Tears of the Kingdom – Tower Defense?

Sweep over Hyrule! Leave no survivors!

Ganondorf made his mission very clear in the latest trailer and meanwhile Link is building cars out of the mechanical dragon heads. Today I had a thought of how this could come together: maybe you will have some sort of Tower Defense missions within the game, where you have to prevent Ganondorf's servants from attacking a village or something.

If these dragon heads that we saw in the trailers can work autonomously, then this could be something for consideration. You could put them at the entrance to a village for example and they will automatically fry some Bokoblins if they try to enter. Maybe you will be even building your own golems, which will attack enemies on their own. Of course this is not the most original idea, where for example Minecraft has done something similar with its raids, but like with Breath of the Wild it's the combination of different ideas and mechanic that will count in the end.

This could even go hand in hand with the house building feature, which was originally planned for Breath of the Wild, but didn't make the cut. Let's say you can build your own Tarrey Towns now all over Hyrule, then there must be something to keep them safe from enemies.

It will be an ongoing battle of Link trying to repopulate Hyrule and Ganondorf trying to destroy everything. Of course I'm just daydreaming here and there are currently no indications that we're going to build villages and defend them. But it's in the realm of possibilities and after five years of development I'm sure there will be lots of crazy stuff in the game.

Tears of the Kingdom – New Dragon(s) and Light Element?

With the trailer from last year we could already catch a glimpse at a dragon flying around the huge temple structure in the sky, but now we actually have a full shot of it (see above). It doesn't seem to be any of the three dragons that we know from Breath of the Wild: Farosh, Naydra, and Dinraal. Instead it appears to be quite pale with golden crystals around it.

Since the three dragons from the previous game were based on the three Goddesses by names, it's likely that this one represents Hylia in some form. So, it could be called "Hydra", errrh... I'm just kidding, but it's likely something like that, where its name is to start with "Hy".

It probably also unleashes some glowing light attacks, where it makes sense that light could also be a new weapon element for the game. There were fire, ice, and electric weapons in Breath of the Wild, where each of these elements had specific purposes and each of them got used by one of the dragons for defense. (There is also the wind element, but this was essentially used by all dragons and only few weapons, so it's a in a more unique position.)

With light weapons you probably would get a new tool against the Malice, which makes a lot of sense. Technically, this was even already a thing with the Bow of Light in Breath of the Wild, but this was limited to the end of the game. It would be nice to get actual Light Arrows back as ammunition, for example.

And in the delay announcement from March 2022 we also could see a glowing light, where Link draws the corroded Master Sword. It's likely that the Master Sword will be infused with light at the end of the game, so it doesn't get trashed by Malice yet again. That it was destroyed by that is all but confirmed:

We can see in this shot how the Master Sword is covered by the Malice, which is likely what corrupted Link's arm and corroded the Master Sword. And a goal of the game could be to not only repair the Master Sword, but also to make it completely immune against the stronger Malice from Ganondorf with the power of light. And the place to do this could be the huge temple guarded by Hypah the dragon representing Hylia.

It's also possible that there will be a fifth Dragon, an evil one representing Demise, who is part of the underworld and sprays Malice all around it. Or maybe Ganondorf is already doing enough of that, but it would be interesting to battle one of these dragons for real.

Tears of the Kingdom – The Pin Symbols?

Let's get back to the Collector's Edition of Tears of the Kingdom for a moment, where the most curious item in there is probably the one I find the least useful / appealing: the pin box. The symbols on those pins really caught my attention, where they can also be found on the back of the Joy-Cons from the leaked Nintendo Switch OLED:

Other than the fact that this does further confirm the leak, it highlights their importance. Those probably aren't just random Zonai runes, they must have some significance to the overall game. What these symbols so far all have in common is that there is an eye in them. They have different shapes and orientations, but it's there. Well, we don't really see it for the second pin in the video, because it's obstructed by the box, but it's likely that the upper part has another eye as well.

It's possible that the two symbols on the Joy-Cons are the other two pins that we haven't seen. But this would be quite the coincidence and it's also possible that there are lot more of these symbols in the game and they've picked just a handful of them for their merchandise.

Still, the fact that there are exactly four pins makes me believe that these might be this game's main runes, the replacements for Bombs, Magnesis, Stasis, and Cryonis. But what speaks against this theory is that they are too cryptic. With the Sheikah Slate you got very clear symbols of what does what. Bombs were bombs, Magnesis got represented by a magnet, and so on. With these symbols here I possibly couldn't tell what ability they could represent, even though we know at least two of the new rune abilities.

