Tag: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Eiji Aonuma says it’s game over for linear Zelda games

If you’re hoping the next Zelda game is a return to the old days of eight dungeons and a linear path, well, you probably shouldn’t

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If you’re hoping the next Zelda game is a return to the old days of eight dungeons and a linear path through them, well, you probably shouldn’t. IGN spoke with series producer Eiji Aonuma during The Game Awards 2023, after Tears of the Kingdom won best action game, and he suggested there’s an element of “the grass is greener” when people look back fondly on older Zelda games.

“I do think we as people have a tendency to want the thing that we don’t currently have, and there’s a bit of a grass is greener mentality,” Aonuma said. “But I also think that with the freedom players have in the more recent games in the series…there still is a set path, it just happens to be the path that they chose. So I think that that is one thing I kind of like to remind myself about the current games that we’re making.”

“But also, it’s interesting when I hear people say those things because I am wondering, “Why do you want to go back to a type of game where you’re more limited or more restricted in the types of things or ways you can play?” But I do understand that desire that we have for nostalgia, and so I can also understand it from that aspect.”

Which doesn’t sound too promising for fans of traditional Zelda style. Aonuma said his goal is creating more ways for players to chart their own path, so it seems pretty likely the next Zelda – whatever it might be – will follow the same open-world style as Tears of the Kingdom.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing, though. Aonuma and his team grew quite a bit between Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, as the sequel’s open world felt more alive, with new people, more secrets, and a more complex series of dungeons that took advantage of the open-world, non-linear design in ways that Breath of the Wild couldn’t.

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF

Nintendo on why Gleeok returned as a Tears of the Kingdom boss

Nintendo brought back the old Zelda boss Gleeok for Tears of the Kingdom, and you can thank the savage Lynels for that

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Nintendo brought back the old Gleeok boss from the original Zelda game for Tears of the Kingdom, and while it seems like a fitting nod to the series’ past, you can actually thank the savage Lynels for Gleeok’s return. Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma and director Hidemaro Fujibayashi spoke with Nintendo Dream about designing Tears of the Kingdom’s monsters and explained why some of the other newcomers came to be as well (thanks, Eurogamer and Nintendo Everything).

Aonuma and Fujibayashi said that they wanted a monster that instilled even more fear and unease in players than Breath of the Wild’s Lynel enemies, and they thought the Gleeok fit the bill. They weren’t wrong, either. The Gleeok has a moveset that’s even more unpredictable than the Lynel’s, and its weaknesses aren’t readily apparent either. That’s just the Gleeok type you find on the surface. The Sky Islands are home to three additional, even more intimidating, versions of the monster.

Fuse creations inspired Horriblins, the unsettling cave-dwellers who shriek at Link and toss boulders. Aonuma said he wanted a way to put Fused weapons with extra length to good use. Then there’s the Boss Bokoblin, a big guy who has a bunch of lil’ guys following in tow. The idea here was creating an enemy to counter Link’s companions, since Link would have an unfair advantage when he recruits the Champions.

I can see the idea there, but I hate to tell Aonuma that taking out Boss Bokoblins solo is not an overwhelming challenge.

As for what’s next in the Zelda universe, Nintendo is working on a live-action Zelda movie, though the cast and plot are still a mystery.

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF

The best Black Friday video game deals on Walmart

Walmart’s Black Friday video game deals are here, with discounts spread across games for PS5, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch

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Walmart’s Black Friday video game deals are here, with discounts spread across PS5, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch. There’s a bit of something for everyone, whether you’re after some of the latest hits like Tears of the Kingdom and Assassin’s Creed or evergreen classics, from Far Cry to Lego Star Wars. Most of these deals are for physical games, unless we indicate otherwise, so if you have a digital PS5 or Xbox Series S, bear in mind that they won’t work for your system.

If you’re after more Black Friday deals, check out our roundups for GameStop, PS5 on Amazon, and Nintendo on Amazon.

