Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

[ZinogreVolt]

The artbook has alleviated a lot of my concerns about the game. I'm still concerned that this is just going to end up being "BotW but More" since I much prefer it when Zelda games feel radically different from one another, but a lot of the new stuff looks really cool and I'm hoping it adds up to making the end product feel very distinct from its predecessor despite the re-use of its Hyrule.

[Sonicka]

With the game map being reutilised, I think the feeling may be inevitable.

I know some primary concerns was Nintendo shoehorning in leftover ideas and content to the same extent in how The Champions Ballad functioned, or how they iterated with “just more” on Super Mario Galaxy 2. 

I *think* though, that there will be enough here to keep it from getting to that stage. The key to BOTW’s success is exploration of it’s map - so taking what players are familiar with and remixing expectations of familiar locations is going to be interesting for one thing, but Navigating the Sky world with it’s Wind Waker like islets that are completely brand new is another. Not to mention to potential of new traversal mechanics, new runes to use and possibly (but NOT confirmed) via the artbook:

Spoiler

The Underground to explore / Minish People returning, Time Travel, crafting mechanics, weapon forging, Dungeons, a Wing Suit, etc… 

…and it feels like the tip of the iceberg for things we’re about to see. 

 

[SupahBerry]

Tune in for a special look

 

 

[Sonicka]

Well, that was great. Essentially a deeper dive into the abilities (with confirmation of the names) and how they directly work. RECALL and ASCEND look like very fun abilities to mess around with in the game world. 

What's deeper at play here is the mentality from BOTW of "if you can think it, you can probably do it" has been expanded tenfold here. The FUSE and ULTRAHAND abilities seems like it's going to open up a heck of a lot of experimentation in this title with crafting new objects, weapons, shields, arrows.. anything. Which makes it wholly exciting. It's looks very simple and organic to use as well with no complicated UI system involved which is similarly pleasing. 

I was also very impressed with the diving from the Sky to the Ground, BOTW has no loading times for it's game world and it's pleasing to see this is kept going from above to below (also reminded of FORTNITE to a degree with how fluid it was). 

Otherwise, TOTK appears to be keeping to the same serene design and soundtrack from BOTW. Aonuma did comment on how different the world of this New Hyrule is (despite the map being the same), especially with the Islands in the sky (and confirmation of the Zonai Enemies and items appearing) but much more wasn't demonstrated today and that's a good thing, we don't want too many surprises. 

Personally, I think this gameplay demo is just the tip of the iceberg to the rest of the game. It's similar to if they just demonstrated the 4 rune abilities from BOTW... that's essentially what today's video was about.

[ZinogreVolt]

Big fan of how they essentially doubled down on Breath of the Wild's greatest strengths in this one. I'm hoping that you can "store" Ultrahand builds or something since I can quite easily see repeated vehicle/contraption building getting very time-consuming. Otherwise this succinctly and handily addressed my main concerns with this game. The one Sky Island they showed off looked to have a lot to it.

[Diogenes]

Wish it had been longer, but I'm certainly not disappointed in what they've shown. I think I'm really going to appreciate what Fuse brings to the table; I knew there'd be some kind of weapon crafting, but this is far more interesting and versatile than just sticking handles onto monster horns like I was expecting. And I really like that it's quick and straightforward, just slap things together as you find them, without even needing a menu if they're sitting out in the world, rather than, say, needing to find a crafting bench and scrolling through all your items to decide what you can and should combine ahead of time.

[Soniman]

Blows my mind that in a effort to fix the contentious nature of the durability system, instead of a quick fix like a repair/crafting mechanic like in most games Nintendo does what Nintendo does and goes one step beyond to innovate and reinvigorate the system entirely. The Fuse system is looking to be really interesting with possibly a ton of fun and creative applications that curates the player experience even more personally than the first game, in tandem with this also really cool ultra hand ability. It’s like Nintendo saw those Japanese Twitter clips of people doing crazy shit in the first game and decided to fully embrace it lol

[Iko]

I disliked Breath of the Wild, and I'm not particularly interested in this new game, especially knowing that the world map is more or less the same, even if changed a bit.

Like in the prequel, every new element seems to be inspired by already exsisting games of past gens. There's a big Fortnite vibe in both diving from the sky and crafting stuff by sticking random objects toghether... maybe Minecraft too. And vehichles, literally Vehichle Sandbox and other similar games.

What surprises me is how polished the system feels from that preview, and the fact that they adapted those ideas to Zelda's gameplay and they seem to somehow work well.

While I don't like this open world formula for the Zelda series, I'm kinda interested in the creativity factor that this game introduces... the idea of physically crafting items is something I'd play around for hours... but I'm not sure I'd spend 70+€ just for that, when I hate most of the rest.

 

Overall, for once, I'd like to have a lively world full of nice people to defend as a hero, not just a bunch of ruins in a wasteland... this game does not seem to change this yet, so, gameplay aside, I'm still not motivated in taking part of this new adventure (I hated this in the past few Zelda games; only a few games in the series got this right, especially Majora's Mask, and I'd like more of that).

