Why Tears of the Kingdom is DEEPER Than You Think (Examining The Depths) 

That horn blast that plays as you cross the barrier between the surface and the depths is really unsettling, it always make me feel uncomfortable

nintendo's confidence to just keep these ungodly massive chunks of game entirely under wraps purely to let players have such a natural genuine discovery on their first experience gives me so much respect for them as devs.

It’s just remarkable that The Depths were absent for all the game’s marketing. Amazing. Also, brilliant job connecting your infatuation with the depths to actual cavers. Great video.

It feels like they added old school checkpoints back into the game. Trying to get past a challenge to find the glory of a safe area. Its incredible.

I jumped into the first chasm by lookout landing thinking that they were just gonna be new mini dungeons like the shrines. So I started using brightbulbs to try to light up the area, and after using 5 I started to realize that the area was pretty big. After about 10 I realized that this might be a whole subarea instead of a dungeon. Around 15 I finally noticed the Lightroot and lit up the area and checked my map. I then started to zoom out the map... and zoom out again, and again with the slowly dawning, and incredibly exciting realization that the depths was a whole new map that I just didn't know about because I was avoiding trailers and spoilers. I have spent most of my time exploring the depths, and chasms are always my first stop after mapping out a new region, to the point that I'm underpowered because I'm not doing shrines. The depths are a great addition that really emphasizes the exploration in this game.

A couple of tips for navigating the depths: If there is a mountain in the overworld, the same place where that mountain is located will be a chasm in the depths, the opposite rings true as well. If there is water in the overworld, then that place in the depths is actually a solid wall. You'll have to find another Chasm to go in if you want to go there. There are mines under each settlement and ruins, in fact you'd be pleasently surprise with what type of things you find~ In the Depths, Lynels spawn under Stables.

The dread of the Depths first truly hit me at, ironically, the moment when I activated a Lightroot. Seeing the camera switch to a pitch black abyss and suddenly seeing light flowing down the root made me think “if something *this* big could be so easily concealed…then what else am I not seeing?” I can still vividly remember quite literally walking into an armored Lynel that I couldn’t see until I was toe-to-hoof with it.

one thing that I find absolutely integral to the Depths is the way the gloom fades-to-black at the edges, making it blend seamlessly with the actual darkness throughout. Without using a brightbloom, it’s hard to tell where any safe ground ends and the gloom begins, which makes it even more intimidating. Even after you complete the map, many areas are just naturally dark (either due to enclosure or due to distance), which makes the place still unsettling even in lategame stages.

The really interesting thing to me was that while my experience definitely started out similar to how the video describes it all- That slowly changed over time, as I learned the systems more, figured out how the depths were laid out, and slowly mapped everything. At first, the depths were a terrifying void of unknown scale, and every time I thought I had a handle on how big and dangerous they could be, I was proven wrong. By the end of the game, they were the easiest place in all of Hyrule to traverse, the unknown giving way to a relaxed road trip as I went around on a victory lap to clear out all the points of interest. A full bar of batteries, a couple good flying machines, a fast 'bike' for flatter terrain, and knowledge of how the two maps relate to each other transforms the experience entirely. ...Also, man. Running into a dragon in the depths is a completely different experience from doing so in the overworld. Especially if it's in an area you haven't lit up yet. First time I spotted one down there, I just landed on its back and sat back to watch the scenery drift by for a while.

One thing they really nailed with The Depths was the identity. It had a clear and concise message that is communicated by every facet of it, from the cave walls all-but-fighting you to be climbable to the choking darkness to the fauna and the Yiga Clan running short of rations. The message is simple. You are not meant to thrive here. You made a choice to be here, and if you die down here, alone in the dark, you'll have only yourself to blame. Absolutely incredible.

The thing that really captured my interest with the Depths is that they perfectly mirror the environment of the Surface. Which, as far as I know, is never explained in-story. It’s a detail that really blurs the line as to whether the Depths are just a really big cave under Hyrule or some kind of alternate dark realm.

