• Hey everyone, staff have documented a list of banned content and subject matter that we feel are not consistent with site values, and don't make sense to host discussion of on Famiboards. This list (and the relevant reasoning per item) is viewable here.

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

Status
Not open for further replies.
Reader mode
brainchild said:
Also, I see people counting dungeons based on what's labeled a dungeon in the game's files, but that doesn't mean much to me. There are a lot of set pieces that I would consider to be dungeons for my purposes.

There's at least one floating labyrinth that I saw that was basically a dungeon; you had to activate 4 terminals, it had a shrine, a really cool boss fight with incredible music, and involved traversing to the depths to complete. The lines are blurred when it comes to dungeons in this game, even though we do have real dungeons this time.
Click to expand...
Whoa, this gives me a lot of hope for the structures underground! Thanks!
 
Dardan Sandiego said:
I mean that goes without saying


In all seriousness, there is one thing I don't get about the sky island map:

Where is Hyrule Castle?
Click to expand...
it lives

58c7fda16ff80122008b48ba
 
Trying to estimate the map size of various aspects is moot given how the map just doesn't reflect the actual size in a bunch of ways, and because Nintendo doesn't really care about total walkable area in a way that some players seem to.

- The Sky Islands are the equivalent of Wind Waker's Great Sea, including the oceanographic terminology like Islands and Archipelagos. It isn't meant to be a giant continent, it is meant to have the traversal time between the areas be part of the gameplay like the sailing between islands in WW. People usually talk about the size of Wind Waker's ocean as a distinct thing, and here we have an equivalent Sky Ocean. The Towers are really really bad at actually reaching Sky Islands, so a lot of exploration seems to come from upgrading your batteries and sailing the skies, which was the point of last week's previews.

- The Sky Island actual explorable area is kind of a substantial undercount due to how layered it is, probably to the tune of 25%-50% more actual walkable area than it looks. Some are just pillars of layers in the sky, leading to like a 10x overlap for some X/Y coordinates.

- Walkable area is/was just a bad measure of things, because there were some very large parts of BotW that were kind of empty (Northern edge of Eldin, for example). They've seemingly addressed this with how goddamn many caves and building foundations there are.

- Caves caves caves caves caves are a level of overlap and stacking that are underdiscussed. There seem to be a TON of these, and they have separate completion checkmarks (linked to either the secret glowy froggy in each cave, or requiring both the frog and the monster den completion?) There are also seemingly more of a focus on actually clearing monster dens, and world bosses seem to have a higher density, or is at least easier to see because of the Fortress Taluses just walking around rather than being hidden until close.

- The underworld is a proper topographic map, which has two implications. One, near the edges of any area it probably curls up a bit so it the actual surface is a bit smaller than it looks. But, two, you can clearly see where there are multiple layers within the Depths with tunnels and platforms covering above.


- And, lastly, something that is probably an actual plot spoiler based on the topographical Depths map (seriously!) (NO SERIOUSLY). I haven't looked at all that many spoilers so I don't know if it was noted elsewhere amidst the dungeon litigation that I don't care about.

The topographical map of the Depths is an inverse of Hyrule's, with Death Mountain, Hebra, and the Western mountains being the lower points (probably ~-1500m?) and the low points of Hyrule (various valleys, etc.) being the high points of the Depths. Similarly, sandbars and Islands having a same-shaped Depths chunk indicates that it is all some artificially created mirror or inverse of Hyrule, like the Link Between Worlds cover art or something.
 
Last edited:
At one point I wasn't sure if they'd be able to top the scale and sense of wonder of Elden Ring.

I am ashamed of my words and deeds. I can't even begin to imagine that they'll be able to accomplish in the future with more powerful hardware if THIS is what they can do with the Switch.
 
BRRRRRING said:
Trying to estimate the map size of various aspects is moot given how the map just doesn't reflect the actual size in a bunch of ways, and because Nintendo doesn't really care about total walkable area in a way that some players seem to.

