Tears of the Kingdom Adventure Log, Entry 1

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has been released today and of course I will write my "travel blog" through the new, old Hyrule, as I usually do with a new Zelda title. This is what this blog is primarily for, after all. This will be called "Adventure Log", mirroring the same thing for Breath of the Wild back in 2017.

And it feels surreal to finally play the sequel, after all these years of mystery and speculation. I have just finished the tutorial phase, where I thought that this is a good point to share my initial impressions, which have been mixed so far. But this was the same when I've first played played Breath of the Wild – the game that quickly became my absolute favorite in the series.

Each post should start by giving you a rough idea where I'm in the game, where I will talk freely about what was happening afterwards, so beware of potential spoilers. I will use spoiler boxes for the real hefty stuff, but they won't be the norm. My advice is to stay away from this blog as long as you're still experiencing the game on your own, since I probably won't be doing anything else for a while.

Also, please refrain from telling me things yourself, like what's going to happen or what I should check out. I will be asking a lot of questions when I'm writing down my thoughts, but keep in mind that I want to find the answers myself. I'm open to small tips and such things, but please don't spoil major things in the comments and please don't tell where I should be heading. Thanks!

Like with Breath of the Wild, I have actually taken some vacation for this game. Unlike Breath of the Wild, it will be a little more than ten days... I have one month of vacation ahead of me! Now, "only" half of it is reserved for this game, where I'm hoping to finish the story in this time frame, but no pressure. If Breath of the Wild was any indication, I will probably keep playing this for the remainder of the year anyway to collect all Korok Seeds and stuff.

 

Going in Not-So-Blindly

Before we start, let me clarify what I've already seen about the game in advance, just to a paint a picture of what I might know already, because this will put my upcoming thoughts in the right context. Well, I covered most of the things that I saw on this blog, so this will just be a summary of that. But with the leaks, previews, and reviews there has been a massive difference in media consumption for everyone, and here's where I stand.

So, I've seen the recent commercials and all five trailers for the game, where I've over-analyzed the last one to a point that it might have created some false expectations, just like with Breath of the Wild. I have seen the gameplay footage from Eiji Anoma, and I followed Nintendo on Twitter, where they have presented some additional gameplay glimpses as well, but nothing major. This doesn't include anything shown since yesterday.

I have looked at a few pages from the leaked artbook, which revealed some environmental stuff and armor items which weren't showcased in any of the other official stuff, and I stopped there right away. But I also have heard the name of the big mystery character from the trailers, which put some things into perspective (not that this is a big secret in the game, it gets revealed right away), and I have briefly skipped through the real artbook to see that the print is alright.

What I have completely avoided are any previews and reviews from the media, save for some thumbnails with small'ish spoilers on Youtube, where I've learned that shrines are back. I also haven't watched the Nintendo Treehouse Live stream yesterday or any Let's Play stuff that is already available. Most importantly, I also didn't have any contact whatsoever with the leaked game, which has been in the wild since the beginning of the month.

With all that I hadn't seen the beginning of the game before playing, which had me very excited, so let's get to this...

Into the Depths

There were two possible scenarios of how the game could have started, where either it would work exactly the same as in Breath of the Wild, where you wake up after some disaster has happened, or you would actually play the part where Link and Zelda explore the undergrounds of Hyrule Castle, as seen in the original teaser trailer from 2019.

Well, I was convinced that it would be the former and surprised to find myself in the latter scenario. You start next to Zelda and you both descend through some dark caves, until you finally find Ganondorf, the source of the "gloom" that has been emitting from the depths underneath Hyrule Castle.

This whole part felt heavily dumbed down when compared to what they originally showcased, however. In the teaser trailer it looked like an extensive journey, where they made use of some large creature during one part. I wonder if that even made it into the final game... Maybe those are different memories that will be shown later, where I would love to hear what happened to the Sheikah Slate and all that. Or maybe they simply cut it short, because this part plays out before the actual game begins and that's not really a good thing. It was simply a playable cutscene and completely linear.

But it's actually cool to start a Zelda game with a beefed up Link for once, where this felt a bit similar to some Metroid titles, even though there you don't start with lots of Energy Tanks. Here you get the full 30 Heart Containers and three Stamina Wheels, something that isn't even possible to achieve in Breath of the Wild, because you will be at least two short, three without the DLC. But this shows that Link has still grown a bit since the last game.

You still have the Master Sword, but it's not fully awakened, so it only starts to glow after some point, once you get closer to the Malice. And you get the new version of the Champion's Tunic and some other known armor pieces. But otherwise you're blank. No Sheikah Slate, no Champion abilities, you can't even access the inventory during this part...

Zelda, the Zelda Theorist

The best part about the intro was how Zelda turned out to be like any Zelda geek out there, who is absolutely fangirling about her Zonai discovery and a telling of an Imprisoning War. I've expected as much after the final trailer and it's nice that they are actually calling this the "Imprisoning War", but I don't necessarily think that this is meant to be the Imprisoning War that took place at the start of the Downfall Timeline, after Link fell in Ocarina of Time. I think this is going to be a different Imprisoning War, the last one before the events of the Great Calamity from 10,000 years ago.

Also, the murals talk about the foundation of Hyrule, where it is obviously different from what we know from Skyward Sword and Hyrule Historia, but I think this is simply meant to be a new Hyrule, created long after the Hyrule from the "Age of Mystery", where the Zonai might have given the people on earth some inspirations.

The rest of the murals were blocked by rocks that obviously can be destroyed with bombs or something similar, where after having played Breath of the Wild for over 100 hours in the last weeks it felt quite naked to not have the Sheikah Slate with its Bomb Rune at the ready. But it's clear that this is a place where you will return to later to learn some more of the truth. My guess is that the obscured murals are showing the Zelda from our time in the events of the Imprisoning War. (Again, please don't tell me! I will find out myself.)

But it's really nice to spend some time together with Zelda and be able to interact with her. In the intro of Tears of the Kingdom you already spend more time with her than in the entirety of Breath of the Wild.

Hello, Zelda and Link

The Ganondorf in this game has the potential to become the best Ganondorf yet, simply because of his knowledge. He knows things that were long forgotten: the Triforce, the Sacred Realm, and all that. And this puts him in a unique position, where it can already give you the chills when he calls out Zelda and Link by name. This is not his first rodeo – he knows who he is dealing with. But they don't know.

But knowledge isn't his only power, where it also leaves an impression how his malice simply eats away almost all of Link's hearts. It paints Ganondorf as a much scarier villain than Calamity Ganon already, and it also serves as a neat explanation as to why Link is back to three hearts again, while he still has the Master Sword... what's left of it, anyway.

The Great Sky Plateau

After the intro, we finally wake up in the "Room of Awakening" –  what a very subtle name. Other than the light level, it's like the polar opposite to the Shrine of Resurrection, where it's just an old cave with some tree roots and decayed stoneworks. This is true in many ways for the rest of the tutorial. It's the exact same framework, really, but executed in a completely different way.

The biggest difference is that it's seemingly entirely linear. With the Great Plateau you could go absolutely anywhere right after leaving the Shrine of Resurrection. The four shrines can only be entered after activating the tower on the plateau, but that's the only prerequisite for something. Everything else is just you exploring and doing things in any way you like.

After leaving the Room of Awakening, however, you have a clear path laid out for you. I first tried climbing back up again, which resulted in my first silly death, because my stamina ran out and I didn't land back in the water... What makes it even stupider is that the game already told you that you will be able to warp back up there later on. The blue circle on the ground and the portal sound from Breath of the Wild made this very clear, so I don't even know why I wanted to see if I can climb back up...

I also tried jumping off the sky islands to get to certain others below me, but the game would just act like there is a bottomless abyss below me and reset me. You have to talk to the first Steward Construct and activate the bridge first.

And this caught me a bit by surprise. Ever since the second teaser trailer, I believed that the Zonai Construct that we saw back then was some giant golem enemy. I believed it to be an Eyegore from A Link to the Past...

Now it turned out that this was just a very close close-up of the Steward Constructs that are entirely friendly. I'm a bit disappointed about this, not going to lie, because for years I believed that we're going to fight this seemingly huge thing. Now it just talks... and it is quite small, or at least smaller than I imagined.

You have to fight a Construct before it and that didn't go so well, because I had already used up the Master Sword and the only tree branch in my inventory broke before I could defeat the enemy, so for a while I was just running away from it until I could find another... It was funny, but probably not the way the game meant to introduce you to fighting.

Anyway, the Steward Construct is also where you are introduced to the "Purah Pad", the new Sheikah Slate replacement, which was invented by Purah. I love the name, that's just hilarious and it's nice that they stuck with the alliterations. But it essentially just gives you the same map functionality as in Breath of the Wild, without re-introducing all the runes from that game. (I will miss you, Master Cycle Zero.)

Your first goal is to reach the ancient Temple of Time, where I love that the game confirmed another theory of mine within its first minutes. It also acts as a bell tower in the morning and evening, so it actually tells you the time for the first time, that's really clever. But it also creates a unique atmosphere, where Breath of the Wild didn't have anything like it.

Now, I did get sidetracked somewhat before heading to the temple, where I found my first Korok in some ruins. The dialogue is exactly the same as with your first Korok in Breath of the Wild, which I found odd, since they should know Link by now after 900 encounters. I hope that at least Hestu will remember you...

I then went into the snowy area, because you could easily cook up some Spicy Peppers and there is nothing from stopping you. (Link hums now the classic Zelda tune while cooking, that's lovely!) This detour gave me the Energy Cell already, but otherwise it was just a long-winded dead-end, where I had to return and wasn't really happy about this. This was like an antithesis to Breath of the Wild, which embraced the full freedom. Now you have unclimbable ice walls and a clear path forward that the game wants you to take...

Once at the Temple of Time, Rauru introduces himself to you, who will be your main guide during the tutorial. Again, this is pretty much the opposite to the old man in Breath of the Wild, who hid is identity and even the fact that he is just a spirit. But I like it, it's straight to the point and Rauru is giving me Sidon vibes with the way how he is dealing with Link.

Of course the name of the character should ring bells, like the Temple of Time does, where he was obviously one of the Sages during the Imprisoning War mentioned in the intro. Unlike the Rauru who we knew from Ocarina of Time, he is from the mystical Zonai tribe, however, who have left the Constructs and lots of machinery.

They seemingly also have been the inspiration or potentially the source for the Sheikah technology, where both can clearly connect and the shrines are very similar in concept. So, the vortex stones, which we kept seeing in the newer trailers, truly were actual shrines and not just warp points and the play out in almost the same way. They open a portal into a rock, which looks really cool and leads you into some place very similar to the Sheikah Shrines. Only that at the end you are always greeted by mechanical statues of Rauru and the Zelda/Hylia from the ancient era, which is unintentionally funny to me. They look like a comedy duo.

"Today on the Hyrule Show, will the hero manage to solve this tricky puzzle where you have to light a torch to open a door? You might be laughing, but they say that this is how things got done in the Hyrule of old!"

The purpose of the shrines on the "Great Sky Island" is to teach Link his new abilities and also reward him with Light of Blessing, the new Spirit Orbs, where they remove some of the corruption in Link's arm in addition. And I wonder how things will be going forward... For the Sheikah Shrines there was always the idea of the Sheikah Monks testing the hero, where it made sense in the context of the game, even though some of it was absolutely ludicrous, where they were trying to murder the hero instead. Here it seems more like Rauru simply wants to help the hero, but this will make absolutely no sense if the future shrines will become death traps at some point.

They also look a lot more dull in comparison, where I feel like the game could and should have tried different things altogether. With the Koroks and shrines it feels like they are simply doing the same thing again, but different.

And making things more linear is not the "different" that I'm looking for. I could be wrong here, but it looked like there was an intentional order for all four shrines during the tutorial. Obviously, you have to do the first three in order to reach the last one. But it also seemed like you have to get the Ultrahand before the other abilities. Similar to Magnesis, you are pointed towards the first shrine with this ability. But unlike Magnesis, using Ultrahand is your best tool to reach the other two shrines.

With how much utility every ability offers, it's kind of understandable that they were going for a more linear tutorial, where you truly learn how to use them. Bombs, Stasis, and such were a lot more simple and straight-forward. But here you have to master a variety of possibilities with each new skill, which is probably why they wanted you to do things in a certain order that encourages the usage of your latest addition.

I think you still might be able to to clear the three shrines in any order, but this might be challenging and there is clearly an intentional order. As already mentioned, the northeastern part of the cold area won't let you get to the shrine there, so you will ultimately get past by the Fuse ability shrine and then use this to traverse the caves to the third shrine.

The caves were clearly the highlight of this, where I was surprised to find so many on the sky islands already. I love the idea of those Blupee toads (forgot the name, had to check it out: Bubbul Frogs), where you can find one inside each dark cave and get some unique collectible out of it. That's a lot more like what I wanted out of this game – seamless mini-dungeons and completely new things, though I hope that this type of monster will offer some more variety in the long run.

The "Bottomless Cave" also brought back some blasts from the past with Bomb Flowers and Like Likes, where the latter are a real beast now, but at least they are stationary (so far). And it makes so much sense to have Bomb Flowers as a material, now that endless Sheikah Slate Bombs aren't a thing any longer and that you can fuse materials to everything and anything. Speaking of...

Fuse and Attach

The Fuse ability is really something... and it feels like the right answer to the durability system, without getting rid of the durability system. When I first got a Stone Axe, I actually believed that this is some sort of new unbreakable weapon, but it actually was just a fused weapon, which come with a lot of durability. Though, the fused part might break off prematurely, depending on what you've fused together.

There really is a limit of two fused items, where I wonder why the game even gives you the option to still press either the Y or ZR buttons on a fused weapon or shield while holding Fuse... It just seems unnecessary. And I quickly ran into the problem that I've fused everything in my inventory to something, so that I couldn't fuse good stuff any longer, where I wish that there was a "de-fuse", so to say.

But otherwise the game has really streamlined a lot of things that I've always wanted for Breath of the Wild. You can now sort stuff during the quick select. You can even drop stuff during the quick select. And when you open a treasure chest with something on a full inventory you can now just quickly drop whatever you don't want anymore to take the chest's content. It's a dream! This already solves the biggest issue that I had with the weapon system in Breath of the Wild.

Oh, and the inventory can finally be navigated via the L and R buttons, while each section is expanded vertically instead of having multiple, horizontal pages. It's so much better than the previous navigation with the right stick... And it displays now your current location on the map during the loading screens. That's such a good idea!

With the Ultrahand you can also finally turn things via the R button, which wasn't possible with Magnesis. It's small improvements like this that really make the game shine at the moment. I demand a patch for Breath of the Wild that applies all these improvements, immediately! Well, that's not going to happen, because they could still theoretically update the Wii U version and certainly don't want that. But if Breath of the Wild ever were to get remastered, then they should apply a lot of those changes.

But even with all the better handling, I still struggled to cross over the broken railway... I tried to do it like in the one commercial, but it usually just fell off, until at some point I just somehow made it. There seems to be too much freedom with the attaching, where the game struggled to keep the minecarts fixed on the rails.

I loved the Korok puzzle there, though, where you have to bring the backpack Korok to a friend via the Ultrahand. It was hilarious. It probably won't be hilarious for the tenth time, however. But there seems to be a good variety of new and old puzzles. One of the major problems with the Koroks in Breath of the Wild was that there was a lot of repetition. So, I'm excited to see what else they came up with.

There was also a dandelion puzzle, where you have to catch the flying flower. And the puzzle with bringing two Koroks together even gave you two Korok Seeds at once, so that's worth it.

Modes, Modes, Modes

During all of this I was missing Hero's Path Mode, which becomes available very early in Breath of the Wild. The sky islands are a bit more confusing than the Great Plateau and I would have loved to see where I've been going. I hope that this will be an unlockable feature for the Purah Pad later on, and not something that will be sold as DLC.

But I'm hopeful that there isn't any pre-planned DLC this time, since they haven't announced anything yet. With Breath of the Wild we already had the first bit of the Expansion Pass on launch, where you had the Nintendo Switch Shirt and some other goodies in chests on the Great Plateau.

Master Mode is also not an option, but this might be something that you can unlock by beating the game. This always sucks for people who want to start with the highest difficulty, but I wouldn't mind, because I always play the "Normal Mode" first in a Zelda game.

On a site note, the "Pro Mode" for the HUD has changed, where it doesn't show anything any longer, not even the hearts or status effects. Only when you get hit, the hearts will be visible. This mode is awesome for screenshots, so I do like it, but I still would have liked a middle mode based on what we had in Breath of the Wild.

 

Tool Time

After the first three shrines, you can enter the Temple of Time, but there is another door that works like the Master Sword in Breath of the Wild: it will kill you if you try to open it with too few Heart Containers. I have a feeling that this won't be the last one and it will be used as means to prevent progression into tougher challenges later on.

Well, because you have to get one more blessing for a full Heart Container, the game then leads you to one more tutorial shrine, this time for the Recall ability, which you get in advance from a tear. It's very much highlighted how this is completely different from the three main abilities that you get from Rauru, where here it creates this symbol on your gauntlet.

Abilities must now be selected by holding down L, where I'm still not used to this and I keep pressing up on the D-Pad to access the materials instead... It then opens an item select wheel similar to Skyward Sword, where six of eight slots are already blocked. The other two are amiibo (which I haven't used yet) and the map for some reason, as if you couldn't already quickly open this with the minus button.

But the selection dot is moved along a line for some reason, instead of just the circle, where I believe that there might be an inner circle with even more abilities. If all the different tears will give you different abilities, then this will add up. Otherwise it would be a bit disappointing to have already gotten almost everything right at the beginning, just like in Breath of the Wild.

My theory is that the four abilities that you will get from the main dungeons, where those are the symbols from the pins in the Collector's Edition, will create an inner circle at the end. And the other two slots on the outer circle will probably be used for other Purah Pad functionalities, like the Camera Rune, which isn't unlocked yet.

With the tutorial played out, however, I'm a bit worried that there might be an intended order for the four main dungeons as well... But I don't think that this will be the case.

Anyway, the game also forces you to take a Heart Container from the Goddess Statue inside the Temple of Time, because you need it to open the door behind. Again, this is different from Breath of the Wild, where you also could opt for a Stamina Vessel right away. I guess that most players don't do this, so it's probably not a big deal, but overall the tutorial left a sour taste in my mouth, because it's a lot more directed than the one from Breath of the Wild. At least you didn't have to play any mini-games to finish it...

Plunge

Before finishing things, I also climbed to the very top of the Temple of Time with Ascend, where there is like a "stadium" of sorts. There is nothing for you to do there yet, but it strengthens me in my theory that this ancient Temple of Time acts as the entrance to the Sacred Realm in the story, because there is obviously more to it than what I've just experienced...

And this is another big difference to the Great Plateau in Breath of the Wild, though a good one. The Great Plateau could be explored in its entirety before you leave it, here there are still areas that might be difficult or even impossible to reach at this point. I saw that giant box construct for example, but haven't even tried to get there yet... I think you might need the Paraglider here first, which you don't get during the tutorial.

Instead, once you've reached the other end of the Temple of Time, the dragon opens up the cloud barrier and you're just told to jump down. In Breath of the Wild you couldn't even jump down the measly plateau without the Paraglider, but in this game it's no problem, because you can always land in water.

Aonuma has already shown this, but this still rubs me the wrong way. There is video game logic and then there is suspension of disbelief. Eh... I will jump down tomorrow in the morning.

Progress:

• Shrines: 4
  
• Korok Seeds: 6
• Bubbuls: 4