[StaticMania]

"For once..."

...?

Bigger towning.

[Sonicka]

 

Final Trailer tomorrow dropping at 15:00 BST / 16:00 CEST / 07:00 PT. 

Personally, I sort of want nothing especially new showed off because the discovery elements are what MAKE these games exciting.

...but on the other hand I wouldn't mind more story beats embedded into this final trailer - maybe similar to how they did the final BOTW trailer which really set the hype train into full stream.

Presently there are a few negative crowds trying to promote TOTK as "merely expensive DLC" (which is nonsense, obviously) but Nintendo could do with helping themselves in promoting this title a little more to demonstrate otherwise? I dunno, it was always going to be tricky when returning to the same map, even if it is vastly different and with additions. 

 

[Nintendoga]

 

 

It was a good trailer. They seem to be playing more into dynamic battles in the overworld which is a nice way of making it seem less empty and scripted.

[Sonicka]

Wow, that was a trailer indeed.

I need to catch my breath and unpack all that now. Blimey… they sure did hold onto a lot didn't they?

[StaticMania]

Wow, they showed off what people wanted.

[ZinogreVolt]

They've shown off more than enough. On lockdown mode till release day.

[Danj86]

Surprisingly sexy Official Ganondorf art has been shared on the games Twitter.

[Diogenes]

They definitely didn't hold back with this trailer. Picked out a bunch of interesting details, spoilered for length.

Spoiler

0:18: A construct is fighting a chu. I think it was pretty obvious the constructs weren't Ganondorf's minions but this lends more evidence.
0:54: A mushroom cult has taken over Hateno.
1:00: Our first clear look at the strange ring structure in Kakariko. I guess it's just a particularly big chunk of sky island that's landed in a particularly precarious position?
1:10: Well if you've been waiting for dungeons a huge building rising out of the desert sands seems like a good sign.
1:13: Sky island debris falling seems synched to the castle rising this time, seems to imply that Ganondorf's release is related to the sky islands appearing.
1:26: Once again, Zelda falling. There's a gold glow coming from her at the end of the shot, though. That's new.
1:27: Off to the right there's one of those green spiral energy stones, minus the spiral, but with a glowing archway. Seems pretty clear they'll be serving as this game's shrines.
1:29: Extremely dungeonish. Probably under/inside Death Mountain.
1:40: Welp, there's Link with the new slate. The playable Zelda dream is feeling pretty dead.
1:41: The mysterious figure from the carvings, presumably.
1:48: Now this is an odd place to see. Even if they had started repairing the castle after BotW, you'd think this place would be clearly under Ganondorf's control, bathed in malice or something, not peaceful with little gold sparkles floating around.
1:59: A fully intact Master Sword and no burnt-up arm, so I assume this is from the very start of the game, before they find Ganoncorpse.
2:14: Glue a shield to your sword so you can attack and defend at the same time.
2:17: New enemy, but it's hard to tell what I'm even looking at. Seems to have a chain wrapped around it? Some kind of hexagonal...shield, maybe?
2:19: Looks like Tulin, Teba's kid. Feels a bit weird to get him as a partner rather than Teba, but Teba was always the most boring of the champion successors anyway.
2:21: Recall seems to stop time while active, presumably to give you a chance to aim at a moving target.
2:26: Yeah just...glue a fucking rocket to your shield and fly into the sky. What's this going to do if you stick it on a sword? Also the shield looks like a Zonai version of the guardian shields, some energy force field kinda thing.
2:28: Weird low gravity jumps. Is the area permanently low-grav for some reason? Are the floating platforms creating a low-grav area? If so, can we ultrahand them?
2:32: Minecart battle. Both carts have fans glued on to power them; was this set up just for the trailer, or will we regularly find stuff already glued together? The gameplay demo mentioned some enemies would have fused weapons, so maybe the constructs are going around with the same Zonai powers as Link.
2:34: Mecha battle, with the doofiest fridge of a mech. I respect it but I think the Talus base has the edge here.
2:39: Laser blender. That's all ultrahand work; people are going to come up with some wild shit once they get their hands on this game.
2:49: Zelda with a magatama-like jewel, possibly one of the titular tears, which seems to have the recall rune carved into it. And the Master Sword is there? And she seems to be on the surface, not underground or on a sky island? Later in the trailer she's telling Link to find her, but she's not looking too out of reach here. Maybe finding her is just step one, not the goal of the game?
3:03: The big man himself. Gotta say I was kinda hoping he'd keep the mummy look, but this is also good.
3:09: Well here's an interesting character. A blonde woman, dressed an awful lot like Zelda is elsewhere in the trailer, seemingly with some incredible divine magic. Is this a previous Zelda? Or even Hylia herself? I feel like this is a flashback, which might explain some things about a few scenes in the last trailer. Also I was assuming the woman in the carvings last trailer was Zelda, but this woman might be a better match.
3:18: Riju and Sidon returning as allies, alongside Tulin. But where's the Goron ally? Don't rob me of palling around with Yunobo again, Nintendo, I genuinely like the guy. Sidon and Tulin have some whispy blue energy around them in the gameplay shots, kinda reminds me of the sheikah slate teleport effects; do they work like summons, maybe? Warp 'em in when you need them, then warp out when you're done/they're koed? In the group charge shot, Sidon and Tulin both have their own magatama. Can't see one on Riju but it might just be on her far side or something.
3:20: A clearer look at our presumed Gleeok on the bridge of Hylia. Also Link's got a neat crystally-looking sword. The hilt looks pretty basic so maybe it's from fusing with something?