The Game Awards 2023 nominees: BG3, Zelda, Resident Evil 4, and more

The Game Awards 2023 nominees are in, with Baldur’s Gate 3, Alan Wake 2, and Spider-Man 2 leading the charge with the most nominations

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Geoff Keighley announced The Game Awards 2023 nominees, the Oscars for video games, and to the surprise of few, Baldur’s Gate 3 and Zelda Tears of the Kingdom show up quite a lot. Super Mario Bros. Wonder, Alan Wake 2, and Spider-Man 2 might have launched much later in the year, but they landed their fair share of nominations, along with Hi-Fi Rush.

Honkai Star Rail and Final Fantasy XIV pop up a few times, and Final Fantasy 16 even makes an appearance.

The 2023 Game Awards airs on Thursday, Dec. 7, 2023, and you can cast your vote on the TGA website for the community picks up until the show date. 

Nintendo is making a live Zelda movie with the Spider-Verse, Morbius producer

Nintendo is making a live-action Legend of Zelda film with Into the Spider-Verse producer Avi Arad and Maze Runner director Wes Ball

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Nintendo announced out of the blue that it’s making a live-action Legend of Zelda movie. Zelda and Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto will co-produce with Into the Spider-Verse producer Avi Arad, and Wes Ball will direct.

The Big N made the announcement in a surprise press release following its quarterly earnings and said that while Nintendo and Arad have worked on the film behind the scenes for years to get the vision for it right, the Zelda movie is finally entering production now.

Arad has an extensive – and checkered – resume. He produced the hit Into the Spider-Verse, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and the 2000 X-Men movie, but though he was also responsible for Morbius, the film so bad that it became an internet meme.

Ball is known for the Maze Runner film trilogy, and he’s directing 2024’s Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.

Miyamoto is co-producing the film with Avi Arad and Arad’s production company Arad Productions. Nintendo will finance more than half of the film, while Sony Pictures Entertainment will also finance the film and distribute it film theatrically worldwide. 

“By producing visual contents of Nintendo IP by itself, Nintendo is creating new opportunities to have people from around the world to access the world of entertainment which Nintendo has built, through different means apart from its dedicated game consoles,” Nintendo said in the press release. “By getting deeply involved in the movie production with the aim to put smiles on everyone’s faces through entertainment, Nintendo will continue its efforts to produce unique entertainment and deliver it to as many people as possible.”

The live-action Zelda movie comes after Nintendo broke its own sales records with 2023’s Tears of the Kingdom and broke box office records around the world with the Super Mario Bros. movie. The latter released in April 2023 and has grossed over $1 billion as of November 2023.

Miyamoto said on Twitter that since production has only just begun, it will be a while before the film is ready for release. Nintendo didn’t say if the Zelda movie will follow a new storyline or adapt one of the series’ many games.

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF

KFC gave this Zelda Tears of the Kingdom player a $10k chicken trophy

One Zelda Tears of the Kingdom player completed a speedrun Kentucky Fried Chicken created and got a chicken trophy worth $10,000

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One Zelda Tears of the Kingdom player completed a speedrun that Kentucky Fried Chicken created and got a chicken trophy worth roughly $10,000. KFC ran the competition around the world in partnership with Speedrun Espanol and called it The Recipe Run, a nod to the speedrun’s requirements and the restaurant chain’s “secret recipe” motif (thanks, VGC).

The goal was to see who could cook a fried drumstick the fastest, though there were a few stipulations to keep things interesting. Players had to prove they started the run empty-handed, with no clothes, no ingredients – nothing. The next step was traveling to Goron City and speaking with Gomo, a Goron chef who Zelda fans dubbed the Colonel Sanders of Hyrule as soon as they laid eyes on him.

After that, they were set loose in the open-world game to find 11 herbs, oil, and a drumstick for the recipe. The 11 herbs bit was literally just a bit, since you can only use five ingredients in a given recipe, and the only thing contestants were able to purchase was the oil. You can’t actually find or create oil in the wilds of Hyrule. They were free to fast travel using any active waypoints or get around with Zonai devices, but glitches and other unorthodox methods weren’t allowed.

