Waking up in a beautiful, unexplored sky island with nothing but a decayed Master Sword and a VERY vague idea of what’s been going on during God knows how long you’ve been asleep this time hit really close to home, but there was something refreshing about it all. You have done this before, but you’re also new here, and you’re lost and need some guidance. This is what I was talking about at the beginning of this entry. And it’s a wonder that, even when you actually descend to a land you know like the palm of your hand, you feel like there’s so much to do and no time to lose, instead of an “are we really doing all this again?” kind of dread. I had a lot of fun re-exploring Hyrule and all the new additions to the surface!
Overall ambience
Tears of the Kingdom comes with a magnificent spiritual vibe to it I resonate a lot with. I just kept thinking about it the more I played. The lost technology look they went for in BOTW was amazing and exactly what the game needed, and even though I wish sheikah tech hadn't fully vanished in TOTK, we're compensated with a very special anciently divine aesthetic. It reminded me a lot of that of the twili (which excited me a lot considering how visually beautiful Twilight Princess is), only lighter. They managed to present us a struggling Hyrule without completely breaking the characteristic liveliness of its landscaping these last two games, without forgetting to emphasize tons of eerie elements.
I have always been an avid defender of BOTW: it received tons of love, of course! But I’ve also seen many takes on it I just couldn’t disagree with more. I’m always incredibly up for critiques, but, aside from being stubborn, those sharing them usually handled their opinions in a very condescending “I am an elder gamer” way, so it was hard for me to sympathize with their points of view. One of the most known complaints was that it wasn’t creepy enough. As if every Zelda we’ve gotten was equally dark as the others, I always thought to myself. And still, it felt like things like the blood moons and the malice, or some minor ones like Malanya (my bizarre love), amongst others, even if they didn’t stop the overall environment from being lighthearted, were being tremendously overlooked. Coming from someone who has always leaned towards the spooky side of the series.
Having said this, I feel like, as I already said, they handled TOTK wonderfully. It's no secret that the developers went insane and gave us THREE map layers, but what's great and important about them is how different they feel from one another.
The sky islands have their challenges and enemies, sure, but the peace they give off is hard to match (I wish we had gotten more of them considering how the upheaval is so directly crucial to the story, though!). The surface makes exploration less overwhelming by letting us move through a map we already know, while still adding changes ranging from the smallest of details to intricate cave systems, which have become one of my favorite places to move around: having no maps for them is so thrilling to me! And finally, the depths. I can think of maybe two things at BEST that made my heart sink deep into my stomach as hard as descending into the underworld for the first time did. The loud, wailing horn unforeseenly breaking any feeling of ease is easily one of the smartest, most direct ways to introduce a territory so unexpected and other-worldly. And HERE is where I wanted to get.
We didn't know about the existence of this area until the game dropped. We heard and saw a lot about the renewed Hyrule and the brand-new floating territory, but there was no person on earth waiting for something like the depths, much less all the horrors they would contain. I particularly adored the bargainer statues and think the art direction team did a remarkable job with all the cool-toned exotic flora that decorated the space. It felt like you couldn't even trust a simple tree (although who would trust a tree now that we have evermeans?).
And yet the world is brilliantly cohesive: you will never forget about the other two layers when you're focusing on one. We see this in everyday-exploring when paying attention to the layout of the depths, be it for the water on the surface functioning as underground limits, the abandoned mines we can find under villages or even the subterranean volcanic activity heating up our hot springs; walking around and finding green sceneries broken by an ominous chasm; or completing the labyrinths (which I very much encourage everyone to do) and jumping from the highest of highs directly into a hole in the ground. And this is how outstandingly good they handled the inclusion of different elements in the game: dividing them into separate sections but not letting you ignore their presence regardless of where you were or what you were doing. Focusing the main story and quest on something macabre, much more macabre than what we had seen in BOTW while not getting rid of the calm parts of the game. Essentially perfectly balancing out dark and light.
