The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

[Jonnas]

9 hours ago, Glen-i said:

You know, if the subtitle is some kind of variation of "Breath of...", I will groan so hard, I might just bust a vocal chord.

What I'm saying is, Ninty may have let me down on the direction of it, but I expect a decent subtitle at least!

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of Glen's Disappointed Sigh

[Ronnie]

 

[Julius]

Potential spoiler floating around after an interview with one of the Italian dub voice actors for the first Breath of the Wild:

Spoiler

In an interview with the Italian dub voice actor for Daruk in Breath of the Wild, Pietro Ubaldi, he revealed that he had recently done some work for the series, dubbing Daruk...and his ancestor. 

May lend credence to the theories that the long-haired Link we've seen in trailers may actually be the hero of 10,000 years ago, or that there's time travel in the game. 

 

Edited May 2, 2022 by Julius

[Julius]

As of a couple of days ago, we are now in the longest gap between main series Zelda titles. 

Now, obviously COVID is a huge part of the reason for this, and it's not the end of the world that we're still waiting for the game, I just think it's an interesting milestone to throw out there. 

What's actually blowing my mind is that it's been nearly 5 ½ years since Breath of the Wild launched! I didn't even play it at release, but can vividly remember all of the talk here and on YouTube about the game, seeing bucketloads of gameplay, and even having conversations with customers at my job at the time about their adventures. Crazy how quickly the time has gone! 

[Dcubed]

That's not that strange.  The gaps inbetween 3D Zelda releases has only been getting longer over time.

What is strange is that this has happened with a game that was supposed to be a quick asset-reuse sequel! (ALA Majora's Mask & Spirit Tracks).  I've already beaten this horse to death at this point, but it does make you wonder if/what went wrong with this game's development (and no, COVID is not the answer).

Edited August 23, 2022 by Dcubed

[Sheikah]

Yeah, there's a lot of reasons for the gap really.

One thing that comes to mind is that you don't see the output of games like you used to. Remember with Final Fantasy on the PS1, where we got FFVII, VIII and IX on one console? You're lucky to get more than one on a given console now. There's also been DLC for BOTW which has extended the life of the game, and the pandemic. And Nintendo seem to use Zelda to sell a new console now (like they did by delaying TP and BOTW to line up with the new console release). Wouldn't surprise me if they do the same thing here to line up with a Switch 2/Pro (or even just another Switch revised model).

 

[Julius]

4 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

What is strange is that this has happened with a game that was supposed to be a quick asset-reuse sequel! (ALA Majora's Mask & Spirit Tracks).

So while there is naturally a lot of asset reuse going on (as we've seen in the trailers so far, I've seen a couple of comparison videos and the world looks largely unchanged), I do think a whole lot of conclusions were jumped to with BOTW2 before the game was even announced, and I think it's a massive reach to say that the game "was supposed to be a quick asset-reuse sequel".

I remember in the months following the release of BOTW back in 2017 many people were saying "well, they've got the world already, we'll have a sequel in two or three years a la Majora's Mask because it's pretty much there, ain't it?" which I think has perpetuated this idea that, well, that was the plan, when we have no real idea. Asset reuse would've cut down on development time compared to not reusing assets, that's just a natural conclusion to arrive at, but a comparatively, potentially faster developed sequel is not necessarily "just" going to be a "quick asset-reuse sequel".

Like you say though, the gap between 3D (and well, just any mainline) Zelda releases have been growing wider, and what little we do know about BOTW2's development is that basically they had a bunch of ideas which got too big for DLC and grew out of control into its own thing. We've seen the GDC talks, there was a lot that they didn't do anything with in the first game, and I don't think it's hard to believe that they didn't even show everything back then. 

12 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

I've already beaten this horse to death at this point, but it does make you wonder if/what went wrong with this game's development (and no, COVID is not the answer).

COVID is a factor and I think it's genuinely poor form to not admit that it would have been. 

However, if we're going to question it being the biggest reason for the game taking as long as it has? I mean, considering that we've had a delay during/"post"-COVID (in quotes because, well, the worst has passed in the West for now, but it's still obviously a thing) from a 2022 release (announced at E3 last year) to 2023 (announced earlier this year), it's clearly not the current reason for the delay to 2023. But COVID clearly would have had an impact, I'd imagine at least 12 months and likely longer if we're being frank, especially considering that we got a first trailer at E3 2019.