I remember the moment I realized that the Obsidian Froxes EAT BRIGHTBLOOMS. The realization that the very resource I was using as a lifeline was also leaving a trail of breadcrumbs for a massive monster that was nonetheless near-invisible in the shadows was amazing. This was then followed by the realization that I could use brightbloom arrows to distract the creatures, which added a whole new layer of strategy to navigating the region.

the fact a well in this game can literally just plummet you into the depths when every other well in the game just drops you into a safe peaceful cave is… truly terrifying

Caves to me IRL: nuh-uh! Never. Gonna die in there. Terrible Caves in video games: yes please! big space underground please want find terrors beyond imagining

Last night, I found a giant Bargainer statue near one of the lightroots. I had already met one at a mine during a side quest, but seeing this one not merged to something, and shrouded in darkness no less, made me feel uneasy. I wonder if this is what megalophobia feels like.

the tradition of sewer levels continues

My first big impression of the Depths was when I saw Naydra fly into the Chasam in Kakariko. I thought I would get a scale or something off of it, and the I fell into the Depths. I used a few big seeds to light the area around me, and I realized I was in a canyon surrounded by Zora statues. My mind took a few seconds to let everything sink in. I hadn't done Josha's quest yet so I had no idea what the Zora statues ment, and decided to go off exploring in the dark. I got my butt kicked a lot, but I eventually made it to a wall of the map. When I checked where I was I saw that I was under Hateno. I was floored by that revelation.

When i realized the Depths were a full underworld i sat back in complete awe. My first couple times exploring it gave me Subnautica vibes. I just wish that it wasn't so easy to predict its layout (cause once you understand how it works the depths are easy to explore) and i wish that there were more distinct areas rather than an unchanging biome of blue with "peacock trees" and such. Other than that it was amazing.

One thing I found striking about the Depths is how much they resemble the Dark World of a Link to the Past: They are a dark, inverted, corrupted reflection of the surface that make you feel disempowered, scared even when you first enter. Considering how many elements of lore and gameplay are borrowed and remixed from previous games, I doubt his similarity was mere accident.

I think your analogy of the depths to an ocean is very good. There’s nothing quite like exploring through the Gerudo region depths at midnight without using brightblooms, where every step could be a sudden drop. It ignites a dread worse than thalassaphobia. And pair that with climbing to the top of a cliff just to be face to face with a lynel, the depths are terrifying

My heart rate naturally goes up the instance I enter the depth. Even though objectively I know that there's nothing to be afraid of and that the gloom hands don't really spawn in the depth (except only at a few locations), my brain somehow conditioned itself to feel the sense of "fear" and even reluctance especially under the help of the subtle but encompassing background soundtrack and the sound and visual effects of the gloom that's littered all over the place. I find myself unconsciously picturing gloom hands appearing around the corners, especially when I turn the camera around and see a new puddle of gloom that wasn't in my view before. Yet this kind of feeling is constantly relieved when I toss a brightbloom seed and the area around me becomes known and safe. Even seeing a boss can be relieving, as now that enters my familiar territory. It never truly felt "scary" by any means, but the atmosphere of the depth I think is done very well, just enough so that I don't feel entirely comfortable, but the positive feedback was able to keep me wanting to explore more, go to the next light root, take out that next enemy mining camp, go pillage that next Yiga camp. But more essentially, just toss out that next brightbloom seed into the darkness in front.

I too love the Depths; however, they also make me phenomenally uncomfortable. I’ve recently discovered a subtle fear in me of tunnels below that I cannot see. Empty spaces, chasms and voids carved out of stone deep in the earth. It’s…very unsettling. The fact that the Depths mirror the surface is maybe the most blood-chilling thing about it. It makes you scream “why?” into the darkness…only for your own voice to echo back. Did the Zonai descend to Hyrule to strip Zonaite from the deep space below? How’d they know to find it there? Was the gloom there always there, or only after Ganondorf spent so long locked away? Are there Depths to other countries than Hyrule, or does only Hyrule have such a harrowing feature? Did the Zonai make the Bargainer statues, or were they always there? Why do the statues of Hyrule’s races seem to be made of the same thing the Bargainers are? Why aren’t there statues of Hylians? So many questions, no real answers. I hate it. I love it. I’m scared.

The feeling you get when you dive into death mountian, avoiding leftover lava, when you start to see down there is a whole sea of lava, you realise that this game is a peace of art.

The Depths remind me of the Deep Dark in Minecraft. It’s also a vast abandoned underground civilization with corruption spreading everywhere, but it’s captivating and disheartening at the same time. It’s terrifying and beautiful. It’s the rapture of the deep. Once people lived there and thrived, but something went wrong. I thought I’d hate being down there (Deep Dark and Depths) but there’s just something about them. In The Depths I kept thinking “just one more discovery” despite knowing I shouldn’t press my luck down there. If people once lived there then there was something they saw in it too.

