Tears of the Kingdom Review: Not Enough Tears
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 มิ.ย. 2024
- Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:53 The Grand Finale
2:22 Disappointing Simplicity
7:47 3 Day Old Steak
11:37 Retroactive Continuity
16:25 Non-Linear Storytelling
18:10 Core Loop Abstraction
24:07 Beating Out The Game
34:44 Missed Stakes
37:28 Closing Thoughts
You can watch my other essay talking about the Dragon's Tears Quest here: • I couldn't finish Tear...
My Tears of the Kingdom Review: Not Enough Tears video is finally out lol. Sequel to "I couldn't finish Tears of the Kingdom", I sum up my thoughts on the game as a whole after being talked into finishing it by strangers on the internet. Looking forward to seeing what Nintendo does next :)
#zelda #tearsofthekingdom #animation #zeldatearsofthekingdom #animationvideo #tearsofthekingdomreview #explorepage #videogames #fypシ #fypシ゚viral #totkvideoessay
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Ganondorf is disappointed in Link because RIGHT AFTER that Rauru speech he wakes up millennia later, busts the master sword, and immediately takes Link's arm. He doesn't see Link as worthy in the final fight because of what happened at the start of the game. The fight itself is basically there to prove his assumption wrong.
Totally agree. Would’ve liked him articulating that or acknowledging the contrast though 🥲
@@DucksAreYellowhe sort of does that during the boss fight.During the 1st phase ganondorf talks shit when he hits link but in the 2nd phase he doesn't almost like ganondorf is getting some respect for link.Still wish he would say to link maybe something like hmm maybe I was wrong to not consider you a opponent.
Thought I’d mention that at the end of the phantom ganon fight he says that link has more than just the power that Rauru gifted him
@@joylechanceux4805this is also true, though he says “though not by much”- how cool would it have been if he praised link properly in the final fight so we would’ve gotten “is that the best you can do” -> “looks like there’s more to you but not by much” -> “finally a worthy opponent, I was wrong about you”. We can creatively create that arc ourselves by implying the last one in his “im beginning to enjoy this”/“feel the blood coursing through my veins” rant after the first stage, but would’ve been nice if it was acknowledged properly.
@@DucksAreYellow true but I still wanted to mention that in case
I wish that each Ancient Sage shared their own perspective on the Imprisoning War instead of repeating the same cutscene. Here are my ideas for each one:
1. The Rito Sage could depict using the Stormwind Ark in battle against the Demon King’s army and taking down multiple Colgeras.
2. The Goron Sage could talk about the days when the City of Gorondia was thriving. Maybe it was a mining town, and it helped the people of Hyrule create weapons.
3. The Zora have healing powers, so they could show the Zora Sage healing people’s wounds.
4. The Gerudo has the most potential. A cutscene of the conflict between the Gerudo Sage and Ganondorf could’ve been amazing. We could have seen Ganondorf’s motivation for having a secret stone of his own.
5. Mineru’s cutscenes are the best in the game. I don’t think I’d change them.
This!!
Damn. I just wanted to see each sage fight on of the phantom ganons in their own way. This is much more ambitious, and I'm totally on board! Such a shame Nintendo let us down like this; we should be on the development team! The fans!
The only thing I’d change about Mineru’s cutscene is letting her grieve Rauru. Mineru watches her baby brother die right in front of her eyes while she’s being essentially tortured to death by the gloom eating away at her, she should have more of an emotional reaction to that!
And then when she exchanges her vow with Link she holds her dead baby brother’s hand through Link for the very last time, of which Link’s hand is significantly smaller than Rauru’s, probably being closer in size to Rauru’s hand when he was a child and Mineru has no reaction at all. WHY NOT? Why can’t they just let her show emotion about that? She’s literally lost everything dear to her heart, just let Mineru express emotion about it. This game is so weird about not letting Mineru or Rauru (or Link) express any emotion and grieve their loved ones when they absolutely should.
Like… Rauru gets to grieve his dead wife who he loved very, very much for like maybe 2 seconds and then that’s it! He isn’t allowed to cry over her? He isn’t allowed to say “I miss you, I’m sorry” to her?
Rauru also doesn’t get to express concern or grief for his sister either when the player interacts with him and we barely see him or Mineru interact with each other in the past at all. What is even the point in establishing that they’re siblings and that both Rauru and Mineru are those who have a strong sense of responsibility and caring if they’re not going to do anything with it?
fun fact: In japanese ganondorf's goals are (while still 1dimensional) are different. He wants a world where the strong rule the weak, where the weak have the audacity to stand up for themselves, and the intellect to figure out how to beat their overwhelming foes.
So...is he the strong? Or the weak?
Still though, his motivation comes off more as a weak excuse for just doing business as usual: pursuing unlimited power and taking over the world.
Ashnard in Fire Emblem Path of Radiance has the same motivation but executed much better. He actually gets a reason for wanting to create a Darwinist world (he was a distant relative of the Daein royal family and grew to hate how he's trapped as a minor noble because of his birth) and he later states he doesn't care if he dies as long as he can go down fighting and/or change the world.
Hes Armstrong is what he is @@my2randomcents
Japanese Ganondorf is literally Senator Armstrong then
A friend told me I was a freak for being disappointed at Zelda coming back...
Her sacrifice was really well told and meaningful. A brilliant solution to a dilema, tragic but also with a sense of consolation. Zelda is gone but not entirely gone, she is arround us protecting us. She lives on as an eternal symbol of hyrulian values. I clearly could have imagined thousands of years in the future, people telling the legend of the light dragon zelda.
Link living the rest of his life with just one arm mourning yes, but also smiling among all the friends that he got to save, and maybe even being close with the dragon princess zelda even if not much of her original self remains. Choosing to stay on top of the dragon forever.
Bringing zelda and links arm back with the power of love feels hollow... not won. I didn't do it, it didn't cost me anything, the ghost magic of love did it whenever the ghosts felt like it. It undermines the struggles of the characters and the player, like if they never happen, erasing them with a snap of the finger at the very last moment.
It is not like the zelda series is a stranger to bitter-sweet endings. OoT's Link looses his best friend at the end and arguably his childhood innocence, TP's Link also lost her best friend, LA's Link has to destroy the entire dream world in order to wake up, and the sadness of it is not hidden from you as you watch everything slowly being erased while listening to quite a melancholic song.
Totk's ending doesn't feel earned... I literally didn't earn it. The story seems to be sometimes about the huge sacrifices people pay to fight against unstopable evil. But by the end it tells you that those sacrifices don't matter that much as long as you have ghost love magic.
I am being a bit hyperbolic of course. It is a great game with a great story. It was just underwhelming how it ran away from its emotional weight at the very end,
because of sequels and DLCs, it had to go back to the status quo. That doesn't bother me at all, just the way it happens feels contrived and unearned. But SO much effort and care have been put in the story of this one, only to fail at the last mile... Is this the George Lucas/prequel effect where nobody dares criticizing Jar Jar binks in front of the grandmaster? I have strong suspicions. It wasn't very hard to fix, as the author of these videos suggested. Two things: 1/make turning Zelda back into a proper quest, and 2/give Ganondorf a real motivation and character, both of these would have gone a long way.
At 260 hours in and all but Sidon in tow, I'm scared to know, but I have to ask. Onc3 you beat the game, does it BOTW style put a star on your save so you can return and do the boss fight over, or is Zelda permanently restored, along with Link's arm?
@@iantophernicus6042 The answer to your question is Yes. I wish you could roam the world post Ganondorf's defeat, but no... you can't.
So I wanted to keep playing and just put a medallion right before the end boss. That way you can do whatever side quest is left (I recommend the Yiga clan stuff, it's really good and by itself justifies roaming the depths of the depths)
The older I get, the more disappointed I get in storylines that can't commit to a character dying.
One of the most impactful lessons one has to learn in life is that death is the end.
So reversing that sacrifice just because it would be too sad is so immature.
I get your point, but NGL I cried when Link finally managed to catch Zelda at the end - it was such a great callback to the start of the game when he couldn't rescue her. For that reason alone, I don't fault this ending.
“How does Sonia have a force ghost?”
King Rhoam, Daruk, Mipha, Revali, and Urbosa: “Am I a joke to you?”
Don't forget
The Hero's Shade
Every sage from Ocarina
The Kokiri and Zora sage from WW
Yeah ghosts aren't anything new in Zelda
Valid criticism, the “can’t move on unless their purpose is complete” bit does seem to be a constant theme across games.
@@therighteously8454 I was more referring to ghosts we see in the hyrule of botw and it’s timeline
I’ve a;ways thought about fit as any of the “Sages” have this power. As well, this other realm, is the realm of the sages. We see this in several Zelda games. As early as Ocarina, we see where the sages exist outside of time.
If the Zelda team has the guts to have Zelda stay a dragon or at least turned into a half-dragon hylian after we defeated Ganondorf, we could have a decent bittersweet ending out of this
The reason for Ganondorf's simplicity is not due to the writing, but due to the English localization. He has an actual motive in the original script and other regional localizations. He belives the world has lost its courage because of the Zonai, beings with god-like power that only use it for peaceful purposes. To him, that is cowardice, and he wishes to stamp it out - something echoed by his line about Rauru having squandered the stones' potential.
