In that case, maybe you get a full heart or stamina container along with a battery disk for each of the 40 Zonai shrines, whereas you only get tears from malice holes?
I think giving the DLC room to breathe was not exactly a priority for Nintendo
I doubt that's how it works, since there seem to be 4 Zonai Shrines on the tutorial islands and during the gameplay demo, Link had 4 abilities, 4 hearts and no stamina upgrade. So I'm inclined to believe you're still getting 1/4 of a Stamina/Heart upgrade per Shrine
I’m pretty biased on what I’m about to say with hearts. But with all of the call backs to past Zelda titles in BotW and what looks like may be the case with TotK, “Would it kill you Zelda Team, to just have one of the hearts we obtain be broken up into heart pieces?”
This is interesting!!There are 11 glyphs. The building glyph has 10 tears in its design, the molduga has 20, Ganon has 50, and the Master Sword glyph in the logo has one.
If the Master Sword glyph with 1 tear is the "first" one, that means one glyph for every 5 increments of tears up to 50.
We can actually see a glyph that looks like the Master Sword in the first position near the entrance to the map chamber:
We know the glyphs relate to the Master Sword from the logo, Zelda has the Master Sword in the past, the cutscene with Basket blasting molduga is in the past, and one of the glyphs is a molduga. It's all related to some big main quest involving Zelda and the cutscenes from the past.
I think as you collect the required number of the 50 tears for each glyph they either activate when you visit them, or you need to return to the alter on the sky plateau and send the tears to Zelda in the past, who does something with them that then activates the glyph in the present.
Maybe the sealing of Ganondorf in the past is playing out at the same time as Link gaining the strength to beat him in the present? It would be a more interesting take on memories from BotW. They're still story events playing out in the past, but Zelda is actively participating in them, and they affect the present in some way. There could even be short sections where you play as Zelda/Rauru/Basket/some past champion.
This could be what the dragons from the logo represent. Link is gathering tears in the present to send to Zelda to aid her quest in the past which affects Link's quest in the present.
I think these would then be the "tears of the kingdom", with the 7 magatama being something else.
The question then becomes, where do you collect these 50 tears? The obvious answer is the Zonai shrines, but then where do you get those 40 battery disks that fill out the device on Link's hip? Are they the same? They both come in increments of 5, but then how do we account for the difference of 10?
Maybe you get the battery disks from Zonai shrines, and the tears from malice holes? That would be a total of 90 mini-dungeons. But then how do you upgrade your health and stamina? If you get an upgrade for every 5 instead of 4 that would be 18 upgrades. Maybe you just get a piece of heart after every mini-dungeon, and you upgrade stamina some other way?
3 hearts to start + 18 from 90 mini-dungeons + 6 from dungeons bosses = 27, which was the max amount in BotW (if you fully upgraded stamina).
Do we know that there's only 4 shrines on the sky plateau, or have we only been able to confirm 4? If the latter, and if we get battery disks from shrines, there could actually be 5 shrines.
I want to believe that time travel on the overworld is a thing, but the oversight of the modern-day destroyed plateau wall in the background of the Ganondorf cutscene makes me think there isn't a permanent "past" world that is freely explorable.Exit Points: Fast Travel: Time Warp Points:
So I think overall we are really close to the general story and game play loop. I have had a working theory based on what others are posting and I believe it is the inter connectivity of the Shrines, Green Spiral Stones and Glyphs that are being overlooked as it relates directly to the story of TotK.
In BotW the shrines were set up by the Ancient Sheikah Monks as a way to test the Hero and prepare Link for the battle ahead. While we can't say for certain what their purpose will be in TotK, I think it is a pretty safe bet they will center around Links healing from Malice, his Spiritual quest, which may or may not be related to his vials and energy, and the Tears themselves.
Link is going to have to remove the Malice from his body in order to wield the Master Sword again, so I think the beginning portion of the game will center around the Sky Islands and healing, all the while learning new abilities and getting stronger again. I like what @NabiscoFelt said regarding the Green Spiral Stones because I think it represents pretty well what the majority of people think, and that they will be directly related to entering the Shrines exactly how the Shrines were utilized in BotW.
