Soapbox features enable our individual writers and contributors to voice their opinions on hot topics and random stuff they've been chewing over. Today, Jim gushes over the moment you retrieve the legendary sword in the newest Zelda game...
There were several moments in my playthrough of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom where I would put the controller down, bring my hands to my head, and sit beaming at the screen. The opening dive to the Great Sky Island as the title appears; the music during the Wind Temple boss fight; the first time I bypassed a puzzle by strapping two rockets to a plank of wood and sent Link rag-dolling towards his goal.
None of these, however, came close to the moment when you retrieve the Master Sword.
I have been hesitant to match up Tears of the Kingdom against the Zelda games that precede it (it is still very new, after all), but, having watched Link get his hands on the legendary blade, I had absolutely no doubt that this was one of my very favourite moments in the entire series.
Before I dive into why I haven't been able to get the sequence out of my head for the past two months, let's first lay out a big old spoiler warning. I am going to be diving into a whole lot of details regarding Tears of the Kingdom's story. If you still are yet to find the Master Sword in the game, then you're going to want to turn back now and do it for yourself first. Trust us, there's nothing quite like experiencing it spoiler-free...
I'd left finding the Master Sword until a good 50 hours into my playtime. I finished the four Regional Phenomena quests and, safe in the assumption that I would be heading off to Hyrule Castle to fight Ganondorf immediately afterwards (how naive I was), I thought it would be a good idea to go into it with Link's legendary blade in hand — come on, I wasn't about to finish the game with some very strong but very ugly Fuse monstrosity now, was I?
Tears of the Kingdom took a Zelda trope that I knew so well and made it ten times better
I had put it off because I know how these sequences go down. You have your Link to the Past approach where you travel to a serene forest and pull the Master Sword out of a stone, surrounded by adorable woodland creatures. Or there's the Ocarina of Time version, which is much the same only in an ancient temple and with significantly fewer squirrels.
Like so many things, Tears of the Kingdom took a Zelda trope that I knew so well and made it ten times better. I love A Link to the Past just as much as anybody else, but you can't honestly say that a sun-speckled forest (no matter how serene) is cooler than riding on the back of an actual dragon...
Okay, I might have jumped the gun a little there. Fortunately, I think that getting the Master Sword this time around is such a series-defining moment, that almost every aspect of bringing it into my possession had me muttering "woah".
This includes how you actually find the cursed thing. There are multiple ways you can go about this: you find all of the Dragon's Tears and reveal the final cutscene that shows you exactly where the sword is, you can rock up to the Lost Woods half-expecting it to be stuck in the ground again. Or you can just actually stumble across the Light Dragon without doing any of that. I'm sure that the former is that bit more cinematic, but holy Hylia did the latter have its own punch-the-air moments.
After clearing the Great Deku Tree's phantom indigestion, he will give you the 'Recovering the Hero's Sword' main quest which pinpoints the location of the Master Sword on the map. The only difference with this objective compared to others is that I noticed that it was moving. My initial thought was that there was some kind of Sky Island in orbit around Hyrule and I would have to leap on and remove the sword. I fast travelled to the nearest Shrine to the moving marker and, in the place of my imagined moving island, was an entire gold and white dragon with my sword buried in its head. Wow.
There's a sense of tension to the act here that's unlike anything that the series has done before
This isn't the first Zelda game that has made us work for a chance to grab the legendary blade (the thought of Skyward Sword's Sacred Flames still makes me shiver) but gliding over to and landing on the back of the Light Dragon is something else. Arguably, this alone had the potential to be a series-best moment, and as the 'Grab' command appeared as I walked closer, I thought I knew where it was going — after all, we've all played Breath of the Wild — but it had to go and subvert my expectations all over again.
There's the obvious switch around of swapping out Breath of the Wild's required 13 hearts to lift the sword for two full rings of stamina, laughing at all those who thought they were getting ahead of the game by loading up on health first, but the best change comes from how this feels like no other Master Sword moment that has come before it.
