Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom GAMEPLAY Analysis 

Who is ready to make meat arrows

I think we should collectively be gearing up for Meat% Speedruns where you must beat every boss with only Meat Arrows. We all know it's gonna happen, might as well start preparing and strategizing

I love how the community was able to piece together hints and secrets about the Zonai only making theories but then it was ACTUALLY CONFIRMED. Absolutely crazy

Something you didn't mention is that at 10:38 when he pulls out his bow, the dpad doesn't change to allow switching arrow types, which leads me to believe that there are only regular arrows and all others have been removed in favor of this arrow fuse ability

I love the logic behind the homing arrow. “If the arrow has an eye, then if it misses, it’ll know where it should be going, and go there.”

I think the smoke signal from the stable is just an eye catching visual queue as a way to see stables better, but it could absolutely mean something different as well

what I'm hoping is that there will be a "favorite items" section when choosing to attach items to arrows, so you won't have to scroll through a ton of junk to get to the one you want to use. Instead, you can pick a couple items that you use the most often, and they will all be close together, where you can easily switch between them.

You missed something while Link is skydiving. During that clip Aonuma pans up just enough to clearly show the Great Hyrule Forest has been straight up deleted. Not just the Deku tree is missing, the entire forest is gone. Is it all in a sky island? I have no idea but it’s definitely not on the surface anymore.

I think meat arrows will be like bait ...used to entice certain enemies into traps that you can create with the new building system. That would add a whole new layer to the combat.

Also, after Link crosses the river and walks past the Ranger Construct, a "Talk" A button prompt flashes on the screen as he passes it

Do you know how awesome side quests involving Link using ultrahand to build stuff for people would be? That's a great idea, and I hope it's explored in the game

I really want to make Octo Balloon arrows. Shooting enemies and having them be lifted away would be fun

10:39 While Link is drawing his bow, there is a faint prompt at the bottom of the screen that says "Select material to attach [d-pad up]", so it's confirmed that that's what the up button is assigned for. That doesn't necessarily mean that the up button couldn't double as a quick access food menu when not using the bow though.

The bigger sky island he showed us was 100% the tutorial area. The stuff near the lake is laid out perfectly, it’s the only place with the map unlocked, he has 4 hearts so he probably just finished the tutorial, and everything there is low level. It also has the same arch thing at the entrance to the snowy area, just like at mt hylia in botw

I wonder if Ancient robots from Skyward Sword were made by Zonai as well? I like the theory that this game will loop around to Skyward Sword, so seeing the minecarts on those islands (which were prominent in the Lanayru desert) and the fact that Zonai clearly have technology to affect time (the gauntlet Link uses is 100% Zonai technology) this would be amazing if that was the case.

I genuinely can’t wait to see the extent to which weapons can be made with Fuse. Imagine fusing a diamond to a sword or a star fragment to an arrow. The possibilities are endless..

I LOVE ZeldaTubers. They can squeeze a career out of a few frames of gameplay footage. Now they have 10mins and I’m looking forward to the next 6 weeks before TotK comes out. After that? Hold onto your hats!

Something about the ascend ability showcase, when link was traveling through the mountain Aonuma was saying things like "almost there" and "hurry up", I think this implies that this power may have some trouble with especially thick terrain, as in you wouldn't be able to go through it.

That shop structure with the mine cart looks very similar to time shift stones in the lanayru desert in skyward sword. I would love to see a time shift mechanic return.

The dedication you have to make a under 30 minute video under a day after the gameplay release is crazy, easily most dedicated zelda creator

When Aonuma skydives he avoids showing the gerudo desert (like in the trailers), there is probably something related to the main story that he can’t show

I thought that it was interesting how many times the lore was referenced. "These trees only appear in the sky", "If you're in a cage, you can get out", and more. I can't wait to learn how to master all of the new mechanics, thats for sure.

I just love how many aspects of these videos you notice that I do not! I love going straight to your channel straight after any announcement and seeing not long after there is a video for me to indulge in. Thankyou

Small thing to note is the animations in this game definitely got a glow up, small things like the smear effects when swinging weapons or particles look fantastic

Something minor I’m hoping for is fused shields affecting shield surfing. Imagine surfing over water with ice jelly, or using something like a puff shroom for a vertical boost when you land!

It's worth pointing out that tree branches and sticks are separate entities in this game, and yes Zeltik the up d pad option is the materials access. You can see when link draws an arrow that an option pops up at the bottom of the screen for "materials".