Something I love about how the depths and surface are connected is that once you know about the light roots and shrines being in the same place on each, you are rewarded for your exploration of the depths with pinpoints to shrines, and vice versa.

Use the surface map in the depths the mountains are the inverse of the water on the surface

The interconnectivity of the sky, surface, and depths is great. You need to go to the sky islands for zonal parts, and sundelions for meals to heal gloom, then you need to go cave exploring to gather bright bloom seeds for the depths as well. You go to the depths to mine zonaite to increase your ability to use zonaite parts. The shrines are better in his game a well teaching you about things you can do in the out in the world.

It's really something else to go from being able to go to anything you see in the distance to being unable to see whether you're standing right in front of a wall or a chasm. I love the depths.

I agree, the depths are kinda addictive, it draws on your primal fears and the monsters are another level of frightful unhingement of your senses! I prepare and then it is depths time!

What I love and hate about the depths, is that it reminds me of the deep ocean. Low-key gives me a panic attack. I’ve been doing my very best to explore the depths regardless of its lack of visibility. I’m about halfway done with the map. *and I hate every single second of it*

Am I the only one who things the dephs are kinda empty? Outside some major landmakra and a few chests it's just enemy camps and light roots, it's way emptier then the surface. Also the darkness isn't really a problem if you have shitloads of giant brightbloom seeds just spam those seeds they are really common

I avoided the Depths during the early game. I was absolutely terrified to get hit by the enemies especially when you haven’t unlocked the lightroot of the area and you’re just going in blind (literally). Then I got a bit more comfortable during mid-game and started a mission to uncover the whole map of the Depths. It took me more than a week (I would alternate between Depths diving and doing some quests above ground) and I’m STILL trying to uncover the last 5-7 areas but wow it’s been quite the fun experience. There’s such a thrill when you finally find that lightroot you need, seeing the map and seeing there’s an interesting landmark around you. I’m really glad they added the Depths in this game.

Brightbloom seeds run out? The large ones sure, but I have been throwing the small ones quite generously and I keep seeing that stack going up and up with it currently being above 600.

I have a headcanon on enemies with a Gloom aura: As Ganondorf uses Gloom to make monsters, those monsters can safely utilize Gloom to give their attacks a max HP-reducing effect. After all, they're made of that stuff, so they should be very resistant, if not outright immune, to its corroding properties. I also theorize that Gloom speeds up decay, as metal weapons are rusted and corroded, and Link's arm looks necrotic. And I also theorize that Zonai are especially weak to Gloom, as while the other sages were able to recover after their fight with Ganondorf, Mineru still had scars on her body and clothes from the fight, and was bound to her chair in ill health, where getting agitated could cause a coughing fit.

Love how the depths in a way is a mirror or dark world variation of Hyrule. Mountains up above are turn to massive downward slopes in the depths and vice versa if it is a pit in the Overworld. Same with water, any rivers or big bodies of water above mean a wall in the depths. There is more major attention to detail but I’ll just say those. But once you understand those things, the depths become a little less foreign, still very challenging but you realize the depths isn’t that different from Hyrule in a bizarre but fascinating way.

My standout moment was when I first looked around down there for a bit and threw a seed to light up my way. It didn't do anything so I went closer to see what's up, only to see the slightest hint of a giant canyon with the seed measely lighting up a tiny bit. I went: What the.... It was then when the true scale dawned on me.

Definitely agree, the depths were what I spent most of my time doing as well

Also the journey to get mineru is truly awesome. You have to find dragon head island- bring a mask all the way down to land- then go on a depths quest and control an avatar? And you need to put the body back together again which tests your skills with building....definitely something truly unique in TOTK

You hit the nail on the head. Breath of the Wild’s landmasses took great care to never make their mountains insurmountable. Even the Gerudo Highlands could be comfortably conquered as long as you had three wheels of stamina and Revali’s Gale. But the Depths have cliffs that are so tall that they seem to just not care how much stamina you have. It’s kind of ballsy from a game design perspective, making your player feel powerless like that, but it does so much good for the immersion and the sense that you do not belong in this world.

It's cool that the subject of Cave Diving came into this, considering Miyamoto's original inspiration for The Legend of Zelda was exploring fields and caves when he was a kid. That feeling has really stood its ground here.

The depths really gives me the vibe of what a modern version of the Dark World from Link To The Past would be, with the weird alien vegetation and stuff. Love it!