Clearly, the sequence is more cinematic than ever before. I adore the Master Sword sequences of old, but there's only so much drama that you can get out of a man in a funny hat grunting as he pulls a blade out of a rock. Tears of the Kingdom opts for the complete opposite end of the spectrum — sheer spectacle. There's a dragon, yes, but as you pull the sword of out the dragon's head, it starts speeding through the sky at top speeds, leaving Link clinging on for dear life as if he's Tom Cruise in that one Mission Impossible movie.
How can Nintendo make another Master Sword sequence after this?
And I don't use "for dear life" lightly. Trying to pull the sword whilst low on hearts in Breath of the Wild would result in literal death, but exhaustion is hardly the most graphic way to die. Tears of the Kingdom creates a situation where if you are not prepared to lift the sword (which, bear in mind, you have no idea if you are going to be, the first time around), Link is going to take a tumble off that dragon and fall hundreds of feet before meeting a particularly squishy end. There's a sense of tension to the act here that's unlike anything that the series has done before.
Though the best part about this entire sequence is that it actually means something. In previous games, Link gets the Master Sword because he needs it to banish evil. The same is still true here, of course, but Tears of the Kingdom has the blade so intrinsically woven into the story that finding where it has been all this time has its own special melancholic twist.
I won't explain exactly what the twist is here — though if you're here, I am sure you already know it — but it's fair to say that it draws together Link, Zelda and the entire history of Hyrule into a single cutscene where my previously-uttered "woah" quickly turned into an "aww". It's epic, it's tense, it's exciting, but most of all it's heartbreaking.
So, as I watched Link plop safely onto a nearby Sky Island as the dragon flew into the distance, I breathed an almighty sigh. Of relief? Yes, but also of disbelief about what had just happened. How can Nintendo make another Master Sword sequence after this? What do I do with all of that dragon knowledge that I have just learned? And, most prominently, why did I wait for over 50 hours before looking for that darn blade?
Princess Zelda may well be stuck in the past, but her franchise certainly isn't. And this moment only enriched the rest of the game for me. While I am reluctant to say that Tears of the Kingdom is the greatest Zelda game ever at this point, I am confident that — at the very least — its Master Sword moment is perhaps the best moment in the series ever.
What did you make of getting the Master Sword in Tears of the Kingdom? Ride your dragon down to the comments and let us know.
Comments 46
This was probably my favorite moment of the entire game, besides maybe the final boss sequence. It was such an awesome scene, from the music, to the story implications, and just the way you go about finding it, too.
I said it before but I don't know how the heck Nintendo made getting this same dang sword AGAIN, feel so AMAZING. I straight up cried. (I had gotten all the tears so having the story...oh wow that gutted me.) Have I mentioned how much I love BOTW/TOTK Princess Zelda? She is the new way to do DID, she still has power and agency but the hero dude still gets his power fantasy. So good. If this level is Zelda going forward...wow I can't wait to see where the series goes.
To me it's when he holds the Sword up He Man like and you get that music each time, no matter how many times I hear that in a Zelda game it never gets old but obtaining the Sword here was just something else altogether.
I think it was definitely one of the more unique ways to acquire the Master Sword in comparison to older titles, but something about The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina of Time's method was the most satisfying for me. It felt more meaningful since there wasn't a weapon break system, and also since the time travel elements tied directly into taking the Master Sword.
It really was an epic moment, I'm glad I got to see that spoiler free because dang was it something. I got it through the tears sequence by the way.
I still haven't finished the game though, but I'm almost done with the story.
this article's tagline doesn't work if you actually know how fi is pronounced.
hint: hyrule warriors has spoken narration that says her name correctly
That part of the game was a pretty cool plot twist. The fact the master sword still has durability after going all of that is kind of a letdown..
It’s the stuff of magic.
Mine was a bit anti climactic because I did everything so completely out of order in this game.
I explored all of the underground and zapped myself up to the deku tree with ascend fairly early on in the story. Then later I randomly saw the dragon, landed on it, pulled a sword out of its head with my already maxed out stamina and that was it.