It's one of many blenders in the English version. We already know about Link not writing the quest descriptions himself like he's supposed to, which is the perfect way to give us his thoughts without having him speak. We have a soulless bastardization of the original intent.
This both makes me extremely happy and supremely disappointed 😭
@@DucksAreYellow Unfortunately for me, minor spelling mistake 🥲
But yeah, the quest descriptions not being in first person is a thing in both games, and we didn't get Link's line about wanting to see Zelda's smile again in BotW. I need to know what we missed in TotK with how focused on finding Zelda he is. WE WERE ROBBED.
@@DucksAreYellowI love Russian ganondorf lol. He wants to make the world be in an endless war like the past.
i was confused when ganondorf mentioned that sonia's death was a consequence of rauru's arrogance. there was absolutely no context for that line (at least in the english version) and i kinda just threw it away. im sure there was actual context for it in the original japanese version but in the english version rauru is painted as this wise king who could do nothing wrong. however, in a later cutscene rauru mentions this arrogant mistake of his, but it doesnt go into detail. i want to see this arrogant mistake that rauru made, where he, idk, gets greedy for power and doesnt think of others. i know thats way off from the original story, but it might work.
@@funchipin4960 A show of fealty I guess is what they were referring to
I just wish Zelda becoming a Dragon and Link needing a prosthetic arm were permanent changes.
If TotK has a main theme, it’s honouring the sacrifices of others. Rauru lays down his life to give Hyrule a fighting chance and leaves Link the Ultrahand to help him on his quest, Link sacrifices both an arm and the master sword to protect Zelda from Ganondorf, and Zelda herself, inspired by both her distant ancestor and her trusted knight, sacrifices her humanity and mind for a lonely life in the skies to repair his weapon and make it stronger then ever. Ganondorf’s sacrifice, on the other hand, ends up accomplishing nothing because it was an entirely selfish decision made just to spite Link.
But Sonia and Rauru showing up at the end to completely nullify the prices Zelda and Link paid in the name of protecting Hyrule devalues those sacrifices because it means they aren’t really “forever changed”. If Zelda was still trapped as a Dragon but was at least able to regain her mind, and Link had to replace Ultrahand with a Sheikah robot-arm so Rauru could properly rest in peace, it would have stayed true to the idea that help you give others at cost to yourself is eventually repaid.
well put 👑
I know Nintendo would never go so far as to leave Zelda a dragon, but the arm thing is entirely realistic.
I think for Zelda, the sacrifice would’ve meant more if she was conscious for the last 10,000 years, as it is she just fell asleep and woke up after the final fight, no struggle. At least that way it could feel like she sacrificed something
And also this way you could've made it possible to play the game after the defeat of ganon, which is what everyone was complaining about in botw
Or if human Zelda's mind was gone but there was some hope for improvement in the future. That would have been a fine ending. You can't have a story about sacrifice without any sacrifice. I know Nintendo has a long history of hating story-driven games, but they really need to invest in some actual writers if this is the direction they're going.
The only two problems:
Zelda still had her memories - she was clearly never fully dragon, at least according to mineru's assumptions. She also contains the full triforce, so best case scenario they just set up a third game where they activate it to save her, which would be silly because the triforce should break itself if she is truly gone as a dragon.
Link needs a hand to catch her with, and it cant be anyone else's. Nintendo just isn't going to have a scene with an amputee link.
That said, I'm sure they could have just had an explanation for how he got it back.
I think this is one the best videos on Tears of the Kingdom out there. As a narrative designer, I'm delighted to see someone actually delving into the conflicts between game design and storytelling and how the game did not seem to want to solve them, which was extremely frustrating to me as I played. I've been yearning to see somebody doing just that breakdown of what I think didn't work (and was really surprised not to see more widely criticized). Great commitment to the theory, great examples. Subscribed!
Thanks for the kind words! Means a lot
Yeah. I can't believe this fantasy game has fantastical story elements in it. No zelda has ever done that before.
@@frogglen6350 Nice try with the straw man argument. 😉👍🏻 Now you want to address the criticisms he ACTUALLY talked about? 🤷🏻♂️
I actually totally agree with your thoughts on Zelda being turned back into a Hylian. Even if a player doesn't complete the Dragon Tears questline, the Light Dragon still swoops in to help fight Dra-Ganon AND you just GET the Master Sword then and there. No stamina requirement or anything. So after beating Dra-Ganon and you're suddenly suspended in time with the Light Dragon, and Rauru and Sonia just randomly show up and spread light over the Light Dragon to turn her back into Zelda, a player will probably be either like "WHOA! SHE WAS HERE THIS WHOLE TIME?!" Or like "Okay, random." I really think Zelda should've been left as the Light Dragon like they set it up as in the memories. It's a complete cop out and I hate that they took the route.
Hell, that could've left for an AMAZING story for whatever DLC they decide to come out with. "Reverting the Dragon." It could have initially been focused for Zelda being brought back, BUT also could've allowed for a possible new avenue of storytelling of turning Lanayru, Dinraal, and Farosh back into what their original forms were, and then have that fact be set up for the next DLC, revolving around how their return affects Hyrule and its rebuilding efforts.
yo that dlc sounds epic. the whole "reverting the dragon" makes it even possible to turn naydra, dinraal, and farosh back into their previous forms, or at least give us context to how they came to be
That would be incredible and be a massive improvement
At this point, I have zero faith in Nintendo EAD to write a compelling story.
@@funchipin4960 OR some epic post-game. Pokemon transitioned to having some pretty cool post-game. Just like the Depths that we got no heads up about, what if after the credits roll, the game saves, asks you "Continue?" And drops you off in the overworld in the overworld above a Gloom-less Hyrule, four dragons flying around, a bandaged wounded arm and a message that says "see Purah".
Link gets his prosthetic (or at least Sheikah advanced) arm and is given some hints and instruction of how to revive the dragons and first tests his theories on the other 3.
Purah could make a boss refight chamber Link steps into and falls asleep in (like the Shrine of Resurrection) just to keep Link's skills sharp incase there is another crisis.
I think it would've been a cool opportunity for an alternative ending. Like if you didn't complete the dragon tears quest then zelda doesn't turn back
As this is a Japanese story, it might make more sense to apply kishotenketsu than the western 3-act structure. The light dragon reveal fits better as the midpoint twist rather than as a final-act moment of despair.
See
Ganondorfs anime villain lines are exactly what made the Calamity way more interesting for me
"A manifestation of pure evil that willed itself to life in it's yearning for resurrection to the point of building itself a body from Sheika tech to spite the Godessess themselves"
sounds way better than"Ganondorf wants to bathe the world in darkness cuz light is ugly"
"A manifestation of pure evil that willed itself to life"
Sounds like some kingdom hearts nonsense..Also people back then hated calamity ganon because his boss was too easy. Bit now they like him because of nostalgia. yuck
Tbh I feel a way to make the de-draconification make more sense would be to have some upgrade to recall from doing the dragons tears or a quest after that from impa reading the ancient texts
This is brilliant that would have been phenomenal
Yes! I also would have loved it if the game had you activate it in game play while you were falling, instead of just a cutscene.
Maybe link should have gotten his own secret stone
I think that it would have been a lot for impa's research to lead to a secret light Temple considering it took both Sonia's and Raruru's Powers to do it. And for link to become the sage of light.
I also feel this would give more Credence for Raruru coming back at the end
I feel like one way that they could have fixed the memories is, once you go ahead and collect all the memories Zelda won't shed that last tear till the mineru quest us completed, that way you dont skip the whole way or something like that
💯💯💯
THAT WOULD'VE WORKED SO WELL, WHY DIDN'T THEY THINK OF THAT!?
It's funny. I knew the geoglyph of the Sword had something really important to tell, so I decided to leave it for the end. What I wouldn't expect was to fight Phantom Ganon like 12 times in a row in the same fight and having to 'revive' Mineru by building a body for her soul (Thank god I didn't watch the trailers). So.. we could say I did it the right way?
you were talking fast too for me, & therefore I didn’t understand half of this, even so, you probably over-thought alot of your points, I say this because I didn’t see any indication that the devs put half of this amount of thought into the story of ToTK. Whatever the story was, it’s not well told
@@Magi.. because they didn't give a shit , because nintendo knew they already had our money before the game was finished....
Im still amazed you just started youtube, your commentary and editing is of super experienced youtubers
Thats really not that uncommon nowadays; there are so many resources available now that teach people how to get that pro quality, he probably did his homework before doing so. and maybe he already had enough money to get good enough equipment before youtube.
I may have put too much thought into this, but here's an interesting solution I came up with.
First of all, I'd somehow make the master sword unobtainable until you'd gotten all the tears. This happened for me by coincidence, but it's important here.
I'd also make the mineru side quest mandatory to get the last tear.
Lastly, I'd change Rauru's parting words on the GSI so that he said something like "I'll always be there if you are in need of me."
This is where the fun begins... Link, having just obtained the final memory and then the master sword, lands on the GSI, and the light dragon flies away. Link stands still, in shock, frustrated with himself and in disbelief as to what's just happened. You could even have him start to lose it a little, before Rauru appears behind him and tells him to not lose hope. He has no idea if there's anything you can do either, but he tells link to look to his allies for help, speak to the best scholars he can find. So you go back to the Forgotten Temple and speak with Impa. She tells you to meet her back at kakariko village. When you go there, she tells you of a riddle. The first part is simply coordinates, leading to a remote location in faron. Research teams have obviously been there already, and have found nothing. But it also leaves a clue...
