Why Tears of the Kingdom is DEEPER Than You Think (Examining The Depths)
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- Опубліковано 27 чер 2024
- In this The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom analysis, I discuss why The Depths can feel so restrictive at first-rendering the act of exploring and conquering the abyss all the more meaningful. Sorry for the pun title. Not really though.
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It's another analysis piece on The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, this time focusing specifically on what I believe to be its best feature - The Depths - despite this restrictive, hostile environment seeming to go against the airy sense of freedom that so characterises the game otherwise. Through discussion of the mechanics of these dank, dark caves (as well as looking into what makes caves so compelling in real life), I'll lay out why I think that The Depths make moment-to-moment exploration meaningful in a way that the world above can't match-turning every step taken into a game of tense decision making, leading to some of the most exciting emergent storytelling moments I've had across Tears of the Kingdom.
Thanks for watching this analysis/review of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom!
0:00 - Intro
0:42 - What are The Depths?
3:15 - How The Depths evolve Tears of the Kingdom's exploration
5:18 - The impulse to explore caves
6:22 - Why I love The Depths so much
8:56 - Outro
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Text intro by Isaac Holland - / drazgames
#legendofzelda #tearsofthekingdom #thedepths #breathofthewild - Ігри
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
exactly!
There’s a similar horn blast when you dive from the sky to Hyrule proper, but it’s more triumphant than… scary. Yeah, I guess scary is the word for diving into darkness with that creepy ass horn sound.
I genuinely love it and it soothes me
As a Silent Hill 2 fan, hearing a horn blast as you ascend down hits different
The creepy horn while it also transitions to red and then pitch black gets me every single time
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.
We just need that same energy for when people make mods or try to sue their biggest fans for trying to play games they refuse to make available for play.
@@TMKing_MSThat's why he said "as devs". Nobody supports the corporate side of Nintendo.
However, their developers are some of the best of all time
When I first fell into chasm I was like…wait, what?
honestly, I disagree. I don't understand why they focused so much of the marketing on the sky islands (only for them to be a bit disappointing) and they showed almost nothing of the depths
@@thedragondread9587 So you think they should just tell the player all of the secrets right out the gate? You probably asked your friends what the matrix is before watching the movie because you would be disappointed by surprise
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.
Thanks a bunch, means a lot!
Same way Elden Ring didn't show its "depths" underworld map, good devs and good publishers respecting players.
There was a single clip of the depths in one trailer, but that's it. Almost none of the game's marketing was focused on it, which made it absolutely breathtaking when you stumble upon it.
I was surprised at how surprised everyone was about the depths! The trailers / opening cinematic of link and zelda going into the cavern and finding ganondorf made me instantly assume we'd be going into an underground version of the dark world / twilight realm style mirror worlds like we have in the past, which isn't far off from what it is.
@@petey5009 there were a few shots actually. they showed the light roots in one trailer, and then some bokos mining and getting the black lung
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.
The depths are definitely inspired by Dark Souls. You have to make it through a dark and dreary overworld, filled with very hostile enemies and bosses, and harsh conditions. Your only relief is the hope of finding the next checkpoint which restores your vitality and lights up the area.
@@Crichjo32 i love dark souls so much because it's similar to a more combat-focused Zelda game
@@Crichjo32 Nothing better than fighting a stone talus in the depths before being ambushed by a fully armoured bokoblin on a stalhorse
Swear I feel like that every time i rush when I see a Lightroot 😂😂😂
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.
All the Bargainer statues are located underneath notable Goddess statues, such as the three springs, the hidden temple, and the temples of time (both the one on the Great Plateau and the one on the Great Sky Island). The one underneath the sky temple of time had me stumped thinking it broke that pattern until I thought to cross reference the sky map in addition to the surface map.
I didn't know the lynel thing that's extremely helpful to know
Yeah, the information about the correlations is really cool thanks！
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.
same exepct i realized how big the depths were earlier
Because the lightroots correspond to shrines in the world above, your exploration of the depths is actually yielding you the locations of shrines so you can go power up quickly.
Nobody knew about the depths! They just... Never mentioned them at all before release
@@Mittzys One of the biggest kept secrets in a video game I can think of since the Flood in the original Halo
That's exactly what I thought too! Like "Oh cool, there are little caves now. Wait, this is going on for a while... WAIT, IS THIS AS BIG AS THE SURFACE???"
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.
literally not true as the gloom ALWAYS has a red color, even when everything else is pitch black the red color is bright and visible
@@angelo423 yeah, the central parts of the puddles are red. But at their edges, they’re much darker, almost black. That makes the puddles blend in with the darkness, so it’s hard to tell where the puddles start and end. It makes it seem like there’s more gloom than there actually is, which is exactly the point.
@@angelo423 Thats not what the commenter said. They said the edges of it are black, making it hard to see if you're about to walk off of a cliff or how far a Gloom Puddle actually extends
Yeah some areas looked like a sea of gloom, so when my stamina ran out before reaching the lightroot with the paraglider I thought I'm gonna lose all my hearts.
