Topic: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

@damien33ad I do think that we'll see more of what was done with Odyssey: Big Open World that leads into more focused, linear sections that can take advantage of the tighter design.

In this case, the sky sections appear to be that. At least at first glimpse, they appear to lack the 'go anywhere' nature of the overworld

@damien33ad There's ways to tell a story without having to have linear world design. Progression won't ever return to how it was with Skyward Sword. This is a new era of Zelda, just like Ocarina was a new era.

They'll probably be able to tell a better story in BotW 2, but I wouldn't expect it to be "You have to do this dungeon and beat it a certain way to unlock the second dungeon, and so on". The story will probably be reusing the memory system too, but this time for Ganondorf or the ancient hero's memories.

It will be very interesting to see how they set up the premise for the hero's journey.
A direct sequel to BOTW has to logically introduce heavy plot elements for link to loose all his gear, and we already have some clues. I would love if they Introduce us to flourishing Hyrule with a few linear missions with Zelda, just to take it all away with what looks like a prologue with ganondorf in the caves. That would be a stronger reason, for me anyway, to get on the journey to save the kingdom.
And if anything happens to Tarrey town, heads will roll.
You heard me ganondorf.

@link3710 I was thinking the sky sections would function like the sky in Skyward Sword but instead of dropping down to limited separate areas you drop down to anywhere on the BotW map.

@Grumblevolcano That'd make sense. I do think the individual islands may be home to more linear sections though. My current theory is you can't travel between islands in the sky, you can only access them from distinct spots on the ground.

Each island acts as a replacement for a shrine essentially. But unlike the shrines, the islands will have a lot more flexibility in what they can be. Many will have shrine style challenges, but some may be far longer (In line with mini dungeons like the Ice Cavern or Under the Well), and some may be home to new characters to meet as well, rather than being unpopulated. Instead of a challenge, you might find a quest giver, or a shop, or even a small village.

Anyways, it's highly possible they're just pure shrine replacements too, but we'll see.

I feel like the sky will be like the surface in terms of exploration, since you literally see a clip of Link gliding to other islands. The glowing liquid seems to be a way to get up to the sky from the ground.

dude its a 2nd game after what will be 5 years, and other Zelda games have been made between the two

if you're annoyed at this direction at Zelda you should've been more annoyed that every other video game company abandoned this type of game first (which I am, constantly). The only major 3d video game I know of with the old Zelda formula made after Skyward Sword is Darksiders 2 and (to some extent, as far as I've heard) the God of War reboot. Maybe the Dark Souls-like games depending on how you look at that sub-genre?

@damien33ad I mean, it was their first venture into the open world game genera, and all they can really do is improve from there honestly.

I'm excited, but I don't want people to get hopes up about it being practically the same game continuation. They've stated that while it will have connection to breath of the wild, it is it's own thing as well. Expect new UI, new physics and different types of dungeons.

@WhatsUpWil All I’m expecting is what they’ve shown so far. Right now, it looks more like a DLC to the original as opposed to it’s own thing, but I guess we’ll wait and see.

@damien33ad I totally get you there. I liked Botw but it felt more like a Zelda Spinoff than an actual Zelda to me. Not in a bad way, but personally i would love something akin to Twilight princess again when it comes to story and dungeons.

Let me know if it's old news. I noticed amazon's box art for BOTW 2 says "BOX ART COMING SOON"

https://www.amazon.com/Legend-Zelda-Breath-Wild-Nintendo-Swit...

@AegisPrime Ehhh.. I think Link being the playable character is one tradition they should keep no matter what, given he's pretty much the face of the series.

@WoomyNNYes I'd say it's probably a placeholder if anything.

@VoidofLight Yeah, could be total BS.

So, Nintendo accidentally released 3 patents for the game apparently, which detail a few things. It details how the mechanic of diving upwards and merging with walls works, or rather just shows the requirements that have to be met in order to use it, how falling in the skies now works, and apparently the ability to use bows while free-falling, and then how the item time reversal stuff works.

I don't know if I can share the post I saw this from, but if I can't just please let me know, and I'll edit this post to remove the link. https://www.reddit.com/r/Breath_of_the_Wild/comments/rgfz43/b...

@VoidofLight These patents are actually making me pretty excited for the game. It also shows off how many different positions Link can be in in mid-air, like diving, fast-falling, and other things. Hopefully, this is a sign that they're expanding and improving upon what was in the first game.