Yay! I was waiting for this analysis video from you! Thank you so much for always making amazing videos about my favorite game series ever!

Something so miniscule that I noticed immediately: the tree branch leaves change color depending on where you get them. On the overworld in breath of the wild, the leaves are green. When Aonuma picked up the tree branch, the leaves were yellow.

It's possible that the reason these zonai soilders are attacking link is due to his malice arm. Its possible since we see their technology being the thing sealing ganondorf away so they definitely have some sort of experience with it.

I am amazed how fast you were able to make a video so in depth, being edited very well, with a leghty script that had detail explanations, and even obscure facts, in such short amount of time.

Gotta say. Your commentary is perfect. I love listening to your explanations 🎉

Zeltik always narrates these videos so dramatically. I feel like I'm watching a documentary about the Zodiac Killer.

i was honestly really hoping koroks made a return, i am so excited to see the little guy in his cute little pack!!!

this is actually a lot more in depth than what I would expect for something that was made and released less than 24 hours after the direct. Great job Zelink!

As always, your very in depth with your analysis and can't wait for more videos. Keep you the good work.

The starting point of the direct is Ash Swamp, where Link fell during the Calamity. There's also no guardian husks anymore at that location.

3:16 What I find interesting is that he specifically says he needs to „reach“ his friend. This makes me think that this quest involves getting the korok up onto the sky islands, where his friend could be waiting.

one thing I've seen pointed out is that a few of the sky islands match up with structures that were previously on land - for example the labyrinths. in the shots we've seen, it looks like the labyrinths are gone but there's cube-like islands sitting right above them. makes me wonder what kind of variation there will be amongst the various islands

maybe the places with the building materials are supposed to be construction sites for new settlements? i had always thought that would be a nice and realistic feature for the sequel! kind of funny that we’re just taking the materials then but there doesn’t seem to be much time between the first and second cataclysmic events so maybe they just gave up lol. or maybe they’re something we can build as the game progresses!

Random things I noticed: -If you're paying attention to Dueling Peaks as Link rides towards the fallen sky block (3:03 in the video, left of Link's head,) you can see what looks like one of those Zonai objects with the rings around them, projecting green rings into the air. Assuming for now that the green rings are "inactive" state, and it changes to the spiral we've seen in other trailers when it's in the "active" state. -The Korok Frond that was first attached to the arrow and then overwritten with the White Chuchu Jelly was not consumed, so you can change your mind when it comes to "arrowheads" and not waste materials. Nice to see, and also implies that you can only put one material on an arrow at a time (unless you unlock the ability to add more materials later in the game, but that's wild speculation.) -The Ranger Construct does in fact have a "Talk" interaction, which you can just barely see as Link gets close enough in the raft scene.

I like the sky islands, very cool new way to explore the world and I can’t wait to see what they put up there to find. Fusing weapons is also the funniest thing ever, people are going to meme so hard with that feature

Hi Zeltik love your videos. One thing i have noticed is that the Gashapon that you called (pachinko machine) doesnt quite line up with the map. It seems like the shop in question is hidden just behind that small mound and the Gashapon machine is more lined up with the blue mark on the mini map. just makes a bit more sence since its the same colour also a gashapon machine gives random/mystery items unlike a shop. Hope you see this and keep up with the great work.

20:10 If you look closely on the map, the blue dot is more in line with where the glass orb is seen earlier at 19:10. And the shop icon is on the nearer side of the mine cart rails according to the map, up against the rock formation, with its entrance likely facing away from Link

19:12 It's a minor thing, but the shop appears to be based on a Gacha/Gachapon machine, not a Pachinko machine. Gachapon machines are like capsule toy/bubblegum machines where you put currency in and a random item/candy is dispensed. Pachinko machines are the Japanese equivalent of a slot machine, where you gamble to try to get a ball to fall through a hole at the bottom of a board.

I could be dead wrong, but I think that Fuse may be used to fix the Master Sword in a main questline. After all, the logo for the game has a Master Sword where half of it (the broken half) is changed to have the green, Zonai look. Maybe we end up collecting things through the dungeon mechanics that replace the Divine Beasts and we fuse those with the Master Sword to repair it?

I can't believe that after so many years we're going to learn a bit more about the Zonai and their disappearance from Hyrule for so many years. I can hardly wait to watch it myself and enjoy your incredibly detailed lore videos.