Thoroughly enjoyed this DEEP DIVE! Nice to see you still making such BIG STEPS!

You forgot to mention the terrain is inverted and the remains of Zonai architecture add the whole 'ancient, fallen' civilization vibe to the place. There's also interesting areas in the Depths directly below interesting areas on the surface. Gotta love those one-way Depths elevators

Sometimes im exploring a completely new area of the depths and see a glowing area in the distance and have this off feeling of being out of bounds like the level in supposed to be in is off in the distance Thats my favorite feeling

Warning: this video contains spoilers for the rito questline, and minor spoilers about some corners of the depths. Big thanks Hamish for keeping spoilers to a minimum even now! I haven’t beaten the whole game yet and I don’t feel like I ruined anything for myself watching this.

One interesting thing about the depths that nobody seems to talk about... On the surface, the shrines are often placed _on top_ of mountains and cliffs (or in caves that you can ascend upwards from), to make exploration easier. But _because_ of this, many of the Lightroots in The Depths are placed within deep pits or crevasses, because of how The Depths' heightmap is a flipped version of the surface. The terrain being so difficult to traverse incentivizes the player to use zonai vehicles, without ever telling the player directly (its also hinted at by the many stone platforms housing zonai parts, and even by the Yiga themselves who ride vehicles).

When I started the game, I refused to go down any chasms because they looked spooky. Then, I was just wandering around, visiting Kakariko Village… and I saw Naydra diving into a chasm. And I was like “what the fuck???” so I jumped down to join her, and hung out on her back while she flew through the Depths. I saw light roots scattered around in complete darkness and sort of wondered what they are, but was mostly happy to stay safe on the dragon. Then I saw what looked like a house. And I thought… “Are there *people* down here??” Fuckin spookiest shit. Later, much later actually, I went down to really explore and found out they were Yiga hideouts lmao. But that first journey down was an experience I won’t soon forget.

Always enjoy your videos. Thanks for the upload

You summed it up very well. The lightroots lighting up the area & revealing the map make it easier, but never safe.

First time I jumped into a chasm I had no idea where it lead and thought it was just some mini dungeon... The horn that sounds when you reach the bottoms and the seemingly endless void gave me shivers

I totally agree. I've found most of my memorable experiences have all been underground. The atmosphere is strangely compelling and I find the enemies under there far more terrifying. I have had a significant amount of "jump out of my skin" moments down there. I love it. Lol

took me a while to realize the landscape of the depths is the inverted version of the hyrule map- the above-ground mountains becoming the deepest pits in the depths and vice versa. really neat!

What I find intriguing is that the depth’s landscape is an inverted version of hyrule. In lack of a better words it’s layout is literally mirrored. That’s thy the roots are basically Zonai shrine names but backwards. And the inverted motif in this games OST with the inverted background vocals. My brain exploded. Also there are some pretty cool landmarks to discover and it makes me curious on how this place was. For example, take the tallest mountain in hyrule, now in the depths where the mountain is place is a deep cliff below the surface.

I absolutely love your analysis and vocal delivery.

As someone who could beat Lynels blindfolded by the end of my Breath of the Wild playthrough, the Depths are a much needed step-up in challenge that gives the rest of the game meaning. Why do I need forty heart containers? To get through the depths, where one swing could take away six hearts no matter what armor I’m wearing. Why explore all the sky islands once I have the shrines? To pick up the maps that’ll show me where to go in the depths for more cool armor sets. Why engage with the Yiga clan? They might drop a sundelion to help me cook up more gloom resistant food. It’s so well tied to the other two map layers, it’s perfect.

wide as an ocean, deep as a puddle

That was a genuinely beautiful and thought-provoking analysis of a feature of a video game that I also love I wasn’t expecting this kind of richness on RU-vid. Thank you so much for the beautiful work that you do and your whole team I’m genuinely blown away.

This really encapsulates my feelings about the depths. Fantastic job

This is a great video! Even with all the marketing about the sky content, I held out hope that there would be caves and more dark areas to explore. That teaser with Link and Zelda down under the castle, encountering strange ruins, with a sealed Ganondorf at the end, really stuck in my mind and stoked that hope, even up to the moment the game came out. Even a few hours in, while we're literally stuck up in the sky, I was holding onto that hope! The moment I got the paraglider, I jumped in the nearest chasm without quite knowing what to expect (yeah, I didn't even wait to talk with any NPCs because I was too excited to see if I could indeed enter those chasms). The Depths are my favorite place, and where I've spent the most time in this game!