"In order to gain what you seek, something of equal value must be given."
When you go to the location mentioned in faron, something reacts to link's presence, and a zonai interface appears, like the ones outside shrines. Upon activation, a door is opened, leading down into a cave with a second door. The keyhole is oddly shaped, but you feel as though you've seen it somewhere.
At this point, Impa appears behind you and says she knows what it is. Her family carries an ancient heirloom that fits perfectly into the hole. (This has already been established as there's a side quest where the Yiga steal it, and if you haven't done that you'll need it for this.) She inserts the key into the lock, revealing a new dungeon of zonai design.
Once you have completed this and beaten the boss (Dark Link?) You get a shiny new rune, called "repair" or "heal" or something to that effect. This allows you to destroy tools (weapons, bows, shields) you find that you don't want and add their durability to your tools, effectively a repair, and with the cost of one or a few zonai charges depending on the amount of durability being added.
When you return to Impa, you tell her what's happened and it becomes clear that everything you've just done seems to have been in vain. You're still no closer to restoring Zelda. Impa swears you to secrecy lest hyrule lose all hope, and you go on, as if that never happened, dejected and defeated.
After you destroy Ganon, the sword speaks to you. It has done its duty, and commits itself to one final act for its kingdom.
"You know what you must do, link."
So he uses his rune, sacrificing the master sword to restore Zelda, and catches her out of the sky. They embrace, and the credits roll.
No one's going to read this lmao
Edit: Alterations have been made. I've been thinking about this more and I actually think there are a couple of problems with this idea. Besides the fact that the master sword could never be the key because they didn't know it existed, I just don't think it gives you enough time to process the loss. This game's "dark night of the soul" moment is more in the gameplay after you discover the truth, when you're exploring and you happen to look up and she's just there, and it hits you again, and you realise how much guilt and pain link must be hiding. The fact he doesn't tell anyone is pretty consistent with his prior characterisation; he'd rather bear the burden silently because he feels he has a responsibility to live up to the image of the steadfast hero, unflinching and courageous.
This- This is so good. I love it, especially the impa heirloom reference; that was a quest in botw if i remember correctly. 10/10, would pitch to nintendo
I've been thinking about how Totk could be "fixed" or at least made a little bit better. I like this a lot, your take on it is great!
I loved the part where Link said “it’s link’n time” and then Linked all over the place
Same
@@DucksAreYellowOn a serious note, I just finished the essay and noticed that you have a thing for steak jokes, don’t you
@@Vivers01 Sorry about that
'"That's a steak"'
🥩🥩🥩
I loved the part where Link was in the park and said “It’s Linkin Park!”
That's a very good point, Ganondorf has no reason to be trusting of Rarau. In fact it would have been more interesting for Ganondorf to question the other leaders and make them wonder why they are swearing loyalty to this forgine creature who dropped out of the sky and now claims to be king of all the lands. It wouldn't have to be due to any malice on Daddydorf's part, what benefits do the other rulers gain for being subservient to Rarau? These seeds of doubt would make for intriguing tension if everyone starts agreeing with Ganondorf.
Gabon Forg is a cool villain cuz he’s smart and good at manipulating people, here his master cunning was just distract someone, stab them, then use brute force and win. One of his first lines in the memories is “So brute force won’t do it” but it’s literally all he uses
I nearly laughed when arriving to Ganondorf and he just goes "I'm a bad guy. Darkness and not peace am I right"
Like, dude, I bet he was just reading "100 quotes for a big bad guy" before Link got in what kind of dialogue is that. He had better lines when he was a pig
definition of edgy villain big bad guy
To be fair, there are a lot of HINTS at him being more interesting (he would genuinely rather have a difficult battle and win they just get to be king) but he has so little screen time that they just don’t elaborate on any of it, and the biggest hint is his corpse’s first line of dialogue so by the time you actually meet him you’ve probably forgotten it
Ganon/dorf is that guy who seems really impressive until he opens his mouth. Maybe they should just stop trying and go back to him laughing menacingly from the game over screen.
One thing in the story i found disappointing was how ganondorf never says anything about link having the master sword again. Maybe he could have said something like that blade most not be as fragile as i thought but no matter i will shatter it again Then have ganondorf use the same gloom attck that shattered the master sword but this time the sword reflects the attack to ganondorf
This would have been cool
Yes I missed this part in the final fight. Why would Ganondorf not shoot tendrils of gloom at Link and the master sword when it proved to be very effective in their first meeting. He fricken destroyed the master sword with the 2nd one and proceeded to lift the entire castle with that power. It would have been perfect when Ganondorf realizes Link is stronger than he first appeared. It would have been awesome just to block the gloom with the sword and it not breaking.
It’s because he’s barely even ganondorf, design and name aside. The master sword doesn’t stop him, the triforce doesn’t keep the 3 linked. It’s a joke. He’s just a big evil anime guy now. They even took away his pig form, he’s generic dragon now. The metaphor of greed for power through the metaphor of a pig (greed) is also gone. It’s not ganondorf/ganon.
Just saying, in Breath of the wild, all 4 of the champions who died during the Calamity and even King Rhoam had a force ghost I really don’t think it’s just a Zonai thing. Also, while I do agree that zelda being reverted back to her normal self is technically a retcon, when I played the game, (I got the memories around a similar time as you did) I was fully expecting Zelda to not stay a dragon. I don’t think nintendo would ever have the guts to end the story with such a sad note. The sole objective of the game that is shown on screen as being completed after the final cutscene is finding Princess Zelda. While I absolutely agree that it was annoying that nobody except Impa could know Zelda was a dragon, the story still focuses on finding Zelda and bringing her home, wether or not you know she is a dragon. This is not me saying the decision was narratively okay, this is me explaining that I didn’t necessarily feel cheated by the ending.
It was, frustratingly, unfortunately, extremely predictable.
@@DucksAreYellowne thing that would help is if Recall could be used on enemies. As it stands, Zelda is the only life form that it gets used on.
And Link, since he gets his arm back.
@@DucksAreYellowit’s like watching a good Disney movie- you know how it’ll turn out, but you don’t know how it gets there, which is ultimately what makes the movie good. “It’s about the journey, not the destination”
I remember a line from Rauru talking about the secret stone amplifying Zelda’s power, and he says that she could do more research on how to use her power to get back to her own time. Maybe there could’ve been a cutscene involving the ghost of Rauru and Sonia talking to Link about his Recall ability being the key to bringing back Zelda to her human form, since Recall is essentially Zelda’s Sage ability. I think a good placement for this cutscene is when Link gets the Master Sword and returns to the Temple of Time, and this cutscene will only play if the Dragon Tears quest line is complete.
Imagine if Zelda was permanently a dragon.
Then in the true ending, it takes place outside the Forgotten Temple. All the Sages and Link are talking about what happened with the fight, but also about the legacy of the princess. They realize she would've wanted for peace to be restored to Hyrule, so each sage dedicates themselves to that cause. It ends with a group hug/cheer, then each sage slowly leaves to go about their day, but Link stays. He slowly walks into the Forgotten Temple and it's shown that he does something to Sonia's grave site. He stares at it for a moment before smiling for the first time in a while, then leaving. His back faced the camera, he exits the Forgotten Temple. The weather is beautiful, and it is sunset. There are blue petals in the air. The camera then cuts back to Sonia's grave, revealing a newly planted Silent Princess next to it.
And then the game ends..
love this!! i see not leaving zelda as a dragon as such a missed opportunity for what could've been a huge emotional moment in the series. it would've made my opinion of the story do a 180
That’s very Majora’s Mask where you get the picture of Link and Skull Kid at the end of
Just imagine for a second that when Link got the last tear memory, he puts his hand to his mouth in shock for a moment, then a few seconds later he pulls whatever sword he has equipped out and brandishes it angrily at hyrule castle or something
Better yet, imagine if after you see the last memory you can go back to Dragon Zelda have Link will run his hand through her hair. Or after not moving on Dragon Zelda for a second, Link sits down on her and just vibes.
In defense of the ghosts, BoTW had the champions and the king exist in the world as ghosts that could interact with the world to some degree too, and none of them had anything to anchor them either, so ghosts existing is sort of canon to this world already, and definitely not just a Zonai thing, but I was also confused that Sonia appeared at the end, I feel like it just came completely out of left field?? Like maybe Sonia could've also been there during the tutorial, and then it wouldn't have been so confusing when suddenly she just appeared despite never having been a ghost before
Having her appear during the tutorial also and/or alternate with rauru as they lore dump would’ve helped a lot
The act of wanting to sacrifice everything to destroy Links parallels Zelda who also sacrificed everything but instead to destroy link it’s to save him and Hyrule. It’s to show how sacrifice can be both negative and positive
But if the weight of those sacrifices aren’t felt or dwelled upon they don’t feel meaningful 😶
I agree though ganondorfs selfish sacrifice does contrast nicely with Zelda’s, that’s a good note
@@DucksAreYellow I always saw it more like a duality between light and dark, and I loved every bit of it.