@@angelo423 no it is not
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.
❤ the first time I spotted Farosh down there it was real early, and I sprinted to keep pace with that dragon on the ground, through the dark.
I didn't see a single lightroot from the path under him for neatly half his journey. No light but the guiding glow of the dragon
It was downright magical
Mapping out the depths also maps out all your shrine locations :) When you get that moment of realization, it feels great.
I feel like discovering some effective vehicles is the core of progression in the Depths, definitely making it all a lot easier once you get a grip on those systems.
Personally I'm rather enamored with the on-foot traversal in the Depths. So often on the Surface, getting somewhere is a very straightforward path (if not literally straight sometimes) and relies on events and POIs drawing off the beaten track.
In the Depths, however, even after you've lit up the Lightroots you need to pay attention to your environment and plan a path or risk whittling your main resources a lot faster than you would otherwise. This pushes you into near constant choices in the moment-to-moment gameplay as you often won't be able to take a straight path over relatively flat ground because of the Gloom, and you'll also likely come across hidden features and obstacles. I really am just a sucker for this sort of world design.
I think making the Gloom not affect vehicles was the best decision though. Even I have times where I want to just get to the next location.
@@hungrygremlin5151 I would definitely recommend seeing the Depths from the back of a dragon. Pity the Light Dragon never goes through a Chasm, it might've lit up the area around itself more and provided something of a day/night cycle for a small portion of the map.
@@AriosQarsute Yeah, I’m doing a second play through now and have committed myself to avoiding flying as much as possible. Once I figured out some vehicle tricks it became a lot more route. My most memorable experiences were scrapping by without well developed tools.
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.
The fact that it mirrors the surface makes me think it might have been artificially created by the Zonai so they could mine the Zoanite. They could have raised the entire ground the same way they raised the sky islands. That would explain why it mirrors the surface.
So I guess that you could call it "The Upside-down?" 😉
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.
I usually avoided them so I didn’t notice, but I did notice the tiny ones did, although they’re much more of a nuisance that’s easy enough to dispatch
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
dawg its just deepwoken
that was the first one i found
To be fair, they make it pretty clear what wells take you down into the depths by putting a bunch of gloom around and inside of it.
As a rule of thumb, if you find gloom on the surface it means one of two things... 1. its an entrance into the depths, or 2. its a Gloom Hands.
@@lasercraft32 as my 1st one with gloom on it i didnt know what itd do yet. as a first time its pretty cool
@@jay1724 Ah that's fair.
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 cliff side bargainer?? That guy is huge!!
@@ozir2070 The first time I had encountered a bargainer statue, it was just the head, so when I climbed up that cliffside and saw the silhouette of an absolute GIANT above me I almost turned tail. Had no idea what it was.
so you don't even know what megalophobia is
The Great Plateau one is also that big. It just doesnt seem like it since theres a mine built around it. I think they're all that big; its just most of them are covered
That one reminded me a lot of the giants from Majora's mask actually. Super creepy.
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.
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
Caves IRL is just too cramped
@Hakim Alam yeah the thought of getting stuck there is the absolute worst
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.
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.
the tradition of sewer levels continues
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.
Gloom Hands are _always_ a jumpscare, and _possibly_ a PTSD trigger for people who've played Wind Waker.
Imo I think the reason why The Depths is so unsettling to many players is because humanity has an innate aversion to darkness due to our evolution as a diurnal species with comparitively poor night vision.
Oh, they spawn down there, all right.
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.
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
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.
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.
There are statues of Hylians, it’s the woman one.
@@JustJeff777 i figured that was a gerudo
its odd to see the statues that are reminiscent of the mogma yet that race hasn’t returned at all
@@JustJeff777 as…wait, really? Their name is suicidebombadil? Uh, anyway, as that person said I’m pretty sure those were gerudo statues because you follow them to the gerudo mine as the other statues lead to their respective mines.
So unsettling. The thought that REALLY tripped me out was if in some peaceful time postgame and if the chasms were closed, just being a Hylian on the surface and imagining these great empty Depths just still EXISTING down there and inaccessible and closed off was somehow more horrifying than even imagining them still being accessible. I was really just better off thinking it was just all solid down there lol
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.
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.
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!
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.
Use the surface map in the depths the mountains are the inverse of the water on the surface
Shrines are lightroots, mountains are canyons, goddess statues are Poe statues, towns are mines, probably more that I’m forgetting
@@SilverPh3nix exactly, it's not genius - it's copy and paste
@@ryanmaxwell6442 monkey brain moment
@@ryanmaxwell6442 sort of ig but in the best way
@@ryanmaxwell6442 it’s the exact same concept as dark/mirror worlds in other zelda games. how is this any different or lazy?
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
And knowing there’s nothing actually scary in that darkness 🤷🏻♂️ takes all the sp00k away
Agreed with both. Sure, the exploration mechanics are new and different...but, after a short time, it all just starts looking the same, removing any motivation to actually explore.
And enemies aren't scary if I can just walk around them.
