I couldn't finish Tears Of The Kingdom

hey so tears of the Kingdom came out and I was so excited for it I took a week off of work to be able to binge it and I couldn't even finish it not because I didn't have enough time but because I lost the desire to play this is how tears of the Kingdom lost me the story so yes massive spoilers ahead oh wait hold on Zelda isn't a franchise known for story that's your own fault for having unrealistic expectations those all about puzzles and exploration everybody knows that yes yes internet I agree with you mostly but just because Zelda games haven't had the strongest stories in the past doesn't mean the narrative Nintendo presented can't be critiqued within reason I'm not about to suggest some Grand sweeping changes that would fundamentally change tears of the Kingdom into a different game altogether I mean I will at the end but I will share a more realistic critique of how I think Nintendo's failure to properly integrate their story with their gameplay robbed me of my immersion and motivation to continue playing but to do that I'll need to start at the beginning no I mean like before that before the game even come out in 2019 Nintendo showed a trailer for the sequel to breath of the wild where Zelda Link Explorer caved together find Ganondorf and get into trouble this single trailer created a speculation frenzy that Zelda might be playable or at least be significantly involved in the sequel since she just got saved and reunited with Flink in the game before and at the start of the second game wasn't in any immediate danger that speculation seat of heavy Zelda involvement was planted over four years ago between the trailer and when the game actually came out even today now that the game is out if you just Google tears of the Kingdom Co-op and tears of the Kingdom playable Zelda there's a myriad of Articles addressing this though by now we all know the answer is obviously no now this isn't Nintendo's fault I get it if anything it's the community's fault for speculating but I wanted to include this context because for a lot of players myself included that question of how will Zelda be involved in this game was top of mind fortunately for fans that question got answered almost immediately [Music] to fans Delight the second game started right where the 2019 trailer left off with Link and Zelda exploring a cave together based off the trailer we knew they were going to find Ganondorf but we didn't know anything beyond that we also didn't know that we were going to get such a cute Glimpse at Zelda and Link's Dynamic like look at this you're not hurt are you link all right then now to use this invention of puras I'm glad I didn't leave it behind to record point it and click that's by Design By the way having this glimpse of their interaction and seeing Zelda's personality shine outside of being an evil purification Brita filter is something we haven't seen very often in the franchise and serves to further a motivation to save her when you find a spooky man in the basement the master sword breaks and she falls into the void and disappears now what's important to note about this prologue is that from this moment on when Zelda disappears The emphasis is clearly focused on finding where Zelda is foreign yes there's a creepy man in the basement yes there's a spooky green arm yes we find out it belongs to a guy named raru who all we're told about is that he's the source of the right arm but even this new arm in raru are linked back to Zelda raru talks to link like his identity is defined by being Zelda's friend saying things like I've heard a great deal about you from Zelda and you're exactly like Zelda said Zelda at this point is all that link and raru have in common that's it and opening the breath of the wild the game made it clear link was a special appointed Knight chosen by a special sword with a special Destiny to seal the darkness but those facts weren't Revisited here just as the creepy man in the basement wasn't even given a name even though we all know it's Ganondorf from a lower perspective all raru does is tell link about his ancient race of furries and how to power up his arm with light-powered Go-Go juice but both of these facts are overshadowed narratively by even raru's concern for Zelda himself the last thing he literally says to you after you finish the tutorial island is I've done everything I can for her now it's up to you and the main quest you get assigned is literally find Princess Zelda not beat the ancient evil seal Ganondorf or even power up your arm compare this to breath of the wild where yes Zelda's dad the human king of Hyrule says save my daughter but he also says save a Hyrule and the literal main quest you receive after the lore dump is destroy Ganon and breath of the wild the story is framed as a grandiose save the world step into your calling O Holy Night of Destiny and tears of the Kingdom though the story is framed as go save Bae immediately after this main quest assignment you see Zelda in a cut scene elsewhere as you mysteriously give her the master sword for repair through a glowy portal once you do the music swells the clouds split open by a golden dragon the brand new world for you to explore is revealed and Zelda's voice Echoes on the Wind saying link so all right then so far so good find Zelda find Bae awesome she's gone off somewhere fixing the master sword and you have a juicy new world to explore Zelda is the key to all of this Zelda is the focus Zelda is what matters spooky nameless man in the basement can wait Zelda is our priority so you jump off into the big New World down below you on your quest to find the missing princess [Music] foreign you go to the building you saw from above and find Pura who also emphasizes the need to find the missing princess she puts four marks on your map saying weird stuff is happening at these locations and suspects that they're connected to Zelda being gone you figure these are the game's temples you're excited you climb up Towers get spit into the sky everything is fun everything is new there is so much to explore this game is massive but there's one place that you explore that really makes the game's Story come to life ataino Village and breath of the wild titano Villages where link can buy a house when you revisit it in tears of the Kingdom you make a surprising discovery Link's house is called Zelda's house it's here that Nintendo gives us the most overt yet unconfirmed hints that for the first time in a Zelda game that Link and Zelda are in a relationship together these hints include Link's house is now called Zelda's house the table is set for two there's one bed but link can sleep in it link can only sleep in beds that he either owns or at an end since this is not an end the only other explanation is that he owns this bed which if he owns a bed in Zelda's house that heavily implies that they share it not only that Outback Zelda has a secret study hidden in the well where she keeps a journal about link she says that he always stays at my side and how she's arranging a new and improved Champions tunic just for him that she can't wait to see the look on his face when she surprises him with it she hides the surprise gift in the throne room at the castle so link doesn't find it which is another point of evidence of their living situation that she's forced to hide the gift at the castle because she can't hide it at home because he might see it there because he's living with her that's the cherry on top and then chest next to the desk with the journal you find that Zelda has kept Link's Iconic Hair band from the first game the description of which says it makes you sentimental of times past Nintendo is all about confirming a relationship between these two through environmental storytelling despite this Dynamic never being directly confirmed by a spoken character everything in the game places Zelda at the Forefront of Link's mind which would make extra sense if their relationship has blossomed into something more than just a nice duty of protection to me though that sharing the bed argument is pretty airtight in suggesting a romance between the two the biggest proof Nintendo intentionally designed a deeper relationship between Link and Zelda is twofold firstly because the emphasis of the main quest is on finding Zelda not defeating Ganondorf and secondly because designing Link and Zelda to share a deeper relationship makes what happens next infinitely more tragic and impactful [Music] as you continue exploring the map getting shot out of Towers falling through the sky you see something crop circles you land you walk over you find impa from kakariko Village from the first game and she says that they appeared during the upheaval she tells you the crop circles are called geoglyphs and that they're investigating them she's read an ancient text that these geoglyphs might be related to something called Dragon's tears and that where the tears rest upon the Earth we mark down the images to which they gave birth theorizing that these geoglyphs are the images that came about when the dragon's tears hit the ground you jump out and find the dragon's tear you interact with through your spooky right arm and you trigger a cut scene you discover that when Zelda disappeared in the basement she actually went back in time and raru the source of the right arm was actually the first ever furry king of Hyrule this is the first solid lead you found concerning the main quest find Princess Zelda we now know that she is back in time the quest continues and you learn that there's more crop circles in her geoglyphs as you make your way to all the geoglyphs you slowly piece together what happened Zelda went back in time due to picking up the secret stone that fell from raru's hand in the prologue of the game we learned secret Stones enhance the user's latent power and that Zelda has two latent Powers inside of her one to seal evil and one to control time and evidently the time power she has got triggered when she fell in the void in the beginning of the game she works with raru first furry king of Hyrule and his wife Sonia to figure out how to get back to the present and in doing so she discovers that Ganondorf The Mummy in the basement is originally from the time she's currently in the ancient past and that she's going to witness and be involved in the events that lead up to his ceiling Ganondorf ends up killing and stealing Sonia's secret Stone and it's this power that transforms him into the demon king king furiraru then gives all his friends secret Stones turning them into sages with special powers Zelda is included in their Mary gang because she got her secret Stone from Radu in the game's prologue they all fail of course and then raru sacrifices himself to seal Ganondorf away with Sonia dead and raru now being sealed away with Ganondorf Zelda is alone in the past with no way to get home it's at this point where we see the master sword being delivered to her by link that we saw in the beginning of the game we didn't know where she was then then but we do now Zelda recalls a conversation she had with rauru's furry sister who told her of a forbidden act called draconification that involves eating a secret Stone to become an immortal Dragon the reason dragonification is forbidden is because the cost of doing so causes the user to lose themselves completely essentially transforming into a Mindless beast but with this being the only way to get to link in the future the Zelda pops the stone like a NyQuil and transforms into the light dragon clutching the master sword in order to bring it with her through time before she loses her sense of self completely and flies off into the sky her subconscious mind weeping as her tears fly off in her Ascent containing all the memories we just uncovered Zelda transforming into the light dragon also lets you see the opening in a new light remember when we dropped off the masosaur to Zelda in the beginning of the game right after you do that a dragon breaks through the clouds but not just any dragon the light dragon the dragon that Zelda turned into Zelda's dragon that Zelda right there to twist the knife even further once you've finished this final cut scene silent princess flowers Zelda's favorite flower the flower symbolizes the princess herself spawn around the final tier location so now you know you know where Zelda is she is the light dragon in the sky right now today in the present she made her way back to you but it cost her everything the one you love lived with did life with that Zelda she's gone foreign [Music] but despite this tragic Revelation no one in the game acknowledges your all-important Discovery and anything close to a meaningful way the closest thing you get to meaningful narrative continuity is that if you talk to impa after the final Vision link tells her what he saw she acknowledges that Zelda transformed the light dragon and even says that because of that that she can never again return to her original form all right unwilling to accept it however she swears to find some way to restore Princess Zelda to her former self and that she'll return to kakariko Village to review the ancient literature to find a solution the problem is if you go to kakariko Village empa is nowhere to be found and if you Google it impu appears later after a myriad of late game prerequisites have been met and effectively she disappears until the final moments of the game if you go back to Lookout Landing and talk to Pura she doesn't even acknowledge anything that you've seen and still wonders where Princess Zelda is if you go to the four places marked on the map which end up being the Dungeons and you complete them all the dungeon quest line still has all of the characters wondering about Zelda's disappearance no one in the game knows that Zelda is the light dragon and went back in time and Link can't tell anyone about that but impa who then immediately disappears this is extra painful because a recurring theme in each of the dungeons is that someone that looks like Zelda makes an appearance but does something obviously evil that confuses everyone involved this fake Zelda that we the player know as gives an evil mask to yunobo she attacks King Dora fan she summons baddies in the desert she's involved with summoning a blizzard on the Rito and each time link is forced to be silent as the NPC's wonder how Zelda could be doing something like this even after the completion of the four dungeons when you return to Pora it's her turn to see fake Zelda a top floating Hyrule Castle when you confront fake Zelda and the game finally acknowledges that surprise she's been a mirage created by Ganondorf the big Baddie a fact that you've known for a few hours now link is still denied the ability to share the truth and the post-fight cut scene Nintendo allows everyone to finally acknowledge his other one back into the past but still has them perplexed as to why or how it happened Tulin says but with Princess Zelda in the past we can't ask her what the plan is supposed to be and she can't be here to fight with us either both of which are untrue because we at least know one her plan involves restoring the master sword as evident of her clutching it and two she is here and she can fight with us because she's literally a giant light drag with the power to banish evil flying around the sky their powwow ends with a new focus on beating Ganondorf and finding a new sage in the game formally pivots away from its pre-established fine Zelda narrative foreign [Music] becomes abundantly clear that the dragon's tier quest line is completely separate from the rest of the game which perplexes me because they clearly put a lot of time and effort into the story that they created not to mention designed it to be extra impactful by giving all these hints about Zelda and Link's relationship like they clearly want you to care about this it seems that Nintendo did this though to place emphasis on exploration and gameplay instead of story and have the dragons to your questline serve as like bonus side content and that either most or all of that same information will eventually be revealed through the dungeon quests now I can see that reasoning but I think it's dumb but this is the point where people draw the line and say Zelda isn't a story game and to expect anything more than what we got is unrealistic but I think that's done too I think Nintendo missed a great opportunity for interweaving their Amazing Story with minimal cost for maximum narrative impact I have two propositions for how they could have done better one is much more realistic and requires minimal effort and I genuinely believe they could have shipped the game this way and it made a massive difference and the rest of the game would be like completely unchanged and then the other one is of course a bit more of a fan fake and much more involved and unrealistic and would involve it being a substantially different game but all share the more realistic Bare Bones effort variation first foreign [Music] questline you would talk with empa the same as usual and she would say the same thing that she would try to research a possibility of bringing Zelda back to normal if you go to kakariko Village though you would find her where she normally is and she would just tell you that she's working on it and then tell you to go check in with Pura and that maybe she might have any ideas this would make sense since purr as a scientist and actively involved in trying to locate Zelda you'll go to look out landing and you talk to Pura hey Perez although I'm back in time as a light dragon now whoa far out how tragic I don't know much about that but I'm glad empa is working on finding a solution in the meantime we still don't know what's going on with those four regions maybe something there will help us learn more if you have the dragon series Quest completed you just show up with the four regions meet the respective sages say hey I'm safe from the rumbling Zelda the dragon stuff's whack they just say wild you could even still see the fake sus Zelda if you have the dragonster's questline completed instead of the NPCs being like hey Zelda wait oh my gosh they would just say I know you're a fake leak told me let's fight the end result would still be the same Zelda is never caught in any of the four temples to begin with that's literally all you'd have to do just acknowledge in dialogue what happened if the player has the dragon's tears Quest completed everything else can just get pushed out the game can transition to focusing on Ganondorf in the second half as it currently does and the phrase impa is still researching a way to bring Zelda back to normal could be the narrative catch-all to never have to do anything more about