Just watched a video talking about where the zonai came from, and they referenced the zonai worshipping the “water dragon” which could be farosh, but the person also connected the dragon to Faron from Slyward sword, and Faron looks like it has a very similar color scheme to this new unknown dragon in TotK

The amount of effort this takes is unreal for an analysis like this, bravo

You don't hear much of it, but I already like the sky island (skylands?) music. It has an ominous and eerie feeling to it. Almost like you're someplace you're not supposed to be. It sounds perfect for someplace that (may) be deserted-except for the Constructs, of course.

This is just awesome. I feel like there might be eight or nine dungeons underground that can be completed in any order where you learn these abilities. To get to these dungeons you'll have to navigate the sky and surface, and upon completing each dungeon the sky islands may become more numerous and complex with different methods of navigation required depending on the order complete them. But maybe their might be certain trials too that are more linear, like after completing your first, second or sixth dungeon, regardless of which one it is, creating a randomness to the adventure that the player could do differently if they wanted to play again. I'm guessing nine from those nine tear symbols surrounding that mystery being lol I want a lot of dungeons so I'm being hopeful

With abilities such as Ascend and Ultrahand, it seems like Nintendo was legitimately paying attention to the crazy things fans were doing in BOTW and decided to implement them into the sequel - which is honestly pretty cool. Ascend is basically a cannonical, official version of the "clipping through objects" glitch, while Ultrahand takes the crazy DIY vehicles / airships created and used by people like Kleric and fully implements it part of TOTK's main gameplay loop. I'm loving it.

What I find interesting is who the Zonai are if they’re being central to the game. They have magic and technology that rivals the Sheikah. There’s never been a race that matched them before in the series, so it’s curious where they were in the timeline.

also important to note is that when you equip the bow, the shield menu doesnt change to an arrow menu like in botw 1. Elemental arrows are likely not in the game and have been replaced with fused arrows

Excellent video. The most informative one so far!

I'm sure other people have noticed this too, but I noticed that when he went to fuse the pitchfork to the long stick, the option to fuse it to the shield was still an option! I'd imagine that means we can actually fuse at least some weapons to shields. If so, that'd be sick!

May 12th absolutely can NOT come any sooner. The game looks absolutely fantastic, definitely worth the long delay. I can’t wait to spend several hours just putting things together, seeing how many silly/unique weapons and vehicles they let you make.

The battery life icon that appears when Link strikes the fan is most certainly related to the little green capsules he carries on his waist. And then for bigger machines you might be able to attach bigger separate batteries, like seen with the car in the last trailer.

I want you to know how much content like yours helps enrich my experience of playing these games. I'm very grateful for your time and effort into making your videos. Thank you.

when aonuma says "imagine you're trapped in a cage" during the ascend segment, it might be a hint toward a specific dungeon or story element!

Nerding a little bit about damage: At 9:47 we see that the Tree branch + Boulder does 4 damage. And the stone is a +2 upgrade to the base weapon. Since it took 7 hits to defeat the first constructor with just the branch, it has 14 hp at max. And later, the next constructors were hit 4 times to be killed, so the Constrcutor has more than 12 HP (since it didn't go down with 3 hits). BOTW's Red Bokoblin has 13 HP, so maybe it's the equivalent enemy in TOTK. With that, we can speculate that this is an early moment in the game, probably one of the first islands Link can visit. What do you think about that?

Someone did a side by side shot of the opening horse-riding part of the new gameplay and what I noticed is every Guardian is vanished, even though the field is by the massive Fort Hateno battleground where it's almost impossible NOT to see dead Guardians. Considering those very Guardians were lifeless for 100 years and are now gone completely, something huge had to happen.

Just adding in something that wasn't mentioned (it may have been mentioned in the comments), but when he has his bow pulled out, it stays as the shield option and not a variety of arrows. I think this suggests that there will only be "regular" arrows and the fuse creates a plethora of different arrow types, giving us a wide variety over the 5 we had in BotW

Another thing to note is that the Zonai constructs all have that yellow broom symbol on their midsection. It's also on the side of every motorized vehicle part (see the back of the raft propellor, or the front tires of the car in the trailer).

I just love how much Zonai stuff there is. Like, heck yeah, gimme ancient civilization stuff!

I have a theory as to how the ascend is restricted. The ascend ability makes link swim through the ground, and from the audio we can tell he is holding his breath. Because of this, I’d say that one counter measure for the ability is holding your breath, meaning you can’t use it to get out of a dungeon or cave. This is just my idea feel free to add more to it

While hard to say, i think that Ascend might be either the first or last ability we learn. It might be the first ability we learn because we are trapped in the underworld and we need to get back and since we are told we can use caves for that and well we will be underground and could be the way we get to sky islands at first before the recall ability. If its last its likly from what he said as we are trapped in a cage of sort on the islands or by Ganons minions and need to escape.