 

[Kuzu]

Damn, only one month left huh.

[ZinogreVolt]

Judging by the way the trailer is framed, I'm gonna guess that:

Spoiler

Ganondorf is a red herring and the real big bad will be the Demise-looking guy that Nintendo wants us to think is Ganondorf. It seems like they averted showing his face for good reason.

If it's not that, it's Ganondorf majorly hopped up on Demise's malice, to the point where his resemblance to him is much more striking than before. But between this being Ganon's second rodeo with Link and Zelda, I presume that his reincarnation will be a major plot element in this game.

 

[Diogenes]

It's the same guy, you can see the jewelry on his right arm and the loose sleeve on his left. It's probably the same scene, even, given the blood moon lighting and the same square pillars. And I see no reason to assume Demise is involved even as malice. Dorf's plenty enough an evil wizard on his own.

[Chili Dawg]

That music made me feel things

[The Deleter]

Here's a leaked TV spot for TotK:

 

[ZinogreVolt]

1 hour ago, The Deleter said:

Here's a leaked TV spot for TotK:

Spoiler

Different elements for Gleeok? Curious.

 

[Sonicka]

4 hours ago, Diogenes said:

It's the same guy, you can see the jewelry on his right arm and the loose sleeve on his left. It's probably the same scene, even, given the blood moon lighting and the same square pillars. And I see no reason to assume Demise is involved even as malice. Dorf's plenty enough an evil wizard on his own.

Out of context, the scene seems to be from some sort of blood moon summoning / ritual... perhaps during Ganondorf's revival?

To me it looks more like Demise than Ganondorf compared to later in the trailer, the models look slightly different & you have the reactive dreadlock flame hair (which is not a Ganondorf trait), and the brief facial turnaround and blueish skin colour match up moreso to the Skyward Sword baddie to me.

That being said... I have no idea what the scene is about so it could easily not be him as you say. Or, perhaps like a shroud or  presence or malice enveloping Ganondorf's body before he returns - they are intrinsically linked after all since Ganondorf is basically his cursed reincarnation vessel of hatred (much like Zelda is for Hylia).

It will be interesting to see how a lot of this actually plays out in the game. Trailers have a fun habit or decontextualising key moments/scenes and subverting them into other ideas to throw the viewer off the scent. A bit like the elevator with Link holding the Switch Shiekah slate - is this before or after Zelda is lost to wherever it is she falls? Though the sky? Through the caverns? Through time? Goodness knows.  

[Tailikku]

I am actually a bit impressed by what I have seen in the trailer, especially since the Successor Champions will be picking up where the originals fell. But now we have Tulin filling in for his dad Teba, but I hope that he's not going to try to emulate Revali, given how Teba met his predecessor in AoC.

 

But on the topic of Ganondorf, if this game and its two prequels are set in the Downfall timeline, then it's quite the jump to go from an insane boar-man seen in the NES games to the primal force of nature that we know as Calamity Ganon, to go back to his original intelligent self as a Gerudo. Something tells me that Riju has more than a few words to mince with him seeing as she's still in charge of the Gerudo, but Ganondorf, by tradition of being the only male born once every 100 years, might try to wrest control over his people and force them into servitude as his own harem.

But my god, Matt Mercer does an excellent job as the Great King of Evil from what I have heard in both trailers. This is from me coming off of the Chroma Conclave arc of Vox Machina, but there is enough of a semblance to Matt's role as Lord Briarwood that can be heard in Ganon's voice.

[The Deleter]

2 hours ago, ZinogreVolt said:

  Reveal hidden contents

Different elements for Gleeok? Curious.

Spoiler

One part of me is disappointed by it, since ultimately it's more fun to come across unique mini bosses to defeat in an open world. But on the other hand I'm having a hard time imagining how a three-headed-dragon with elemental powers can be as boring as, say, the Hindox variations in BotW, so I'm in wait and see mode for now.

The more interesting parts of the trailer are the underground sections imo, since the Z axis is so far down, and the cave appears to be completely enveloped in darkness. Absolutely love it when caverns incorporate finding your way around in the dark, so seeing something as cool as shooting light flowers from your arrows was really cool

Then again the trailer featured an entire sky diving sequence into the underground, so I shouldn't be surprised by the underground exploration actually going pretty deep

There is one thing I don't appreaciate about the leak footage though...

Spoiler

NOOOOOOO

Really don't want to be collecting these guys again, especially if they're these same puzzles lol. Hopefully they're for a different use now at the very least.