And I HAVE to say, if you want darker, go replay Twilight Princess, or actually pay closer attention to the plot and additions of this one. Enjoy things! (°ー°〃)
Comebacks and additions
One of my favorite things about TOTK was the way they took the new concepts that had already been presented (in a very lowkey way, now looking in retrospective) only to deepen their importance and screentime. It's true that TOTK often failed to feel like a sequel because of how often it would dismiss the importance of acknowledging the events of its prequel, like some "important" NPCs not remembering us, or the unexplained vanishing of previous shrines or towers. So it's nice to see that Nintendo didn't fully discard what they had created, and instead chose to give us some fun stuff, like the continued existence of mystical animals, or the revival of the Yiga!!! I AM THEIR BIGGEST FAN!!!
It's also really exciting that we got to see elements from older titles. It's no secret that BOTW already constantly referenced previous videogames in the series, but TOTK's revamping of classics was really exciting. I have to say my favorite reappearance were the Gibdos. I just love Gibdos. I always have. I freaked out so much when I first *thought* I had seen them in one of the cutscenes. Their new insectish design goes hard as fuck. I'm really grateful they're related to Gerudo's phenomena and temple, which were the ones I loved the most. I won't really be getting into them separately but I do want to say I really, really like how they managed to mix the divine beasts feeling and classic dungeons for TOTK. I was hoping for stuff a bit more challenging, but they gave us such stunning and heterogeneous concepts that paid homage to previous games so greatly I can't even complain. All of them working with the terminal dynamic but having immensely different designs this time, bosses included, kept me curious and hooked. Rito and Zora temples felt newer, while Goron and Gerudo ones brought me back in time because of their mechanics.
“I don’t think I was supposed to do that… but it worked!”
From building simple bikes to attacking villages with Troy horses, the whole "build whatever you please" addition was INSANE. Coming from someone who didn't even abuse it that much, which I consider great, too, and I mean how it implements yet another way of playing the game, giving the player an even wider selection of ways to approach and play an already so open game.
I don't have many things to say about this other than hats off to Nintendo (sigh, I know) for coming up with such a crazy variety of devices for us to mess around with COMBINED with all the new stuff we could do with Link's abilities. My favorite one is ascend because I thought Link looked very cute in the little animation that popped up everytime I used it, despite it also being the one that re-wired my normal human brain into a maniac that had to constantly remind himself that no, it is not possible to go through the ceiling in real life.
With how amazing the entirety of the game is mechanic-wise, it makes you wonder if they made the sages deeply stupid on purpose. Particularly Sidon, seriously, that man was NEVER there when I needed him. Jesus Christ.
The ending
Getting to Ganondorf was a journey filled with nothing but epicity. The depths felt especially fleshy and cold and lonely. The enemies we face are completely doable, but the thrill of the moment is still to die for. My heart was beating HARD the entire time.
I think Link having a network of friends and people he can rely on is really sweet and important. It's more than stated that he and almost everyone around him ends up leaving it all up to him, which I understand is normal considering he's a hero, but one can always use a little support. That's why I love when we get companions and get to fight as part of a team in specific parts of battles.
The final battle itself, though, was perfect. It felt intimate, and it very much respected the "rules of a three staged boss", with a first phase that initiates everything, sets the mood and prepares you for the second, most complicated one (the health bar thing scared me shitless), and finally ends with the easiest but most beautiful stage out of all three. Out of all stages of all bosses of all videogames in this case. Calling it beautiful is a severe understatement, both emotional and graphically.
I know some people found the ending plain, but it's not an opinion I can resonate with. I think the idea is lovely and I spent the entire time hysterically crying. However, I won't deny that Zelda coming back to us as we knew her felt a little rushed, and if I coldly think about it, I would have liked a more deeply detailed explanation as to why what happened happened. Looking back at it, it also disappointed me that Link got his regular arm back, and it would have been lovely to see Zelda keep some dragonesque features. I guess I'm not a fan of starting over with a clean slate after adventures so emotional and meaningful. And still...