Let's say that hypothetically the game was aiming for an early 2021 launch before COVID was a factor: COVID would have hit at the worst possible time for the game's development (around the midway point and heading into the final 12-15 months before launch). And, like you say, this is Zelda, and this is Nintendo, the wait has been getting longer between releases: COVID would have had a huge impact on their production flow, sure, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if that "downtime" ended up spawning new ideas or fresh perspectives on the game which meant they actually ended up further back in production once they returned, sat down, and went "so, I've been thinking about X, and why don't we try Y, or Z?" That would seem like a very, very Nintendo thing to happen. 

Which brings me back to asset reuse and what you were saying about if something went wrong with this game's development: I don't think anything went wrong, necessarily, in the sense that games like Final Fantasy VII Remake and Metroid Prime 4 had to be moved to entirely different studios after a few years of development not going as planned, but I do think some of their ideas - whether they came back with more after COVID would've slowed things down in speculation and conjecture on my part - are taking more resource to implement than they first thought it might, whether that's the patented mechanics or mechanics we've seen in the game's trailers.

Or, what I think would make a lot more sense, some idea they have for the land of Hyrule has spun out of control or taken longer to implement than they might have thought. Like I said above, the ground level seems to be pretty much unchanged in the trailers (other than enemy composition), and while yes they're adding stuff to the sky and - we assume - an underground, I think we'd be right to assume that these are going to be slithers of the map compared to the size and scale of the land presented in BOTW, and so I just can't see them leaving that to be pretty much as it was in BOTW the same given that exploring every nook and cranny of the land of Hyrule was the entire selling point of BOTW's open world. Even if the sky and underground each somehow were so massive that they each took up 25% of the explorable space in the game, there's no way that I could see Nintendo and this team green-lighting keeping 50% - the land - virtually the same. Whether it's a Dark World, time travel to a past Hyrule, or something else altogether (like an urbanisation sim aspect where you go around building and rebuilding villages and the like at ground level), I think whatever their plans are for the land of Hyrule is going to be what's taken up so much of their time. 

If I'm wrong and they've "just" added a sky and underground, then so be it, I'll be right there with you and a little dubious about what's been taking so long. But I don't think we know nearly enough about the game to come out with absolute statements like it being a "quick asset-reuse sequel", and definitely not enough to say that "COVID is not an answer" to the question of why it's ended up with a 6 year development cycle. COVID will be one of many reasons that it's taken so long. 

Also, I agree with @Sheikah, BOTW did have DLC (yeah okay it wasn't massive, but it still would have taken resource), and they could easily be pushing BOTW2 back to polish it further for a launch alongside the Switch 2. 

We'll just need to wait and see, this is one of those games where I'm willing to settle on and wait as long as Nintendo feels they need to nail it 

[Ronnie]

Lots of reasons as stated. Obviously Covid is a big one. 

BOTW is a tough act to follow so I imagine they struggled to find gameplay that was on par or as special an experience as the original. 

Padding out the release schedule could easily be another. No way does Nintendo need that game this year, but to kick off the next financial year? I could see that being a reason to delay it a few more months 

[Hero-of-Time]

Nice bit of art work.

[Glen-i]

Nice subtitle. Glad it's not "Breath of..."

Can't watch the direct, but is that picture all they showed?

[drahkon]

Just now, Glen-i said:

Can't watch the direct, but is that picture all they showed?

Nah, they showed a little teaser.

 

[bob]

LMAO that title. No wonder they were shitting themselves when the Queen died.

[MindFreak]

6 minutes ago, bob said:

LMAO that title. No wonder they were shitting themselves when the Queen died.

Haha. True. Thats funny.

But otherwise I don't see why the title was a major spoiler for the game as they said it was. 

On 29.3.2022 at 10:20 PM, Julius said:

Sorry, cannot remove this quote in the editor. 

[Glen-i]

7 minutes ago, bob said:

LMAO that title. No wonder they were shitting themselves when the Queen died.

Oh wow, I didn't even cop on to that!

The UK no-show makes a lot more sense now!

[Julius]

Well at least it'll be easier to find this thread once the title's updated now 

2 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Nice bit of artwork. 

Yep, lovely artwork, though doesn't quite translate to the box art as well I feel? 

Also can't help but wonder if we'll see different regional artwork for the box art like we did with the first game. If they make this a trilogy though, having the first game have Link centred (earth) and the second having him off in a top corner (sky), they've got to bring it home and position him at the bottom of the box art – assuming we're getting more than the tease we got a while back of an Underworld in this game, I'm imagining a scuba-diving Link underwater. 

