Yesterday Nintendo of America has released a commercial for Tears of the Kingdom, which shows how normal people will potentially be playing the game, either by being dumb, very outspoken, or backseating each other. An earlier version of this commercial already got "leaked" some days ago, but I've been waiting for the official one.
It includes some new footage of the game, where there are two interesting points that I want to talk about. Well, originally, there only was one and that's what you can see above: they have confirmed the name of the dragon that we saw in the previous two trailers. As every Zelda fan out there has already expected, this is indeed a Gleeok, but specifically a "Flame Gleeok".
It's an overworld boss on the Bridge of Hylia, which indicates that there will be more of them and different types, just like the Talus and Hinox in Breath of the Wild. Given the impressive size I would argue that there probably won't be as many, but that would be a good thing, because having the same boss copy pasted 40 times over with a few modifications isn't exactly exciting.
Anyway, there might be default Gleeoks without any elemental powers and there is probably going to be an ice variant, maybe also a lightning or a Malice variant, we will see. And they potentially might come with a different number of heads. But I'd love if there were more unique, so one of each type, instead of having a three-headed Flame Gleeok on Bridge Hylia and then another one around Death Mountain.
Instead I'd like to see a higher variety with the overworld bosses in general. Going with the Death Mountain example, there could be a Dodongo boss waiting there for you, and the thought of having more threatening monsters wandering Hyrule is actually quite spooky. The Talus and Hinox were mainly stationary, so they don't attack you unless you go near them...
Only the Molduga gave you a certain thrill in Breath of the Wild, where an entire area became a dead zone. You knew that this was their turf and if you step into their radius, you're up for a fight. I'd like to see more of that and the Flame Gleeok already looks like it owns the Bridge of Hylia in its entirety.
Plus, it probably won't be a simple fight. In the original (and Oracle of Seasons) you had to cut off all its heads, which then continued to attack you on their own. But this thing here looks massive and it's actually flying, where this won't be an easy task.
Unlike most scenes in the commercial, this doesn't take place in the early game. Instead the player already has 17 Heart Containers in total... which are still in one row, indicating that you will be able to get more of them in Tears of the Kingdom. But this makes you wonder how you will acquire them... While we have seen these green spiral stones everywhere, there is no indication that these will be anything more than just warp points so far.
And I could imagine that we won't be getting Spirit Orbs in Tears of the Kingdom, which were Pieces of Hearts essentially. Instead, we could be getting Heart Containers and Stamina Vessels directly. And how would you obtain them? Well, this brings us back to the Flame Gleeok that we can see above... Why would you even fight such a terrifying monster? So you can pass the bridge?
What was actually the incentive to fight the overworld bosses in Breath of the Wild? Well, the Talus gave lots of ores, but you can find those elsewhere. Some Hinox had to be defeated to enter shrines, but only a few of them. You also need their materials here and there, but the only real reason to truly fight them all was obtaining all medals from Kilton, but that's something only completionists are doing, the type of crazy players who collect all 900 Korok Seeds (like me).
So, the answer is: for the most time there was no real incentive. But what if they dropped Heart Containers or Stamina Vessels? Well, now we're having a good reason to go for them as early as possible! Your first Heart Container may even come from one of these big box Constructs:
This could be your final test in the tutorial. Well, not exactly this one, because in the above shot Link already wears his new Champion's Tunic, which means that this probably takes place after the tutorial. But there probably will be multiple of these box golems on the sky islands, waiting to be defeated, so you can claim their price.
It's an interesting concept, because it makes you confront tougher enemies, instead of avoiding them. I'm noticing in my current playthrough of Breath of the Wild how I put most overworld bosses aside, to deal with them later. Especially since each of them adds to your score, which scales enemies in the game and I don't want that to happen too quickly. As a result, I'm very picky about what fights I'm going to take in the early game.
But if these bosses gave you something meaningful, like more health and stamina, you are really going to evaluate if this a fight that you want to take now, instead of later. The more I think about it, the more I like this concept. The whole purpose of caves and sky islands that act as seamless mini-dungeons could be to hide one of these bosses away. We haven't seen an equivalent to the Sheikah Shrines yet and maybe that's because there isn't one and you progress in a more "traditional" fashion of getting Heart Containers and Stamina Vessels from bosses.
Of course you could also get something akin to the Spirit Orbs from defeating the bosses, where you would need four of them for a container. Given that there were already 84 overworld bosses in Breath of the Wild, this probably isn't a stretch. And this way you would still have the choice of what to upgrade first, your health or your stamina. But this would also mean that they you're going to have to hunt for four bosses in the tutorial alone, which might be a bit much.
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