Core Memory Unlocked 1 - The Legend Of Zelda - Tears of the Kingdom
Where I finish a Zelda game for the first time.
Playstyle: Switch OLED, Switch Pro Controller. No rumble/vibration, aim with motion controls, no invert axis, camera sensitivity high, minimap locked to North, Version 1.1.2
I have never finished a Zelda game.
Growing up, my long journeys as a child were interspersed with Mario and Pokémon on the original Nintendo Gameboy. They were my home away from home, a distraction from a miserable reality.
Even with linear games, I’ve always been a cautiously chaotic gamer. I break overworld tutorials on first plays. Save scum repeatedly until the game crashes. But with Ocarina of Time? The water temple was my limit for a twelve-year old me.
Since then, I lost interest in playing Zelda, and spent years watching others’ Let’s Play, speedruns, and getting too emotional over hours of campaign stories.
Finally, I had enough avoiding it. I decided it was my time to re-initiate myself to earn my title as a Zelda fan. So, in the summer of 2023, off I began my adventure as a really old, yet forever young Link hiking around Hyrule, destined to fight Ganondorf and save Zelda. Only this time, as a newbie to Zelda gameplay.
In this series, Part 1 is a case study on the game’s user interface (UI). It has light story spoilers and a few early boss reveals. Most of the screen captures will show late-game stats where I have all Sages, most hearts and full stamina, avoiding major quest or plot reveals.
Part 2 is a reflection of how this game has affected me and the joy and frustration I’ve gained from it. It discusses the entire game and is spoiler-filled.
The Fall
The game starts with Link following his beloved Zelda down Hyrule Castle’s steps as she eagerly seeks to unravel the mysterious miasma floating around our feet. Descending ever deeper down the creepy castle tunnels, I have no controls available except to walk and listen.
I don’t like horror games. The most I’d play is one that’s more drama than horror. Think Witcher or Alan Wake. Descending down a dark cramped castle, with the most basic of controls and my character’s love of his life in front of her gave me the creeps. As loyal Link I pursue on, anxiously watching Zelda’s back while we proceed towards Hyrule’s long-lost history.
Like the thickening gloom, I find the progressive unravelling of player controls very effective in conveying the vast adventure that Tears of the Kingdom has waiting for me to discover. Thankfully, I get the brief chance to mash ‘X’ briefly to fight off Keese with my faithful Master Sword (and without any of Zelda’s help!).
We proceed deeper into the heart of Hyrule’s 'best-kept secret,’ and it isn’t long that we find ourselves in a cavernous hall filled with mysterious Zonai carvings. While an excited Zelda attempts to decrypt an ancient carving about The Imprisoning War, she is quick to tell me to snap a couple pics to satiate her interest, and Link obediently follows. I quickly learn how to use the Camera function on my Purah Pad/Sheikah Slate. We ascend deeper into the darkness after, and the sense of ominous discovery continues.
In the heart of the gloom, we find a certain saviour’s arm sealing a familiar figure - no points for guessing who it is. It culminates into a direct confrontation with the Calamity himself, where I am rendered powerless no matter how much I smash the ‘X’ button to save my princess.
Link wakes up in a cave, one steeped in a thousand years of deja vu. On top of tragically losing Zelda, Link has lost all his armour and weapons. The game pulls no punches – I notice my 30 hearts whittled to 3 instantly and my beloved Master Sword lodged in a rock, cut down to her hilt.
Examining her shows me the first essential key – ‘A’. When I pick it up, an item dialog appears with a mysterious chime, telling me that the “Decayed Master Sword” has an attack of 1 because of its diminished power. Nifty. Furthermore, tapping ‘+’ opens my inventory to remind me how I was stripped of everything. Thanks Ganon!
Next, the long-awaited Attack key of ‘Y’ unlocks for me to slash through some vines to start my quest to save Zelda.
Mercifully, getting out of the cave is an easy route of climbing ledges and solving basic puzzles. I quickly learn A as an essential button to Examine, Unlock, and Jump while I navigate the cave. Also that the (lack of) stamina memes are true. We’ll get to that later.
By lining up cave pools in succession, the game cleverly teaches me that jumping headfirst into water breaks my fall. I tap ‘A’ again to get a pair of archaic hand-me-downs reminiscent of a certain Zonai.