It also would raise the question why they put only two of these symbols on the back of the Joy-Cons and not all four of them. That would be like putting Stasis and Cryonis on some pedestal, but not the rest. (Well, the only rune that truly belongs on a pedestal is the Master Cycle Zero anyway.)

It's also possible that they are related to this game's main dungeons, where there could be four of them, or at least four with a common purpose. You start with four of these magic vials on your belt and maybe you collect four more from dungeons, where each dungeon is represented by one of these runes. Again, this theory has the same problem, where two of the symbols received more attention than the others...

If I have missed anything else that has these symbols, let me know, because I'm quite curious about them.

Tears of the Kingdom – Hinox Chase

If you have the feeling that the Hinox chase scene from the recent trailer looks weirdly familiar, then you might be onto something. It does recreate a similar scene from the GDC 2005 trailer for Twilight Princess (which still didn't have a title at the time), where a Gohma is chasing you through an underground tunnel. Of course this could be just a coincidence, but the camera perspective and the whole setting make it seem like a nod to what was shown to us 18 years ago:

A lot of things from the GDC trailer didn't make it into the final game, but this is one of the more memorable scenes. And Nintendo never forgets their ideas. Even if they don't make it into the next game, they might bring it back in a future installment... And with a Zelda game that has a huge underground system it was the perfect opportunity to do so.

To be fair, Spirit Tracks also had something very similar going on with the Rocktites, which are chasing your through the train tunnels, where this was a giant one-eyed monster as well. So, it wouldn't be the first time that this idea reappears, but this is certainly more closer now to the Gohma scene.

Metroid Prime Remastered: Done Since July 2021?

There had been various rumors that Nintendo is basically just sitting on remastered versions of the Metroid Prime Trilogy games, waiting for the right time to release them, and there may be some truth to all of it. If you look at the USK page, the German age rating agency, you can see that Metroid Prime Remastered was already rated on July 27th, 2021. 2021!

This is ridiculous. They have been waiting 18 months to release this. Part of the reason may be that they didn't want any conflicts with Metroid Dread, which got rated about one month earlier, where releasing both of these games at the same time might have taken the attention away from each other. But they still could have put this out last year, when there wasn't much to do for Action Adventure fans on the Nintendo Switch, besides Tunic...

Maybe they have been waiting to make a Trilogy release after all, but then something made them change their minds. But it probably won't take too long for Metroid Prime 2: Echoes Remastered to appear on the market, since this game might be already finished as well.

Via ntower

Tears of the Kingdom – Underworld Glimpse

Yes, we are still talking about the new trailer, where it finally gave another look at the underground world of Tears of the Kingdom. And it already looks a lot spookier than the caves that Zelda and Link explored in the original trailer, where this is giving me Don't Starve vibes.

There is Malice everywhere, there are huge fungi trees, other weird trees, some ruins, but also a giant tentacle root containing a glowing, organic mass. And there is some overgrown structure right next to it, which looks a bit like a mast from the distance.

Then there is this group of glowing lights, which seems very reminiscent of the spirits in Twilight Princess, but it could also be a ghost enemy, maybe even a new form of the Poe. It might also be a part of puzzle, where ultimately there will be something to replace the Korok Seeds in the sequel. We just don't know what that will be. Maybe more Korok Seeds... or maybe something ghostly.

Anyway, this shot does reassure that the "underground expansion" likely won't just be a simple set of caves. We might be dealing with a huge underworld under the actual Hyrule here, where it's all connected, which is a thought that I had since the first teaser in 2019. But so far we have seen little to back this up.

This does look super ugly, though. Maybe it's because of the fungi, where there are these spore particles all over the place, but what we've seen originally looked much prettier, with Luminous Stones everywhere. Of course it's likely that the underworld will have different biomes and of course there is the corruption going on with the Malice, so not everything will look the same while spelunking. That would be boring anyway.

Tears of the Kingdom – Do It Yourself!

Please, lend him your power!

Magnesis, Bombs, Stasis, Cryonis – these were your four main items in Breath of the Wild, which came as runes on your Sheikah Slate, together with a camera, the amiibo app, and the Master Cycle Zero. In the sequel this will be replaced by a golden gauntlet with magic powers, which Link apparently gets from the mysterious hand being, which has been sealing away Ganondorf for ages. And overall it seems to work exactly like the Sheikah Slate, with different abilities that you can select and then use via the L button.