Zeltik!!! You are serious the GOAT of Zelda-tubers 💚 cannot waittttt for the endless well of content from this game.

Zeltik analyses are so much better than others for patiently waiting to script, record and edit ot properly, delivered in a calm tone, vs other RU-vidrs who get theirs out within an hour or two. It's worth the wait.

imagine combining a chicken and a stick to command an army of chinkens

Here are some things I noticed or that could be interesting to keep in mind for later : 1) at 7:12, on the right we can see another construct, but it's not an enemy one and to me it looks slightly different than the ranger one 2) they're clearly hiding us major UI from us, beside the inventory one that shouldn't change too much, we don't see how he switches ability or how the map interface looks like (since in botw it was Sheika like, there's high chance that it changed since we no longer have the Sheika tablet, supposedly) 3) we see quite a lot of rails on the sky island 4) at 17:24 we see that the Hebra region isn't covered by the giant storm, maybe it isn't there to start with 5) new weapon we can see : the wooden stick, the superior version of the tree branch 💀 6) to unstick an element with the ultrahand, you need to shake the selected piece to apply more force on it, so perhaps there could be a weight limit for a vehicle, to stop player from building some massive movable fortress 7) at 16:52 we see in the background other sky island, but those ones have a weird shape (just it's not a ball, a cube or an actual floating island, it looks like a building maybe) 8) a message appears saying "unbearable cold" when link is cold, I don't remember this in botw 9) at 14:50 we see a tower on top of the massive mountain (forgot the name) but at 17:33 we don't see it anymore 10) the tower on the sky island in the previous trailer (14:09) appears again at 17:36, and it could be acting as a lighthouse or something guiding you because of his shape and also the fact that you can see it slightly glow from the distance, maybe you can see it better in the night 11) at 15:55 on the minimap, we can see a slight green/blue glow at a precise spot (no idea what it could mean) 12) they didn't show the great plateau, during the free fall we were close to seeing it but they stopped turning left the camera right after the colosseum

You do such a great job on these videos. Your voice sounds great!

Something that looks interesting is when he fused the log and the wooden stick he made the log club. But when he fused the rock to the shield, he still had the option to fuse the log club with the rock. So I'm wondering if there is a limit to what you can fuse or whether it would pop up with a menu either denying the fusion or maybe replacing the current one.

The keese eye being able to know where the enemy is gives off huge "the missile knows where it is at all times" vibes

Awesome video! Hope you feel better asap!

Liked this analysis! Your so quick too.

Something that I noticed. This is on the limited edition OLED, the Triforce symbol has the three goddesses' symbols on it. I think this might be related to the dragons, and I'm happy to see the return of familiar elements of the franchise (I don't believe the Triforce was heavily mentioned, if at all, in BotW), and I also think it hints a bit at what the story might involve, a more "traditional" Zelda story in some sense. Another crazy detail that drove me nuts, Aonuma (maybe purposedly) avoided all the camera angles that might give us a glimpse at some of the structures of the new icons. Every single time. They definitely did this deliberately, gosh Nintendo so good at hiding stuff for the hype. I'm so stoked!!

I am convinced that the island that gets shown off is gonna be the opening of the game, the “great plateau” of TotK if you will. Based on the fact that he has 4 hearts now, and he has the map opened for that island. It would make sense that the opening of the video at dueling peaks is the first place on the surface you reach after completing the opening area, explaining why the map isn’t opened there but is opened on that island. I also think there will be more areas to explore, and that the hyrule parts we are familiar with, while having new content, will be built like a giant playground to craft with imagination for travel and fighting. While the new areas (areas/locations we haven’t seen, perhaps deep in caves, etc) will be more linear/structured and puzzle/combat focused. I also think swimming will still be in the game, and they made a point to throw us off in this trailer. And while it means literally nothing, he even says something along the lines of “there will be more to explore” as he is swimming on the water. I just have a hunch!

Best breakdown I've seen, I'm so freaking hyped for this game, it's gonna be incredible 😍

i love your music choise for the video

The fact that the Log Club appears as a UI option when using Fuse on the rock heavily implies you can fuse multiple items together. I hope thats the case anyway.

