Link Is Actually The Bad Guy In Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom
In "The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom," Link gets to play the hero and save the day — but every hero's journey is complicated. Sometimes, achieving your goal as a player means blurring the lines of morality juuust a smidge.
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00:00In The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom, Link gets to play the hero and save the day,
00:05but every hero's journey is complicated.
00:07Sometimes achieving your goal as a player means blurring the lines of morality just
00:11a smidge.
00:12Beware!
00:13Tears of the Kingdom spoilers ahead!
00:16It can be tough to get by in Hyrule, but luckily, Link is a survivor.
00:19Whether he's climbing mountains or paragliding across the plains, Link has all the know-how
00:24needed to get around the wilderness.
00:26Unfortunately, survival doesn't just require careful planning and repeated feats of strength.
00:31In theory, Link limits himself to only fighting evil creatures across the land.
00:35But in practice, thriving in the wild requires Link to kill some animals.
00:38A hero's got to eat, and you need to prepare some hearty meals if you want to keep Link's
00:42heart containers full through the toughest of battles.
00:45Mushroom skewers can only take you so far, and meat just happens to be the most filling
00:49food out there.
00:50It's possible to avoid hunting birds or other wildlife, but even the most dedicated vegetarians
00:55might find themselves tempted to grab some small animal for an elixir.
00:59After all, a single, sticky lizard is a small price to pay for scaling a mountain in a rainstorm.
01:04Hyrule is an absolutely massive kingdom that demands players spend dozens of hours exploring
01:09its detailed landscape.
01:11In Tears of the Kingdom, there are more ways to get around than ever before.
01:14Thanks to Zonai devices, players can ride in hot air balloons, drive makeshift cars,
01:19or just strap a rocket to their shield and see what happens.
01:22When it comes to traveling across the surface of the kingdom, though, it can be best to
01:25go back to basics and find a horse to ride.
01:28Wild horses dot the fields and hills of Hyrule, and Link can ride any one of them wherever
01:33he needs to go.
01:34That's not to say the horses are always going to be thrilled by the idea.
01:38After leaping onto a horse's back, Link needs to try and calm them down, eventually convincing
01:42them to help him save the world.
01:44Not every horse is willing to listen, though, and more than once during a playthrough, you're
01:48gonna get bucked to the ground.
01:50"'Scuse me, princess."
01:52Horses, beware!
01:54It doesn't end after Link gets his first ride.
01:56You can board a number of horses at one of the stables across the land, and since every
02:00horse has a different set of stats, there's definitely an incentive to try and capture
02:04more than one.
02:05Wild horses need to watch their back whenever Link is around, or they might just find themselves
02:09riding into battle against a big-ass baddie like Gleok.
02:21The Travel Medallion might be one of the single most useful items in Tears of the Kingdom.
02:26Much like it did in Breath of the Wild, the Travel Medallion lets players drop down a
02:29checkpoint while they respawn if something goes wrong.
02:32This is particularly helpful when you're moving across Sky Islands, where one wrong move can
02:36send you plummeting away from your objective.
02:39Link doesn't start the game with the Travel Medallion in hand, and there's plenty of exploration
02:43and questing to go through before it gets unlocked, but that can put players in an awkward
02:47position.
02:48Picture this.
02:49You've just spent 20 minutes carefully scaling a collection of islands, using every tool
02:53at your disposal to reach a temple in the sky.
02:56Just before you arrive, you miscalculate a jump and start falling back to the ground.
03:00In that situation, you've got two choices.
03:02Panic smash your glider button, safely float to the ground, grit your teeth, and make the
03:07climb all over again.
03:08Or you can press that dive button, smash Link face-first into the ground, and respawn at
03:13the island you were just at.
03:15On the one hand, seeing your favorite hero brutally killed is bad enough when a talus
03:18is at fault, but it's much worse when you're the one doing it.
03:22On the other hand, 20 minutes is 20 minutes.