@@DucksAreYellow Zelda’s is a sacrifice she thinks about. For days. She did it w a lot of thought in mind meanwhile Ganondorf did it in the spur of the moment. Imagine how selfish and greedy you are, you are ready to sacrifice everything to become power. So power hungry, so vicious. Zelda games have always been story that the players fill the blanks in not the devs.
@@DucksAreYellowZelda's sacrifice was necessary because if you didn't get the master sword before the final battle there is a cutscene where link obtains it when Zelda comes and it's needed to beat the final boss
(1/2) While i can see how thats what the developers meant to do, the "lesson" still rings kinda hollow in the end:
First, Zelda's sacrifice, in the end, doesnt really "stick to landing". Once Rauru and Sonia turned her back, its like Zelda didnt sacrifice anything at all. Now you could make the argument that Zelda lost time, but how did losing all that time change her? Did it really cost her anything? She's exactly the same as she was before she got turned to a dragon. I feel like the game shouldve gone either one of two ways:
-Kept Zelda a dragon to really drive home a lesson about love & sacrifice.
or
-IF they chose to turn her human again, then something about her mind/character should've fundamentally shifted, even after she returned to human. I'd like to think becoming a godly dragon for 10,000 years would affect someone *deeply*.
SPOILERS: What I’m really sad about for the ending is when Aquaman died saving uncle Ben. It was very sad. 😢
@@xzpython Yes. It was Linkdermans cannon event, but Aquaman stoped it. That’s what caused the upheaval.
Aren’t uncle ben and aquaman from different universes
@@naturedragon1315 no they’re both from totk
Dude spoilers, quit being a spoilest
@@MyLux777 sorry my bad I just got really sad and thought others would share the sadness.
The imprisoning war scenes are so freaking powerful. The LOZ main theme leitmotif over Rauru's last words actually make me cry. I wish Nintendo was able to keep that up with the rest of the story.
That was probably my favourite Zelda cutscene ever. So freaking good!
This man’s channel needs to absolutely blow up. Your quality of output and not just in the editing but you have well thought-out and well spoken opinions, and without malice or vitriol. You’re a real person who wants to have a discussion about a great game, and it’s so amazing to see discourse like this on the usually-polarized internet. More please!
This means a lot to me, thank you so much for your kind words :)
Agree
YESS TO ALL OF THIS! I felt so robbed the moment they undid all the sacrifice zelda did with some magic sprinkles. I do wonder if they simply didnt have the time or resources to fully flesh out the story. I think impas comment on looking up ancient scripts was going to be an additional quest, but they simply didnt have room or time for it and decided to cut corners. Yes this sounds weird knowing we have waited seven years for this game - and they even said they took an additional year to fully polish and optimize the game- but i work in game dev and there are so so so many factors that can lead to things like this. I didnt care much for the story in BOTW so i didnt really care if it had storytelling flaws. But i was really liking the story in TOTK up until the ending scene, so i have so many more opinions about this story because god it could have been SO GOOD. Imagine if we COULDNT turn zelda back! Such a bittersweet ending! It would have hurted so good.
To be fair though, with the context of Zelda and links relationship, I would imagine that link would keep this to himself after finding out. If I found out that the love of my life, sacrificed herself in order to help me in the future, I wouldn’t really tell that to Just anyone. And I feel like this makes the conflict more personal.
A similar thing happened to breath of the wild too, we also don’t acknowledge anything with link once he gets all the memories, but I feel like it’s still justified because with link it’s more of an internal conflict.
also, I’m kind of glad calendar didn’t really get any meaningful backstory or anything. I get that it makes for an interesting dealing with a have motivations, but a great villain can easily be good by just being evil. And honestly, the presents that this ganondorf gives along with his boss fight makes skyward swords, and twilight princess look a week due to how much of a menace he is.
Overall, I understand your gripes with the game, but for me, I still enjoy it. and I enjoyed the part about storytelling and game structure!
But characters like Purah and Impa are not "just anyone"
Also with other NPC's I think you could make the excuse that if you told them zelda turned into a dragon, they would think you're crazy.
At 24:15, you define story beats after having used a musical beat to accompany the title to the section that which follows. I don't know if this was intentional, but your editing seems to utilize the sound/music as well as other elements to emphasize parts and create a tone and it's really awesome.
Impressive use of the medium in my opinion, thanks for the video!
Thanks for noticing and for the kind words :)
The game actually pushes you the master sword if you didnt get it in demon dragon fight. Badass moment tbh but you miss a memory.fragmentt i think.
One of the worst things to me is how this Link just doesn’t react to anything. In Wind Waker, Link was shocked and threw rationality out the window when he saw a bird take his sister. He was happy when he rescued her. He was sad when his grandma cried.
In Twilight Princess, Link got fuckin pissed when he saw King Bulbin kidnap Colin. In Skyward Sword, Link cried when Zelda sealed herself away. He was ENRAGED when Ghirahim took her away. He screamed when he saw Groose falling behind him. 😭
But in TotK, Link reunites with his lover who we thought might be lost forever, and Link is like 😐
It’s just awful. Why can’t they at least hug? 😭
Great video dude, I think you nailed it. I personally think one way to make Ganondorf more involved in the story would be for him to brain wash the Gerudo into serving him instead of brainwashing the Gorons as he does in the game. Just think how emotional it would be to have to wage a war against the Gerudo even though Riju is your friend.
I want to applaud you for how this story analysis was done. A lot of video essays on TH-cam are not able to distinctly identify flaws in for example a game's story nearly as well as you have. One thing I would have liked to see in addition to the NPCs reacting appropriately to Zelda's sacrifice, is Link showing some kind of expression as a result. Like when he pulls the master sword, or when the last memory is done and he sees the Light Dragon right after. A tear of his own, running down his face, even. I have to say, me, the player, as an extension of Link, was mind blown by the last memory. Even though I saw it coming, the voice acting was perfect, the way Zelda's panicked eyes turned into a dragons. Wow. Gold, in my opinion. Going on a bit of a tangent, but I think it's long past due that Link has more of an identity in the Zelda games, where we understand his motivations, his insecurities, his personality, etc.
I also agree about the ghosts showing up at the end and solving the Zelda problem. What does her sacrifice mean if some spirits from beyond can just intervene in the real world? What could have made more sense is, they had the theme of the Triforce subtly hinted throughout the game, then somehow Link obtains it near the end, wishing for Zelda to return to normal. Since we already know the Triforce works this way, it would feel a lot less contrived than two super ghosts saving her.
Lastly, you nailed it with Ganondorf, I felt wholly disconnected from the conflict between Link or me the player, and him. Like you said, it could have been improved with some better dialogue in the final act.
To finish off my comment, I'd say even with its flaws, Tears of the Kingdom still has some of the best main quest Zelda story ever.
Great essay! Definitely worth the wait, and the edited is just 👌
I think the whole Force Ghost thing is kinda like how Rhoam and the Champions in BOTW were where they could not fully leave until they were at peace (like Rhoam disappearing and then reappearing in the post credit scene)
also i would totally watch a RDR2 essay if you decide to do it lol.
I do think the “not moving on until their purpose is completed” bit is all but confirmed at this point. I don’t hate it!
And thanks for the kind words, I really appreciate it :)
I wish totk plot was about link and Zelda being sent back in time that way we could spend more time with Zelda and give queen Sonia and king raura most devolvement.Then set up link maybe trying to pull the master sword but due to the gloom on his arm the sword doesn't let him. Have the story play out the same again but have link and Zelda fight ganondorf to try and protect Queen Sonia but ends with her death and Ganondorf getting the secret stone. When link, Zelda, Raura and the sages fight demon king Ganondorf have link with the broken master sword at least hurt ganondorf then have Raura seel him away but knowing it would break Zelda would want to eat the secret stone and become a dragon to fix the sword that seals the darkness could have had a emotional moment we're link doesn't want her to do it but she has to. Then maybe have link return to the temple of time and use it to go back to the future but after he returns he finds Hyrule under the rule of ganondorf. Leading to link having to find the 5 sages and get the master sword to kill ganondorf. Imo it should end with link killing ganondorf for good but Zelda is still a light dragon having the message of sometimes you must sacrifice for what you know is right
What a beautiful in depth analysis of this story! I’m so pleased that you talked about the types of storytelling especially how it affected the overall narrative of the game. I’m excited to see more of your content :D!
:D !!!
Well, one could say Sonia having a ghost form makes just as much sense as King Rhoam having one in BotW. Also, I believe the way Zelda was transformed back was more of a Deus Ex Machina than it was a Retcon. Oh, and three people were needed to perform that feat; three people representing Power, Wisdom and Courage. That might have had something to do with it too.
7:22
This back and forth between hero and villain is what Skyward Sword does with Link and Ghirahim. And it builds Ghirahim's character.
This game doesn't do such justice to Ganondorf
This is a fantastic video and I really enjoyed the streams I could watch. Can’t wait to see more content like this in the future!
That means a lot to me, thank you!
In the Gerudo Assault memory, we see Zelda and Sonia channel their powers through Rauru to amply his power even further. Thats what they were also going for in the ending I think, having Rauru and Sonia channel their powers through Link to amplify his recall ability, but the issue is that Rauru and Sonia are both dead. I think it wouldve made more sense of there were two endings, and Zelda is only brought back if you do all of the story mission, and instead of Rauru and Sonia bringing her back, it ahould be the current sages, given that they all have secret stones, they arent dead, amd theres 5 of them, which would make a much bigger impact than just 2. Also, imo, this would also compliment the theme of community and joining hands together that is present in the game. After Link helps all of the sages, they in turn help him by giving him their vows and saving him from Ganondorfs second gloom attack at Hyrule Castle. Zelda had also done so much for the peoples of Hyrule as a whole, and so them returning thr favor to bring her back would just thematically make more sense and hit a lot harder.
As much as I enjoyed the game, Zelda went back in time and met her furry godparents. She tells them about Link and his sword problems(It won't fire out the tip). They encourage her to swallow a desert jelly, transform into dragonkin feral, and drip the holy power on Link's sword for millennia(while it penetrates her)...This plot belongs to Deviant Art.
I think the tears should have appeared one at a time rather than having all of them be on the map already. I (luckily) managed to do them all in order since the forgotten temple hints at them chronologically using the murals, which was a clever detail, however so many of my friends just gathered them randomly to the point that basically nothing makes sense or you already discover major points (the death of sonya for example way before you even know who she is). Since the dragon is looping around the map anyway why not have a tear fall after obtaining the last one, this way you get a clear objective and you slowly build up the geoglyphs on the map to have a sense of progression similar to how breath of the wild had lasers point to hyrule castle after each divine beast
Did they forget they used the ouroboros for the game's logo? What was the point of that?
Agreeing with all your points, I would have appreciated the tragic ending of link swallowing Mineru's stone and spending eternity with Zelda after saving the world.
I agree with pretty much everything you said. I think another major problem is the refusal to make this Link emote. It hinders emotional moments for me being Link is supposed to represent the player, he is an avatar, but when it looks like he feels nothing it takes me out of it. Such as in the end and he see Zelda again and he expresses nothing when she wakes up. Same with Minerus goodbye as everyone is doing something but him, he is just standing there. A silent protagonist does not need to be a blank protagonist. Link in Skyward Sword goes through similar moments as this one, when Zelda sacrifices herself you can see his pain and when they reunite you can see how happy they are.
Link's lack of emotion hinders this Zelink for me too, I'm not going to argue on how canon it is but for me I can't get into it when one member of the party doesn't show much emotion for the other. Meanwhile I adore Skyward Sword Zelink and Spirit Tracks has the best one (which they are also both very much canon outside of environmental storytelling and ST has the cutest ending the way they both reach out and hold each other's hands watching the sunset 😭).
I'm just tired of this Link being so emotionless for big scenes, he shows emotion in little interactions but for the big ones there's nothing. He should've at least smiled at her man...
Overall for this style of gameplay I prefer botws story because it compliments the game well. For totk the two contrast too much (and there is some other stuff the sours the story a little for me.) And damn it Link should've never gotten his arm back Rauru said it couldn't be restored and they had to get rid of it to save Link's life so how and why is it back. The time reversal thing doesn't even work because his arm isn't THERE. You need the object to put it back in its place but his arm is gone it makes even less sense than Zelda coming back.
Link was always a great silent protagonist and was slowly getting more emotive. Even in oot there is so much characterization of link by how the story relates to his situation. You know so much about oot link and he barely has any expression but so much can be inferred by how personal the quest is and how universal the concepts it talks about are. Him backing away slowly and then turning around running after getting the ocarina shows so much emotion with such primitive tech. I don't even get why he's this silent and lacking in emotion. It serves nothing and benefits nothing.
Let’s go a part 2, btw great job on this video, 15 Pages!!!!!!!!!!!?!?!?!!
15 pages!
Got a notification your video dropped and clicked right through. Analysis went above and beyond and had me captivated and nodding my head in agreement!
Please do continue making video essays on game theories etc if you can. I’d love to hear a video on ff15 and your further insights there. I felt so disheartened by that game, it felt half complete to me.
Another phenomenal video! Keep going 👌🌸
I enjoy videos like these but I still will not think too deeply while playing the game itself just to enjoy it as much as possible.
12:46 I see her being able to have one being the same reason King Bosphoramus Hyrule was able to have one
The problem is, is that it introduces the idea of these ghosts otherwise just being able to show up whenever it's convenient? Which actually harms the ending minutes later with Mineru doing her own disappearing act
Incredible job man , I doubt there is a better video on this out there , i wish you nothing but success with the channel
When you talked about the "Stakes" part, & the earlier complaint about doing the Tears quest too early, I thought of a solution.
In order for the player to not feel like they've skipped ahead in the story, & give a foreshadow for the ending where Zelda is restored, they could've had Impa tell Link to give her time to review the ancient texts, & also prevent Zelda from shedding her last Tear for the player to view, until the 4 Phenomena/Dungeons were solved, after which he can view the final Tear scene, then go back to Impa, whom would tell him after studying the ancient texts, & remembering that he had the power of recall, that she thinks he could use that ability on Zelda...so he goes out, catches up to The Light Dragon, tries the ability, but all it does is make her cry out in pain, & break his recall hold on her. So, he goes back to Impa, tells her what happened, & she says something along the lines of, "Man, I really thought that would work...perhaps you need more power...but where to get it from...?" Then hints that the power of all the sages may be able to help, but first he must find the 5th sage. But, then when Link finds Mineru, she explains that it won't work, & that their power will be needed to fight Ganondorf, & they can't do that if they expend all their power on this experiment that will likely fail.
The hero dispairs at any hope of getting her back, & then--Oh no! Puppet Zelda has been spotted, & the rest of the story plays out...except, once Puppet Zelda, aka Puppet Ganon, gets defeated, the Blood Moon starts happening more frequently, monsters get stronger, & monsters that spawn at night have Malice/Gloom on them (though once the sun comes up, it comes off them), also Lynels on the surface start spawning with armor, as well as Hinoxes, & Moblins, & Boss Bokoblins too, & then Gloom Hands spawn in more places, as well. And then in later blood moons, additional mini bosses called King Bokoblin, & King Moblin can show up too, & they can't be knocked over, only knocked back.
All the NPCs comment or complain about the additional monsters & Gloom, as well, & some of those with weaker immune systems start succumbing to the Gloom Sickness, & need the Sundelion infused dishes (which can also become a new side/semi-main quest)...& overall, the stakes feel raised, & you feel the need to finish the story; to defeat Ganondorf before things get worse.
When I started the game I literally saw all the potential. Raurus back, zonai being in the game (even though they hinted in BotW at Zonai being a savage warrior tribe, suddenly they're god like, highly intelligents goats, but okay) and when I realized Zelda was back in time, I was convinced we would travel back in time as well. Just imagine you being able to travel back in time after seeing Zeldas memories and then being the one giving her the idea of tranforming into a dragon, kind of like a OoT's song of storm paradox. Meeting Ganondorf like you suggested, didn't even cross my mind, but of course that would have been the peak. The end fight could have still played out like it did and Ganondorfs desperation to eat the stone in the end would have been to spite Link, the legendary swordsman who followed Ganondorf through thousands of years of imprisonment. So much potential and all the Zelda team focused on was the game play mechanics, which were fun for the first couple of hours and later on I built absolutely nothing. That is just me though, obviously not everyone is cut out to build stuff all the time and it was ao frustrating that I was too "dumb" to build things properly, since logical, mathematical and geometrical thinking were never a strength of mine.
Most people are too dumb. Very few people would utilize it properly who could then post it to social media to make people go "whoa what a cool game" while most who play it will make shoddy rudimentary abominations. I'm cynical enough to believe it was a mechanic tailor made for social media so people will not realize just how shallow the game effectively is for most people with that mechanic stripped away.
I don’t think retcon defines what happens with Zelda turning back to normal. The best expression would be Deus Ex Machina.
That would probably fit better, yes.
After all these livestreams and waiting, the time has come
Incredible work! Nice Joseph Anderson callback with the title.
I'm so happy someone got this. He's the 🐐
I struggled finishing the game too but hearing you tear it apart made me instead go back and play it out of rebellion, it just made me laugh at its flaws instead because you were right and I still had a great time, win win, take my Like, Subscribe and Comment
I have a fix for the whole "Zelda changing back doesn't feel earned"
Normal "ending" You fight Dragondorf the same way, but the ending cutscene is of Link Falling into the lake alone. He looks up, the light dragon flies back up into the sky, above the cloud barrier. Credits Roll. Fade to Black
Reload at last save BS...
BUT!
After all the Tears:
Talk to Impa
She says "Yo, lots of latent Light magic in those shrines, ya know?"
You: "Bet"
Complete all the shrines.
Shrines give you the Light Orbs.
Light orbs = Rauru power
Collect all the orbs = Juice up the Goat Man.
Have him say "Dorf being alive is scuzzin up my steeze too much for me to fix her, go disappear him please."
Go Fight DragonDorf again
But THIS TIME you have the power to change Zelda back.
Goat Man and Mom arrive with all the light orbs and change Zelda Back.
Boom Earned. It aint perfect, but it would have felt Earned.
Yay finished ur 3 part commentary of totk!! :)
There’s this video by kyu craft where he talks about the part of the game where link turns Zelda back to human and it explains a lot more especially if you watch the whole video mabye making the ending a bit better for you. And it is a video explaining link and Zelda’s love and since you seem like a zelink shipper check it out it’s really good and it might make the ending a bit better for you.
I very much enjoyed your trip through the game. Excellent quality content, editing, commentary and all.
This is one of the most well-organized and engaging video essays I have watched on this platform. Every single moment I thought you were making a great point. I stopped playing this game almost two thirds of the way through, and I still experienced the story in the “correct order.” Really great stuff, though
Hot damn dude, what a wonderful video. Thank you for all your hard work on this.
An absolute masterpiece. You deserve more subscribers!
Thanks for the kind words!
Excellent work on these videos and their production quality. Probably one of the best analyses I've seen on this topic (I'd put it up there with the quality of Zeltik's analysis on the highs and lows of how TOTK told its story). You articulated many of the reasons why I really enjoyed TOTK from both gameplay and story, especially the relationship that is setup with Link and Zelda, along with where I felt the execution left something to be desired. I'm also hopeful for the next game, especially since I think they have it in them to get it right since they did a good job with Link and Zelda in Skyward Sword and did put together a good dynamic for them in TOTK. Would love to see an analysis from you on Skyward Sword's story as well.
There is a nice theory about why Rauru and Sonia where not able to turn Zelda back alone. There is a video with the theory about how Zelda is in love with Link and most important in this case Link is in love with Zelda thus able to turn Zelda back with "miracle" power. Like Zelda was able to use her divine power to rescue Link before a guardian could toast him in BOTW.
Also there is one "memory" where Sonia explains that to reverse an object you need to have memories of it. You collect every dragon tear what is essentially a memory of Zelda. But you as Link have much more memories of Zelda. You traveled with her (e.g. to the springs), you saw her struggle, you protected her and spend a really long time with her. Much more time than Sonia and Rauru have spent with Zelda.
And most important: you have the strongest motive. Link is very dedicated and doesnt back of a challenge, even if it is time itself. One could also mention that a earlier incarnation of Link was the Hero of Time who transcended time itself. But that may be a bit more far fetched
I feel like your biggest problem can be summed up with the stakes, which is something that open world games suffer with commonly. Games like the Witcher 3 and RDR2 are linear games in an open world which commonly will take you from one mission to another, separating the story from the open world. BotW and TotK lower the stakes alot as to not force the players hand in completing the game too early, but as you mention, TotK fucked that up. It has colosal stakes in the tutorial island where you think you could find zelda, but once you send back the master sword the stakes deflate somewhat.
That makes so much sense and I honestly agree
Great overview of the story and review as an entirety! I really loved the story and the game as well as it’s characters, but some things certainly weren’t properly explained and could’ve used more in game effect from Link or others, from the tragic things that happened. Also yeah, I think Ganondorf could’ve used more time and more character driven dialogue.
This video is highly underrated. You did so well on this!
Cool to see you bring up my recall theory in regards to Zelda transforming back. 😊
It was a great thought! Glad I could hear it from on you on stream 🎉
TH-cam recommending this to me the second I get to the homepage after leaving the last video is comedy gold.
I love Zelda totk & admit I was hesitant to watch your video. But I'm glad I did. Those were really good points - you really made me think. Made me wonder what could have been.
I've seen people point out here that King Rhoam and the Champions come back after the final fight against Ganon in BotW, but...
Key difference: when Rhoam and the champions come back, they don't actually DO anything? They're just looking over Link, and Zelda, as if they're seeing them off and entrusting the future of Hyrule to the two of them from afar, in a kind of "we'll be there in your heart" kind of way. By contrast, Rauru and Sonia... USE MAGIC? Like, has that ever happened with a spirit in a Zelda game? Sure, the champions are able to halve Ganon's health at the end of BotW, but that's because their spirits are linked to the divine beasts and it's the divine beasts which do the actual damage. Other than that, the most I can think of is a spirit doing is teaching something to Link (or another character) before moving on - permanently. For example, the spirits in WW, the Goron and the Zora from MM (I forget their names), the Hero's Shade... you get the picture.
So, yeah, it makes some sense that Sonia could be there in spirit form - and maybe Rauru as well, for that matter - but to go from that to helping Link revert Zelda's draconification makes absolutely no sense and is a complete ret-con. Link clearly has no idea that they could to that, and EVEN IF HE DID, the Sonia and Rauru showing up clearly shows that he couldn't have done it himself.
In Spirit Tracks you play with Ghost Zelda who can do things
I'm so glad somebody else shares my viewpoint on the final fight!
Loved this essay, really well thought out, and even though I prefer TotK to BotW, I do agree with every point you make. And the comparisons to Wind Waker (my favourite game in the series) really brought home how the game and narrative structure impacts this one
Aha, after your provocative previous video about TOTK's story, I was excited to see how you'd feel when you finished the game.
There was definitely a part of me that longed for a downer ending, where Zelda is lost forever and Hyrule is saved but Link is alone and out of his own time. But, I was ok with what we got, too. Btw I do think there's a bit of foreshadowing that Recall is important in the memory where Zelda drops the teacup.
You're really good at making videos. I'll be interested in whatever you do next!
15:17 oh my god THANK YOU for bringing this up! I am very firmly of the opinion that Mineru should be your first sage, not your last. It would be so much better that way and I’m so annoyed that more people haven’t brought up how Mineru is seriously just Missed Opportunities the character. She or Rauru should’ve been our companion and she had SO MUCH potential to be an incredible member of the cast and they do nothing with her and I’m so annoyed. She’s literally my favourite.
She, Purah, Josha and Robbie should have been working together to be proactive in preparing for the fight against the demon king, especially considering the game heavily implies that there’s a link between the Zonai and the Sheikah. This is supposed to be a sequel to Breath of Wild, so why have the Sheikah been benched? Why is the Zonai who have replaced them not allowed to do anything?
Seriously what is the point in introducing Josha and her studying the depths if we never go anywhere with it? Why has Robbie been demoted to being the compendium guy, what the hell? Why is Purah just sitting around not doing anything until the plot comes to get her? All of this feels so uncharacteristic of the Robbie and Purah that we’ve come to know.
Also Mineru has personal experience fighting Ganondorf, she was literally there during the final battle. She has a deeply personal stake in this fight. You’re telling me Mineru, a person who clearly has a strong sense of responsibility and cares a LOT (as evidenced by her taking responsibly for Ganondorf’s everything for just being a Zonai and feeling tremendous guilt over telling Zelda about draconification) but she… isn’t being as proactive as possible when it comes to taking down the guy who killed her baby brother and tortured her to death? Like that seems so… out of character for her and it’s really frustrating to have her sitting in her temple not being allowed to do anything until the plot requires it of her. It’s so frustrating to even just be walking around with her and you can’t ask her questions or ask for her thoughts or have her give you information about the area you’re in. She’s established as being this bastion of knowledge when it comes to the technology, culture and history for her species and they don’t do anything with it!
And then at the end, that damn post credits cutscene, she just leaves! Mineru would never just leave Zelda like that when she’s the only person who knows what Zelda went through during the imprisoning war, with Zelda literally begging her not to leave. Not only that by Mineru’s sense of responsibility would not allow her to leave without making absolutely sure that the people of Hyrule know how to safely use extremely complicated Zonai technology. You could argue that Zelda could teach Purah and Robbie about it but Zelda’s few months (or years? Who knows) in the past being Mineru’s assistant essentially is not at all the same as Mineru’s many years worth of extremely in-depth knowledge about the technology of her species. They’re in no way comparable, Zelda is smart but she’s not a Zonai and she’s no a genius.
Also speaking of Zonai tech, I hate how the game treats Mineru’s construct, her entire life’s work, as not being a life for her. I hate that so much. Mineru had great potential to explore transhumanism (or transzonai-ism?), her unique relationship with mortality and the afterlife, about transforming in general since she’s knowledgeable about draconification. But nope! Like many things in this game isn’t introduced/set up and then never addressed again like… what the hell?
Her construct is treated like it’s not really a body she custom made for herself, it’s just a Cool Game Mechanic for the player to wield as a weapon and to then discard the second she isn’t needed anymore. She kinda even says that at the end “you’ve proven yourself and you no longer need me” while there’s a huge tear in her eye and her voice is breaking. My heart shattered for her, I hate how this game treats her.
Scratch that, I hate how this game treats Mineru’s entire species as though the Zonai are a commodity. They exist only to give context to the game play and nothing else is worth considering about them. They’re just a shiny new toy for the player to use and that’s it. Mineru is boiled down to being Exposition Giver and then Kind Cool Mech that the player uses as an object. You can’t interact with her construct and TALK to her like a person when you’re walking around with her, that’s her actual construct as well, that’s not her sage avatar, she doesn’t have one.
And poor Rauru barely gets to be a zonai. He is boiled down to being Plot Device and then just his arm and because we don’t see anything about his relationship with his sister or about his zonai culture and how it’s shaped him as a person, if you made Rauru a Hylian blessed with divine magic it would barely make a difference to the overall narrative and that fucking sucks.
We don’t see him fight, we barely see him interact with his big sister, we barely see him grieve his wife and he doesn’t mention his very dead big sister at all where the last time he saw her gloom was just eating away at her frail body like… Why is Rauru not allowed to be a character with emotions? I hate this shit!
We don’t know anything Rauru or Mineru’s backstory or culture and we don’t even see Rauru or Mineru using their zonai magic apart from when Rauru seals Ganondorf. Like… what is this mess? Why did we get barely anything of them??
I swear I’m gonna die mad about this, the zonai had so much potential, especially in regard to enriching pre-established Sheikah lore and they just didn’t do anything with them! They were made to be re-skinned Sheikah and then discarded the second the devs didn’t need them anymore and I hate it so much.
Awesome essay, really well produced and edited! Although to me, the voiceover audio felt a bit speed up? In the end, you sum it all. It is a great game that could have been so much more... I hope nintendo can do something next time, or if they are smart perhaps even a DLC that could fit in that in-between moment...
15:23 the "AnCiEnT LiTeRaTuRe" cracks me up everytime xD
22:57 the way you explained the gameplay structure of WW and Tokt was really neat. made me realize even more how different new and old zelda are. You put into words what i kinds knew or felt, but couldnt 100% point it out. something to add is also how difficult the balancing acts between these 2 versions is here.
If you design shrines to be only completable after aquiring a Special Item, then the player would need to travel ungodly amounts of paths to "get item, go back to location, repeat". this works in a smaller world i think, but it would get frustating ove rthe span of the game.
The open world design; giving the players all tools at the beginning; also makes Bosses piss easy. You cant design them for special items, so every boss has to be killable by the start gear, which results in stupid cheese tactics that once you know them, they ruin the gameplay...
What i would have loved is this: The "Temples" once you completed them, grant you new abilities (like they kinda give you) and then its a bait. You got the spirit stone of the region and the hazards dont go away. As it turns out: each region has a 2nd true Temple on a different location. The 2nd Water temple is in the Zora Ruins below the Sea, that you needed to go to enter the Sky Water Temple (which would be a 100% better location choice for a fucking "WATER" Temple. Nintendo must have felt smart "hehe look! water temple in sky! look! very unique!"), and then you proceed to enter content that wasnt available before. Make this event also trigger new "shrines" that werent there before, that play with the new ability and your physic knowledge of said region.
ALSO: PLS FOR GODS SAKE! Make a better scaling system! Make the Demon Army a REAL fight outside on hyrule field! When i saw Mineru's cutscene of Ganon riding his Horse [ 29:50 ], i thought that was also the finaly! I mean: WHY THE FOUCK do we see new Soldiers going to Lookout-landing, when nothing happens there? They implemented this neat little "help the armies out" on the map, but then didnt made a nice NPC final fight? HUH? Then what was the point of "oh wow.. we sadly cant send you soldiers to lookout-landing because our hazard hinders us.... Oh! the hazard is gone! We can now send our soldiers there!."
WHAT WAS THE POINT PF THIS??! ( i guess the switch would just melt when this army fight would happen xD; but knowing the Zelda team, they would find a solution. make all more low poly. unload the map and make a red flame circle around hyrile field to hide it, dunno).
Imagine if you could gear them up more and more. This would make "getting the 100th same sword out of a "TrEaSuRe" chest worth the time spend. You would be happy getting another Royal Sword, and then grind Lynels to fuse them and give this to your NPCs...
Also: Why are the light roots so useless? The Reward of getting all is...... a Medal..... A MEDAL?. How about: X-Amount of light roots triggers a special Phantom-Ganon/Darknut/"insert middle boss" fight you have to deal with. and each time you succed, "the demon's forces got weakened" and each light root actually effects the final battle a little. Why is that good?
Make the Demon Army and Ganondorf + Boss Rush UNGODLY HARD. This will please players who like challenges. And players who notice "oh. im to undergeared or weak or bad" can then start exploring more light roots, get more gear, do the "Temples" and get their Army ready.
But no... This "Army" feature was just a throwaway Toy, like many other new gameplay elements.
We get Sky Island? How about we copy the same "rotate this bridge" a million times! Players would enjoy many sky islands? NAH! We only do 2 big regions! One is the tutorial, the 2nd can accidently be skipped completly aka. Mineru island x) -Aonuma
How about we add caves! But every cave is just "destroy X-amount of stone for 10 hours, then kill monkey with long ass sticks, then get tingles 3rd underwear, or Ganon's used socks after he saw Rauru the first time, and a snowflake to satisfy this one weird fetishist who wants to be a glowing rabbit". cool. how engaging. Players will love smashing Rocks for gazzillion of times. I bet! -Aonuma
How about we re-add Koroks, and this time we have backpack bois (i love them. pls dont crucify xD ), but the Korok golden poop is as useless as ever before. Imagine.... but thats a stretch... if only.... if only you could get Maronus as some sort of a companion after finding x-amount of Koroks... i wonder if a companion feature would work... maybe make Maronus grow out this cool wood gear with special properties... OH. Oh if only we had a Companion feature already as inspiration in Totk!... NAH!! Noone wants Korok Poop to have a good use lmao. drop that idea. -Aonuma
Wow lets add the Depths! But instead of creating new content, we put resources there to annoy players who want to get more battery and use autobuild! AMAZING! Make the Players feel forced to enter there to farm gazillion of camps to get zonai, so they can poop out 3 autobuilds, then be forced to reenter, which feels like slave labor to have 5 minutes of fun..... Wait what? Players want actual content? What? We could add the lost shikah tech there and the 4 Divine Beast as ruins and make players be joyfull when they find their first Glooom-Invested-Guardian? NAH! We Just Smash Every Single Chest With The Amiibo Items From BOTW! They will love it! -Aonuma
[ imagine the instinctive reaction when e "gloomed remix" of the guardian music would start and then you witness the true terror of a Gloom Guardian. Imagine not Re-using your best enemy from the previous game. Only at Nintendo ]
How is every idea thrown into the meatgrinder in this game? Is the Zelda team really happy with this half-assed result?
Oh. One easy fix: You Can NOT see tears out of order! Make them always in order, no matter which tear you collect NINTENDO!!!
Cool. i saw a corpse of a Women and Ganondorf transforms into Demise. cool. WHAT THE FUCK JSUT HAPPENED?
Oh! That Women was Sonia! She was a mother figure for Zelda for 2 minutes! Ah. ty. if only i could have bonded with here before i see HER FUCKING CORPSE AS MY FIRST SCENE. x)
Only at Nintendo.
Edit: Maybe to get some positive stuff in here. Totk is probably my most favourite game. My vanilla playtime is 180 hours, increasing with my 2 modded playthroughs. I like the bagpack korok missions, i like monster camps and how much stupid stuff i can do to have fun. totk is an improvement to botw, but issues stay issues.
About the whole ghost thing, I don’t think Rauru disappears after you beat the Great Sky Island. I believe his spirit went back into his arm to follow Link on his journey.
As for Sonia, since it was Sonia’s secret stone that Ganondorf stole, I think Ganondorf somehow trapped Sonia’s soul inside the secret stone, and when we destroy the Demon dragon, along with the secret stone, it frees Sonia’s soul.
To be fair Zelda was stuck in the past the whole game eventually turning into a dragon and what i feel like what was done better in botw/totk than Naruto is that if Link and Zelda were in a relationship it would make sense because in botw they didn't start out as lovers but eventually came to that through time as we can see in the memories and it looks less one sided since Link spends alot of time with Zelda and opens up to her and he hasn't done that with any other characters of my knowledge not even Mipha and Kass already stated that Zelda loved Link and in totk there are multiple hints that they are in a mutual relationship that didn't start from nowhere like Naruto and Hinata like Links house, a certain memory, and the ending so I think both of the story shows really good character development and growth I also wanted a kiss at the end of totk but than again the game is E for everyone at the end of it all i think it was a pretty good story just some minor tweaks would have made it better but Nintendo usually focus on gameplay story second
Your entire argument about that recon is EXACTLY what i thought as it happened
Hats off to your masterclass about world building. Very interesting and informative. Thank you
This video made me finally realize why I prefer BOTWs story over TOTK. BOTW focuses heavily on the loss and sacrifice of the champions. Each DB location showed the relationship between Link and the champions, the entire world building was built around a battle already lost. I cared more to free Zelda from hyrule castle knowing she was trapped in a hundred year stale mate with ganon. All anticipation to save Zelda in TOTK faded when I saw her having a tea party with her foster parents and it faded even more when I learned she was *supposedly* stuck as a dragon forever. TOTK has fun gameplay and a great world but imo, BOTW will always have the better story, tone and motivation even though you start the game just before what is technically the third act of the overall story.
(This contains somewhat spoilers to a few of the side quests so I’m placing a warning if anyone cares)
After watching the essay video it got me thinking about the ancient hyrule text in the sky and like you mentioned the Clover Gazette. It may have just been meant to be there to be just another side quest but it felt like there was meant to be more with it to build on the story. Recently I had completed the Typhlo Ruins side adventure quests, thinking there was going to be something to add to the story since it needed the power of the sages to progress, and all it gave was an NPC giving a few items that i had plenty of, a decent weapon (the dusk claymore), and just bunch of text that just reiterating what we already knew. I sat there for a sec thinking “that’s it?” And just feeling unsatisfied. Especially when it felt like we got more with the Lurelin Village quest which was its own contained thing. Idk to me it seemed like there could have been more when it felt like the side adventures were being somewhat intertwined with the main story. I love this game but I really think you’re right with how unsatisfactory the ending really feels, especially when it felt like there is just so much more that could be done. Love your essay videos! They really feel immersing and allow me to rethink how I first viewed the game and get me thinking in new ways, I can’t wait to see more videos in the future!!!
I REALLY appreciate you using eloquent wording and avoiding foul language. It is a major relief for me to be able to watch you and not feel like my ears are being insulted every 5 seconds! Subbed!
The why and how Sonia appeared to me is the same to why did we see the ghost of Roam in Breath of the wild- I assume some sort of force ghost power spirit/will lets it happen
It might have benefited from a callback to Sonia explaining Recall as "Remembering what it used to be" And perhaps she needed the combined power to do that.
I am curious what more accurate translations of these scenes would be like!
Might come back to this and edit a large dump like on the first video~
I think it would have been so much better if Zelda's restoration was a secret ending that had to be earned, kinda like the Dream No More / Radiance ending in Hollow Knight. Maybe the basic ending would be Zelda just flying off afterward, and you'd need to unlock the real one by completing a hidden quest. Say you go talk to Impa and she mentions something about ancient magic, so you start following breadcrumbs and eventually unlock an artifact or something that has the power to reverse draconification, unknown to Rauru and Mineru's time. Maybe you'd find it in the Zonai Ruins in Faron - the ones that were supposed to be built after Rauru's time and feature the swirl motif that some have theorized symboilzes the Light Dragon.
Ganondorf was a little disappointing, yeah. I always imagined a possible BOTW sequel seeing him go to Gerudo Town and throw Riju off the throne, not sit in a dark pit all game and spout a boilerplate villain speech.
One thing that really bugged me that i found mineru wiest by mistake not knowing that there was a whole quest line for finding it, which i did late. But what is really werid is they locked it behind talking to purah, so why did they not lock it behind having to do the fifth sage quest line so people like me don't have to back track and do a quest leading to something they already did
Random, but I may not know the full english lines in english, but in german Ganondorf basically starts his speech with "Back in MY time..."
And i just think it's pretty funny-
He's such a boomer lol
I feel so sorry for everyone playing the English dub. The German one is way more acurate
12:03 The Emerald Tablet
Its Alchemy, Shintoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Astrology, Cosmology, Wuxing etc. In short. Metaphysics. So im not surprised. The Bargainer statues exist to ferry souls to the after life, so thats why we see Sonia and Rauru at the end. They came back. Sonia is a descendent of Hylia.
Theres more to the story than we see and i think it has to do with the ancient hero, and zelda being the fortune teller.
Link had to put all the sages power in that gauntlet on his right hand. it was made to hold all 5 elements. Which in BotW its Wuxing while in this game its closer to another form of alchemy. were the 5th element is called Aether. FF7 has it too, its called the Life stream. And in an interview with Fujibayashi he even called it "Feng Shui" which is Qi which is in DBZ! and yes... you know right where im going with this.
Naruto Chakra. In fact a Game over jesse video shows that the sheikah tech and slate in botw was not in the bulid that was shown live with aonuma and miyamoto in (Wii U - The Legend of Zelda - Gameplay First Look from The Game Awards 9 years ago) and in a cut image still in the final build is link doing hand signs.
Those are real hand prays ninja used called the Kuji kiri and i assume thats how the runes was gonna work before the slate was incorporated. Magnesis fits perfectly with Wuxing, chinese alchemy philosphy. which is what feng shui also is about. its all like a giant circle. Yea i been doin vids and livestreams of this stuff too. lol its super fascinating! And a lot of shintoism has a lot of these in common.
i cant believe i was right when i guessed alchemy before tears came out.
great video! I completely agree with pretty much all of the points made, glad to see that someone feels the same way about some of the things in this game.
I wish that Ganondorf was given more characterization but he's still a great villain for the series. I agree Zelda should have been given more opportunities to connect with Link and I wish that the fifth sage hadn't been Mineru again and instead another Sheikah. I'm surprised you didn't really mention how Tears of the Kingdom retconned Ocarina of Time severely but maybe that's for another video?
I think Sonia is able to have a force ghost because, even though she isn't Zonai, she is special as the ancestor of the Hylians - hence why we see statues of Rauru and Sonia in all of the shrines, and they're able to offer blessings of light to Link
(also shoutout to my favorite zelda ghost, the ghost of zelda in spirit tracks)
Is the title a play on Joseph Anderson's "Not Enough Zelda"?
Lol, I approve
It is! I admire him and his work very much :)
Great video and I love that you went back to finish the game. This is a great explainer on why saying "It's a Nintendo game, what did you expect" is so narrow minded. People often forget that disappointment doesn't come from the end result, but from the promises that set up expectations for said results. Also just minor nitpick in the video from my perspective, at 13:33 you say that the big Recall with Rauru and Sonia is time travel problematic as if time travel of any sense like FTL travel or deterministic timeline is not a problem. If someone tells a story with time travel in it you already have to go in with some suspended disbelief. This stood out for me, because every other point you make is elaborated upon nicely and this one is more like an offhand comment. You mention paralel universes and the butterfly effect as if that didn't come into the picture the moment we lerned that time powers exist in this game.
This is true- I intentionally limited it to a comment cus it was out of scope. Diving into that would push the video into timeline theories and well beyond the already long runtime of almost 40 minutes. Would make a fun video though to do a deep dive on the potential ramifications.
AMAZING video you did an incredible job on this game. I think your proposed solution before made a lot of sense. In addition to Mineru; have the sages come together to save zelda in the main plot line as SHE IS A SAGE the game makes this EXTREMELY clear as Zelda in the temple of time gives you her sage power in the same way as everyone else.
Then all they have to do for the ending is have zelda transform into a dragon again for magic reasons; make it a temporary form due to the stakes of the story basically. Maybe even Rauru could use his light power to enable her dragon form temporarily. The only problem is that the big climax of saving zelda would happen earlier and they would need a different final climax but I don’t know what could have been as impactful
I really liked the story in this game and I feel like a big part of that was that the story does have all of the key moments, you just have to hit them in the correct order at the correct time. I was luckily able to do that, but it really is the fault of the game that it’s so easy not to. I finished the dragon’s tears quest in the middle of the regional phenomenon quests, which while depressing for me and Link, Impa’s talk about looking for a way to reverse it gave me some hope. Going through the rest of the A plot then felt like I was also searching for a way to bring Zelda back, not just to save Hyrule. I would still say it would be better to lock the final tear to once you finish the 4 areas though, as that would have made phantom Zelda at least a little believable then, and it would’ve made for much greater impact due to Link and the player just getting the last tear then. And in turn, the big dark night of the soul moment for me came when I pulled the master sword. I was following the story cues for all of the quests, so I only picked up the master sword right at the end of the game. So after all of this hope I had built up, it got squashed seeing Link get the master sword and watch as Zelda flew off screen, away from us. This to me, felt just as sad if not more so than the final dragon tear because it cemented the weight of all that has happened. And with the only main story quest left being destroy Ganondorf, it showed just how much Link had lost. And it made me want to rush to Ganondorf all the more. This made the story really great and impactful for me, I just wish they had made it a locked event so all players could have experienced what I did.
As someone who did the dragon tears quest before regional phenomena, I felt the EXACT same way you did. Going into the final act, my prediction was that there was going to be some way for us to go back in time and retrieve a past zelda who hadn't yet turned into the dragon, maybe a zelda that didn't even remember rauru, sonia, or mineru. It would make getting her back bittersweet, and would mean that dragon-zelda's sacrifice still carried the same weight.
When we just kinda turned her back without explanation I was happy, but it wasn't as satisfying as I wanted it to be. Maybe if they had actually used the same clock-ticking noises and visual effects as recall and shown link straining to go back in time far enough to return Zelda to her hylian form, we even see some of the memories of zelda as he does, and maybe even a line in the beginning from Rauru hinting that link will need recall to save Zelda in some cryptic way, then the whole magic-recall thing to turn her back would have been far more satisfying and felt earned imo.
You could even have Impa actually show up in Kakariko after the dragon tears quest (I also looked for her) and say that she's still checking the ancient literature or whatever and it all unequivocally states there is absolutely no way to reverse it, and she says man if only we could like, reverse time or something.
And also I was literally screaming at my screen when he wouldn't even hug her or reach out a hand to help her get up like cmon!!!
I've just watched the three TOTK videos, and it was brilliant. The depth (aha!) and meticulousness of your analysis is amazing. Buuuuuut, as much as I agree with a lot, if not all of it, I do have a small nuance, or at least a different point of view, to add to the Dragon Tears Quest.
I completed it quite early in my gameplay, somewhere between the 2nd and 3rd Sage, and I also made the mistake of grabbing the Master Sword BEFORE finishing the Tears' Quest (but I had such a hard time getting to the Light Dragon, once I got there there was no way I was leaving without the sword). So, not the most ideal and logical way of discovering the climax of this quest. BUT, while Link and the NPCs don't seem to process this grief, I, the player, was absolutely devastated, like ugly crying with the box of tissues.
And I really think it fueled the rest of my game time: getting to the other Sages and diving into the Depths to kick the ass of the Hot Bad Guy who messed with my world and my girl.
Sure, in terms of pure story telling and grief inside the story, I do get that it is a bit clumsy, and that it lacked of coherence. But , at least on my own individual experience, it broke the frontier between the game and the player, and the grief and anger the characters seemed to lack, I was filled with it.
BUT! It is my very own individual experience, and in no way a universal truth.
Amazing job on your videos, I look forward to see what you will do next!