#And the ending cutscene with Link catching Zelda...

[likablemuffin]

Sorry, I'll brb, I have to go cry about the TOTK ending real quick.

[bonus-links]

DIRECTORS COMMENTARY PLEASE I LOVE HEARING YOUR THOUGHTS AND PROCESS <3!!!!!!!!

YEAHHH lots to say for this update

there's a scene I didn't so much as cut from the beginning of this update as significantly shorten: Wolf, Loft, Wake, and Slate are changing into their lighter outfits. Loft says the same line as having the party, Wake begs them for this one day with his Gran Gran, and they all agree they can wait. I've been trying to get better about like, not putting a ton of work into unnecessary connecting scenes, which is why I cut it down. Wake sounding more cavalier also works better for the overall chapter. But i was sad to leave this joke out lol:

may I present to you, Slate's picture gallery! he was mostly on task documenting flora and fauna but he gets a little sidetracked sometimes

I love the idea that he's just, like, kind of terrible at photography. he documents stuff for Zelda and it's always weirdly cropped and kind of out of focus, but she appreciates it anyway.

Slate is also picking flowers for the party! so he is still helping out on that front lol

idk if i've mentioned this before, but beetle does still have pincers! they're just. idk what the right word is. retractable maybe? yeah. like the ancient weapon blades

the filling of the half moon pies is pineapple :-) i was. so worried about it looking like an egg HAHA.

I thought way too hard about how they were going to cook these pies. I was originally going to draw a clay oven or some other setup, but ultimately I thought the Zelda tradition of only having pots over fires to cook was a funnier nod lol. So, they're frying the pies

believe it or not, I wrote this scene before reading dungeon meshi HAHA but it certainly served as good reference for how to set up shots for it

Aryll did in fact eavesdrop on Wake telling Tetra The Situation

That's Champion's little sister in the memory! I like the headcanon that her name was also Aryll.

Champion and his sister are making meat pies instead of pineapple ones.

One again, made a bunch of layout mistakes I ended up having to fix, except this time I didn't catch them until I had already gotten to rendering :-( if you're a patron, you probably saw these versions in the WIP:

problems here: Wolf is walking the wrong away. I was sad we'd be losing his expression but alas. And for the panels with Champion's sister, the angle is too low to be an actual POV shot. I could've left it and said he's just sitting or something probably but it was really bothering me lol so I redrew everything. and then recolored all of it. woof.

as a general rule, if he has scars, that's Slate. No scars is The Other Guy

I understand the complaint about this in BOTW, but I actually kind of like that weird moment that occurs after you finish a memory cutscene, and it just abruptly goes back to Link looking blank-faced like nothing happened. It implies this kind of....distance from the memories that I find interesting. Slate has complicated feelings abt the memories of Champion's life he gets, but like. there's pies to make

shout out to peony she's a real one

[blueskittlesart]

if dark link was in totk how do u think he'd be handled ?

badly

sigh ok hold on ill be serious. i don't really think a dark link in totk would ever be necessary because totk is already doing everything that dark link did in oot, just via different methods. environmental things like the silent princess memorials and the spirits of dead soldiers offering up weapons in the depths give us a sense of the guilt link must feel over his past actions, as well as the fact that the inciting incident of the game is a similarly-framed failure in the face of an enemy which takes zelda and causes widespread destruction to hyrule. i've said it before, but link literally carries proof of that mistake and the guilt from it with him for the entire game in the form of rauru's arm--a reminder that his OWN arm wasn't good enough to prevent all this.

I think there are a few fights which cumulatively have similar narrative weight for totk link to the oot dark link fight, one of them being the gloom hands/phantom ganon (and yes, there is at least one required instance of this fight in order to get the true ending of the game, it's in korok forest.) the gloom hands are imo representative specifically of link's fear of failure and his guilt over his past failures. there's a reason they manifest initially as hands, and when they chase him they perform that reaching motion that's so reminiscent of him reaching for zelda and ultimately failing to catch her. they also cause a "midday blood moon" effect when link approaches them, which is strikingly similar to the way the sky changes when you approach calamity ganon in botw--his first major failure. once you fight and defeat the gloom hands, they reveal their true form--phantom ganon. if the hands themselves are symbolic of link's guilt and percieved failure, phatom ganon is the truth behind it--it was never link's fault in the first place. ganon is the cause of the destruction. link is blaming himself for something that he is not at fault for, and only after he faces his own guilt and fear head-on will the actual truth (phantom ganon) be revealed.