- The Sky Islands are the equivalent of Wind Waker's Great Sea, including the oceanographic terminology like Islands and Archipelagos. It isn't meant to be a giant continent, it is meant to have the traversal time between the areas be part of the gameplay like the sailing between islands in WW. People usually talk about the size of Wind Waker's ocean as a distinct thing, and here we have an equivalent Sky Ocean. The Towers are really really bad at actually reaching Sky Islands, so a lot of exploration seems to come from upgrading your batteries and sailing the skies, which was the point of last week's previews.

- The Sky Island actual explorable area is kind of a substantial undercount due to how layered it is, probably to the tune of 25%-50% more actual walkable area than it looks. Some are just pillars of layers in the sky, leading to like a 10x overlap for some X/Y coordinates.

- Walkable area is/was just a bad measure of things, because there were some very large parts of BotW that were kind of empty (Northern edge of Eldin, for example). They've seemingly addressed this with how goddamn many caves and building foundations there are.

- Caves caves caves caves caves are a level of overlap and stacking that are underdiscussed. There seem to be a TON of these, and they have separate completion checkmarks (linked to either the secret glowy froggy in each cave, or requiring both the frog and the monster den completion?) There are also seemingly more of a focus on actually clearing monster dens, and world bosses seem to have a higher density, or is at least easier to see because of the Fortress Taluses just walking around rather than being hidden until close.

- The underworld is a proper topographic map, which has two implications. One, near the edges of any area it probably curls up a bit so it the actual surface is a bit smaller than it looks. But, two, you can clearly see where there are multiple layers within the Depths with tunnels and platforms covering above.


- And, lastly, something that is probably an actual plot spoiler based on the topographical Depths map (seriously!) (NO SERIOUSLY). I haven't looked at all that many spoilers so I don't know if it was noted elsewhere amidst the dungeon litigation that I don't care about.

The topographical map of the Depths is an inverse of Hyrule's, with Death Mountain, Hebra, and the Western mountains being the lower points (probably ~-1500m?) and the low points of Hyrule (various valleys, etc.) being the high points of the Depths. Similarly, sandbars and Islands having a same-shaped Depths chunk indicates that it is all some artificially created mirror of Hyrule, like the Link Between Worlds cover art or something.
Click to expand...
You've really hit the nail on the head here in a few ways on how these expansions of BotW are secret integrations of all Zeldas past... whewwwww
 
BRRRRRING said:
That is just a shortcut to the map, for some reason.
Click to expand...
I find this such a bizarre choice. Like not only is it a waste of a slot that they could've made a customizable shortcut for something else, for example, but it's just straight up redundant: there's already a button to open the map. Once you use the map "ability" once, it remains as your L button function until you change to something else, thereby giving you 2 buttons with the same purpose. Such a strange choice. I would've loved one slot to set a certain armor item to, or something. Quick change into warm or fireproof clothing.
 
0
I am weak and I gave in.

brainchild said:
Also, I see people counting dungeons based on what's labeled a dungeon in the game's files, but that doesn't mean much to me. There are a lot of set pieces that I would consider to be dungeons for my purposes.

There's at least one floating labyrinth that I saw that was basically a dungeon; you had to activate 4 terminals, it had a shrine, a really cool boss fight with incredible music, and involved traversing to the depths to complete. The lines are blurred when it comes to dungeons in this game, even though we do have real dungeons this time.
Click to expand...
what was the boss fight?
 
So far, I'm impressed.

There's some things I can say I was expecting that don't seem to be visible here, and that sucks but what they have accomplished and what they have provided (at least with what we know in regards to leaks) seems like they really put a good amount of work and thought into how they could expand and re-innovate the game and it's world.

I'm hyped as all hell, and I can't wait.
 
0
hannibunny2411 said:
Wasn’t there one more free spot apart from the map icon at the previews ?
Click to expand...

Yeah. I haven't seen anything on that, though.

The main menu UI shows 6 spots for abilities, and I don't think Map or Amiibo use up any of those.

Also unclear to me where the quick-build comes from because that is not handed out during the tutorial section.
 
0


I was never someone who said "BOTW is a great game but not a great Zelda game". It is a great Zelda game. But boy oh boy did I miss moments like the above video. It's like they put my favorite parts of Zelda back in Zelda.