I totally get this. Just a couple days ago when i lit up the last lightroot although i was happy that i had finished the bulk of my depths exploration i was also kinda sad that i would never get to re-experience the challenge of navigating the depths and unlocking segments of the map and making new generalizations of how i can relate this to the surface map so i dont end up climbing a cliff face which is literally just a wall without a top. Top notch gaming experience

It would of been cool if they added more horror elements to the depths tbh . It really reminds me of The Rotten Vale from Monster Hunter.

Fantastic video, as always!

You very eloquently explained why I was so fascinated with fully mapping out the depths. The surface, from a combination of my familiarity with the layout and gameplay with the new mechanics, is so easy. The Depths are where I got that challenging exploration back that I loved so much from BotW.

Gonna come back to this once I get through the game. Thanks for uploading!

I always think of my first moment jumping in the depths. My fiancé had already heen playing for a few hours and so when I got to the first casym outside lookout tower I asked him "have you gone in this thing yet??" And he said nah so I opened the fast travel spot at the shrine near by and then jumped in. How far it went down made me uncomfortable but then that horn blasted and I got actually scared. And then since I didnt do any tutorial I thought i had to run around with no light I was like "oh hell nah". So yeah terrifying but I always end back up in the depths cause I guess my morbid curiosity keeps bringing me back to go find more cool stuff

just wanted to say i really like your script writing!

The way the depths feels like your on the bottom of the ocean floor is part of what makes it so alien feeling, and I love it. I've spent an insane amount of time exploring down there it's just so fun to me :) .

I agree with everything you say about the Depths - there is a real feeling of exploration and peril as you make your way through the darkness which perfectly compliments the feel of the surface world and sky islands. Exploring the Depths reminded me of one of my favourite books of all time, 'Underland' by Robert MacFarlane, which is a fantastic book about underground areas and our relationship with them. Well worth a read if you're interested in how and why we're obsessed with underground areas.

Great video, really touches on what is so compelling and unsettling about the Depths. For me, I am so filled with dread about them that I am strongly compelled to get through them and feel like it's going to take me forever... it's such an empty, open expanse. Like it's big just for the sake of being big. Initially in the game I felt so weak and disempowered that the thought of even ENTERING a chasm was terrifying... and I had no idea that the Depths were as big as Hyrule. Thought each chasm would open up a pitch black pocket Depth area to explore. When I finally jumped into one to chase a dragon scale, I entered an area where there were all kinds of lights appearing to look for me, and I grabbed the scale, went omg underground robots NOPE and was so relieved I could still fast travel to the surface. (they were actually Yiga, and I'm vastly entertained at the thought of Yiga just messin' about down in the Depths) When I'd finally gained some hearts and had a chasm quest, I felt better about going down there and was relieved to find out about the lightroots and the Depths did take on a sort of its own alien beauty... but now that I've spent quite a considerable amount of time down there lighting up the map, it's still so deeply unsettling because it's just so darn huge and barren. All the times you find yourself climbing a cliff and not knowing if it's the top or not. Being so invested in those little warm orange glows of distant lightroots. I started hopping on dragons just to ride them through and start pinning whatever light roots I could see, after an experience of spending nearly half an hour clambering around below a lightroot trying to just FIND it. And I feel like I've barely even scratched the surface (no pun intended) of actually EXPLORING down there... I'm just slamming through the map right now, hitting as many light roots as I can and trying to create more Known on my map. It's that journey of being compelled / called to conquer that experience of dread that is so interesting.

This is the video I've been waiting for. The Depths is such a fascinating and incredible environment.

I also think that the depths are the best part of the game, a truly menacing and seemingly endless space full of terrors lurking in the deep. I would spend hours down there before finally returning to the surface and it always felt a welcomed rest when I went up and stopped at a stable. Nintendo did such a great job of making you feel like you can finally breath after hours in the crushing darkness. The surface felt familiar and relaxing while the skies felt invigorating and exciting but I was always looking for the next chasm so I could enter a new part of the depths.