Anyways, other than the release date and title reveal...honestly, not a great trailer, probably the weakest one it's had so far. I'm sure we'll see more in the coming months, there's still plenty of time (May 12th is close but so, so far!), and good marketing is always a difficult balance to find, but going the Ragnarök route of "we ain't showing you anything, sorry" just seems like a bit of a poor idea when it comes to marketing an open world game. It could work on their favour and blow us away when the game releases with all of the changes which might be present in the world, but I imagine until we got a solid chunk of gameplay, we're going to see a lot of people concerned about not knowing just how different it's going to be. 

The logo design and opening of the trailer looks like they're delivering on the Zonai stuff from BotW - which is cool, I know this game came about from expanding on DLC ideas, but I was half-convinced they weren't going to touch that stuff - and I've got to say, the title grows on me the more I read it; I know there's been some time travel speculation about the game, but with the title too, it would be pretty cool to see an ancient civilisation torn apart, definitely gives an ominous, almost Pompeii-like vibe to the game. Would be even cooler if there's time travel involved with the present day and puzzles hinting at things, but not seeing how it all plays out until the very end, maybe the destruction of an ancient kingdom either giving rise to, or empowering, present-day Hyrule? Would make it very melancholic! 

Still very excited for this game, it's safe to say! 

[Ashley]

14 minutes ago, Julius said:

Well at least it'll be easier to find this thread once the title's updated now 

*Chest opening sound*

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

[Ashley]

Some clarification so it's not an inverted repeat of the childhood-ruining realisation that "No More Tears" was not referring to crying:

 

 

[Sheikah]

Nice bit of art work.

They should have gone with Breath of the Wild: Skyward Sword.

[Ike]

Tears of climbing while it's raining.

Not sure why they went with climbing simulator (and then jumping off) for the trailer.

[Dcubed]

Can’t say that I see the gameplay connection here… Zelda subtitles are almost always linked to a key gameplay mechanic… but that doesn’t seem to be the case here?

[Ronnie]

Breath of the Wild hardly screamed gameplay mechanic either. 'Tears of the Kingdom' riffs off the original's title nicely. 

Lovely artwork, logo and box-art. 

The animations though, looked rough af, to the point where I'm a little surprised they put that out. Obviously it'll get cleaned up and I'm sure will look great at release, but still.

On the plus side, the game somehow feels broader in scale than it did previously, maybe because of those opening images?

 

Edited September 13, 2022 by Ronnie

[Dcubed]

5 hours ago, Ronnie said:

Breath of the Wild hardly screamed gameplay mechanic either. 'Tears of the Kingdom' riffs off the original's title nicely. 

Lovely artwork, logo and box-art. 

The animations though, looked rough af, to the point where I'm a little surprised they put that out. Obviously it'll get cleaned up and I'm sure will look great at release, but still.

On the plus side, the game somehow feels broader in scale than it did previously, maybe because of those opening images?

 

“Breath of the Wild” is a clear reference to the switch to open-air/survival gameplay.  “Tears of the Kingdom” means… err… dropping down from the sky maybe?

It’s not a very Zelda-esc title.  The only Zelda games whose names have no real gameplay related meaning are Adventure of Link and Link’s Awakening, so it’s pretty out of line with the rest of the series.  It’s almost like one of those fan-made fake titles.

Edited September 14, 2022 by Dcubed

[Jonnas]

7 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

“Breath of the Wild” is a clear reference to the switch to open-air/survival gameplay.  “Tears of the Kingdom” means… err… dropping down from the sky maybe?

It’s not a very Zelda-esc title.  The only Zelda games whose names have no real gameplay related meaning are Adventure of Link and Link’s Awakening, so it’s pretty out of line with the rest of the series.  It’s almost like one of those fan-made fake titles.

The "tears" may refer to something specific. Maybe it's the name given to the floating islands. Just saying, titles like Twilight Princess hardly scream "gameplay mechanic" when you first hear them.

Also, Link to the Past (Triforce of the Gods) is a title unrelated to gameplay in both English AND Japanese.

(and getting into technicalities, Majora's Mask is just the villain's name, the one mask in the game that's actually unrelated to gameplay mechanics.)

[MindFreak]

The tear may be related to the shape of the Sheikah symbol. We saw that on Link's shield when he opened the door in the beginning of the trailer. 

[Ronnie]

The title was clearly chosen to relate/riff off of Breath of the Wild. It definitely doesn't stand alone.

And it could easily relate to a gameplay mechanic, we just don't know yet. This looks pretty tear-like: