Three weeks after the release of Tears of the Kingdom, it was about time to play one of its dungeons, where I've went for Zora's Domain to visit Sidon and cleared all of the quests that I could find around this part. Afterwards I took a trip to the nearby Tingle islands and explored the depths below for a thrilling treasure hunt.
Now, there were two reasons why I wanted to go for Zora's Domain first out of the four regions pointed out by Purah. One was that I've never chosen the Zora as my first major destination in Breath of the Wild, despite three whole playthroughs, so I wanted to make up for it. And the other was that the Zora Armor looked like the key to some of the sky islands, where waterfalls are pouring down, so it was certainly something that I wanted to get "early".
Dirty Domain
The path alongside the Zora River up to Zora's Domain already creates quite the impression, where Nintendo was a lot more serious with the natural disasters this time. Everything is covered in a dark sludge, which hinders your movements, pollutes the water, and threatens the lives of the Zora. Now, if they only had a large elephant creature, which could flush it all away with lots of rain, then this would be helpful...
You can remove it yourself with the help of the new Splash Fruits, where this is giving some Splatoon vibes, but this is not a permanent solution. And Zora's Domain is in a very bad state, where the music has changed accordingly.
At this point I was reminded a bit by how the Hyrule in Ocarina of Time was. You first explore it as a child and get to experience Hyrule in its glory. But then Ganondorf barged in and has ruined the whole place when you return as an adult. Hyrule Castle is gone and got replaced by Ganondorf's floating fortress of doom, while Hyrule Castle Town was left in ruins. The Kokiri Forest is overrun by monsters, the Gorons are about to be fed to some dragon, and Zora's Domain got frozen...
It's in many ways similar here, only that the two points in time have been split between two different Zelda games, where you get to explore the "pure" Hyrule in Breath of the Wild, before Ganondorfs makes everything ugly in Tears of the Kingdom. There are some flaws with this comparison, of course, where a lot of destruction also has happened before you wake up in Breath of the Wild and you never get to explore Hyrule Castle and Hyrule Castle Town before they fell to ruin, for example.
With the other places it goes into this direction, though, where you have the chasms everywhere, Kakariko got hit by sky ruins, and the villages of the other tribes are left in a dire state. But that's also because the natural disasters caused by the Divine Beasts never felt all too threatening. Vah Ruta was probably the worst, if you think about it, but here the rain would even help with the new situation...
This makes you wonder, once more, what happened to the Divine Beasts. I'm a bit annoyed at this point that the game failed to give any explanation, especially now that still having the Divine Beasts around could make a difference. You've fought to free these things, after all.
Meeting Yona and Sidon
When you arrive at Zora's Domain you will notice that more has changed than just the sludge, where they've replaced Mipha's statue with a statue of Link riding on Sidon, which is as amazing as it's funny. For a moment I was worried that they have removed Mipha's statue, but they gave her her own sacred grounds, the Mipha Court.
Now, if you were one of those fans shipping Link and Sidon (I'm not), you shouldn't get too excited about the new statue, because your heart gets quickly broken by being introduced to Sidon's fiancee, Yona. She looks like she could be Muzu's daughter, but she is certainly much nicer. I've already met her last week, during my extensive search for Hestu, so I don't fully remember the details, but at first it looked like she was using something similar to Mipha's Grace, but it might have just been their water cleansing ability.
Yona hands you the Zora Armor right away, given that you can provide an Ancient Arowana to repair it, where they make a big deal about finding one, but I already had caught some on the Great Sky Islands. And this is a common situation in this game for me, where whenever a character is looking for some materials, I already have enough in my inventory and these side quests fall a bit flat. "Here, take it!" The only exception so far was Pyper, who wanted ten Sunset Fireflies and I was one short...
The shiny, new armor is very useful for reaching Mipha's Court, but not required, and this where Sidon can be found, who is busy cleansing the water from the sludge... and other things.
It's also where you can find Mipha's Statue, which is now residing at the very top of Ploymus Mountain, the Shatterback Point, where she looks more glorious than ever.
Luckily, the Lynels all have changed their favorite camping spots, or else this monument would probably be littered with Shock Arrows and living visitors would be a scarcity. You will encounter a Sludge Like, however, a Like Like promoted to a boss enemy, where this one can actually move around, like the Like Likes from the past. I guess this makes it already scary enough.
This lets you fight on Sidon's side for the first time, where can make use of his water ability. It creates a water shield around you, where you can then shoot the water like a sword beam, which will remove the sludge a lot more effectively than the Splash Fruits. The shield is also very reminiscent of the water wall from Hyrule Warriors, which could be used with a fairy skill or by Sheik via the Serenade of Water.
And it's simply fun to gang up on an enemy together with Sidon, where the sensation of different characters swinging at the same enemy feels very fresh. I suppose, other than the multiplayer games, this was something only offered so far by the Phantom in Spirit Tracks, and that was a bit lame. Sidon here acts autonomously, so you don't have to give him orders and you even can't give him any.
Zora Skies and Caves
Your quest to the source of the pollution will lead you both to some sky islands above the domain and through a variety of underground caves, where I was positively surprised to find a new theme here for both. Given, this is all part of a main quest, so they went the extra mile to make these areas stand out a bit, but I was certainly getting very bored by the same golden sky islands and brown caves everywhere, so playing this part of the game gave me a breath of fresh air... or a drink of fresh water.
The underground was also more extensive than usual, with some ruins to be explored, where this goes more in the direction of what I was anticipating from this game after seeing the first teaser trailer in 2019, where Link and Zelda did some spelunking together. So, here's some hope that this will still be part of the game, somehow...
Wellspring Island not only offers some different visuals from the other sky islands, but also a new mechanic with the lowered gravity. Now, this is taking me back to DM-Morpheus from Unreal Tournament, though you can't leap this far, but you can jump high enough to trigger the slow motion bow shots at any given time, which was very useful against the many Constructs.
The Zora Armor also now works slightly differently, because it automatically activates whenever you fly into a waterfall. I find this to be a bit annoying at times, whenever I want to explore what's behind a waterfall, but this change was without a doubt very much necessary for navigating the sky islands here, since the sky waterfalls dissolve after a while and don't reach the ground.
Sadly, you won't be accompanied by Sidon during this part, only once the two of you enter the dungeon of this area, one with a very familiar name...
The Water Temple
The Water Temple from Ocarina of Time is infamous for its complex design, so much that to this day Nintendo seemingly tries to make up for it by crafting enjoyable water dungeons. This new Water Temple will certainly become a fan favorite, of that much I'm certain, but I personally miss the more intricate designs of dungeons from past Zelda games...
It's very similar to the Divine Beasts from Breath of the Wild in structure, where you have to reach four points and you can do them in pretty much any order. This is a bit boring, because you don't have to navigate some maze with obstacles. It also lacks the possibility of altering the dungeon from anywhere anytime, but it makes up for it by letting you climb everywhere and offering a unique visual theme from the other dungeons. You can also re-enter the dungeon later, in case you've missed a treasure chest or so.
Oh, and you're not alone this time, where Sidon doesn't just leave you at the entrance to the dungeon – he now fights by your side as he did during the Sludge Like battle, which is pretty awesome.
This created a variety of hilarious moments, where Sidon just jumped right into my face in an effort to catch up. The AI is not the smartest, but it also could be worse, where I really enjoyed having the company overall. And with his water ability it was reminiscent of Medli and Makar, the sage descendants in The Wind Waker, where I was wondering how the game will handle this after finishing the dungeon. In The Wind Waker you were not dependent on their abilities to explore anything missing in those dungeons, where technically you also have the Splash Fruits for the water effects. Or they could have simply prevented you from re-entering the dungeon, like the did with the Divine Beasts...
Well, I got my answer after the boss battle, the "Mucktorok", where the sludge shark from the final trailer wasn't the actual boss, only its creation. So, this was a small surprise and a silly boss overall.
Shadow Sidon
Completing the dungeon for the first time introduces you to the Sage of Water from Hyrule's beginnings, who is still wearing that elephant helmet and where you don't even get a name. But you learn about the Imprisoning War, and that Princess Zelda participated in this war as the Sage of Time, another one of the Six Sages.
Sidon gets his own Secret Stone and this lets him create a dark double of himself, who also has the same water abilities. And this is his gift to you, a "Sage's Vow", where now you can always have him by your side, even if he doesn't join you in person.
And this is pretty awesome. While Zelda games in the past let you have temporary companions, like the aforementioned sage descendants in The Wind Waker or different characters in Link's Awakening, it usually was one-time thing. There were some exceptions, like Rosa in Oracle of Seasons, but for the most part you had to make the most out of these travel companions while it lasted.
Of course, this isn't the real Sidon, but it would be pretty weird if he kept following you wherever you go from now on. He has better things to do as the new king of the Zora, after all, like standing in the throne room next to his father, who still sits on the throne for some reason...