03:25If Nintendo didn't want this to happen, they would've given us the Travel Medallion on
03:28the Great Sky Island.
03:30One of Link's greatest assets as an adventurer is his ability to be stealthy.
03:34In both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, he can crouch down and scout groups
03:38of enemies, planning out the perfect strategy before he sneaks his way into position to
03:42launch a surprise attack on his enemies.
03:45More often than not, the stealthy approach is the safest one, so Link's gotten plenty
03:48of practice at sneaking around.
03:50He might've even gotten too much practice because now it seems like he can't stop sneaking
03:53up on everyone he meets.
03:55Link has a habit of approaching NPCs from behind, and whenever he initiates dialogue,
04:00they cry out an alarm.
04:01Vordervoort is looking out over the Hyrule Field chasm when Link scares him so badly
04:05that he almost falls to his death.
04:07Despite being told by character after character that he needs to stop sneaking up on people,
04:11Link just can't help himself.
04:13Fans from Reddit have picked up on Link's uncomfortable habit and turned it into a meme.
04:17Some even pointed out that Link's sneakiness doesn't seem to have the same effect on animals
04:21since birds and lizards take off the moment he approaches them.
04:24The various peoples of Hyrule must not be that tuned into their surroundings.
04:28That's all Link is scaring everyone he meets on purpose.
04:31The Kingdom of Hyrule is a land of goddesses, where powerful magic offers everyone some
04:35amazing opportunities.
04:37Not all the magic in Hyrule comes from the goddesses, though, and not all of it is necessarily
04:41good.
04:42The darker powers throughout the kingdom have their uses, and Link might want to rely on
04:46them every once in a while.
04:47During a visit to Lookout Landing's secret bunker, Link can discover a hidden tunnel
04:51that supposedly leads into Hyrule Castle itself.
04:54The path is blocked by rocks, but with some explosive arrows or certain Zonai devices,
04:59Link can blast his way into the tunnel.
05:01Trapped inside a prison cell along the path is a horned statue, which speaks to Link when
05:05the two meet.
05:06The statue explains that a goddess trapped it here ages ago, and then it offers Link
05:10a deal with the statue's side quest.
05:12The horned statue's origins are anything except clear, but the deal it offers is pretty straightforward,
05:18much like that of his Breath of the Wild counterpart.
05:20Link can sell either a heart or a stamina bar to the statue for 100 rupees.
05:24Then for 120 rupees, Link can buy that essence back, but he can convert it into whichever
05:29stat he wants.
05:30Essentially, the deal lets you swap hearts for stamina or vice versa for a small fee.
05:34The horned statue is definitely a useful tool, but we have to wonder what its real motives
05:39are, and why it was trapped by a goddess in the first place.
05:49Koroks are back in Tears of the Kingdom, but this time around their problems are simpler,
05:53and their puzzles are much more open-ended.
05:56The Koroks that players encounter throughout the game are traveling the lands of Hyrule,
06:00and they're usually traveling in pairs.
06:02Carrying around massive backpacks and hiking for hours can be exhausting for creatures
06:06who are so small, so players will usually find one exhausted Korok who has been separated
06:10from their friend.
06:12Bringing the two back together makes for a short puzzle, and the reward is, of course,
06:15a couple of Korok seeds.
06:17Koroks, like all other organic material, can't be picked up with Ultra Hand, but their backpacks
06:22certainly can.
06:24More often than not, the easiest solution is to attach the backpack to a wagon or custom-built
06:28car and drive over to the Korok's companion.
06:31Players have gotten a bit more inventive than that.
06:33Some have built massive, spring-loaded catapults that can launch a Korok across an entire lake.
06:38Others have gone ahead and built a car before attaching the Korok to a wheel's axle rather
06:42than letting them take a short rest in the back.
06:45Now it's possible some players are working out their frustration after Nintendo trolled
06:48them with Korok seeds in Breath of the Wild, but as long as all the Koroks are being reunited,
06:53who's gonna complain?