This sums up pretty well how I feel about the depths myself. The tutorial island was fun but it was clear after a while that was the best it had to offer ... I don't care about the sky islands. There's so little to them. There's some unique points here and there. But it just doesn't compare to what the depths are. When I first realized this game had them I knew I had to know more. I had to see what was down there for myself. What I found captivated me. Sure some could argue there's basically nothing down there. And I would see their point honestly. But to me I felt this sense of ... idk how to describe it honestly. But it made me feel like I was a protector. Someone who dove into an abyss to fight it. To give an example. There was a D&D story I heard one time of a character choosing to stay behind in a hostile plane of existence to fight the monsters there. In order to defend the real world. He chose to stay there continuously fighting. For the sake of the place he cared for. That's what I felt in the depths of Hyrule. This inhospitable land was filled with monsters and horrors. And I loved it. I loved fighting it. Every boss. Every enemy. Put a smile on my face. As if I was saying. Once I defeat you. The surface won't have to fear you anymore! Even though blood moons would bring them back whenever I did return to the surface. BUT IN THAT MOMENT! ... It was just so ... *sigh* You get the point. I don't have a simple way of describing it.

And then you learn how to make the hoverbike. And whether you put on a Giant Brightbloom headlamp or not, it is _so much fun_ riding around through the darkness high in the air to the point that you often can't see the ground bellow you as your batteries run dry and you realize you'll need to make an emergency landing... somewhere. If you didn't put on a headlamp, then you get to watch as the bike plummets into the darkness bellow you as you try to glide to safe ground. Usually this leads to the bike landing in a deep pit covered with Gloom, so that's just _great._ I also need to mention my first few times down the chasms when nothing was lit up and it hadn't become familiar to me yet so I would be their skydiving to conserve stamina only to faceplant on the ground because I literally couldn't see how far away it was. A specific chasm practically jump-scared me by dropping me off _directly above a Frox!_

The depths is BY FAR the absolute best experience I've ever had revealing a map. It was so damn fun flying my glider around the pitch black darkness not knowing if I was 10 feet above the ground or 1000.

Exploring the Depths gave me very similar experiences to my first playthrough of Subnautica, which is fantastic.

My favorite moments in the depths are when I found other beasts traversing the abyss above the floor. All of them both the bright and barely visible, more eldritch creatures, that made the air above me seem more like ocean depths than a dark reflection of Hyrule.

Thank you for this In-Depth video

I find complete darkness in games very interesting. Dragons Dogma did this at night time and it was really cool when zombies started to crawl out of the ground around you or you suddenly ran into a giant ogre who was right in your face but you couldn't see him. Also Tomb of the Giants in Dark Souls is amazing in my opinion. People hate it but I find the complete darkness amazing for atmosphere and unique gameplay and cautious progress trough a dark and dangerous zone

The depths reminded me a bit of Eden Ring, where you take an inconspicuous elevator down, then you notice hey I've been going down for a bit-wonder how deep this is-then it keeps going, and going, and then it's like whoa what's going on here? Until finally the walls of the lift are left behind and an open expanse of starry "sky" is all around you, and you find yourself continuing down a cavernous world-beneath-the-world, and a new core gaming memory is formed. The wait of the lift going down is something it takes courage for a game to do, and I feel like Zelda did it well, but to have made you wait, so you feel out the distance by time, would've made it even more epic.

I decided before hand that I wasn't going to use teleportation in this game, so the first time I went down to the depths was one of the most stressful experiences in gaming I've had, I had read that you could use Upward in some kind of pillars to return back to the surface, so my main goal was to find one of those pillars, I felt so much anxiety and dread as I saw that I was running very very low on brightblooms, when I ran out of brightblooms I ended up guiding myself following poes, begging not to fall in a bottomless pit, I didn't even picked the poes! because if I did I would lose complete reference of where I came from! In the end (after so many hours of gameplay) I found one of those pillars right below The Great Bridge of Hylia, the feeling of accomplishment and finally seeing the sun again was surreal!

All the details of this game are so well thought out the simple things like how far you have to fall into the depths. And that it’s not just a one off cinematic cut scene. It happens every time to remind you that you’re leaving the familiar world behind and entering a new one.

I've managed to map the entire depths and it was an amazing journey, though somehow i wish there would be a way for the game to "buy back" or "expire" the unlocked lightroots to have the darkness return again. Now the entire underground is just a dimly lit desaturated wasteland, the "cant see my hand infront of my face" part of the game has been completely over for me and i would love to bring some of that back without starting a new game. It would be cool to have an NPC offer rare items to trade for a random lightroot to turn off again, maybe a special suit (10 roots for 1 part) or access to a special ability similar to ultrahand and ascend if you agree to give up all of the lightroots. Another cool thing could be where the lightroot brightness would fade as a bloodmoon gets closer, the first day it's like normal, on the final day is like they were never unlocked to begin with.

The coolest part of the depths is how it's an inverted version of hyrule. The landscape is an inverse and the light roots are in the same location, but with inverted names, as shrines

Throwing a bright bulb into a pitch black area, not knowing what is there, to watch it light up and realise there's giant mushrooms or a big cliff right next to you - never stops giving me joy.

I honestly didn’t like exploring the depths at first, but after playing more and more I found myself getting really excited whenever I found a light root or one of the abandoned mines. I loose track of time so easily whenever I go to the depths

Lol this really emphasizes how different people can be. You're out here risking running out of brightbloom seeds, and running around the ground, and I won't touch the depths without at least 100 spare brightbloom seeds on hand, and spend as much time as possible jumping from high ground to high ground!

I too, loved the depths. Great video!

The depths get even better when you realize that the Depths is an inverted version of the surface. Every Lightroot is a Shrine on the surface. Every valley is a mountain on the surface. Every swimmable body of water is an impassible area in the depths.

I jumped into my first chasm and it was just pure dread. I died immediately. I saw blue shiny stuff, went for the shiny cause my monkey brain told me too and it caused the clapping of my cheeks.

I just lit up the entire map and felt more satisfied than connecting all the towers. The first couple of times I had crazy anxiety playing at night but secretly loved every moment.

I jumped into that first chasm before starting the quest for it so when I leaped in it was complete utter darkness below. It gave me the same sensation as the depths of Subnautica. It terrified me immensely so I teleported back out before I reached the bottom...as I had no idea when I would hit the bottom or if there even was one.

The Depths: Dark Me using the same 9 zonaite hover craft to fly across the lands with a giant brightbloom: 🗿

Before I filled out a really useful portion of the Depths map, I found it helpful to set my minimap to display the surface rather than the depths. Very handy to reference.

me when i found the depths: OH HELL NO IM NEVER COMIN BACK DOWN HERE me a day later: can't....stop...exploring...the...depths...

The depths terrified me at first, but now with much more experience with them, the darkness almost feels comforting - cozy. Caving, on the other hand… I remember spelunking in Skeleton Cave, and at one point our guide offered to take anyone who wanted to go into a much shorter area. We were crawling on our stomachs to get through there, and I had a sudden realization that for something the size of a continental plate, crushing all of us instantly would be no more momentous than the flick of an eyelid. I suppressed that feeling and went on, because panicking seemed rather useless. It definitely put the fear of the earth into me, though. I’d still go caving again, but maybe not that narrow a spot.

after exploring the entire depths, it wasnt till i went to the 5 island arcapelego on the east side of the map in the sea, this was about the 70%-80% of the entire depths ive explored, but i realized what they did, they took the hyrule map and bloody inverted it. i was doing my above ground look around for any koroks and other unique objects before getting to the depths part of it, and i noticed it was vary suspiciosly inverted of what i just explored on the surfece with how i had to traverse them

Man your narration is brilliant

Damn, that is eloquent. The Depths are the best and my most buzzed about feature ToTK offers. It is just as terrifying yet mysterious as you describe it to be.

I remember i didnt watch anything related to the game when i first started playing, I wanted to be genuinely surprised by the story and gameplay. When I first went into the depths, i came upon it entirely by accident. I was exploring southern hyrule field and fell into a well while exploring. Little did i know, that well kept going and going until i was in pitch blackness and could barely make anything out in the distance. I remember feeling the dread of knowing i had no idea what i was doing until i remembered something about brightbloom seeds and decided to toss one. Well, my first brightbloom flew and kept going down and down, and when it landed i could barely makeout what was down there. After that experience, i decided not to venture down until I had hundreds of seeds. And once i was ready, it truly was wonderous exploring the depths. I don't think ill ever get an experience like that again, the genuine surprise, the dread, and the thrill of discovery is just not something we get to experience in modern games. I really have to tip my hat to nintendo for what they were able to accomplish with this game. In my 30 years of gaming, this has been one of the most wonderful experiences in recent memory.

Totally agree with everything you say here. I've spent way more time in the Depths than I have on the surface so far in my playthrough. There's something alluring about them that keeps drawing me back in. It might be sort of lame to make this comparison, but the Depths really remind me of that first Elden Ring playthrough when I had no idea how big the map would get or what hostility I would run into over the next hill.