At last, I emerge into the beautiful daylight of the Great Sky Island, a map I revisit many times over the span of 300 hours.
In a swell of orchestral music, a soaring piece plays as Link leaps from the island down into a new Hyrule.
What an introduction. The game has officially started.
Out in the Wild, again.
First things first – with the green in my stamina shrinking, I have to get to shore before I drown. Yes, an overly curious me has drowned in that tiny pool in the introduction.
There is no fanfare to landing on the Great Sky Island proper. Its name appears in the title display while my eager Link runs down stone steps and into a ‘???’ labelled item. A familiar jingle plays when I pick up the tree branch and am told how to cycle through weapons. I’m raring to whack a couple Constructs while feasting on apples for a half-heart each. Also, I learn how to dodge by accident. Neat.
Without any inventory or additional skills, the basic UI is pleasantly minimalist with the mini-map, temperature and an audio meter on the right. Looking at this in hindsight, I prefer its simplicity before it gets cluttered from each level up.
Above: Earning a Sage skill fills a permanent space above the directional buttons. Obtaining a shield adds a third left icon to these buttons.
As I progress through Great Starter Sky Island, the progressive disclosure of finding Shrines and unlocking skills eases me into the main mechanics of an open-world Zelda game. While much of it is rinse and repeat for Breath of the Wild players, it’s a breath of fresh air for N64 me.
Let’s talk about Ultrahand. The brainchild of Fujibayashi Hidemaro, Nintendo’s director, he further developed Breath of the Wild’s engine to create the Ultrahand mechanic. His intention was to keep things “simple enough that anybody can pick it up and play without too much of an issue” and provide “more versatility and freedom.” Quote from Game Maker's Toolkit video essay on Ultrahand.
Ultrahand is indispensable to this game. On this island alone, it becomes a great way to break up the tedious task of fighting monsters and gathering food.
Re-uniting Koroks by glueing and un-glueing them to inanimate objects? Love.
Wiggling the stick and having Zonai devices topple randomly to the ground, then reassembling them however? It’s playful on the first few tries, but complex puzzles easily take a half hour for perfect alignment. A slow, definite dislike.
Nonetheless, Nintendo ingeniously shows the possibilities of this skill with Shrine puzzles, allowing me to learn the power of Ultra(glue)hand to obtain even more powerful skills and try out crazy ideas as I progress.
Same but Different
At last, Link obtains the precious fourth heart and Rewind (Recall) for the last portion of the tutorial. Having Fast Travel added to my map allows me to reach the final shrine and complete the island. Thanks Rauru! Before I can leave it, there’s one new button to learn: Hold ‘A’.
Link braces his muscles while I brace my fingers, and we push against the doors and the screen’s edges pulse red as I watch each heart decrease in quarter increments. For someone first-introduced to Quick Time Events (QTEs) via Quantic Dream’s tragic dramas, the hold ‘A’ mechanic can either be an interesting change or plain annoying. Thankfully, holding ‘A’ to open the doors and be granted true freedom instils in me a sense of accomplishment.
The doors rumble open. Rauru imparts his final wisdom before I ascend to the edge of the Temple of Time. With the help of the Master Sword, the sword switches places in time, landing in Zelda’s hands.
Then, a beautiful cinematic parts the clouds to unveil Hyrule waiting for me below. Finally, I leap down.
I expected Hyrule would be different after what happened in Breath of the Wild.
What I did not expect was to be immediately chased by Bokoblins, soaking wet from my skyfall! I run down a grass slope to the main path, hit immediately with the sight of Hyrule Castle floating in the air, enveloped by Gloom. Nearby, I find Hudson Building Supplies and immediately begin Ultrahand-ing wood and wheels to get to Lookout Landing ASAP.
Or at least, that’s what my map tells me will be easy.
Although Great Sky Island wet my feet in getting Link to have passable stick-fighting and korok-saving skills, being thrown into Hyrule as a Zelda novice turned out a lot more challenging.
The first challenge was weapon durability. Yes, bokoblins are beginner monsters. Yes, sticks and stones are everywhere to glue together into basic weapons. No, I am bad at blocking and attacking at the same time. Missing more often at perfect dodge than I’d like, I kept breaking my basic weapons and would run and ultrahand on the fly, or reuse monster drops as quickly as possible.
The second challenge was building more complicated devices with ultrahand. A cart to get me to Lookout Landing seemed simple enough – until I spent 15 minutes trying to align all four wheels against the rectangle board’s edges perfectly.
Both challenges took me long enough to cause a blood moon. So, yes, after 148 minutes of doing dumb stuff, I gave up fighting respawned ‘blins and sped my push-cart as quickly as I could with 3 fans and no steering.
At last I reach the tower and meet (a younger?) Purah. She tells me to fill out the rest of Hyrule’s map and teaches me that getting shot into the clouds is a perfectly good way to scan my surrounding area. Neat.
By now, the game assumes that I’m familiar with its basic gameplay mechanics, prompting me to advance them by obtaining Sage skills, mastering Fuse, and landing attack-dodge combos.
On one (ultra)hand, this linear, yet rapid progression into such a vast game can be unforgiving to new RPG players. On the other, being left to my (zonai) devices as a seasoned RPG player to experiment with various gameplay styles and brush up on my melee skills by getting destroyed by higher-level enemies is priceless.
Visuals and Environment
Enough puns. Let’s switch gears and discuss the visual interface.
Historically, Zelda games have always been steeped in a fantastical and breathtakingly magical environment. Sharing the same lineage of jRPG action-adventures as Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger, these games are meant to immerse their players in their realms, down to how each character is introduced.
This dedication to fantasy applies to even the smallest things, which I’ll first discuss.
From my very first meeting with Zelda, the most-important supporting characters have title introductions that match their grand cutscenes. Following convention, each character has a brief description matching their current state as Link knows them. Befitting of her royalty, Zelda gets “Princess of Hyrule,” while mysterious Rauru gets a plaintive “Source of the Right Arm.” Likewise, our beloved Sidon gets a new description as “Prince of the Zora” as he leaps out of the water to hug Link. They also gain a new entry in Link’s journal/database accompanied with watercolour art.
Furthermore, these descriptions develop with plot progression.
Enough puns. Let’s switch gears and discuss the visual interface.
Historically, Zelda games have always been steeped in a fantastical and breathtakingly magical environment. Sharing the same lineage of jRPG action-adventures as Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger, these games are meant to immerse their players in their realms, down to how each character is introduced.
This dedication to fantasy applies to even the smallest things, which I’ll first discuss.
From my very first meeting with Zelda, the most-important supporting characters have title introductions that match their grand cutscenes. Following convention, each character has a brief description matching their current state as Link knows them. Befitting of her royalty, Zelda gets “Princess of Hyrule,” while mysterious Rauru gets a plaintive “Source of the Right Arm.” Likewise, our beloved Sidon gets a new description as “Prince of the Zora” as he leaps out of the water to hug Link. They also gain a new entry in Link’s journal/database accompanied with watercolour art.
Furthermore, these descriptions develop with plot progression.
Interaction and Dialogue
Likewise, the game designers opted for subtle cues throughout dialogue. Whether I’m trying to sell my Cece hat to a shocked Cece or surprising old man Toffa with a mountain deer and a Stalhorse, important dialogue subjects are highlighted red against white. Furthermore, items that are too expensive for Link’s paltry pockets have their cost highlighted red.
I think this could be improved by using different colours to split informational subjects (i.e., people, locations) from transactional subjects (i.e., item cost, key items) with different colours. Although logs do not persist beyond the current conversation, this small change would make it easier to skim through longer dialogs and glean important information.
Another subtle addition I’ve noticed is the use of different decorative icons.
All characters get a little lantern and wings marking their dialogue overlay, which has rounded corners. Whereas non-animate objects such as signs have a plain lantern icon against a more angular dialogue overlay.
Horse Riding
The Horse Riding themes are some of my favourite tracks. Fast travelling may be more convenient, but nothing beats riding along the beach pretending my horse is Epona and stopping randomly to grab some crabs. Gotta keep Cleff from becoming crabby!
The horse riding UI is front and centre when active. The spur count shows my horse’s stamina, and Endura carrot augments are in a shade of brighter yellow with a cute carrot icon in the corner. While the game does its best to keep the horse on the path rails once you’ve reached Max Bond, it still goes wonky when crossing bridges.
On occasion, I get a little spur-happy and use up the horse spurs, and the horse tries to throw Link off while I mash ‘L’ to ‘Soothe’. Or I gallop straight into a sleeping Hinox hoping to outrun it. It works if my horse doesn’t get scared, which is almost never.
Cutscenes
The Legend of Zelda’s cutscenes are meant to mark an important quest point, character or main plot transition. Every time Link meets a new companion, enters a new temple or confronts a boss, the cutscene prepares me, the player, that this matters.
Most of the time. A particular ‘Stables’ quest that asks for pictures to beautify all 14 stables has the unique honour of having the most repetitive 5-second transition scene ever. For those who unlocked this quest by helping the closing stable in Gerudo Canyon, you know what I’m talking about.
For the rest who decided to spare themselves the burden of 100 percenting this multi-part quest, the issue here is a several second long cutscene that plays out before Link is allowed to talk to the stablehand about adding a picture.
Since Link can visit any stable in any order, this scene plays out at each stable. After Link looks at the stable’s empty frame, he then turns his head to speak to the stablehand. This is unskippable. All 14 times. Or more, if you choose to swap out the framed pictures.
Whether this was intentional or considered ‘good enough’ eludes me. As series producer Eiji Aonuma has made clear, Tears of the Kingdom was published in its final form and will have no more add-ons or sequels. Thankfully, this is a minor quibble of a love letter to game design, all the way down to the discrete decorative icons framing the dialogue overlays.
Inventory
The game has polished up Breath of the Wild’s inventory and added more slots. There isn’t a large change in inventory design from its predecessor in Tears of the Kingdom. Most notable is the new recipe compendium that lets me cycle through previously discovered recipes and grab all the ingredients in a single click. I find the sort function limited when I’ve collected enough materials to span many more rows that require scrolling through to find a specific item. Besides that, I have no complaints.
Combat Loadout
Speaking of complaints, I won’t add to the many complaints from streamers and reviewers about how the horizontal item menu is long-winded and troublesome to use. However, I do want to focus on how fusing items to my arrows merits me adding to the complaint pile. Fusing takes forever.
I’m no good at melee. I’ve always been more of a long-range stealth Corvo-meets-Aloy player. So it goes without saying my Link fuses plenty of bombs and bananas to defeat Bokoblins and Yiga clan members. This sequence of actions is far too long to carry out when you’re being swarmed, or require plenty of bombs to free up a hidden cave on an icy ledge. To make things easier, I sort to “most used” since bombs are always in the top 3 items. But guess what happens when I want to use that elemental Keese Wing I reserve solely to take out Gleeoks? 20 full seconds cycling through my stash of rare elemental fuses, thumb holding onto the stick in a tense attempt to not let go.
Still, my design sensibilities won’t let me complain without attempting a solution.
One idea is adding another sort option that groups fuse materials by element or effect, such as incendiary (bombs), freeze (frozen items), explosive (chuchu-based) and so on.
Even simpler might be a custom quick-access loadout with a limit of 5-10 materials which the player can adjust to their liking as their playstyle adapts to their environment. Why that number? With 5 the limit for cooking ingredients and 10 for Zonai devices, I’m following the hold/loadout mechanic for consistency.
Music and Foley
Zelda’s Lullaby. Korok Forest. Epona’s Song. Kakariko Village. Gerudo Valley. Mipha’s theme. Dragon Roost Island. Zelda titles have an incredible history of memorable music. The last one, for example, was included in Colgera’s theme to fit the Rito/Wind Temple environment in which you and Tulin have to defeat it. I’ve fought Colgera several times, and each time I’ve never felt more triumphant and pumped beating it compared to the other Temple bosses.
The way music changes subtly to mark day to night transitions is another indicator of what makes this game so good. Some frequent examples are Riding and the settlement themes such as Rito Village and Zora’s Domain. The music slows down as the NPCs tuck in for the evening, and builds up as the sun rises, signalling another busy Hyrulian day.
Tarrey Town in particular, blends in the main quest themes as I unlock their corresponding side quests. My favourite in total listening hours? Lurelin Village. I rebuilt this town!