As soon as I saw the Zonai Charge, I got an "aha!" moment when it was basically confirmed that the Zonai have a huge part in this here!

Excellent breakdown dude. So hyped for this. I hope we have more control to move in the air, rather than just falling straight down.

Well done as always!

The fuse Ability finally makes the new master seord make sense. My theory is that the broken master sword will function as an unbreakable sword hilt that you can fuse items to for a short time similar to its durability in the first game. My second theory is that the we might be using fuse to find the missing pieces of the master sword or perhaps a zonai sword blade to permanently repair it

Maybe it's a coincidence but the notes played in the sky (when you were talking about the music) sounded an awful lot like Ganondorf's theme. Specifically the version from Twilight Princess that plays inside Hyrule Castle. As always such a wonderful analysis and video. Keep up the good work man. I'm so excited for this game.

I think activating Zonai towers creates more sky islands perhaps leading to dungeons or shrines. What was shown was only the first one.

Has anyone else noticed or talked about the similarities between the new Zonai enemies and the Ancient Robots from Skyward Sword? Ik a lot of people have already talked about similarities between SS and TotK, but the new gameplay footage really got me thinking about it more. These are the main similarities that I've noticed: -the limbs are held together with a glowing energy -Zonai and Ancient Robots are described as, well... ancient -the prominence of luminous stones in past trailers makes me think of the Timeshift Stones in Lanayru that bring the robots back to "life" -the rails in the sky and across Hyrule are similar to the rails in Lanayru Mines and the Shipyard (especially at 19:13) I'm really curious if anyone else can think of other similarities, or if there are lore reasons why it is likely/unlikely.

i’m so excited for this game omg. botw came out at a very low point in my life and it really helped me escape my reality so i’m feeling so emotional rn. i’m currently in a much better place and i really never thought i’d see this game come out but here i am. im so happy and emotional:’) its even coming out 2 weeks before my birthday! tloz means so much to me, and thank you so much for these videos! i watched ur channel a lot back then and it just feels so nice to come back:D

While it seems silly, I hope we get to rebuild the kingdom like a Tarrey Town type of quest. Maybe we can customize buildings using whatever the ‘glue’ is

Thank you for having captions

I noticed that when he was creating the speedboat it was giving him the option to pick up the zonai propeller when he got close to it, so we may be able to store certain types of those materials in our inventory and use them even when there are no in-world materials

If you didn't know, the blue circle in 5:42 is the same circle used in the demo of Botw to scan enemies health. Showing how they use scrapt content from Botw.

For a while now we’ve like… KNOWN that it was the zonai right? But they were never explicitly mentioned. To see it written in the game like that is just amazing

Regarding the Fuse ability and how attaching materials to the bow's arrows will function, I would argue that the L-button while aiming will bring up the material selection panel, and the Up-button is, as you said, will be a quick selection of food (as the icon seems to suggest foods specifically - it being an apple. Additionally, it would be strange to have a function specifically for the bow (as we currently know it) always on screen as a quick select action). The 2 reasons I think this is: - The teal color of the Fuse ability icon is the same as the description text (grouping related elements by colors), so they feel to be related. Now this reason doesn't have a lot to stand on as most things regarding to TotK seems to have the color teal as thematic (links new arm aesthetic, etc). - It would make sense that when you are aiming the bow the Fuse ability would bring this material panel up, and when not aiming you are entering the Fuse ability state for selecting items in the world.

The first time we saw the recall ability was on that giant spiked ball when Link used recall to rewind it back at the enemies. But what if he could have used the fuse ability instead, and fused the spiked ball onto his currently equipped weapon? I'm starting to wonder what will end up being possible in this game in terms of fusing an enemies projectiles onto your own weapons and shields. I'm very intrigued by what the answer to this will end up being.

The teeth on the small construct resembles the Zonai dragon head teeth. We know it's Zonai, but it's a neat design feature

If I can fire meat arrows at Ganondorf's face during the final boss fight I'll be happy.

I’m surprised he didn’t mention the lack of guardian corpses in the field or that the shrine usually near the stable is completely gone

A couple extra things: 1) the Ascend ability lights up while Link is under water. This might point to underwater exploration. (Nice catch of the Louygi Bros channel) 2) the Ultrahand ability is probably going to play a huge role in combat. What we did in BotW with iron boulders can now be done with everything, so you can make a platform, load it with explosive barrel, and then just carpet bomb a Bokoblin camp.

17:22 It looks like the minimap transitions between the sky islands and the surface at exactly 800 vertical units