But there are few problems with this theory and they are backed up by what we see in the Art Book. We have talked extensively in this thread on the Spiritual Nature of the Sky Islands from the Ginkgo Trees, the Tori Gates, Alters etc, so they are going to be a big part of the overall story arc. The only other location we have seen a Tori gate other than the Sky Islands is in this shot from the Art Book, which shows a Tori gate at what I believe is the entrance to the beginning of the shrine. This implies that we will enter the Shrines from the Sky through the Tori Gates and not from the Green Spiral Stones, at the very least for the Spiritual Shrines only from the Sky.
The next 2 shots are what I believe show the exit point of the this particular Shrine. It is locked just like a normal Shrine in BotW. On the other side we see an alter where we will probably collect a Heart/Stamina or however TotK portrays the version of the Spiritual Orbs or if that is even a thing now.
So if this is the case that we enter the Shrines from the Sky via Tori Gates/Alters then where do we go when we return via the ending Alter in the Shrine. I think we re-emerge close to the Tori gate we entered from via a nearby Green Spiral Stone. So Green Spiral Stones are exit points at least the ones in the Sky. And once we exit through one of them after completing the Shrine, the Green Swirl will go away and it will simply now become a fast travel location that we can access at anytime.
And this is isn't to say this is exactly how they will function, but I'm offering a different solution to a complicated problem presented by what we see in the Art Book and one that ties into the overall narrative of TotK and provides another solution for the ones on the Surface' depending on how ambitious you think this game will be.
The Hyrule surface Green Spiral Stones are much more debatable in their overall function however. The next set of images seem to back up either my claim they are exit points or you could make a case they function the same as the Shrines in the BotW IMO.
First the Green Spiral is absent which from my previous speculation is what we should see if Link just transported here and is exiting the Green Spiral Stone. From the Circle ceiling motif we can also tell this is most likely a Shrine type location, we just don't have any evidence of where Link started from to get here. But I do think there will be a few different types of shrines other than the Spiritual ones for healing and there could be a reason on why we would need to return to a previous shrine type location, where as in BotW you were pretty much one and done with each Shrine unless you had trouble completing it and then you could always comeback later to it.
One reason you would need a fast travel location to this spot is that in the Art book later on we see this photo. I think we are able to make this energy stone, via Smithing as seen on some of the other Art Book pictures, and it might be more related to the vials or energy swirls.
I think the box on the right is the Mold for this energy stone and then we place it in the Alter to either create a Swirl for transporting or it will act as a more substantial energy source powering up what ever we are trying to accomplish in that area.
But overall I think the Surface Green Spiral Stones are all inactive and we won't have anyway to interact with them at first. They could be exit points from nearby underground caves or have a different purpose which I think might be more likely and that is more related to time travel and the Glyphs.
I think our first major objective related to time travel will involve repairing the time alter calendar we see Zelda standing in front of in the past in the last trailer. I also think it is located on the very first island we start from, because it would have to be in a place that all players would see it and know exactly where it is located.
I think we will solely be dealing with Muffydorf for the first 1/3 of the game as we gain our strength and help out the locals and Races etc. Once we repair the time machine we will then use it to travel to the past for the first time. And at that point, I think we will be dealing with Re-hydrated Gannondorf. It would be kind of cool if Mummydorf was a pretty easy fight early on and we think the game is basically over, then we get Re-Hydrated coming alive and getting even stronger in the past, that completely destroys the past which then effects the present time so we end up being basically back to square one again. So at this point it really depends on how ambitious you think this game will be, I think we will have a second map for the past. But as I pointed out awhile back it could be much smaller than the current Hyrule, it won't include any Sky islands either and will contain a lot more water on its surface and the water will be completely surrounding Hyrule.
Back to the Green Spiral Stones. Once we are in the past for the first time, we can now activate all the Green Spiral Stones on Surface and be able to freely travel back and forth through time at all these locations. They could act as fast travel points as well. This idea occurred to me from @maidhhc with their last post regarding the new Sheikah slate. So I have thought that we will be able to transfer objects back and forth through time because Zelda has the broken Master Sword as well, but in the case of the Sheikah slate it could just be a matter of completing that particular Glyph, Zelda could leave it in spot where we could find it in the future, or she could even hand it to us if we are able to Travel to the past.
It would be strange that if we can actually travel to the past and play through that map that Zleda wouldn't accompany us at some point during that portion. But it could also be that the plan is to have her handle other things once Gannondorf eliminates Basket and Zeldas role could change.
