Soapbox options allow our particular person writers and contributors to voice their opinions on sizzling subjects and random stuff they have been chewing over. Today, Jim gushes over the second you retrieve the legendary sword within the latest Zelda recreation…
There had been a number of moments in my playthrough of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom the place I’d put the controller down, deliver my arms to my head, and sit beaming on the display screen. The opening dive to the Great Sky Island because the title seems; the music in the course of the Wind Temple boss combat; the primary time I bypassed a puzzle by strapping two rockets to a plank of wooden and despatched Link rag-dolling in the direction of his purpose.
None of those, nevertheless, got here near the second whenever you retrieve the Master Sword.
I’ve been hesitant to match up Tears of the Kingdom towards the Zelda video games that precede it (it’s nonetheless very new, in any case), however, having watched Link get his arms on the legendary blade, I had completely little question that this was one among my very favorite moments in your complete sequence.
Before I dive into why I have never been in a position to get the sequence out of my head for the previous two months, let’s first lay out a giant outdated spoiler warning. I’m going to be diving into an entire lot of particulars relating to Tears of the Kingdom’s story. If you continue to are but to seek out the Master Sword within the recreation, then you are going to wish to flip again now and do it for your self first. Trust us, there’s nothing fairly like experiencing it spoiler-free…
I’d left discovering the Master Sword till a very good 50 hours into my playtime. I completed the 4 Regional Phenomena quests and, secure within the assumption that I’d be heading off to Hyrule Castle to combat Ganondorf instantly afterwards (how naive I used to be), I believed it might be a good suggestion to enter it with Link’s legendary blade in hand — come on, I wasn’t about to complete the sport with some very sturdy however very ugly Fuse monstrosity now, was I?
Tears of the Kingdom took a Zelda trope that I knew so effectively and made it ten instances higher
I had put it off as a result of I understand how these sequences go down. You have your Link to the Past method the place you journey to a serene forest and pull the Master Sword out of a stone, surrounded by lovable woodland creatures. Or there’s the Ocarina of Time model, which is far the identical solely in an historical temple and with considerably fewer squirrels.
Like so many issues, Tears of the Kingdom took a Zelda trope that I knew so effectively and made it ten instances higher. I really like A Link to the Past simply as a lot as anyone else, however you’ll be able to’t actually say {that a} sun-speckled forest (regardless of how serene) is cooler than driving on the again of an precise dragon…
Okay, I may need jumped the gun just a little there. Fortunately, I believe that getting the Master Sword this time round is such a series-defining second, that just about each facet of bringing it into my possession had me muttering “woah“.
This consists of the way you really discover the cursed factor. There are a number of methods you’ll be able to go about this: you discover the entire Dragon’s Tears and reveal the ultimate cutscene that reveals you precisely the place the sword is, you’ll be able to rock as much as the Lost Woods half-expecting it to be caught within the floor once more. Or you’ll be able to simply really stumble throughout the Light Dragon with out doing any of that. I’m positive that the previous is that bit extra cinematic, however holy Hylia did the latter have its personal punch-the-air moments.
After clearing the Great Deku Tree’s phantom indigestion, he provides you with the ‘Recovering the Hero’s Sword’ essential quest which pinpoints the situation of the Master Sword on the map. The solely distinction with this goal in comparison with others is that I seen that it was shifting. My preliminary thought was that there was some type of Sky Island in orbit round Hyrule and I must leap on and take away the sword. I quick travelled to the closest Shrine to the shifting marker and, within the place of my imagined shifting island, was a whole gold and white dragon with my sword buried in its head. Wow.
There’s a way of pressure to the act right here that is in contrast to something that the sequence has finished earlier than
This is not the primary Zelda recreation that has made us work for an opportunity to seize the legendary blade (the considered Skyward Sword’s Sacred Flames nonetheless makes me shiver) however gliding over to and touchdown on the again of the Light Dragon is one thing else. Arguably, this alone had the potential to be a series-best second, and because the ‘Grab’ command appeared as I walked nearer, I believed I knew the place it was going — in any case, we have all performed Breath of the Wild — nevertheless it needed to go and subvert my expectations another time.
There’s the plain swap round of swapping out Breath of the Wild’s required 13 hearts to carry the sword for 2 full rings of stamina, laughing in any respect those that thought they had been getting forward of the sport by loading up on well being first, however the very best change comes from how this feels like no different Master Sword second that has come earlier than it.
Clearly, the sequence is extra cinematic than ever earlier than. I like the Master Sword sequences of outdated, however there’s solely a lot drama that you would be able to get out of a person in a humorous hat grunting as he pulls a blade out of a rock. Tears of the Kingdom opts for the exact opposite finish of the spectrum — sheer spectacle. There’s a dragon, sure, however as you pull the sword of out the dragon’s head, it begins dashing by way of the sky at prime speeds, leaving Link clinging on for expensive life as if he is Tom Cruise in that one Mission Impossible film.
How can Nintendo make one other Master Sword sequence after this?
And I do not use “for dear life” flippantly. Trying to tug the sword while low on hearts in Breath of the Wild would end in literal demise, however exhaustion is hardly essentially the most graphic approach to die. Tears of the Kingdom creates a scenario the place in case you are not ready to carry the sword (which, keep in mind, you haven’t any thought if you’re going to be, the primary time round), Link goes to take a tumble off that dragon and fall a whole bunch of ft earlier than assembly a very squishy finish. There’s a way of pressure to the act right here that is in contrast to something that the sequence has finished earlier than.
Though the very best half about this whole sequence is that it really means one thing. In earlier video games, Link will get the Master Sword as a result of he wants it to banish evil. The identical remains to be true right here, in fact, however Tears of the Kingdom has the blade so intrinsically woven into the story that discovering the place it has been all this time has its personal particular melancholic twist.
I will not clarify precisely what the twist is right here — although should you’re right here, I’m positive you already realize it — nevertheless it’s truthful to say that it attracts collectively Link, Zelda and your complete historical past of Hyrule right into a single cutscene the place my previously-uttered “woah” rapidly become an “aww”. It’s epic, it is tense, it is thrilling, however most of all it is heartbreaking.
So, as I watched Link plop safely onto a close-by Sky Island because the dragon flew into the space, I breathed an almighty sigh. Of aid? Yes, but additionally of disbelief about what had simply occurred. How can Nintendo make one other Master Sword sequence after this? What do I do with all of that dragon information that I’ve simply realized? And, most prominently, why did I look forward to over 50 hours earlier than in search of that darn blade?
Princess Zelda might be caught up to now, however her franchise actually is not. And this second solely enriched the remainder of the sport for me. While I’m reluctant to say that Tears of the Kingdom is the best Zelda recreation ever at this level, I’m assured that — on the very least — its Master Sword second is maybe the very best second within the sequence ever.
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