Didn't make sense until I did the teardrops fairly recently.
As a separate note, I even brute forced the thunder isles and got the fifth sage way before the game told me to. Unfortunately I've had a very disjointed but incredibly thorough playthrough of this game.
It was such a powerful moment for me, i could feel myself tearing up tbh
I didn’t read the article, it skimmed comments, and am just amazed at how epic this alone in the game is. I have been probably 75 hours and have barely touched the main story. The side quests and finding caves/wells, chasms, random bosses, I just can’t get back to the story. Too much to do, amd I didn’t think I’d like the weapon fusing, but i love making my own swords. Better than cooking. I’ll beat the story, someday….
I have to add, that OOT was the first game, and one of the few that brought a tear to my eye, but it was just because the it was so good at the time, and it ended. How can Nintendo keep making games that can hook a 14 year old just as much as a 40+?
This really was an epic moment that I'm glad I didn't spoil for myself. It's epic and sad at the same time once you understand the context and how much pain and loneliness Zelda had to go through in order to even get Link the chance to have the Master Sword again.
I guess the only thing ruining the cutscene is the fact that the Sword needs to recharge all the time, you would think after thousands of years it would be unbreakable at this point lol
Yep, great moment. I certainly didn’t expect to get it back that way.
@Mauzuri you’re boring
@ralphdibny I also forced my way through the clouds really early on, but I didn't do anything with the thing there in order to avoid doing things too out of order. Did you have the fifth sage throughout the phenomena or were they gated? Did the characters just say “oh, you've done that already” when you got to those quests?
I wish I could go back to a time when I didn't know that the master sword was actually a sentient ballerina robot, somehow makes it seem a whole lot lamer.
I slightly spoiled the story reveal as I was looking up in the sky, saw a new dragon high up, and got it's name as I'd opened the camera to take a photo of it.
But I found the Master Sword by doing the Tears Quest and catching up with the Dragon straight after.
Then did the deku tree later so the Sword Quest completed upon saving him.
I do wonder if the game was originally going to be called Tears of the Dragon before they settled on Kingdom?
I'm 205 hours in and yet to go fight the final boss though. Still a few things to do.
Easily the coolest master sword pull. Not even close!
It’s interesting how you can get it multiple ways and at different times. Makes the experience more unique for the player.
I ended up stumbling on it when I finished the Tears quest. I like lore and one of my favorite parts of BOTW was hunting down the photo spots to get cutscenes. The tears are TOTKs version of this, so I spent time doing it after I cleared the 4 main quests but before I went to hyrule castle. It definitely caught me off guard though when the final tear turned into the best time to get the master sword. And I’m sure my experience is different from a lot of other players since there were so many different paths that led to the sword. It’s a cool way to do it.
Actually, thought this was one of the weaker ones.
The dragon stuff just made everything else in the game so more convoluted than it already was, it just gave me nausea.
BOTW, OoT, Twilight Princess, all better Master Sword reveals imo.
@tgt I can answer this because I did the same thing. You can do the whole sage early, boss fight and all. The characters do have a moment where they are shocked that you already did it. Same with the Master Sword. This is if you do them before completing to Hyrule Castle. I found the 5th sage before Hyrule Castle but after the other 4 sages.
That light dragon sure has some crazy eye lashes ...
I know I'll never forget it. Definitely the most metal moment in a Zelda.
@KingDunsparce I laughed when Purah yelled at me for not telling her I completed those two quests a while before. I guess I didn't check in with her as often as I thought I did haha. I really like that the game has dialogue prepared in almost every situation, if you had already done a task that an NPC is trying to assign to you (instead of just marking it complete)
The Master Sword quest, the final showdown and the finale all had me teary eyed!
This is great timing because I literally just got the Master Sword less than 24 hours ago. For some context, this is the first time I’ve ever gotten the Master Sword in ANY Zelda game. What an incredible experience, such a legendary moment. I actually did all of this stuff in order, so it felt like an extremely rewarding payoff.
I’m saved in-front of the final boss now, and I think tonight is the time to take it down. Man, this game is just something else.
@tgt so I got it after all of the phenomena because I kind of thought going to see purah at that point would trigger the endgame so I was mopping up all the shrines.
But basically after you see Purah and complete Hyrule castle and you meet up with her after with all the gang, she is just like "WHAT?! You've found the fifth sage already?! And you've found the Master Sword?!" and that's basically it. She doesn't tell you to go see Tauro and do the final ring ruin so you can clear up the Thunder Isles which I guess she does if you do it properly? Could be wrong but it was really confusing and I had to look up the correct sequence of prompts to do it online.
I suspect that if you did get Mineru even earlier then the regional phenomena probably wouldn't change much as the final cut scenes for them were pretty much copy and pasted, I guess because you could technically do any one of them first so they had to explain (or re-explain) every little detail for each phenomena.
"I'd left finding the Master Sword until a good 50 hours into my playtime."
That's early. I was like 120 hours in.
The spectacle of the scene was fantastic but emotionally I didn't feel much. The king of all Master Sword moments is still Ocarina of Time with it's perfectly executed Ganondorf twist, time travelling seven years, becoming adult Link for the first time, shift into a more serious tone, incredible music etc.
I got the sword after finding every tear and I didn’t feel much throughout that journey, so I didn’t feel much grabbing it either. It was empty spectacle for me, and I bet it would’ve been cooler if that story was better or if I’d randomly stumbled across it. Then again not many master sword moments to compare it to because I can barely get myself to finish some of the zelda games no matter how critically acclaimed. They can be pretty dull. Wind Waker did it best from what I remember, from what I played. Definitely felt something there, but here it was just cool. Not bad but not like it’s impossible to do better (for example, might actually help if the sword feels like it impacts my arsenal after I get it instead of just existing until the final boss-)
I had a pretty cool experience with this one. I remembered that there were Zonai ruins in Faron in BotW. So I went there expecting to find something neat but there wasn't really anything there. But looking up into the air I saw that huge thunderstorm. So I went up there and found the island with the construct head that leads you to the Spirit Temple. After getting Mineru's Vow she tells you to check the Lost Woods for the Master Sword. If you do that then the Deku Tree tells you the Sword is moving around in the sky. The feeling that I found all this stuff early was really cool (I had only done fire and water temples by this point).
EDIT: I'm 100 hours in and I haven't even been to Gerudo yet. This is the first game to crack my top 10 since the original Xenoblade in 2009. It's one of the finest games I've ever played.
Removed - trolling/baiting; user is banned
It was a good moment but the build up to it is really dragged down for me because of the terrible Zelda voice acting.
However the top is OoT and Wind Waker because at that exact moment you realize you’re in an post-OoT Hyrule and that’s was HUGE at the moment the game came out
Previous to that there wasn’t even a timeline, so WW single-handedly created a connected universe between all the games. That must be the most important pull of all.
@ralphdibny I mean what do you expect when you brute force the Thunder Isles and ignore the tears till late? It's not that difficult to follow the more guided path the game nudges you towards.
I hadn’t been to Korok Forest yet. I went the route of getting all the Dragon Tears. That sequence of getting the last tear and getting the sword made me realize that “Tears of the Kingdom” refers not to the Dragon Tears, but to the tears that I would shed during all that.
I enjoyed Tears or the Kingdom but it certainly isn't Zelda at its best. It's barely recognisable Zelda. It's entirely it's own thing. And that's okay, but it cannot replace traditional Zelda.
Still going through the game. Have two temples, 102 shrines and trying to go through some side quests and adventures. Also quite advanced in exploring the depths. Yesterday though, I accidentally fell off exploring the floating Hyrule castle into the nearest chasm and for those that have completed the game, probably know how I found near after, with the challenge that I only completed two temples. After probably 5 hours of trying and dying prevailed, so back to exploring but will do it again following the normal path! That was very hard and stressing, and almost threw my pro controller a few times!
SPOILERS IN THE TITLE!!!