I really like @Selarmor reasoning that the Glyphs will be directly associated with fixing the Master Sword so I think Zelda will play a part in that portion of the game or we will travel to the past and do it ourselves. That's about as far as I have gotten so far so I can partially sleep at night until launch, story wise, Please add or subtract anything from this as you please.
Yah it is definitely a discrepancy, his whole scene doesn’t make sense either because we know he is on the Great Plateau but what balcony is he standing on, cause it’s not there in the present. I just had to get some thoughts down on paper that gave me a general idea of a general possible game loop before digging into the fine details otherwise it just keeps getting more confusing on what makes sense.I want to believe that time travel on the overworld is a thing, but the oversight of the modern-day destroyed plateau wall in the background of the Ganondorf cutscene makes me think there isn't a permanent "past" world that is freely explorable.
I could see localized timeshift stone shenanigans, but it seems that aside from major landmarks like Hebra and Hyrule castle in the background, the past world is not fully constructed in game.
Could both sides of this shot, the two different arms, be different time periods? Intentionally put together to confuse/provoke theorists?I want to believe that time travel on the overworld is a thing, but the oversight of the modern-day destroyed plateau wall in the background of the Ganondorf cutscene makes me think there isn't a permanent "past" world that is freely explorable.
I could see localized timeshift stone shenanigans, but it seems that aside from major landmarks like Hebra and Hyrule castle in the background, the past world is not fully constructed in game.
no I agree, I think we'll be limited to "past zones" like Skyward Sword
I think so. I think the basic story is once Link reaches the altar on the tutorial island Zelda opens a time portal and tells Link to give her the Master Sword:
I'm thinking that the Kingdom in "Tears of the Kingdom" might not be Hyrule or the sky or underground. It's on... the moon!
Tears and the moon are linked across many cultures and mythologies. In Hindu mythology pearls are teardrops from the moon. In Incan culture Mother Moon cries tears of silver. In Japanese folklore Princess Kaguya cries from her palace on the moon longing to return to the Earth.
The Zelda series is no stranger to the concept of moon's tears, of course: Moon Pearls have appeared in a few games and Majora's Mask featured a moon's tear.
One of the many things magatamas, the curved beads that serve as the inspiration for the "tears" in TotK, are believed to represent is the moon.
Ganondorf's mysterious moon powers seem to be of importance in TotK. In the latest trailers the blood moon has been tweaked to show monsters raining down from the moon like Final Fantasy 8's Lunar Cry (another moon tear reference):
Drawing inspiration from manga/anime, One Piece has an ancient civilization that once lived on the moon but moved to the planet the series takes place on in search of resources. They currently reside on islands that float in the sky. Like the Zonai they are based on mesoamerican cultures like the Aztecs:
And like Rauru some of them are goat people:
Rauru could also be meant to resemble a rabbit as well as a goat, which many cultures associate with the moon. Most know the Eastern Asian moon rabbit, but the Aztec moon god/goddess also had a rabbit form:
maybe the recall hability could be used for time travel shenigans, oberve that Zelda Tears in the final trailer of the game, have the same icon for the recall hability, you use recall in one of the ruins of Hyrule like the Forgotten Temple and you can temporarily explore that area to obtain a important item
I'm guessing Zeltik will have to abstain since he was there and under NDA, but Monster Maze and Nintendo Black Crisis, and others can probably go through his footage with a microscope if they want
You also only get 3 Zonai abilities from the sky plateau. Unless he misunderstood, Zeltik said you get Autobuild later.
Maybe the map ability has something to do with this
i think the cinematic that show Ganondorf rehydrated is in the past, Hebra Mountain dont have that hole in this cinematic, we problaby gonna see mummydorf for most of the game
how about that mysterious woman, she also have the same Tear Zelda have? 4 Tears for each of the Champions decedents?=4 main Dungeons +final Dungeon?
you cant do a in-depth story with the creative sandbox world of Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom.
Who the hell knows
To give you some hope, in the preview footage, you don’t see the temple/castle/dungeon in Gerudo Desert or the whirlpools in the desert either. So even though some kind of Upheaval has happened, it seems Hyrule’s condition will worsen over time.
Zorldo would be peak
Read a preview that mentioned Like Likes, yes.
I forget which publication, but one I read today mentioned their delight at the sprawling underground that got darker the deeper you went, and specifically heralded the return of Like Likes" in the same sentence as the underground.