Long live Zelink! Romantically! Platonically! I don't care! It doesn't matter! They're soulmates and that's what's so beautiful about them! They will always have each other's back! They're bound by destiny and they're bound to feel nothing but love and respect for each other! Of course they were going to find each other, they did them so much justice in that sense, I think. :)
Some more notes
I don’t want to be fully blinded by love, because there *are* some things I would like to get off my chest. It’s important to acknowledge whatever flaws even your favorites might have, in my opinion. It might actually make you love them more :)
Even if I consider the story to be incredibly beautiful, I have to criticize the storytelling. Not that it was hard to understand, because the memories system we already worked with years ago is really effective in my eyes, but non-full-linearity for main quests didn't feel like the best choice for the tale being presented to us. I wish some things were only available for us to complete after getting clearing others. My main issue is especially the last dragon tear, which I went for as soon as I visited all the previous ones early game. It made the entire Find Princess Zelda mission feel a bit less intense, because it only made it more obvious that the Zelda everyone had been seeing was not the real deal. I don't think it's a HUGE mistake (I wouldn't even call it one in the first place), because, by the looks of it, Link's weak point is Zelda, and it makes sense he would still go after her when he's already aware of what really happened, be it out of pure denial or hopefulness. So, again, this wasn't a disappointment or anything, I just wish the order what we see and do as the main story was a little more rigid, while still giving us freedom in choosing what region we visit first, for example.
I would have also liked to see Link being a bit more expressive in cutscenes. I think his stoicism sometimes turned into hieratism, taking into account that we know he's a Link full of personality, as we can see ingame during certain interactions with characters and our surroundings. It wouldn't break his character to maybe have him frown a bit more strongly, or smile* a little, like we have seen in previous games without it ever messing up his characteristic "blankness" for the player to project onto.
*Check this out if you have finished the game, tho! :)
IN NO WAY does this mean I don't like this Link. In fact, I very much love the Hero of the Wild, and I appreciate every little thing they DID add in both titles to make him feel like, well, him. I even wrote a (very incomplete) list of little details I noticed while playing Breath of the Wild years ago, which I will always find cute.
Something I already appreciated in the previous game that TOTK only enhanced, is how he's always acknowledged as a nice boy, a short boy, a pretty boy. People comment on his traits, they notice him for all these things that have nothing to do with being the hero of their land, which feels like a breath of fresh air, like we're more than just Hyrule's last hope, like we can just be the generous person who's willing to bring some rice to a lady that finds us cute, rebuild a village or help out a musical troupe just for the sake of it. This might be a bit over-the-top emotional, but again this is the person who takes off all of Link's equipment and puts him to sleep calmly after preparing warm milk for him writing. I just love him that much. You give me chances I didn't have before and I'm gonna make good use of them.
Finally, I would like to add that I can’t think of another series that motivates me so much to live my life. Go out, let my hair grow, cook, AND eat what I cook, enjoy the mundane… those are all things I’ve always loved and sometimes lost in sadness. It’s nothing other than marvelous to have something to rely on in times of need.
Thank you for reading all of this. I think I'm much better at randomly rambling than at trying to write a single thing down, mainly because of how many thoughts I have about everything. Keeping things brief becomes nearly impossible to me when it comes to a series I love so much, so I highly encourage you to watch or read some essays about specific parts of the game, and to stick around here to see if I ever decide to make some myself!
See you soon, and happy gaming! I've been having so much fun aiming for 100% completion!
Bye! ヾ(๑╹ヮ╹๑)ﾉ
Ps: I didn't really find the right spot to mention this while I wrote, but you should totally check this awesome article out. It's about trans discovery and joy related to Link. I think it's very much worth the read and it conveys a lot of thoughts and feelings I wouldn't really know how to put into words myself, it made me very emotional to read it when it first came out. :)
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