Soapbox options allow our particular person writers and contributors to voice their opinions on scorching subjects and random stuff they have been chewing over. Today, Jim sings the praises of certainly one of Tears of the Kingdom’s later-game areas…
I’ll preface all of this with a thanks to each Zelda fan on social media. As I labored my method by The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom‘s ‘Regional Phenomena’ quest, I had no thought the place the sport would possibly take me subsequent, nor that what would come would introduce me to certainly one of my favorite new areas on this all-too-familiar Hyrule. This would have been a simple factor to spoil on-line, particularly within the sport’s early weeks, so thanks, fellow Hylian explorers, for maintaining it underneath your (Minish) caps.
With that in thoughts, let me stress the next: you probably have not been instructed to go to the Thunderhead Isles, began the ‘Secret of the Ring Ruins’ quest, or battled your method by a heavy storm to seek out out what’s inside that perilous-looking cloud that swirls over the Faron area, don’t learn on. The content material of this questline is an actual deal with to expertise first-hand, so take it on for your self earlier than studying the next article as a result of, sure, there are spoilers forward.
Now that’s out of the way in which, I’ll say it: the Thunderhead Isles are superior. This late-game space — like most issues in Tears of the Kingdom — is technically accessible from the second you contact down in Hyrule and get your Paraglider. But, in the event you play like me, then the intimidating swirl of clouds was sufficient to make you suppose “That seems cool, I guess I’m going to be instructed to go into it afterward”. I did not wish to spoil the shock for myself and I’m glad that I made this name.
Yes, the Isles are cool in and of themselves due to how they present simply how a lot of the sport you continue to should go after the ‘Regional Phenomena’ quest — as confirmed by ‘dehydrated’ Phantom Ganondorf in Hyrule Castle — however they had been cooler for me as a result of they served as one thing of a victory lap to the sport’s important questline. This is sustained into the following Construct Factory and Spirit Temple, sure, however it’s on the Thunderhead Isles that I actually felt like the sport was saying “Let’s see what you’ve gotten discovered because the Great Sky Island, then”.
I had a good time placing these expertise to the take a look at, and I do not reference the sport’s opening space by mere coincidence. Thunderhead Isles performs equally to Link’s Rauru-led tutorial, however with the problem dialled up a few notches. The Constructs are a lot stronger (assuming you’ve gotten put in ~40 hours of playtime by this level), the puzzles to get from one island to the following do not maintain your hand almost as a lot as earlier than, and all hopes of climbing any partitions to bypass the Isle’s challenges are made futile by a painfully inconvenient however superbly atmospheric thunderstorm. Seems becoming, given the title, actually.
The puzzles nonetheless have related options to the Great Sky Island however there’s an additional ingredient of problem introduced on by the atmosphere which serves to create a collection of throwbacks to every thing that you’ve needed to work out up till this level. One part presents you with two an identical railings, certainly one of which has a ready-made ‘cart’ on it so that you can use however the steel supplies that it is constructed from imply that Link might be struck by lightning if he stands on it. So, what do you do? You copy the design with some close by planks of wooden and glide on by, unscathed. Sure, there’s most likely a way that you might Ascend by a close-by roof and render the puzzle irrelevant, however I wasn’t about to stroll previous some wonderful sport design like that for the needs of smugness now, was I?
The throwbacks usually are not restricted solely to earlier Tears of the Kingdom moments both. All of the swap flipping and wall breaking felt like a extra conventional Zelda dungeon, the place the answer was clear, however how one can obtain it was a problem. Sure, modern-era dungeons have a sure attraction, however understanding how one can set off a swap in order that Link can use a close-by transferring platform (or large catapult-like gadget on this case) is a sure-fire option to hit this Zelda fan proper within the feels.
