The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

[Kav]

Zeltik has done a great Trailer breakdown here with theories/suggestions to go along with it…

 

[Ronnie]

2 hours ago, Kav said:

Zeltik has done a great Trailer breakdown here with theories/suggestions to go along with it…

 

That's a great video thanks for sharing.

Cool idea that the chunks of land found on the surface are how you'd get up to the sky, by using Link's new rewind power.

After watching that I definitely think the 'tears' part of the title could relate to something in-game.

Edited September 14, 2022 by Ronnie

[Kav]

I do love theories and speculation!

Edited September 15, 2022 by Kav

[Ronnie]

17 minutes ago, Kav said:

I do love theories and speculation!

How about this for theories and speculation, read it earlier:

Breath of the Wild = Wind = Goddess of Courage and Wind Farore
Tears of the Kingdom = Water = Goddess of Wisdom and Water Nayru

Game three = Fire = Goddess of Power and Fire Din ??

[Glen-i]

1 hour ago, Ronnie said:

How about this for theories and speculation, read it earlier:

Breath of the Wild = Wind = Goddess of Courage and Wind Farore
Tears of the Kingdom = Water = Goddess of Wisdom and Water Nayru

Game three = Fire = Goddess of Power and Fire Din ??

Oh god, a third game set in that Hyrule? Surely, even the most diehard fan would get bored with that?

[Ronnie]

14 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

Oh god, a third game set in that Hyrule? Surely, even the most diehard fan would get bored with that?

For sure, but it depends to what extent they mix it up this time around ?

[BowserBasher]

Obviously fire would mean it takes place under Hyrule nearer the earths core with loads of Magma and underground volcanos about. There, I've already mixed it up a bit for the third game.

[Ike]

1 hour ago, BowserBasher said:

Obviously fire would mean it takes place under Hyrule nearer the earths core with loads of Magma and underground volcanos about. There, I've already mixed it up a bit for the third game.

Well Zelda did fall down a chasm. Not sure why Link is searching in the sky for her.

[Ashley]

On 15/09/2022 at 7:30 PM, Ike said:

Well Zelda did fall down a chasm. Not sure why Link is searching in the sky for her.

 

[Julius]

On 9/14/2022 at 12:40 PM, Kav said:

Zeltik has done a great Trailer breakdown here with theories/suggestions to go along with it…

 

Zeltik's videos are great, great share! 

Can I just say though, it's killing me that so many people are saying the weirdly faced shaman-type dude on the wall is reminiscent of the Lord of the Mountain, when said weirdly faced shaman-type dude on the wall's face is, I feel, still clearly taking some cues from the design of the Spirit of the Forest from Princess Mononoke, even more so than the Lord of the Mountain (which, well, also was clearly taking cues from it!). A lot of deer-like features going on with that face (or mask?)...

Shaman dude

Lord of the Mountain

Spirit of the Forest (Princess Mononoke)

The wide eyes, the "ears", the general face shape and it's nose/brow ridge...yeah, I can't unsee it. 

To push it further, though, on the Shaman Dude™...is that hair, cloth, or...tendrils? Because you know...

Spoiler

This builds into my next bit of speculation a bit...

I think this game's title can be seen as a mirror to Breath of the Wild, and together they are talking about the cycle of life and death, but also the cycle of man and nature. 

I mean, think about it. In almost any way you cut it, you can see a relationship between a Breath and Tears, whether it be a similarity or difference, but there's so much joining them. Both are ways of expelling waste/toxins from the body, and with that in mind both I think could be defined as being a cyclical process of renewal (breathing in and out to continue the process of, well, living, compared with shedding tears to shed or process emotions). Similarly, breathing is, 99% of the time (until I say this and you're conscious of it for a moment ), an involuntary action, whereas, while emotions can overcome you and make you cry tears, it is something we have much more control over. I think also from a meditation perspective, there's something to be said for focusing on breathing and observing your emotions, whereas crying/tears often imply emotion and being overwhelmed by them. And so on and so forth.

It's loose, and it's a bit silly, but I guess the most succinct argument I have for it it that Breath is associated with life and being present, whereas I would argue that Tears (crying, obviously there'll be exceptions! I had a botched eye op as a kid so I cry from one eye when it's cold!) are kind of associated with the struggles of life, including death, such as through mourning those we've lost, emotion, and altogether, honestly, not being truly present. 

There's also the relationship between mankind and nature, which is what Wild and Kingdom kind of get at. One flourishing, more often than not, comes at the cost of the other, which is especially true and noteworthy today in 2022, what with climate change and more and more natural disasters occuring. I think there's also just an implied mirroring between an untamed Wild and a tamed, well, Kingdom. 

Anyways, that's what I'm taking from the titles: it's about the relationships between life and death, and nature and mankind. 

Breath of the Wild

Tears of the Kingdom

Goes along with the Zonai ouroborus too! 

EDIT: another one; BotW, while fully 3D, was arguably us mainly exploring a horizontal plane, across the land of Hyrule. Breaths are, well, inhaled and exhaled, typically, perpendicular to the position of the body, but horizontally when upright. Tears flow down vertically, and we're seeing a lot more to the verticality of this world in TotK (places to explore on the sky and underground). 

It's definitely growing on me, that's for sure! I think there's also more there, though. If this kingdom in the sky was indeed an ancient kingdom and is the kingdom the title alludes to, the "wild" could also be referring to the untamed force of nature that is/was Calamity Ganon, and the "Kingdom" could be referring to his opposite – this shaman-type on the murals. I also can't help but wonder if there's some balance there between good and evil, and so there's that cycle which could come into effect: with Calamity Ganon gone as if the end of Breath of the Wild, does his opposite (this shaman-type guy?) step into the fold? I kind of think of it like the balance of the Force in Star Wars, and how there's a relationship between the Dark Side and the Light. 

I'm really curious to see where this game goes, regardless. There's a bunch in Princess Mononoke which has clearly inspired the series in the past, or Breath of the Wild in 2017 (hell, that true ending is basically the same ending as Princess Mononoke's!), and so I imagine we'll see more tiny nods here and there which might help gain a better understanding of what's going on ahead of release. Can't help but also talk about an ancient kingdom in the sky and that massive twister without thinking of Laputa...but I'll stop there for now 

On 9/13/2022 at 7:11 PM, Ashley said:

*Chest opening sound*

(After double checking I didn't put "tears of a clown" which is all my head can think of)

Thanks for fixing the thread titl–

Quote

12/May/2023

Edited September 16, 2022 by Julius

[Ashley]

I'm guessing you don't like the date format?

[Julius]

As is tradition: GameXplain's mega-analysis for Tears of the Kingdom comes in at nearly 50 minutes long! 

Takes me back to the simpler times of watching their old BOTW (Zelda for NX!) trailer and gameplay breakdowns 

On 9/16/2022 at 10:35 PM, Ashley said:

I'm guessing you don't like the date format?

Short answer: no 

Longer answer:

[Hero-of-Time]

Nintendo are having an event over in Japan and pictures of a Link statue from said event are doing the rounds on the internet.

[MindFreak]

 

 

[Julius]

Today's trailer:

UK Collector's Edition: 

And new amiibo, as well as the mention that old Zelda amiibo can offer you some unique looks for your glider...

 

Edited February 8, 2023 by Julius

[Helmsly]

The game is now up on the eshop for preorder for £59.99

[Ronnie]

There's a ton of new and intriguing stuff there. Game looks huge. And fantastic.

PS: the visuals look a lot cleaner in the trailer above than they did during the presentation. Looks great.

Edited February 9, 2023 by Ronnie

[Dcubed]

You know it was a good Direct when TOTK is the least impressive thing that they showed.