I basically decided I'm going to watch up to what we would've seen in previews for Skyward Sword. I didn't watch any gameplay outside of this video, entering the depths, and the first half hour or so. I'm sold. shit is incredible. $70 DLC, "there's nothing new to show" crowd in absolute fucking shambles. Myself included. I will never doubt Nintendo again.
 
Djehuty said:
Please spoiler tag this.

That would have been fun to see on my own.

mod edit: tag story spoiler
Click to expand...
As a reminder for folks, when quoting something you'd like spoiled, it's helpful to edit the quote to rid or tag the spoiler to not repost it :)
 
Question about the underground
Is it literally the same map inverted in terms of heigh maps and with a new coat of paint? Or is it more unique than that?
 
Does anyone know what you can do
with the poe you collect in the underground?
 
0
totofogo said:
That's sort of story-ish so I'd reccomend a tag, but yeah that's what I saw on Reddit. Didn't dig too far to see more, but the house is redecorated as such.
Click to expand...
If more details about this are found, please do share. I am very much interested.
 
0
xtoc said:




This confirms the idea of beign 7 tears.
Also confirms the 6 years of work with an existong engine.
Click to expand...

xtoc said:




This confirms the idea of beign 7 tears.
Also confirms the 6 years of work with an existong engine.
Click to expand...

i so happy that Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom will bring back tradicional Dungeons, yay the game it seen that will be a mix of BOTW formula and the tradicional Zelda formula, i cant wait to play this masterpiece in my extended battery Switch
 
ArchedThunder said:
Question about the underground
Is it literally the same map inverted in terms of heigh maps and with a new coat of paint? Or is it more unique than that?
Click to expand...

Calling it a "new coat of paint" is kind of just totally underselling it.

There's a lot going on there. Very different enemy types and gameplay structure, a mechanic where you maximum hearts decrease and only recover once you return to the surface, a variety of entrance points, underground lakes that and huge structures that don't correspond to the surface, a new mechanic for lighting and mapping it. The fast travel points are more spread out. It splits and snakes in ways that don't just correspond to the surface.
 
BRRRRRING said:
Calling it a "new coat of paint" is kind of just totally underselling it.

There's a lot going on there. Very different enemy types and gameplay structure, a mechanic where you maximum hearts decrease and only recover once you return to the surface, a variety of entrance points, underground lakes that and huge structures that don't correspond to the surface, a new mechanic for lighting and mapping it. The fast travel points are more spread out. It splits and snakes in ways that don't just correspond to the surface.
Click to expand...
O_O, that's amazing
 
0
BRRRRRING said:
Calling it a "new coat of paint" is kind of just totally underselling it.

There's a lot going on there. Very different enemy types and gameplay structure, a mechanic where you maximum hearts decrease and only recover once you return to the surface, a variety of entrance points, underground lakes that and huge structures that don't correspond to the surface, a new mechanic for lighting and mapping it. The fast travel points are more spread out. It splits and snakes in ways that don't just correspond to the surface.
Click to expand...
Cool. The mechanics stuff isn’t really relevant to my question, but the rest answered it. I only asked because my friend read that it was the same map as Hyrule, but reskinned.
 
0
Edit because spoiler tag didnt work right
The new enemy designs for the depths gives me the eebeegeebies, especially the new likelike design
 
0
totofogo said:
That's sort of story-ish so I'd reccomend a tag, but yeah that's what I saw on Reddit. Didn't dig too far to see more, but the house is redecorated as such.
Click to expand...
That's cool if true.

Wonder if they'll keep the exact nature of their relationship ambiguous. Would be somewhat amusing - and exceptionally frustrating - if they did the whole "And they were very close housemates" shtick for a heterosexual pairing.
 
JR436 said:
That's cool if true.

Wonder if they'll keep the exact nature of their relationship ambiguous. Would be somewhat amusing - and exceptionally frustrating - if they did the whole "And they were very close housemates" shtick for a heterosexual pairing.
Click to expand...
Or... hear me out.... Chao garden equivalent with Link and Zelda babies in the post game
 
0
Can anyone give a yes/no on new towns (not tents/outposts being set up in Hyrule)? I was hoping for settlements in the sky but the map seemingly shut that idea down.
 