Dozens of influencers and speedrunners took part, scouring the land for Hyrule Herbs, Spicy Peppers, Armouranth, and unsuspecting birds, but French speedrunner Kreuss ended up setting the record in 1:07:80. For their fast fowl work, they earned a golden drumstick trophy valued at nearly $10,000, while other contestants won free KFC food.

Whether the Recipe Run becomes a permanent fixture of the Tears of the Kingdom speedrun scene remains to be seen. Meanwhile, the current fastest record for finishing the entire game is quite a bit shorter, clocking in at 43 minutes. Not that speed is everything. One player recently beat the entire game without ever leaving the Sky Islands until the final battle.

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF

This fan beat Tears of the Kingdom without leaving the Sky Islands

One dedicated Tears of the Kingdom fan beat the latest Zelda game without ever leaving the Sky Islands or completing a temple

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One dedicated Tears of the Kingdom fan beat the latest Zelda game without ever leaving the Sky Islands or completing a temple. Reddit user Black_Hand_Gotthard explained their process in a few comments on Reddit, including the hardest part: surviving without a paraglider (thanks, Polygon).

They also posted a picture of the in-game map that depicts a fully-explored set of Sky Islands and absolutely nothing on the surface – no Shrines, no Skyview towers.

Normally in Tears of the Kingdom, Link completes the Temple of Time on Great Sky Island and dives hundreds of feet before landing back in Hyrule in the safety of a small pond. 

The intended journey – if you can call anything intended in a game that lets you build a spanking machine to defeat the final boss or create Korok torture devices  – is to travel the land, awaken six sages, and put Ganondorf to rest for good. 

Finished the game without ever visiting the surface.
byu/Black_Hand_Gotthard intearsofthekingdom

Black_Hand_Gotthard just didn’t take that leap and navigated the sky archipelago using a mix of cleverly deployed Zonai devices and plenty of fairies to mitigate fall damage. They eventually grabbed the full Glide Armor set, which removes fall damage entirely. 

No trips to the surface also meant no visits to The Depths, where most players get extra materials to upgrade their Zonai battery. Gotthard finished with one cell and, they said, a ton of Zonai charges. They also used the Zonaite Armor, which significantly reduces how much power your devices use. 

There aren’t that many ways to get charges in the sky, so it’s unclear how long – and how many Blood Moons to reset the enemies who do drop the charges – the run took.

In the end, Black_Hand_Gotthard interacted with the Light Dragon and used a Wing device to approach Hyrule Castle. They dropped down below the castle, went through the boss gauntlet that awaits players who didn’t clear the temples, and defeated Ganondorf.

The reason why Black_Hand_Gottard did all this?

“Smoked a little too much Sundelion and got a (at the time) brilliant idea,” they said.

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF

Nintendo says no Zelda Tears of the Kingdom DLC is planned – yet

Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma says Nintendo has no plans to make Tears of the Kingdom DLC, unlike other Zelda games on Switch

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Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma says Nintendo has no plans to make Tears of the Kingdom DLC, unlike the company’s approach to other Zelda games on Switch. Aonuma made the comments in a recent interview with Famitsu, translated by Twitter user Genki_JPN, where he said the team thinks they’ve done all there is to do in this version of Hyrule.

“We have no plans to release additional content this time, but that is because we feel like we have done all we can do to create play in that world,” Aonuma said. “The reason we decided to make a sequel to the previous game in the first place was because we thought it would be worth experiencing new ways to play in Hyrule.”

Nintendo teased DLC for Breath of the Wild, TotK’s predecessor, before the game even launched and even locked some of the open-world game’s features behind it, such as fully powering up the Master Sword. Age of Calamity, the series’ most recent Warriors spinoff, also had a few small expansions, with new missions and other minor additions, but it seems like the pre- and post-Calamity world of Hyrule has finally run its course.