it but at least then it would be articulated by characters in the game and at least impa could still be found staring at a book in the world and at least you would have some continuity that matches your actions and experiences in the game I don't want to hear anyone saying that that's too rpge for a Zelda game literally the lurlin restoration project side quest is way more in depth than what I just proposed and the Laurel and restoration project side quest a town gets destroyed and you literally restore and rebuild that entire town and each time you restore something be it a restaurant in Inn or the village Leader's House the game recognizes it and rewards your actions accordingly if x happens in Game have y respond with Z yes I gather the lural and restoration project is a self-contained side quest and yes I get that the game would have to check if you've beaten the Dragon Tears quest line every time you talk to a notable NPC in our to make this happen but Nintendo does this with other things like if you talk with Pura while wearing Link's headband from breath of the wild Zelda kept in her study she says isn't that the hair band that princess had Nintendo even did this with their soundtrack if you Google tears of the Kingdom full OST in YouTube and look through the tracks you can see that they have different music playing for not only day and night cycles but also depending on if you've solved that location's Quest or not for whatever reason Nintendo didn't want to apply the same logic to the main story of their game now if you wanted to take this one step further the more in-depth unrealistic completely changed the game entirely remake would be something like this foreign questline impa actually actively involves you in the process of trying to change Zelda back to normal from being a dragon each of the four dungeons could play a role in bringing her back to normal maybe if you collect all the Sacred Stones together combined with some ancient secret that impa finds in the text together they can undo the jaconification process once that happens maybe Zelda becomes a companion with you like the other sages because mind you at the end of each dungeon she's formally acknowledged as the sage of time and was there to fight Ganondorf originally and it would make sense for her to take her place there once again and help you seal him you know as a sage if we're getting the rest of the sage descendants 4 let's seal Ganondorf round two why not also include the sage of time and that she could follow you around and fight with you and go on adventures with you for the remainder of the game as she partners with you to take down the Demon King she could even be like a source of light or have light powers and be a really unique companion for down in the depths where it's pitch black and you can't see anything but alas neither of those scenarios are what happened [Music] thank you [Music] so here I am in Lookout Landing after finishing the four Temple quests I have much more of the game to play I don't know what happens next we're currently looking for braru's furry sister who was also a sage which just tilts me even more because if we're looking for the furry sister because the end result of the power from earlier after they realize Zelda was a fake was oh my gosh there's a fifth Sage well yeah but what if there's also a sixth Sage Zelda the sage of time if we're saying we need all the sages don't we need her too and if the sage of time turned into a dragon shouldn't we be focusing on turning her back actively like right now I want to finish the game and I want to see how they wrap it up but honestly I regret doing the dragon's tears questline so early because I just feel cursed with this knowledge and gaslit by the entire game unable to share what I know with anyone but impa who isn't available to talk to anymore and just immediately disappears after you tell her about it I want to enjoy playing a game I anxiously waited six years to play but to do that I have to accept the game for what it is and not what I wished it was or wish that it did differently the story is so good and the integration of that story could have been so easily done they just had to acknowledge that Zelda's a dragon darn it and I mean what about the master sword too you can acknowledge that while we're at it the fact that Nintendo showed they were capable of this concept by how they handled the lurlin restoration project side quest miscellaneous item acknowledgments and even with how they designed the game's soundtrack but then actively chose to not integrate the Dragon Tears quest with the rest of the game at all is honestly heartbreaking and super disappointing you can still have the game be focused on exploration and gameplay while having minimal changes to integrate what the player did to uncover your amazing story that you painstakingly created I suspect that given enough time I will get over it and I will actually finish the game and who knows maybe Nintendo will redeem themselves somehow and the ending will be absolutely spectacular but even if the ending is spectacular nothing can change my mind that they fumbled the Dragon Tears questline integration and because of that failed integration it cost me my immersion and will ultimately detract from whatever ending they did actually make no matter how good the ending is the fact remains that I got so frustrated with how they integrated this core questline that it made me want to stop playing their game right now I'm still too frustrated and disappointed with how Nintendo handled their story to keep playing but when that changes and I do eventually get over it and I finish the game maybe I'll make another video thanks for watching [Music]

Channel: DucksAreYellow

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Keywords: ducks, ducks are yellow, ducksryellow, ducks ducks ducks, gamer, youtube gamer, variety streamer, duck streamer, wholesome streamer, sykkuno, valkyrae, offline tv, otv, gaming streamer, anime, art, digital art, art streamer, animation, duck animation, art duck, totk, tears of the kingdom, videogames, video essay, zelda, zelda tears of the kingdom

Id: HVYgXqUVDVA

Length: 21min 57sec (1317 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 09 2023