0
JR436 said:
That's cool if true.

Wonder if they'll keep the exact nature of their relationship ambiguous. Would be somewhat amusing - and exceptionally frustrating - if they did the whole "And they were very close housemates" shtick for a heterosexual pairing.
Click to expand...
This reddit comment gives a bunch of details.
 
Vash said:
now imagine being sold on it 1,419 days ago....
Click to expand...


Respect. I beat BOTW in early 2020. I had zero idea they had teased the sequel earlier. I was simmering in euphoria after beating calamity and went looking for some good playthroughs only to discover the reveal trailer. I spent most of that day very much in my feels.
 
Holy shit I just saw someone playing underground approaching a Yiga hideout were an enemy drove a tri-bike with spikes into link. How amazing is that.
 
0
Got the paraglider and unlocked the first tower (central hyrule) having met a few returning characters. Gotta admit, the game hyped up getting shot out of a cannon to do map scanning in the air like it was going to be a fun minigame, but it's just a cutscene to reveal the map. Disappointing, coming from Zelda team. I guess the towers here are true Ubitowers.

I can't lie, now that I'm on the ground in Hyrule, the fact that this is really BotW redux when all I wanted was a full new map is really kicking in. I had this huge sense of excitement and freedom when I finally reached the overworld, as you'd expect. But then you're immediately told to go to the first guardhouse at Hyrule Castle and, well, I already know exactly where that is and how to get there. Yes, there's a cool new outpost along the way, and it's cool to see some of the old characters there. But it's not the same.

So much here is the same, in a way that has never been the case in a mainline Zelda game. You have to go to towers to reveal a map you already know. You're told early on to go to the Rito, Goron, Gerudo and Zora villages too solve their problems - just like before. You have to do puzzle shrines to get 4 orbs to get health/stamina - just like before. Korok puzzles are just like before. Even the opening area, being guided to four shrines surrounding a temple by
EDIT:
speculative spoiler:
the ghost of an old king
- just like before. Your first set of purchasable armor is the exact same set as in BotW - down to identical colouring. Now that I have that on you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between this and BotW as I run around central hyrule fighting bokoblins.

Sure, I see two huge chasms already and who knows what's down there - quite possibly a bulk of the new content (I'm not reading spoilers) - but I don't think cave spelunking is going to replace exploring a new overworld. I might be wrong. And I just expected more about the structure of the game to change, more of a mix-up to the formula. This is Zelda - every game is supposed to feel so vastly different! This one does not.

Also, so much of the gameplay / puzzles so far has been fiddling with rotating objects using Ultrahand. If that turns out to be a majority of the puzzles, jeez... I can't see myself liking that. The problem is you can only rotate on two planes when you lift an object. You often find yourself having to drop it and run around it to rotate on the third plane. It's... not intuitive, although it's probably as intuitive as they can make a system of manipulating objects in 3d space. To be fair to them, the system of attaching objects is really shockingly well implemented.

Also, they have GOT to do something about the voice acting going forward. Quality is subjective, but for me it's below the "acceptable" line here. Coming from XC3 just makes it worse - voicework there is a bit uneven, but a lot of it is great. This, on the other hand... I can't take the cutscenes seriously, which sucks.

Despite those negatives the game is a joy to play and as addictive as ever. In terms of quality it's a superlative game - how could it not be. But that crazy rush of "I can't BELIEVE how good this is" I got from BotW from the start is entirely absent here, because right now I feel like I've really played this game before. Early, early days yet though.

Bonus positive thought - I was dreading going back to an open world game on the Switch from those on XSX because of long loading times (which are almost eradicated on current gen home consoles) but it's really not that bad here at all. Very surprised and pleased with that, it must have been a focus of theirs.

Second bonus positive thought - Might just be my imagination, but enemies seem significantly more aggressive and I love it.
 
Reader mode
Status
Not open for further replies.
Staff Communication
Does your post contain any story spoilers? Please err on the side of caution and use spoiler tags before posting it. Failure to do so may result in being banned from the thread.
Last edited:


Back
Top Bottom