The news is perhaps a little surprising in light of previous Zelda games, though Nintendo rarely stays with one idea or location for long. Mario Galaxy 2, one of the best Super Mario Bros. games, was billed as an accident created from leftover ideas that Nintendo cut from the first Galaxy, for example, and even Monolith’s visions for Xenoblade Chronicles change dramatically with each new game in the series. 

As for what the next Zelda game or possible DLC may be, that’s anyone’s guess, though Aonuma said it won’t be similar to Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.

“We may return to the same world,” Aonuma said. “Whether it is a sequel or new work, I think it will be a completely new way to play, so I hope you will look forward to it.”

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF

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Fan rearranges classic RPG tune using Tears of the Kingdom devices

One Zelda fan build a small orchestra and rearranged the classic Chrono Trigger track “Corridors of Time” in Tears of the Kingdom

Zelda fans have built everything from computers to industrial-strength Korok barbecue machines using Tears of the Kingdom’s Zonai devices, and the latest innovation is a music machine arranged to play “Corridors of Time” from the SNES classic Chrono Trigger.  Twitter user bran8bit posted a set of videos on Twitter showing the devices in action, and while it took four different setups and some creative arranging, the end result sounds almost identical to Yasunori Mitsuda’s classic SNES song.

Central to these and other musical efforts in Tears of the Kingdom is the stake device, a long piece of Zonaite that you can embed in the ground up to the top. Some dedicated builders discovered that if you aim a Zonai beam emitter at these stakes, they emit sounds at differing pitches depending on how deeply embedded the stakes are in the ground.

Bran8bit built several devices to make this work. The one playing the melody is a single beam emitter attached to a wheel device, which itself is on a stake attached to a wagon wheel that’s on one looks like maybe a stabilizer or a small wheel. A similar setup is on the other side for balance, and in front of the emitter is a row of 16 stakes arranged in a repeating pattern.

The second device is similar, but the stake setup is more complicated. Bran alternates between different heights and even verticality depending on which part of the track he’s at. The third setup uses a few stakes and what looks like light devices, and the fourth is even more clever. Bran put a large wheel on a spoke and attached some stakes, cooking pots, and poles in positions where they’d bump against bundles of wood placed at different heights to create a muffled thwump sound.

For the percussion, they used the sound of Link running and jumping on stone pavement.

The whole thing is incredibly clever and creative and must have taken hours of building and testing to get it just right, and the end result is impressively accurate compared to the original piece from nearly 30 years ago.

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF

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Tears of the Kingdom sales reach another significant milestone

We already knew Tears of the Kingdom sales were off to a strong start, and it turns out they didn’t slow down after launch

We already knew Tears of the Kingdom sales were off to a strong start, and it turns out they didn’t slow down after launch. Mat Piscatella, executive director at Circana (formerly the NPD group) posted his monthly breakdown of sales across the games industry on Twitter, and Tears of the Kingdom wasn’t just the best-selling game of May 2023. It’s already the second best-selling game of the year.

Hogwarts Legacy from Warner Bros. remains the year’s best-selling game, though Warner Bros. reported digital and physical sales for that one. Nintendo doesn’t report digital sales, so the Zelda game may have surpassed Hogwarts’ sales.

Tears of the Kingdom’s enthusiastic welcome isn’t too surprising. Launch sales reached over 10 million in less than a week, and entire communities sprang up around the game just weeks after release, including the Hyrule Engineering group, dedicated to building devices both outlandish – sometimes to torment Koroks – and practical, such as a scale to see how much Link weighs. 

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which launched near the end of 2022, is the third best-selling game of 2023, with Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and Resident Evil 4 remake close behind. Resident Evil 4 remake also shattered Capcom’s previous sales records for the series.

Elden Ring rounds off the top 10, with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and The Last of Us Part 1 not far behind.

Meanwhile, Tears of the Kingdom’s launch also boosted its prequels popularity. Breath of the Wild rose from the 28th best-selling game of April 2023 to the 18th best-selling game of May.

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF

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