But having this clone seems like a good compromise and to me it still feels like good company. I call him "Shadow Sidon", or "Dark Sidon", because he looks quite sinister and is completely silent, where he is very similar to Dark Link, but it's still nice to have him around and his gift of water. This is much better than the Champion abilities, which were quite powerful and useful, but they were subject to a lengthy cooldown to balance things out. There is still a bit of cooldown here, where you need to wait for the water ability to regenerate, but it's only a couple of seconds.
This companion mechanic also works similar to Wolf Link, but a lot more convenient, because you don't have to scan an amiibo every time you teleport or after going to a place where no wolves are allowed. The latter still applies, so Dark Sidon won't haunt Zora's Domain for example, but he immediately re-appears after leaving the area. You can also dismiss him from the key items menu, in case you want to take pictures of enemies, for example, where otherwise he would certainly get in the way.
Domain Deeds
After restoring Zora's Domain to its former glory, where everything looks as pretty as it did in Breath of the Wild again, you are greeted with Sidon's crowning ceremony. The final trailer let fans fear the worst when they saw Sidon with the Zora crown, including myself, where it bode ill for King Dorephan. And it really looked quite bad for him for a while, but he recovered and simply decided to pass the crown, which is something that you see very rarely. It makes so much sense, however, that you would think that something like this had happened more often, instead of kings holding onto their crown until their deaths.
Anyway, you are also greeted by a variety of quests. Some are a bit lame and are rewarded even lamer. Like, you have to help that weird pedophile, Sasan, to get back to his beloved Finley through an underground shore cave. Well, Finley is probably older than Sasan with the way Zoras age, but this couple still strikes me as very odd, as much as it first did in Breath of the Wild. Well, I've already been to the shrine there, so getting just two Opals was disappointing, but it beats getting decayed weapons from other Zora.
The rest was pretty great, however, where the quests led to a nice-looking Zora fabric, which I'm using now, the other two pieces of the Zora armor set, as well as the Vah Rudania Divine Helm, where Sidon comments that this is the same helmet worn by his sage ancestor. It's really not, though you can see the inspiration... It's still different from Breath of the Wild, where now you need Zonaite to upgrade it, instead of the expensive materials that the other amiibo pieces still require, like Star Fragments.
Cole-o Limpah
Speaking of the amiibo armor pieces, where you can now find them all without amiibo, another old map led me below the Tingle islands to the east of Zora's Domain (I'm using "east" here in the same sense as Hestu). Exploring the islands themselves was quite underwhelming, because they were pretty much the same thing, just with Aerocudas instead of Guardian Skywatchers, which makes the area less threatening. But the Depths below them made up for it...
By now a good portion of the Depths has been uncovered on my map, where it's visible that the large, impervious walls are located below bodies of water. So, the Depths below the Tingle islands are entirely separate, but you can find tunnels to dig from one underground cavern to the next, until you finally get to that treasure chest.
I was expecting some boss to guard it, but the Cap of Wind was just there for the taking... And then it spawned a Gloom Spawn as a trap, ahhhh! It even was able to follow me up on steep terrain, where it took me a while to find a safe spot. You can just teleport out of there at this point, but I wanted to explore a bit more to see if there is anything else to find. Well, there wasn't...
And this is the type of location where I expect the Fierce Deity Boots to be hidden, not some random cave accessible right after the start of the game. You kind of want some challenge to find the good stuff, where you might as well should have to defeat the Gloom Spawn, or some other boss to get it.
There is even a chest guarded by a boss in the Depths below Zora's Domain, where I was surprised to see the Mucktorok again. So, you can repeat this particular dungeon boss, in case you want to or you missed the photo for the Hyrule Compendium. Though, it's still better to take the shot the first chance you get, because you have much better light at the Water Temple. I still hope that this will be the same for all bosses in the game nevertheless, because having the option to repeat bosses is always nice. In Breath of the Wild you had to purchase some DLC for it and the lighting was equally bad.
The refight about as worthwhile as helping Finley and Sasan, however, were the chest only contains crystalized charges. Enough for another Energy Cell expansion, so it's not terrible, but still a bit unexciting after these troubles.
I'm also wondering if you theoretically could encounter this boss before going to the Water Temple. I don't see why not and for one of the next dungeons I will explore a bit more thoroughly in advance, just to see if I can find the dungeon's boss before the dungeon. I was thinking about going for the Gorons next, but there are some things that I went to check out first, now that I have made some actual progress...
Progress:
- Sage's Vows: 1
- Sage's Wills: 4
- Memories: 7/18
- Shrines: 64
- Lightroots: 25
- Towers: 11
- Korok Seeds: 172
- Bubbul Gems: 37
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