06:55By the time Tears of the Kingdom starts, Link is a fully grown adult with plenty of adventuring
06:59under his belt.
07:00If you count the years he spent in the Resurrection Shrine, this Link is the oldest in the entire
07:04series.
07:05Either way, he's definitely old enough to decide for himself whether or not he wants
07:08to risk his life for the sake of Hyrule, and he's definitely old enough to know that kids
07:12shouldn't be asked the same question.
07:14On his way to the Wind Temple, Link stops by Rito Village to check in on its inhabitants.
07:23Thanks to a magical blizzard blanketing their homeland, the Rito are all in a tough place.
07:28They're running out of food and don't have an easy way to contact anyone else in Hyrule.
07:32One Rito in particular, Taber, is extremely worried because his son, Tulin, flew off into
07:36the blizzard, determined to find a way to stop it on his own.
07:40As fate would have it, Link finds Tulin just before he reaches the Wind Temple.
07:44Does he tell the young Rito to go home to his father?
07:46No.
07:47Link enlists Tulin in his assault on the temple, and the two of them stop the blizzard together.
07:51Afterward, Link and Tulin return to Rito Village, and Taber tells Tulin that he's finally come
07:56of age as a warrior, gifting his son his prized bow as a sign of his new status.
08:00Apparently, it really is better to beg forgiveness than ask permission.
08:05Addison is one of the many quirky characters that Link will encounter on his journeys through
08:08Hyrule.
08:09Addison has one passion in life, and it's President Hudson of the Hudson Construction
08:13Company.
08:14He's traveling the entire kingdom to put up signs of Hudson, but he isn't a particularly
08:17skilled construction worker himself.
08:20Time and time again, Addison finds himself desperately holding onto a sign to prevent
08:24it from toppling over.
08:26That's where Link comes in.
08:27He can tell Addison to let the sign go, prompting the other man to ask Link if he's going to
08:30support the president.
08:32Forward-thinking players will have already grabbed some nearby building materials to
08:35construct a makeshift support that will keep Addison's sign from smashing into the ground.
08:40The rest of us will have no idea what Addison is really asking, and we'll probably try to
08:44ultra-hand the sign before it falls.
08:46The sound of Addison's heartbroken cries as President Hudson collapses will haunt our
08:51dreams.
08:52The game really sets players up to let Addison down, no pun intended.
08:55At least the first time that they encounter him.
08:57The blade that shatters so easily against my power cannot save you from me.
09:04Tears of the Kingdom opens with a fairly traditional hook for a Zelda game.
09:08While exploring some caves and tunnels beneath Hyrule Castle, Link and Zelda accidentally
09:12awaken an ancient evil.
09:14The world begins to shake, and the ground starts to collapse.
09:17Zelda falls into a bottomless pit, and Link dives after her, but he's too late.
09:22He disappears, apparently via magical means, and Link is saved by the spirit of Rauru,
09:27the first king of Hyrule.
09:28After that point, Link is, in theory, trying to figure out what happened to Princess Zelda
09:32and how to bring her back to his Hyrule.
09:34All the main quest missions point in that direction to one degree or another, but that
09:38doesn't mean that all of us spend our hours in the game trying to get to the bottom of
09:41that particular mystery.
09:43There's almost too much to do in Hyrule, from exploring caves and flying out of Skyview
09:47Towers to aiding Koroks and offering support to poor Addison.
09:51A million different side activities can distract players from the game's main story.
09:55Almost anyone who picks up Tears of the Kingdom is going to spend dozens of hours exploring,
09:59side-questing, and building beautifully flawed vehicles.
10:03After 50 or more hours flying over Hyrule, digging into its underground caverns, and
10:07clearing out the local monster population, does anyone really remember what they started
10:11out doing?
10:12Sure, Link cares about Zelda, but he's also got some more mushrooms to collect and new
10:17recipes to discover.
10:18Excuse me, Princess!