May be a little off topic but to be completely honest, BoTW was more engaging to me
TotK did some story beats better than any other Zelda game, such as Ganondorf and acquiring the Master Sword.
Not reading the article for now as it most likely goes beyond even my relatively high spoiler tolerance, but I'm really looking forward to it, especially after skimming through the comments here!
Thinking through Master Sword pulls:
ALttP and ALBW: Vanilla, can't go wrong with them.
Ocarina of Time: Absolutely awesome transition to the future.
Wind Waker: The castle comes to life, wonderful
Twilight Princess: Mostly relief of no longer being forced in Wolf mode
Skyward Sword: The music finally plays when the sword is blessed, but that isn't really a pull.
Hyrule Warriors: The back end of the level becomes a total slaughter, this part was awesome.
BotW: Absolutely excellent.
AoC: Immediately destroy the dark wizard dude with it. It feels VERY fulfilling.
TotK: I have to agree, truly brilliant.
I happened to have gotten this by accident. I gotta say, this was one of the more impressive Master Sword scenes.
HOWEVER, nothing comes close to the high stakes situation of AoC, where the Master Sword saves not only Link, but Zelda. No one knew Link was going to be the Knight Who Seals the Darkness (that's the name of the epic theme song that plays), but the moment that is discovered, Link immediately kicks ass.
:::MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD::: (Sorry I'm not sure how to blank them out)
One of the greatest moments in my gaming history, I was sobbing in awe at this scene.
However, it does highlight one of my biggest gripes with TOTK, how easy it is to play the game out of the intended order! This wouldn't be an issue except for the fact that once you find out the intended order and realise that it is objectively better than doing it randomly.
I personally hate when I get to a point in the story and they send me on a grand quest only to say "whoops you've already done it, moving on" I get that the philosophy of these 2 games is freedom of play but I wish they just made some things harder to do or gave more obvious pushes in certain directions.
I had the master sword after doing all tears, only 2 phenomenons down, I then went to Deku Forest, in which he said "oh you've got the master sword, see ya later"
I then was exploring the skies and someone earlier in the game had mentioned the storm above the faron region so I went there on my flying machine, and found the 5th sage before I had the first 4.
So when I got to the castle the first time and did all that which was awesome I got back to purah and she said, "right, we've got lots to do... cool all done"
I then, like others have said, had to come across how to clear the storm by chance, so I could do the rest of that sky region.
I don't feel like I've broken the game or tried to do things I wasn't supposed to, i've just been following my curiosity. Most often when you do that you find a Shrine but occasionally in this game you find a major story quest that you aren't supposed to do until much later on.
For example, the Deku Forest is a lot more challenging to enter in TOTK than BOTW the fog is more dense meaning you can't enter through the ground level, so you have to come at it from underneath, which is cool but that area in the depths is super hot so you have to go to goron first which when I first realised I thought "okay, clearly they're marking that area off until later in the game, i'm not supposed to go there yet" however you are supposed to go there relatively early?!
and yet the tears are all super easy to find, I did them all in like the first 40hrs
Similarly the faron storm is hard to enter, like the deku forest, but this time the storm IS supposed to keep you out?!?! Although, the island with the 5th sage quest is the lowest to the ground making it the easiest to get to by flying machine which is exactly what I did, they should've made the storm super deadly and impenetrable until you get the armour set from the faron dragon after doing the castle.
I don't feel like i've missed out because I've still gotten to do all of the content and it was all magical at the time but I was very disappointed when talking to purah to know that there wasn't much else waiting for me and I had done things wrong.
Game still 10/10 incredible, im nitpicking really but i think they could've improved the nudges
TLDR me sad that there's no more game for me
Found all the tears (story) and temples. I want to find the dragonsword and do some shrines before even going near ganondorf.
SPOILER-ISH?
My favorite part about retrieving the Master Sword is that there’s a cutscene in which the sword is referred to as “she,” which is a lovely acknowledgment of Fi. (Shame she got downgraded back to “it” in the ending though.)
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