It's seemed pretty clear to me since the second teaser trailer that, while reusing assets and so forth, this game isn't going to be a simple cut-and-paste job, using the same exact map, game mechanics, etc., as some have begrudgingly speculated. On the contrary, I feel like (for better or worse) this game is going to be significantly different than the first.

Okay, prediction time (who's ever been wrong with those?). I base my speculation on what we've seen in the two teaser trailers and five years observing common opinions of the first game.

As much as some (myself included) were interested in the potential of a playable Zelda, I think we lose her (to her death, even?) in the cutscene shown in the first teaser, which may very well be the opening events of the game. (I think we'll just have to get our Zelda play fix from Hyrule Warriors, or, for the bravest among us, CD-i...)

At this same time, Link's hand gets infected/infused by the spiritual force that was holding Ganondorf(?) at bay, and shortly after, Link gets whisked away (intentionally or not) to either the ancient past or the distant future (probably the latter), where we see creatures at another stage in their evolution and much of the world floating in the sky, likely thrust up, like the castle, by the unleashed malice (or equivalent power) of Ganon/Ganondorf.

With the ability to control the flow of time with his enchanted hand (and other potential powers, e.g. phasing through matter, essentially replacing the Sheikah slate's role this time around), Link has to find a way back to when/where he can save Zelda.

I think Aonuma & co. will have attempted to address one of the more common complaints of the first game, that being the lack of more traditional dungeons in lieu of shrines, and will reintroduce the former again to some degree. In fact, I get the impression we're not going to have much Sheikah tech at all in this one (no slate, towers, or guardians).

I also don't think we'll see much, if anything, of the Champions or their immediate descendants, as they may not even exist in the timeframe of this game.

I imagine the reason they haven't yet revealed the game's subtitle, for fear of it giving too much away about the plot, is that it has something to do with time, or the timeframe of the game's events.

All that said, I could be completely wrong on everything I've guessed here. Only TIME will tell!

@imagazelle I don't think we're going back in time, since most of the clips shown of the overworld is still current day Hyrule. The Champions themselves are done for, since their spirits were put to rest, whilst the "Neo Champions" will probably crop back up, but be less important in this game, given that the Divine Beasts and Sheikah Tech quit working.

As for timeframe, I believe that this'll take place at least a couple of months to a year from the original if anything.

With Zelda, I don't think they'll kill her off. She'll probably fall and have to meet up with Link at the end of the game, right at the final boss fight with Ganondorf.

People always take Nintendo saying "We can't reveal the name because of spoilers" as "We can't reveal the name because of story spoilers!", when it's most likely either named after a mechanic we've yet to really see, or it's named after the hand Link obtains when his gets destroyed by Malice.

@imagazelle I do really like the theory of time travel, but I think if they were going to do it at all, it would be switching between either the future or the past, and present-day Hyrule (Assuming it's a little while after the events of the first game), not unlike ALTTP.

Like @VoidofLight said, I don't think they would kill Zelda, but that could lead to an unexpected twist I suppose, and could lead into the theory of maybe switching between times with your newfound abilities.

I'm also pretty sure that the Sheikah stuff is gonna be pretty much gone in this game, save for maybe the towers and shrines. Even that's an unsure guess though since at the end of the game we see the Sheikah tech start to power down. Perhaps we'll get some sort of ancient Zonai equivalent to replace it. We don't even see the Sheikah slate on Link's belt, which seems to me like they're completely ditching it and replacing it with the corrupted arm thing.

I do really hope that we get more traditional dungeons and that the team listened to the feedback in that regard. I like the Shrines, but I was hoping for some more traditional, complex puzzles.

BUT, like your comment, this is all pure speculation. I wouldn't be surprised if everything I just said was completely wrong. I'm very excited to see whichever direction they decide to take the story and gameplay in, and I trust that they'll make the needed changes from the first game.

My personal hopes for Botw2:

• waaay less standardized dungeons / shrines. In Botw one big letdown moment was when I could see the formula. The shrines would essentially all be the same, they would never contain a surprise, item, NPC, story bit, ... Earlier Zelda's did that way better, Skyward Sword in particular broke up the strict barrier between overworld and dungeons. In that regard Botw was a big step back.
• More story sequences / set pieces
• More different items

But I understand that all these things come with the nonlinearity of an open world game, so we might never get them back. Imo that's a big loss, in the end I liked older Zeldas better. But those developers are smart, they might find a way to merge the best of both styles.