the other fight that i think sort of occupies the same narrative space as dark link in oot is the puppet zelda/phantom ganon fight in the castle sanctum. similarly, this fight deals with illusion and memory, and is explicitly ganon manipulating link using his trauma and guilt. There's a reason ganon leads link up into the sanctum, a place which obviously holds a crazy amount of significance for him. there's a reason puppet zelda turns the ruined room pristine again, and there's a reason she specifically mentions "memories" multiple times as she does it. ganon is attempting to break link down by poking at what he knows are sore spots--link's guilt over the way that hyrule was destroyed during his hundred-year absence, the fact that he doesn't remember much of his life pre-calamity (if you watch his face during that cutscene when she says 'memories'... agh. anyways.) his guilt over specifically what happened to zelda. All of this comes together so that ganon can force a vulnerable and unprepared link into a difficult battle in the hopes of taking him out. When link defeats phantom ganon, the sanctum returns to its ruined state, and puppet zelda disappears completely from hyrule. she's not even in the blood moon cutscenes anymore. Metaphorically, this is link coming to terms with the fact that she's really gone, and that he has to keep going anyway.

[hs-loner2006]

When it comes to critique of Tears of the kingdom’s gameplay and especially it’s story, I think a lot of people focus too much on what could’ve been, and don’t take the time to fairly judge what the game does have and whether or not it executes it’s ideas, mechanics, setting or themes well.

The gameplay and themes that the game and it’s story portray is consistent throughout and don’t go against what it established. The prologue sets everything up perfectly, we’re introduced to the Zonai, and the Imprisoning War and as we progress, we’ll gradually learn more and more of what we need to in order to keep both the story and gameplay engaging throughout, whether it’s through item descriptions, in game books you can read, stone slabs/tablets, the whole 9 yards.

Darker and edgier isn’t always better for a story, you have to work with the themes, characters and concepts that the story established and keep it consistent throughout. Core themes of Tears of the Kingdom is unity, love and second chances, Link losing his arm, The regional phenomena plaguing the world, the Master Sword’s corruption, and Zelda’s draconification is meant to seem irreversible, cause that’s how both we the players and Link initially see it as first. What the game teaches both the age demographic for the game and older players who don’t have it so easy in life, is that there will be always second chances, one mistake doesn’t mean the end of the world, and that it will always be possible to get through hardship with the help of individuals you trust, no matter how impossible the odds may seem, there will always be a possibility that you’ll get through it all, thanks to the help of another individual or even a whole group of individuals you trust.

As for Love, Zelda bonds strongly with her ancestors, Rauru and Sonia, they’re practically the parental figures needed, but never had during the forthcoming of the Calamity from Breath of the Wild, they supported Zelda’s strengths and didn’t chastise her for her weaknesses and didn’t force her to do anything she didn’t want to do. With Mineru, though we don’t see her and Zelda bonding in cutscenes like with Rauru and Sonia, we know from the star-shaped sky islands that Zelda bonded with Mineru over scientific stuff and even helped Mineru build a construct once, and when Zelda tells Mineru about the decision she’s about to make for the greater good, Mineru panics and she fears so much for Zelda in that moment, as she knows just how badly a critical decision such as draconification could affect Zelda, another example of an ancestor of Zelda’s not forcing anything onto her, and this moment would play a key part in Mineru’s role in the epilogue.

With Zelda, even after she sacrificed her own memories, her unwavering love for Link in the form of her last will right before and right after swallowing her sacred tear, is why she lets him claim the Master Sword once more and why she saves him from Ganondorf.

As for Link, Sonia and Rauru coming together to reverse Zelda’s draconification, it isn’t a case of bad writing, cause it’s thematically consistent with the rest of the game about second chances and love, Rauru and Sonia made a promise to Zelda to get her back to her home to put Link’s mind at ease, by choosing the individual closest to Zelda and who knows her more than anyone else to channel their powers through, which is Link, they help him bring Zelda back and they fulfill the promise they made in the end, their own deaths not stopping them from that, something that is thematically consistent with the rest of the game. The prologue showed Link not being to catch Zelda with his mangled arm after the first Ganondorf, this is important as it sets up a parallel in the ending where Link is able to catch Zelda with his restored arm after Ganondorf has finally died, again, something that is thematically consistent with the rest of the game about 2nd chances and love. Mineru also had no way of knowing that Zelda would keep her last will as a dragon or that draconification can be reversed contrary to what she said, cause while she’s extremely smart, she isn’t all knowing, this is a similar plot point to how King Rhoam thought Zelda could awaken her light power just from praying at the sacred springs, but she couldn’t, instead, what was actually needed was a strong motive, and that strong motive was in the form of her love for Link, Link from Tears of the Kingdom also had a strong motive in the form of his love for Zelda at the end of game, and that’s what saves her from a self inflicted curse as dire as draconification. You may make the argument that there was no lasting consequences, but to me, the very likely mental trauma that the whole thing took on both Link and Zelda are the consequences, they both went through utter hell and were just barely able to save each other in the end.

Furthermore, Zelda’s restoration in the ending and what she does in the epilogue is consistent to her character growth from the end of Breath of the Wild, where she learns to live with the loss and trauma of her past and decides to grow into the individual she wants to be. Her recalling the memory of the ancient sages, her and Mineru all making their vows to Rauru exemplifies the realization of how she wants to rule for the rest of her lifetime. Mineru’s departure also hits hard for Zelda, as it’s for the first time (aside from maybe her biological mother) that she gets to give a proper goodbye to one of her parental figures, knowing this is the last time she’ll ever see one of them again. Zelda’s line “My friends, with all your strength, stand with me.” conveys that she’s ready to take on a role as big as leadership alongside Link and the sages, effectively completing her story and character arc for good.

It’s fine to have headcanons or generally be unsatisfied with the game’s story and it’s ending, I just tried creating a post that judges the story for what it is and don’t try to take into account my own preferences when discussing what it does have, there are some valid objective criticisms for the story, but as a whole, it did it’s job for what it was going for.

[echoesofwisdomcountup]

139 Days since Tears of the Kingdom Released. Guess who finally finished Totk’s main story quest last night! Spoilers under the cut.

I have a few things to say about the final fight. I approached the final fight with no fear, mostly complaining about how much malice there was on the way down. I thought it was a smart idea that the game takes away the sage avatars as if to warn you that you’re getting close to the boss fight. I adored the cutscene where the actual sages show up and fight off the respawned temple bosses. There was just something so nice about “you don’t have to fight alone you know” and also funny because I have a feeling the sages are just a little exasperated. Then the Ganondorf fight… HE STOLE LINK’S SIGNATURE MOVE. I was both angry and shocked when he flurry rushed Link BUT THEN HE FLURRY RUSHED LINK’S FLURRY RUSH. Seriously I was cursing him out when he counter flurry rushed. It was amusing to see energy ball tennis make a return but ughhh the flurry rush thing was annoying because I kept accidentally trying to wack Ganondorf with the master sword on instinct. Oh oh I though it was interesting how his forward rushes and some of his movements gave me flashbacks to the Skyward Sword final fight. And then there was that second phase part where his heath bar just kept growing until it was to the right side of the screen. My friend was laughing so hard when I said “hey excuse me you stop that right now” at the heath bar. Overall I immensely enjoyed those phases (except when the hearts started permanently decreasing because fuck you Ganondorf.) Then the dragon fight had me so excited because Zelda came to catch Link. We got to ride on her head and fight Dragon Ganon together. It just really felt like we were doing it together, all three of us, Link, Zelda, and Fi. Every time I destroyed one of the tumors on Dragon Ganon I jumped off and dived yelling “ZELDA CATCH ME PLS!” Also there’s just the fact that Dragon Ganon sucked ass at aim like someone please give him aim bot because he didn’t hit me once. He fired at me blank range when I went to stab his forehead and still missed. I was heckling him outloud the entire time. AND THEN THE ENDING. Seeing Sonia and Rauru again and then Zelda is falling and we had to catch her. I really liked how it came full circle and I was happy and accomplished. I was completely fine until Zelda looked at Link and said “Oh Link, I’m home.” Instant K.O. Made me immediately burst into tears.

As you can see I enjoyed the ending of Totk.

[casa-delle-galline]

In relation to this post asking how BoTW/ToTK could’ve been written better:

How cool would it have been if BoTW had audio diaries and interact-able memories?

I kind of imagined something where every time you collect a memory, not only would you find a column of light in the spot where each picture was taken on the Sheikah Slate, but you’d follow a trail of light and when you get to the end of the trail, it triggered a flashback in which you would actually play as Link in the memory rather than just having mini movies that you watch.

Like in the memory A Premonition, the one where Link left a battle with bokoblins and moblins and lynels with only a scratch. Imagine if you played as Link in that memory and fought all of those monsters!

I am playing a game, not watching a movie. Let me interact with my game, dammit!

Now, maybe I’m saying this as a BioShock enjoyer (a brilliant game btw, you should play it if you haven’t), but I think in a game that heavily based around technology, audio diaries would’ve also made sense.

Like imagine, just imagine what the Silent Princess memory could’ve been if it was played like an audio diary instead of a memory mini movie. Imagine finding a drive containing the audio log in Zelda’s study next to a Silent Princess flower, and you hear Zelda talking about where she is, what she’s looking at, finding a Silent Princess, hearing Zelda’s voice trail off as she speaks, then getting excited at the sight of a hot-footed frog, the audible friction of her clothes ruffling as she makes an effort to catch it and shoves the frog at Link and telling him to taste it, Link’s audible ‘eurgh!’

If you couldn’t tell already, the inspiration from BioShock has taken over my brain, as well as my love for stories being told through just audio logs. It leaves a lot to the imagination and I feel like Nintendo missed that opportunity. I feel like the game would have been a way better game if it let me go out and explore the world and piece the story together myself, rather than telling the entire story of what happened 100 years ago delivered by King Rhoam in a single cutscene after I just finished the tutorial.

[cosmic0dust]

Tears of the kingdom is called that because it made me cry

I know this is a pokemon blog but it’s also MY blog and I can talk about whatever I want so strap in for a yap session

I played breath of the wild ages ago and then replayed it like twice like it was one of my favorite games of all time and I finally played through tears of the kingdom this year after getting it for Christmas. I love botw but wow this was just. Like botw but perfected (in my opinion)

Obviously I have my nitpicks but 😭😭 Jesus. I haven’t enjoyed a video game or a games story like that in so long. That was just phenomenal. This is absolutely one of my favorite games like top 3.

Now allow me to yap even more-

!! Spoilers ahead !!

That final battle was. Absolutely insane. Botw final battle was fun but god did they outdo it. I really thought it was going to end with me going to sanctum and fighting ganon (like in botw) but having it cut off and have to do a whole nother main quest for the 5th sage? I really like how drawn out the final moments were. I appreciated the pacing there a lot.

I was also worried that with the sages you would only use them as summons, so having them help out in those final battles was such a nice touch-

Ganon terrified me. Like. wtf was this? I had no healing items left either for gloom. Nightmare.

Him dodging ur attacks was such a nice detail as well. A pain, but a nice detail. I genuinely thought it was over after this, but then he just turned into a fucking dragon and I was freaking out?!?!?

Zelda (the white dragon) coming to fight with you was. Fucking phenomenal flying around and having her catch you was so fun. Also Ganons dragon design is sick as hell?! I was autisming out here. I love dragons and I was not expecting this-

Seeing Zelda being transformed back into normal, after seeing all those cutscenes, and knowing what happened to her, and how long she’s been like that. And then having to dive and catch her- and the cutscene where she’s like “oh Link… I’m home”

Made me fucking bawl. Knowing how in botw she was super stand offish towards him, hated him. And now they’re so close. Just. Ugh. UGH

Idec if their relationship is romantic or platonic, that moment was just. So sweet. So beautiful.

Also! I LOVED (besides Siddons.. sorry) the boss battles. And I really appreciated how they were all completely different compared to botw bosses. Personal favorites are Queen Gibdo and the Colgara. The music and designs for both of them are phenomenal.

I’ll stop here. It’s almost midnight and I’m having an autism moment. I just had to yap. I. Love this game so much. I’m completely blown away. This is probably my all time favorite game tied with my fave pokemon games (soul silver and white)

I HAD SO MUCH FUN UGH!!!!

[angel-101001]

i just finished ToTK and god what a beautiful game

i think was probably the best zelda game for me to finish all by myself for the first time. as a kid i was always obsessed with tloz but i never was able to complete a game by myself but now that im getting to being a legal adult i can like. do a puzzle and click buttons and god its so awesome

tldr; i really really love the legend of zelda

(images of gameplay i really liked and wanted to share + a little rant under the cut)

the animations and models in this game (especially for the cutscenes) are so insanely beautiful man. the expressions really got me in the ending cutscenes. link looks so incredibly determined and i love him so much

speaking of link, i have always had a connection to him ever since i was a child but never ever have i connected to a link like i have with botw/totk link. he means so much to me❤❤ he is me i am him ❤❤❤❤

also, i dont personally ship or see link and zelda as a romantic couple but GOD AUGH THEY WERE SO CUTE SEEING EACH OTHER AGAIN💔💔 the game really got me when they made me catch zelda myself while we were falling and link could actually grab her hand this time OUH when i tell you i was CRYYINNGG

live laugh love link

[loz-furbies]

Spirit Tracks complete! It was quite a roller coaster in terms of how much fun I had, but my ultimate verdict is still a definitive thumbs up. Which is very unexpected because I had quite disappointed memories from my first attempt over a decade ago.

(spoilers I guess?)

As documented here, the stealth sections were quite a struggle, but at least I can just file that under "I just hate this genre" instead of what I felt with for example having to do the mountain for a fourth time in SS. The train sections weren't as bad as I remembered once I got the hang of how to deal with the demon trains, but at times it was just really boring when you just wanted to get somewhere and the train is so slow and nothing interesting happens during the travel. I really wished for some kind of turbo speed upgrade or a better cannon or something. Then there was the flute, which was a massive hurdle for me, but eventually it worked out fine because the issue was just that... I wasn't even blowing into the 3ds microphone. But seriously it isn't even labeled! This is not my fault, I'm not the dumbass here! Regardless the 3ds screen was at an awkward angle for playing, the DSi worked better for that too.

The stamps made for a surprisingly fun collectable, while I only did the bare minimum of rabbits because I didn't like the rabbit catching minigame (=I'm bad at it) and the prizes suck anyway. But the dungeon items were great (excluding the microphone-operated whirlwind); the stylus controls made them unexpectedly enjoyable and fresh to use. As for the dungeons, they were pretty easy but I still had a good time. Also points for Anjean for being a far more appealing character than I anticipated.

The music side had some real bangers, like the train theme, the evolving spirit tower staircase theme with the final version being especially awesome, and the light tear train theme from the end of the game. And microphone controls notwithstanding making music together with the lokomos was also fun and they knew to cap the game off with playing the game's main theme with Zelda singing and all the side characters joining in for a grand performance, which was probably my favourite moment overall. In general while I had my frustrations with the final tower section, the end game was solid and wrapped everything up nicely, with all the major gameplay elements getting their last chance to shine: the stealth + phantom puzzles, getting revenge on the evil trains (and finally getting that speed and power train powerup I was hoping for!), combat with the train, combat with phantom Zelda, the flute, and of course a sword fight with the final boss.

And then there's of course Zelda herself who really was the best element of the whole game. She's great as a companion in that she doesn't get in the way, both puzzle and combat gameplay were fun with phantom Zelda, and she was expressive and had some really funny and epic character moments. And most importantly she remained playable through the whole game! I was so bracing myself for her to get damseled in the grand finale but no, she remains an active gameplay element through all the phases of the last boss! Truly a game where Link and Zelda work together to save the kingdom, and not just Zelda doing some fancy magic in a cutscene. And then in the end credits they hold hands, which is more than what they manage to do in most games.

So yeah, overall a bit uneven but still well worth playing, and I'm glad that I took on the project to clear all the loz games because otherwise I might have never bothered to finish this.

[knowledge-based-wumpus-agent]

I decided to beat TotK last night and here are my thoughts about it

turbo spoilers for the final sequence of Tears of the Kingdom ahead

God bless the Cece Hat. The devs really went off with all the insane outfits in this game.

I feel like the open world structure of the game kind of robs the final Ganondorf fight of it's intensity honestly. Like he's just sort of waiting down in the underdark for you to come and try to kill him while you're catching butterflies or whatever. He's all like pff what a pathetic opponent but it's like bro what are YOU doing down here you should've hunted me down when I had three hearts

I LOVED the whole thing with Zelda turning herself into a dragon it's so fucked up. But her just getting cured by Rauru and Sonia really misses an opportunity for a Came Back Wrong moment. Like a) I think you should have to do a final, incredibly arduous task to turn Zelda back. Like I'm talking Soulslike maybe ARG tier of difficulty where nobody in-game thinks curing her is possible but Link has faith and he looks like an insane person for being so persistent about it. And then irl people are in forums online trying to crack the code. And b) when you finally turn her back she ought to be like kind of fucked up, like maybe she still has horns or the weird eyelashes. It's just kind of dumb to me that Zelda's main contribution to this whole quest is her colossal endurance, just sort of staying alive for EONS waiting for Link but in the end she can't remember it! That's dumb as hell she should be like permanently psychologically fucked up by it that's traumatic as hell. But of course all of the other characters would be very understanding and supportive about it.

Likewise, I thought it was cool that Link straight up loses his arm at the beginning of the game, like Rauru literally says he couldn't save it and had to amputate it. I think it's dumb that after Rauru and Sonia channel through Link to turn Zelda back, Link's arm just, comes back?? No explanation. Why! I think it would be very cool if Link just like didn't have that arm anymore and is like getting used to using his non-dominant arm for stuff in the final cutscenes. The game is over what does he need it for?? If they ever make a third game Purah can just give him a cyborg arm or something idk. Like why can't we have consequences here. TL;DR the events of TotK seem like they ought to have a HUGE impact on the characters, but in the end everyone just sort of returns to the status quo as if all that crazy ass stuff didn't happen to them. I would have loved to see a more bittersweet ending where the characters have to grapple with being irrevocably changed by the adventure. I wanted the game to end on a shot of Link and Zelda sharing a moment as they watch the people of Hyrule rebuild society and Link only has one arm and Zelda has horns and it symbolizes how everything has changed but their like love is still there you know?

[babblingbranches]

I like how the TotK speedruns end on Link grabbing Zelda’s hand. An argument could be made for stopping a second or two before, as it’s a cutscene, and the player loses control of Link when it cuts to the closeup, but the speedrun is only considered finished when Link catches Zelda.

[not-brownie]

Tears of the Kingdom Ending was Phenomenal (Spoilers)

I just beat the game and wanted to share out my thoughts on the ending. The journey to the depths of Hyrule Castle was so fun since it changed the environment from the first game. While it was still in the Hyrule Castle area, there was still a buildup on the way to defeat Ganon. Since the sages (and their abilities) cannot accompany you once you reach a certain point in the depths, it really sets the tone for how dire and challenging the upcoming areas would be. What really hyped me was when the actual physical presence of the sages came to help me fight off Ganon's army. It showed how Link was not fighting the battle alone as opposed to the first game where he forgot all of his memories and fought alone. He has friends that supported him and were there to back him up in the fight. The next part was the moment we were all waiting for, to defeat Ganondorf. The fight was amazing as it was me against Ganondorf. I was very surprised by his second phase of the fight since his health bar exceeded past the screen, but it showed how powerful he was. Finally, it was time for the final phase of the fight where he turns into the Demon Dragon. This cutscene was amazing! Getting caught by the Demon Dragon's teeth until you hear the roar of the Light Dragon—Zelda to be more specific—coming to rescue you from falling from the sky. Now it was Link and Zelda together fighting against Ganondorf. After defeating the Demon Dragon, it was so reassuring to see how Zelda was able to return to human form with the help of Sonia and Rauru after being stuck as the Light Dragon for thousands and thousands of years. More importantly, I thought it was cool for us to dive after Zelda since it reflects back to the beginning of the game where we failed to catch her. The ending was kind of bittersweet since we get to talk to Mineru, Rauru's sister, for one last time before she disappears and finally rests. It was kind of sad since all the people Zelda met were in the past and died a long time ago. However, it does end with Link and Zelda with the descendants of the four sages so there is a security for the safety of Hyrule. I thought Breath of the Wild couldn't be any better, but after playing Tears of the Kingdom, Nintendo really outdid themselves. This game deserves to be the game of the year.

[soul-of-rei]

ok lets do this

massive spoilers for totk endgame after the cut!

i wanted to start it off right . went from the skyview tower then paraglided my way down the chasm

there was a good five minutes when i just spent the entire time being lost and not knowing where the path is in the horriblin area AJSJSJAJA IM SO SORRY TO LINK FOR MAKING HIM STAND IN THE GLOOM FOR WHAT MUST HAVE BEEN FIVE MINUTES ALL BC I COULDNT SEE UP

theres a room ik i missed bc i found an alternate pathway to get out of the area where you couldnt call the sages AJSJAJAJ thought i was clever . still couldnt end up calling the sages at one point </3

if we had access to bombs early and zelda figured out she was gonna be a Wyrm would she have requested link to take pictures of her w that mural . she prolly would have

HOW DID THEY TOP OFF THE CREEPINESS OF THE INTRO . DIVING DOWN INTO THE GLOOM LAIR WAS A LEGITIMATE HOLY SHIT MOMENT

boss rush but ganondorf forgot im fucking loaded with bombs and five shot lynel bows . EASY

FOR A WHILE THERE I PANICKED AND THOUGHT THEYD REALLY MAKE ME FIGHT THE MUCKTOROCK AGAIN I WOULD HAVE CRIED but also i needed a picture anyway of the possessed construct

but turns out that was all just a cutscene and they did the bullshit plot seperation :/ I WOULD HAVE ACTUALLY LOVED TO FIGHT ALL OF THEM AGAIN W THE HELP OF THE SAGES THEMSELVES AND NOT JUST THEIR VOWS (minus the mucktorok fuck that wo the low gravity)

but doesnt that say how much theyve developed that they dont need link anymore to fight their respective scourges !!

couldnt have taken more than a minute with baseline demon king . I STILL HAVE 4 SAVAGE LYNEL 5 SHOT BOWS AND A HUNDRED BOMBS

ok actually though the second form is tough ngl especially the last phase . props to nintendo for making it so that ganondorf could actually dodge as well as link AJSJSJAJ forcing me to use the parry mechanic and actually Get Good <33

ganondorf get your own thing . eat your sword idk just dont plagiarize zelda 😤

LINK MUST HAVE BEEN ABSOLUTELY HURT WHILE BEING TOSSED AROUND IN THE DEMON DRAGONS MOUTH LIKE THAT . WHERE ARE MY WHUMP FICS FOR THIS

the entire fight was just going zelda zelda zELDA ZELDA ZELDA CATCH ME-

here i had my totk equivalent of me shooting arrows at dark beast with just an ancient bow . i shot the thingies on the dragons back with my 5 shot bomb arrows

also the light dragon is so cute and tiny against this giant mass of hatred and gloom and malice draconified as well teehee <33

ALSO ALSO ALSO love the callback of the swirling mass of ganon from botw into totk as the jntroduction to the demon dragon <333

IM HOLDING A RIGHT AFTER I TAKE A SCREENSHOT WAIT FOR ME ZELDA

ill leave this in a seperate post but i really am so . ehh about the explanation of how zelda was brought back ? like idk i just think my own hc for how it worked makes more sense to me ASJSJSJJ

WHAT WAS THAT PAUSE DURING THE RECREATION OF THE VOW THE SAGES MADE WHEN THEY LOOKED AT LINK . WHAT IS THE IMPLICATION HERE

ok the shot of minerus construct all broken down after she moved on is cool im prolly using that as a wallpaper somewhere

overall 8.5/10 game :> it cant top botw for me but i love the game for what it is <3

[cryptid-called-ash]

The first time link tries to use the spirit ring, he just blacks out and wakes up in the past in mineru’s room (lab? Office? Library? Idk it’s not really shown in the vision) in spirit form, scaring the living daylights out of the zonai woman.

actual gameplay stuff + some random changes I would have made

(some major and minor spoilers of course)

* and yes I know it’s called gloom now, but malice sounds so much more badass so I’m sticking to that *

I think spirit form could work kinda like this. You switch into spirit form and link either takes a knee, fall to the ground, or take damage, depending on how many hearts you have.

The more hearts you have the less it visually affects link. More than 8 hearts and link kneels. Less than 8 heart and link will collapse. Less than 5 hearts and link will take a half heart of damage.

The abilities grow to more malice is removed from link. The stronger you are, the stronger spirit form becomes.

Spirit form let’s you slip through certain walls, manipulate certain objects, use ‘spirit weapons’ to fight malice creatures and depths dwellers (more of them in a future post) and, provided you have at minimum two full stamina wheels and fourteen hearts, turn into the spirit dragon for a limited amount of time (three irl minutes, with a ten irl minute cool down.)

The final dragon boss fight is the spirit dragon and the light dragon vs the malice dragon. Very cinematic.

Spirit form turns the tear visions from cinematic cutscenes into interactive areas. Link can acquire zonai weapons and fight shadow monsters that try to corrupt the visions. You can also interact with mineru and Zelda.

Rauru and ganondorf can both feel your presence but can’t see you and will comment on this in dialogue, be aware however that they can hear you. This gives you the opportunity to psychically time-travel bully ganondorf by commenting on what he’s doing. If you chose the do this, ganondorf will actually recognize your voice during the final fight and ask how you, a hylian for thousands of years in the future, could have spoken directly to him and ‘critiqued’ his actions. Your response options are <none of your business>, <*shrug* magic>, and <I am both sage and hero>.

Your comments on the past can make Zelda have different reactions. She will either sigh and shake her head at you, laugh, or inspect whatever your talking about to tell you about it.

[For example]

Link and Zelda are in a garden in the ancient palace. Link tells her about the regional troubles and how he’s working on them. After that dialogue is finished, link can walk around the garden. He comes across and unfamiliar plant. When interacted with you get three dialogue options:

> hey, Zelda what’s this?

> think this would be good for an arrow?

> betcha I can make this grow back home.

Option one prompts Zelda to walk over to link and explain what the plant is.

Option two makes her shake her head at you and has her say “mad man” with a soft smile.

Option three will catch her off guard and make her laugh.

All options eventually have her give you the plant and ask you to give growing it a try. This lets you plant to it in the school field when you complete the ‘teach me a lesson’ quests.

[end example]

Speaking of Zelda, during the dragon cut scene you will be totally unable to interact with her. She will flat out ignore you until after she’s starting the transformation. Whereupon she will look at you and tell you to “protect them all”. This is when we finally get to hear link voice acted, when he shouts her name as she becomes the light dragon. He has the same accent as she does (tho this is probably English dub specific), as he’s also from old hyrule.

I believe link wasn’t ever fooled by the Zelda puppet, as he knows her way too well to be tricked like that. So there are new dialogue options to try and convince the other sages and npcs that “whatever that thing is, it’s not Zelda.” They reacted differently to link’s attempts.

Sidon, of course, believes link immediately, he’s link’s best friend after all. And so does his father, who tells you he’s never seen link look this upset about anything.

Tulin also believes link relatively fast. Link is a good friend of his dad’s, so Tulin sees link as an uncle or older cousin. So if link says that’s not princess Zelda then it’s not princess Zelda.

Yunobo is of course cursed when you first see him, but once you deal with that, convincing him the puppet isn’t Zelda is actually pretty hard. He just can’t fathom someone or something taking Zelda’s appearance for evil. But eventually, after fighting through the fire temple, he believes link.

Riju also needs some convincing, but is more easily won over than yunobo. She skeptical until the puppet appears before the lighting temple and riju tries to run to it before link quickly stops her. If you check her diary after this happens, she will comment saying she has never seen link so angry before and she hopes she never has to see that rage again. You have to opportunity to apologize for scaring her and a short cutscenes plays where she hugs link and calls him “an amazing knight and an even better friend.”

Also wolf link is a permanent companion (once obtained during a quest about a wolf lurking in hyrule forest) that can interact with link even when in spirit form. He’s called Dusk and there are several quest where he’s the main focus. He can also help guide you when you enter the lost woods. (Again more on this in a future post)

Totk where everything is the same but link is the sage of spirit and a descendant of mineru.

Rauru being confused when the spirit ring is already active when link wakes up despite not being able to summon anything.

Meanwhile in the past, mineru just starts laughing hysterically for no reason and everyone is confused.

Link and mineru have time-travel psychic zoom calls and gossip about things. Mineru using the information link gives her to fuck with the others.

Chaos gremlin + wine aunt = pure fuckery.

Link gets a spirit form and can sorta interact with the tear visions, but only mineru and Zelda can see him.

Link having dragon horns, a tail, and markings in his spirit form.

Rauru’s arm permanently fusing to link, even appearing in his spirit form.

That’s the good shit

[slime-crafters]

I love video games that hit you with the heaviest story beats that make you want to cry, and then afterward they let you go "...well anyway"

[skyward-children]

Ok can… we talk about this 👀

(More headcanons)

So while I know the game developers definitely put the panel over the window so Zelda’s Loftwing could stick his head through in the beginning cutscene, just…imagine the possibilities if that hadn’t been the reason

We all know Link breaks stuff. It’s a trademark characteristic of his. What if one of those things was windows? He kept accidentally smashing the stained glass window in his room (the kind that literally every other room in the Academy has…) and finally Gaepora is just like “Link! You can’t keep breaking these stained glass windows, they’re expensive and take time to make!” (Another headcanon— Sparrot somehow knows how to make stained glass windows. He’s got so many odds and ends in his house anyway).

But the thing is, Link hasn’t actually done all of the breaking. Most of it, sure, like the time he messed up while carving and chucked the block of wood in frustration and smashed the glass, or the time when he (somehow) tripped into the window. But there were other times when it wasn’t his fault.

Like the time Zelda yelled “Link! Catch!” and launched a mini pumpkin at Link, not knowing he had dozed off at his desk. He woke up to the sound of shattering glass and swore to Zelda he would take the blame (which he did).

Or the time Groose, furious after Link and Zelda attended a dance together (“as friends!” Link squeaked in desperation as Groose hurled him against the wall) stormed into Link’s room and, after battering him around quite a bit, accidentally punched the window when Link ducked.

Or the time Fledge and Pipit were messing around with Link’s old stuffed toy Remlit and ended up breaking the window. (Each claims it was the other’s fault).

But in the end, the evidence still all points to Link. “No more windows for you,” Gaepora intones firmly, and with that, a wooden panel is nailed over Link’s window. It can be opened, of course, so he can see outside and let light in and whatnot, and Link actually likes it better since he can stick his head out and breathe the fresh air and feel the wind when it’s raining outside.

He and Zelda now mess around in his room a lot, throwing stuff around and enjoying the fact that they can’t break the window now, and Zelda draws Link pictures and writes him notes in class that he pins to the panel. Pipit, Link, Fledge, Zelda and Karane use it to play darts sometimes, and Gaepora just chuckles and thinks “thank the goddess he’s not going to break any more glass.”