock it? Same with the sky islands with islands being on different elevations

 

[Skittzo]

It would be kinda mind blowing if TotK uses BOTW's overworld like a hub world that's slightly different, but exploring it is not really the game's main objective anymore. Now you have two new zones to explore plus potential time travel.

 

[Dark Cloud]

Gamexplain was discussing what if we could build a vehicle with guardian legs lol. Or a vehicle that can climb up walls. We haven’t seen much on the vehicle stuff, but I do wonder how far will they go.

If they want unique experiences there has to be a ton of parts for people to use.

 

[BY2K]

Gamexplain was discussing what if we could build a vehicle with guardian legs lol. Or a vehicle that can climb up walls. We haven’t seen much on the vehicle stuff, but I do wonder how far will they go.

If they want unique experiences there has to be a ton of parts for people to use.

I don't think the whole building vehicles thing is gonna get pushed very far. In fact I think it might be pretty limited.