I mean... it's more BOTW.  Honestly looks like a glorified DLC pack.  That's great for people who loved BOTW though, but after such an incredibly long dev cycle? (6 years! More than BOTW itself!!) Hard not to be disappointed by the lack of new mechanics and level design IMO.

Also, fucking hell Ganondorf sounds like a total dork.  Utterly awful.  Voice acting was the worst thing to ever happen to Zelda (apart from it going open world and losing everything I love about the series of course).

Edited February 9, 2023 by Dcubed

[Sheikah]

You know it was a good Direct when TOTK is the least impressive thing that they showed.
I mean... it's more BOTW.  Honestly looks like a glorified DLC pack.  That's great for people who loved BOTW though, but after such an incredibly long dev cycle? (6 years! More than BOTW itself!!) Hard not to be disappointed by the lack of new mechanics and level design IMO.
Also, fucking hell Ganondorf sounds like a total dork.  Utterly awful.  Voice acting was the worst thing to ever happen to Zelda (apart from it going open world and losing everything I love about the series of course).

Majora's Mask looked like DLC/asset flip and that was the best ever Zelda so...that's a good thing!

[Dcubed]

Just now, Sheikah said:

Majora's Mask looked like DLC/asset flip and that was the best ever Zelda so...that's a good thing!

Majora's Mask had a LOT more that was genuinely new than what TOTK has.  Its gameplay was entierly different to OoT for starters, thanks to the Groundhog Day mechanic.

TOTK uses a modified version of BOTW's map and so far has the drill mechanic, the time rewind Rune, fleshed out Nuts & Bolts vehicles and... that's it? 6 years and that's all you can do? Not even proper dungeons!?

[Sheikah]

 

 

 

Majora's Mask had a LOT more that was genuinely new than what TOTK has.  Its gameplay was entierly different to OoT for starters, thanks to the Groundhog Day mechanic.

TOTK uses a modified version of BOTW's map and so far has the drill mechanic, the time rewind Rune, fleshed out Nuts & Bolts vehicles and... that's it? 6 years and that's all you can do? Not even proper dungeons!?

Majora's Mask gameplay was not entirely different at all, it felt like the same game reskinned in terms of how Link moved and controlled, and the general gameplay. The difference in feel came from the different mask forms which you didn't wear all the time anyway.

The groundhog Day was a clever mechanic but ultimately a way of resetting things, it wasn't actual new gameplay per se.

[darksnowman]

27 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

You know it was a good Direct when TOTK is the least impressive thing that they showed.

 You should go back and rewatch the Splatoon 3 wave 1 DLC part.

[Ronnie]

12 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

Majora's Mask had a LOT more that was genuinely new than what TOTK has.  Its gameplay was entierly different to OoT for starters, thanks to the Groundhog Day mechanic.

TOTK uses a modified version of BOTW's map and so far has the drill mechanic, the time rewind Rune, fleshed out Nuts & Bolts vehicles and... that's it? 6 years and that's all you can do? Not even proper dungeons!?

WTF?

You don't know what TOTK has. It isn't out. All you've seen is a trailer. 

[Sheikah]

WTF?
You don't know what TOTK has. It isn't out. All you've seen is a trailer. 

Exactly, if you saw a trailer for Majora's Mask you'd be like...WTF they just reused all the NPCs.

[Dcubed]

4 hours ago, Ronnie said:

WTF?

You don't know what TOTK has. It isn't out. All you've seen is a trailer. 

The game comes out in 3 months, it's finished, it's done, and Nintendo aren't trying to hide what the game is at this point.

There's nothing Earth shattering that they're hiding.  If there was any real massive game changing new mechanic in play here? We would've seen it by now.

It's time to accept that the game is exactly what Nintendo are showing and exactly what they're saying it is.  Just like what Splatoon 3 was to Splatoon 2? This is just a glorified expansion pack to BOTW.