Zonai devices and Abilities too have their own set of sounds when applied – a synthetic, almost mystical click or warp that harkens back to the ancient Zonai. A personal favourite is the sound when I add another slot to my Zonai Battery.
The subtle missable bits
It is obvious that the 1,148 people working on Tears of the Kingdom (500 from Breath of the Wild) poured a level of care into the gameplay that makes its wondrous world-building unmissable.
With so much packed into the interface, it’s easy to miss the subtler, smaller bits that elevate the gameplay. For example, the status resistance tags that pop up in the left corner after I get Link to gulp yet another Chilly Elixir so I can Voe race Arrakis Gerudo’s sand dunes on his trusty hoverboard. Or, if I look to the corner right, the weather icons tell me if it’s cold enough to freeze meat on Mount Lanaryu’s peak.
Moreover, knowing if I applied an attack up/shield up or made a sword throwable based on the bright yellow icons in my Weapons stash helps me pick the right Lynel horn sword to farm more Lynels (seeing a pattern here?).
These temporary overlays serve their purpose without adding clutter to an already busy interface.
Another neat feature I’ve noticed is the different coloured sparkles to mark the types of ore deposits. Deposits that sparkle gold are more likely to drop diamonds and sapphires than the common amber. I’d rather use Sensor+ to seek rare ores this way than waste bomb flowers on Taluses. Unless they cue the battle music in a random cave while I’m unlocking a Shrine behind it. Nasty trick, Nintendo.
I judiciously use the Pins and Stamps to mark locations of materials to armour sets, enemy boss locations to open places with a pot. That said, being able to colour-code the stamps like the pins would make it visually easier to track each stamp type.
Last but not least, the Hero’s Path feature ‘hidden’ in the Purah Pad is an interesting bit of kit as well. It reminds me how far I’ve travelled with Link, and how much I, as a player, have accomplished. Including the number of times I’ve died falling from a cliff face running out of stamina. After 29 games, Link needs to learn how to fall safely.
Misusing the power of ‘A’
Remember when I said the hold ‘A’ mechanic was particularly effective? The tap ‘A’ mechanic, however, is where it can get annoying.
A is a powerful button in this game. A stands for Action. Which means it lets me select any main action available to progress. With A, Link can attack, eat, cook a meal, converse, take photos, open huge doors, grab and attach with Ultrahand. In this video where I help defeat monster forces, my efforts to entrap a boss Bokoblin trigger ‘A’ over 20 times in less than 20 seconds.
Perhaps the most annoying bit is obtaining several Sages and locking A as the only means to Activate their abilities. No wonder it becomes a common complaint for those in late game. My band aid solution was turning off Sages based on dungeon/quest – which does not help in Boss fights, when extra firepower is essential.
The ‘Sage AI’ too suffers from a limited radius. It’s akin to running up to one of them by coming close enough to tap them on the shoulder to activate their ability. Or, if you’re Yunobo, always being too close to Link and clipping his perspective.
A is a powerful button in this game that should be re-assigned in these scenarios, and I can only hope the next Zelda instalment takes the many player complaints and creates dedicated companion buttons in these scenarios. AKA, please stop blowing away my loot, Tulin.
Conclusion
Much like filling out the Hyrule Compendium, there’s so much game in Zelda that even 3000 words later, I’ve only skimmed the surface. By now, it’s clear to you dear reader, that starting with it as the first design case study may be an overreach.
Nonetheless, there is so much more to say on how the user interface and story influence each other. Interested? Join me for Part 2!
Tl;dr:
Tears of the Kingdom’s immersion was effective enough to make me spend months finishing it as my first Zelda game.
If you’re a player who has a knack for aligning right angles, Ultrahand is a Korok
killingsaving creator’s dream. For the rest of us with two left hands, it’s an exercise in patience and blood moon hunting. Don’t get me wrong, it’s pretty great.The sound design continues to be some of the best game music around. Brb while I go on a ‘vacay’ by playing 10 hours of Lurelin Village.
Inventory and combat is easy enough for a newbie like me, but I never mastered perfect dodge/flurry rush. Fusing materials to arrows takes too many precious seconds. Still beat the game though.
A is a powerful button that can either mean landing the finishing blow on a boss monster or causing Tulin to blow away all your loot off a cliff. Can I spam A again to demand an explanation from him?