Topic: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

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Aight aight aight, but let's talk turkey.

Let's talk gorons and zoras. Obviously all NPC tribes have some members simply standing still, and Breath will likely feature more migrating NPCs, either across the world or simply around a village. They will likely operate on some kind of a schedule — at the very least I don't expect the quieter towns to have people standing outside from dusk til dawn. That'd be weird. Don't hold your breath for rito flight patterns, but all past 3D Zeldas have dealt with that problem by having the day/night cycle halt in either a morning or night state while in town (with some minor cosmetic variations on the lighting for afternoon and so forth). Allow me to make a few assumptions / theories / guesses before we get to the good stuff.

My first assumption is that — like the humans fighting bokoblins seemingly endlessly in Hyrule Field — the different races will be fighting out in the world dynamically. Attack animations, killable to monsters / AoE damage — the whole deal. (It's not clear if a sword swipe or even a bomb arrow's splash damage issuing directly from Link will do the deed, or whether he'll need to work through a Rube Goldberg machine based in the physics system).

My second is that the four races each have a signature weapon type. In their promotional art, the goron, zora, and rito champions each bear a distinct type of weapon — a two-handed claymore, trident (spear), and bow respectively. (One-handed weapons have presumably been left to humans with Link wielding the Master Sword as the champion for the Hylians, Gerudo, and Sheikah). If these NPCs weren't going to fight in-game, why give them weapons?

That brings me to my third assumption, that the three racial champions plus the plucky young Gerudo girl from the trailer will act as followers in dungeons. They would function as that dungeon's item, adding the revelative unique functionality that dungeons would lack if they only contained a rune upgrade or even a new — but not necessarily redefining — rune. No idea on whether players could directly control the partner characters. Perhaps they could grant Link the ability to direct them after each dungeon's mini boss, giving players that same experience of working around puzzles they did not have the tools to deal with before, and then giving them that ability. This would fit with Breath of the Wild's The Wind Waker similarities (bird flock, treasure beacon, lookout platforms, let's argue this point in another thread), the colossal bosses seen in the trailer that seem to have hollow insides, and the four dungeon rumor. Even disregarding the shot in the trailer of Link and the Gerudo girl dismounting sand walruses in front of a desert ruin, story followers just make sense if Nintendo is making an open world game with elements influenced by many other modern games.

My final assumption — and perhaps the one I'm fondest of — is that each race will have an instrument and play music in various places throughout the world to better incorporate that aspect of Zelda into Breath of the Wild. I think it's fair to say that my other guesses are more founded than this, given that it's based entirely off of Kass, the one rito NPC shown playing an accordion at The Game... And it's not really an 'assumption' as I don't necessarily expect it to happen — but wouldn't it be cool? I'd love to see more goron drummers, zora guitarists, rito accordionists, Gerudo ocarina players, Sheikah pianists, and Hylian violinists ambiently playing in towns and while traveling along roads. But back to facts!

Gorons

Since their inception in Ocarina of Time, gorons have rolled town mountains as obstacles / hazards. Biggoron stands as a living mountain in the environment, and in Majora's Mask acts as an obstacle, blowing Link back from Snowhead Temple with icy breath that can throw him from the narrow path down into the bottomless canyon. In Twilight Princess gorons played the additional role of punching Link if he approached them (similarly to Goron Link in Majora's Mask, which also incorporated a ground pound, extra ranks of the roll, lava resistance, and a drum set). Not at all killable, when struck enough times with the Ordon Sword, gorons would roll back and curl into a ball, exploding with renewed energy in a few moments and launching Link skyward if he climbed atop of them. The Goron Mines featured the Dangoro and Fused Shadow-corrupted form of the goron patriarch Darbus (Twilit Igniter Fyrus) as mini boss and boss respectively. Gorons were also known sumo wrestlers in Twilight Princess, with one match pitting Link against elder Gor Coron.

That's a lot — gorons being one of the most functional Zelda races. For Breath — as well as typical NPC pathing functions — it stands to be reason that they could be used as rolling obstacles on Death Mountain yet again. When fighting out in the world they could use their fists, however two-handed weapons are also a likely candidate. Lastly, the goron champion whom I will not name's loin cloth caught m... It's similar to Gor Coron, and every goron from Twilight Princess' sparse attire. It's a stretch, but it wouldn't clash with a sumo wrestling mini game.

Zoras

Zoras have usually been depicted either standing or treading water. Unlike gorons, they are strictly seen as friendly NPCs (the older river zora enemy type being irrelevant to the 3D games). In Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask (and I honestly can't tell if in Twilight Princess), zoras treading water would dissolve into bubbles when Link walked away from them, reappearing as he neared. This was probably just a choice made due to limitations of the N64 hardware and meant to simulate zoras disappearing underwater, and not the diegetic narrative that zoras can dissolve into water. (One which proved odd since water in 3D Zelda games not The Wind Waker has always been largely transparent, not loosing light in its depths). Mobile zoras are a different story entirely. Link could famously carry Princess Ruto and throw her much like a small crate in Ocarina of Time. And the spirit of the late Queen Rutela floated through the air, leading Link to her the zora royalty's burial site behind Kakariko Village in Twilight Princess, but that also doesn't really count. Neither of these were dynamic NPC movement, and zoras don't really move outside of cutscenes in the N64 games (the infamous King Zora shuffle). In Twilight Princess, one zora guides Link in Iza's Rapids Ride mini game, swimming down Zora's River alongside his canoe.

The only time friendly zoras fight on screen is in Majora's Mask, specifically Zora Link. The zora mask gives him the ability to slice at enemies with his arm fins and kicks, throw them like dual boomerangs, breathe underwater, swim and breach like a dolphin, produce a large fin shield, die instantly to fire, shred guitar, and produce a damaging lightning forcefield that draws upon his magic meter — a lot to work with! I get the feeling that a lot of that will be scrapped, especially the questionable conductivity physics, but it's nonetheless promising for Breath of the Wild. Keep in mind that a lot of this likely depends on whether there is a true water level or not (please). The zora fins seen so far look kinds soft and fan-like, so they're perhaps not candidates for melee weapons like the Zora Link's polygonal arm blades were in 2000. This gives us tridents (spears) as the zoras' likely weapon.

Edit: I added onto my third assumption a point I had forgotten to mention.