The abilities / runes are slightly different, however. Instead of Stasis we have now something that can reverse the time for moving objects or objects that have moved. The ability to morph through ceilings could potentially be a rune as well, but we don't know that yet... And there is no signs of bombs or anything similar so far.

But in the latest trailer we are introduced to a second ability, which on first glance works like Magnesis, meaning that you can move objects around with it. We are even introduced to it at one of the spots where you first utilize Magnesis in Breath of the Wild: the bog on the Great Plateau.

The difference is that this seemingly works on any object now, not just metallic ones, which will be a big upgrade. Potentially you may even upgrade it, so it lets you move enemies around, like with the wizard in Trine (which is a good comparison to this ability). But there is more to it: the green energy can also be used to put things together, which lets you create entire automata. The wheel you can pick out of the bog then can be used to build a vehicle for example:

This is crazy and you probably already heard the Banjo & Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts comparisons before, so let's skip right past them and talk about the potential of all this. First of all, the dragon heads on the vehicle all but confirm that all this stuff is truly related to the Zonai, which is a theory that we've been dealing with before and became already more prominent after the trailer in September (see here). The golem enemies in the sky also have this green energy holding their parts together, where this is clearly all related.

Though, in this case it looks more like glue. For this car Link has been collecting a variety of parts and: two of the big wheels, two smaller wheels, two headlights, a handlebar, and presumably the energy core. But it's all held together by wooden planks and the green magic glue. The flying contraptions look very much to be improvised in the same fashion:

It seems like Nintendo was inspired by the methods used by players to get high up into the air in Breath of the Wild, like an overabundance of Octo Balloons, or building a flying machine with two minecarts and Magnesis. It's exactly this type of creativity that went into these creations, only that this is something that you're now meant to do and not some sort of glitch or oversight.

I love the thought that Nintendo was truly studying what people have been doing with their game for fun or to gain speed, and then decided, "let's make this a feature!" And it would have been really annoying to use lots and lots of Octo Balloons to cheese your way onto one of the sky islands...

Anyway, while the usage for the flying machines are very much clear, the car is a different story. It almost looks like it's meant to transport larger objects from A to B and the huge vessel of green energy could even be the cargo, not the energy source, since you don't seem to need it for the flying machine. But before you get PTSD from Spirit Tracks, let's look at one of the concepts that they ditched for Breath of the Wild: the Tarrey Town house building.

This could all go hand in hand. You could use the vehicle to transport the Tarrey Town house containers to wherever you want to create a new settlement. Maybe you will even use your new assembly skills to put the houses together the way you want them, but there needs to be a way to fixate things, because otherwise you would just be able to move houses with people living inside.

Ganon wants to eradicate all of Hyrule? Well, you're going to fight it with cheap housing! Or maybe you won't, so let's not get ahead ourselves here. In any case, the car probably is meant to be more than just an inconvenient replacement for the Master Cycle Zero. It really looks like it's meant for some heavy transport.

And vehicles may not be the only thing that Link is putting together in good, old DIY fashion. There is the possibility that you will be collecting all the Zonai stuff to upgrade your weapons as well, or to craft new ones entirely. If you look at the bottom of the cannon in the screenshot above, you can see a similar symbol as on the wheels and propellers from the improvised vehicles. It's also the same symbol as on the Eyegore sky golem:

It looks a bit like a brush and maybe this is an indicator of things that can be used for assembly. So far I've assumed that this golem is meant to be an enemy, but maybe this is something that you can create yourself as an ally. But we've already seen in the new trailer that you will be facing another golem monster in a battle. Alternatively, it's something that you fight for parts and the piece in the middle can be used for some other device.

If this system also included materials, then this would be a good way of continuing and combining the durability and material systems from Breath of the Wild, which is a common suggestion. I'm personally not a fan of weapon repairing, especially if you have to do it elsewhere, but crafting new stuff out of the collected materials could be a fun idea and complement what we already had in the previous game quite nicely.

It may even be the gameplay reason why the monsters from Breath of the Wild have grown all those weird headpieces now. These might theoretically be materials for crafting new weapons, which also explains why you couldn't do it before in Breath of the Wild.