Random: Nintendo Jumps On The ASMR Bandwagon With The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild

BotW's sound design is incredible and, yes, calming, I suppose. Trudging up a hill, watching the wind tickle the grass, light piano music playing in the background... it's certainly the chillest open-world game I've ever played.

If you don't know what ASMR is consider yourself lucky, you missed one of the most boring Superbowl ads.

Anybody read this and think of Jules from SNL Weekend Update.

"Nintendo is known for taking risks, experimenting and generally doing things differently"

That's not Link, it's Mario.

BotW has no jolly adventure music like previous Zelda, it has this introspective sound design using minimal music with sounds of nature... this Zelda was designed for adults in mind. I think people at Nintendo played Journey back in 2012 and were inspired by the 'mood' it presented.

I never heard of this. What is A.S.M.R.?

@Elvie do yourself a favor. Don't ask...

Never heard of ASMR before, and judging by the comments so far, I'm probably better off not knowing.

GibiASMR is great. She does Twitch streams as well.

Some people in the comments can't be arsed to read the article apparently.

Millennials are the worst.

While I don't really care much about ASMR, I definitely love this trailer for how prominently it features my beautiful home state of Washington. Evergreens forever!

@SBandy My thoughts exactly. We've got a growing number of "I've read the title, so let's quickly jump into the comments section to enter the discussion" people...

Breath had memorable sound design?

Huh.

@HipsterInkling So is actually reading the article before asking what something is or stands for...

@Kevember If I had a dollar for every time I heard that, I could still not afford a house thanks to the broken economy caused by the previous generations.

Who cares about this? I've got "Shrek files his tax's" ASMR to listen to.

@CarpeDiem Well at least now I have a term to describe some of the feelings I have had over my life! Pretty cool!

@NintendoFan4Lyf I don't think I get the "tingle" thing but it does help with relaxing. I listen to this stuff when I have trouble sleeping. Though personally I prefer some of the roleplay vids like doctors & nurse exams over atmosphere stuff.

So it's not Automatic Superb Murder Raptors? Guess I am behind the times.

@CarpeDiem I think one big thing that gives ASMR the bad press among a lot of people is the fact that there are a lot of borderline camgirls on Twitch, and YouTube, doing ASMR. Usually saying suggestive things, or making lewd noises.

There's also the fact that some of us that are receptive to it, can often get the opposite effect. For whatever reason, a lot of ASMR videos give me a deep, anxious, uncomfortable feeling. Less like relaxing tingles, and more like mild anxiety.

Specifically, for me, the whisper and mouth sounds I absolutely hate with a passion. But I'm fine with most music, or inanimate object noises, though. For awhile I had a bad view on ASMR because of the weird videos made by some following the trend.

@nessisonett Typical millennial blaming older people for their shortcomings.

@Kainbrightside I'm actually too young to be considered a millennial. There are more generations beside boomers and millennials, you know?

@Elvie it can be used for relaxation and mediation.

@patbacknitro18 "Ah, I see you're a man of culture as well."

I never thought this was straight-up ASMR. A binaural experience, yes, but nothing on the level of Bob Ross or Gentle Whispering on YouTube.

For me, the triggers are things such as watching people draw or paint. Bob Ross was the ASMR king before ASMR was even a thing.

There's something about watching art being created and hearing it that does it for me.

I love the sound design and moods of this game more and more. Almost every design choice Zelda games made that were controversial at the time, are later appreciated and praised unanimously.

Sure years down the line the people are still going to still criticize the overly frequent guardian trial shrines, but the sounds and the way that the music perfectly adapts to what the player is doing will go down as a turning point for the series. Also one of my favorite uses of music during the Lost Woods path to the Master Sword. So haunting and beautiful. That witch cackling gives me the chills every time.

@Elvie It's explained under the second ad in this short piece.

The video succeeds in making me want to play Zelda again, but not sure that’s a sensory thing.

Also massively disappointed that it doesn’t end with the guy parasailing off the mountaintop.

@CarpeDiem
I used to take a nap on the couch while my mother would use the vacuum cleaner or hair dryer.

What is this trash?

Thank you for explaining this to me. I watched the video on switch and thought, what? Now I have a better idea. But I am still saying, what?

Have no idea what ASMR is but guessing it’s just another crappy acronym along the lines on FOMO and YOLO, just some stupid marketing campaign to be down with the kids.

Just watched the video, what a load of crap. No one would go out to the middle of nowhere to play Zelda, what if it rained? Or you ran out of battery? Or you fell over and broke it?

I'm at an age now where I can barely hear people when they speak normally to me, let alone if they whisper at me.

Well it worked for me. I got several gentle flushes across my upper back while watching (with headphones).

Interesting. Never heard of ASMR before. Thanks for sharing NL.

@Elvie Another Super Metroid Returns.

@Kevember ‘Blaming older people for their shortcomings’.
I mean it’s not like they, you know, voted for Trump, voted for Brexit, made a giant hole in the ozone layer and still can’t accept that things can’t go back to the ‘good ol days’ of racism and poverty. It’s quite impressive how you can hate millennials when the main arguments for that are doubly applied to Gen Z. Millennials are at least trying to make the world a better place.

@BrettAwesome What you're probably talking about is forms of white noise. Which isn't quite the same thing as ASMR.

@Bunkerneath Not that I'm a fan of ASMR or even something remotely like it, quite the opposite actually, because it gives me the creeps, but it is actual, scientific terminology (and also a proven concept, by the way), contrary to one of the examples you gave (YOLO). That is just a dumb@ss acronym thought up by brainless or brainwashed youths.

FOMO is also an actual thing, by the way, so that isn't a "stupid marketing campaign" either. Companies DO use it to adapt their marketing efforts to be able to better target the very people that are afraid to miss out on things, though...

Personally, I love ASMR. I'd be down for more Nintendo ASMR.

@nessisonett Don't even bring politics into this; you only make yourself look like a dumb college kid who watches too much late night TV and you also might get called out by the moderators.

the best Zelda ever and the best action adventure since Tomb Raider IV: The Last Revelation, got it?

This was a good ad. Really sells the portability aspect of the Switch. I don't think it has anything to do with ASMR.

@Kevember - insults me
@Kevember - ‘You might get called out by the moderators!1!1’

@Solid_Stannis I give you a like because your name and profile pic! Hahah that’s awesome.

@Kevember unless you are a senator or mega rich you don’t really get to create bad conditions like the cost of home ownership. You just age out of high school and participate in the economy or live as a homeless person if you choose not to like everyone else did since the inception of local economies of scale. I’m 36 and lived all of my 20’s during the financial crisis and hopefully you won’t have to go through that because there’s nothing like being in your prime and not being able to afford a morning coffee. Country was shedding 720,000 jobs per month back then, and banks that were 200 years old were closing. Mathematically we know that the current trend cannot continue and a crash of the dollar will happen, but I would rather that happens when I’m dead because living through the civil war a calamity like that would create would be a nightmare on a scale we can’t even begin to imagine.

The legend of Zelda Breaths of the wild.

@CarpeDiem Brains are weird, complex things. I definitely know the positive things people get out of it, because I get it out of things like the clicking of gears or scribbling on a notepad. So i ubderstand why people listen to all these videos.

But there's definitely a dark side for me, because all of those ones with whispering give me a similar but negative version of that.

It's a good ad for opening more state and national parks! Makes me want to go hiking! I prefer playing games in my house or my friends or relatives houses.

@Elvie

Thinly veiled fingernail fetish videos that entrepenuing youtube celebs decided to legitimize beyond that.

@Kevember
sees article about ASMR and Nintendo
"Finally, now I can express my deep-seated hatred of another generation!"

I think your train of thought may need a new conductor.

I think some people may be confused with comforting sounds (perhaps hissing and whirring that reminds our deep subconscious of being safe in the womb). I had no idea of this term but I've certainly experienced sensory overload from meditation and certain pieces of music. I'm a prog metal dude and some of the ambient sections, accompanied by a story of sensation that thwy themselves experience really does spark an indescribable feeling... At least for me.

The ad was ok, didn't do much for me personally. It also ruins it a little that you know he really only played for about 5 mins max.

@robr Oh, I see.

I was expecting something VERY different. I really wanted link screaming...

Can we just delete the internet? Every day I'm given another reason why everything about the internet is wrong and we really need to get rid of it if we're ever going to have a sane functioning society again. For all the "convenience" it delivered, it mostly just broke the human race.

Or for those who can now only understand internet memeese: The internet was a mistake.

@Ralizah I like to play mine while climbing down random green pipes 😅😅😅

I'm watching this and thinking, 'put that blooming toy down and enjoy some IRL scenery', and 'it'll be too dark to find your way back down'. Fool boy!

Its no real ASMR without the whispering. Anyway, ASMR doesn't do anything for me. But this was a nice and relaxing video anyway, that captures the mood of the game.