@@ASFalcon13 they really missed out not putting anything scarier down there
For me, it's more so navigating the terrain that becomes the challenge while searching the light root. Enemies you can choose to engage in or run away, but you also miss out on potential gains such as Zonaite or horns for instance. So it's hard to pass up enemy camp opportunities unless I'm bee-lining to a Lightroot. Often, the camps are on the path that is easiest to avoid the gloom too.
@@summerycast7936I'd agree, I'm giving up an opportunity to get more stuff. But even the lower-level weapons in my inventory are pretty decent now, so, more often than not, I find myself expending durability on a 20+ weapon to get...a 4-point stick and a couple of monster teeth to glue on the end of it. That sort of trade doesn't compel me to engage.
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.
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.
Definitely agree, the depths were what I spent most of my time doing as well
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.
It isn't Link's arm. Link lost his arm to the gloom.
This is Rausru's arm and he has black skin. Rauru used it to fix Link.
@@CordeliaWagnermaybe they mean slightly before that in the opening when he’s been attacked
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 really feel the *feeling* of possibly running out of lights enhances the fear of the depths more effectively than it being a hard limiter on how much you can explore.
Depends how often you spelunk in caves. That's where the bright-bloom seeds are.
@@summerycast7936 yeah. early game i ran out on occasion. Late game i keep hitting the brightbloom seed carrying limit of 999 for the small seeds.
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.
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.
When I first saw the lightroot fall so far it didn't even give off light my mind was blown
I got chills when I realised how deep it went, the dread definitely set it “uh oh, what have I got myself into?” Feeling taking over 😅
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!
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
You summed it up very well. The lightroots lighting up the area & revealing the map make it easier, but never safe.
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
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).
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!
Thoroughly enjoyed this DEEP DIVE! Nice to see you still making such BIG STEPS!
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
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.
wide as an ocean, deep as a puddle
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
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
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 UA-cam. Thank you so much for the beautiful work that you do and your whole team I’m genuinely blown away.
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!
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.
Glad to hear it!
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.
I absolutely love your analysis and vocal delivery.
This really encapsulates my feelings about the depths. Fantastic job
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.
I don't know what game you were playing, cause I found the depths' difficuly just as trvial as the rest of the game.
I didn't even bother to engage with most of the enemies in the depths, because there's not really a reward for it. Why fight over a few rocks of zonite when there's dozens of sprawling zonite mines to strip? They're mostly the same monsters you find everywhere on the surface, so why engage?
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.
I hope the DLC adds more. I think by now Nintendo listen enough to keep going with the dark stuff
The Depths' very obvious deep sea inspiration was the perfect opportunity for horrifying new monsters. We could've had ENORMOUS siphonophore-like enemies floating through the Depths, perhaps making them made of Gloom, or flying gulper eels that could eat flying machines.
Right now, getting a hoverbike completely trivializes the Depths as there's simply nothing that can hurt you other than your own stupidity. We need something to terrorize the underground skies.
Yeah, the first time I spotted Colgera down there in the dark was terrifying, I couldn't even make out what it was until I got a better viewpoint.
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
Always enjoy your videos. Thanks for the upload
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.
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.
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.
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.
Gonna come back to this once I get through the game. Thanks for uploading!
Fantastic video, as always!
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 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 :) .
just wanted to say i really like your script writing!
Exploring the Depths gave me very similar experiences to my first playthrough of Subnautica, which is fantastic.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
This is the video I've been waiting for. The Depths is such a fascinating and incredible environment.
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 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
It baffles me how many games seem *terrified* of ever letting players experience darkness. More often than not, nighttime is scarcely much darker than full daylight in games. It's really weird. Hell, in BotW/TotK alone I sometimes mistake what time of day it is (in-game) because the nights are so brightly-lit.
Dragon's Dogma and Dark Souls II did really cool things with darkness, I agree. I'd probably think much more highly of the depths if they retained their darkenss, and/or relied on more... primitive? Or more limited lighting (like torches). I'm definitely not one of those weirdoes constantly moaning about the Switch's technical limitations, but I do kind of lament the fact that the Switch, evidently, couldn't manage real-time lighting in The Depths. That would've been really cool.
Minecraft used to be really unforgiving with this, if it got to nighttime of the first day and you hadn't found a way to make torches yet, the game was completely black
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.
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
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.
It’s crazy how many things From and Nintendo had in common with their vision for their respective games, ER and TOTK. It would be tempting to say Nintendo emulated From but in reality, a less-polished TOTK could have launched alongside Elden Ring. Great minds.
That was one of my favorite parts of gaming when I went on that elevator. Been a from soft fan since DS and it was still mindblowing and beautiful. I think TOTK took a lot from elden ring, in a good way!
Thank you for this In-Depth video
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!
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
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.
Man your narration is brilliant
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.
The more I explored of the depths the more interesting I realized it was
At first I thought it seemed empty, but it was just the area I was in, the more I explored, the more I found and I was pleasantly surprised with the interesting things to find
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.
You can tell when a video is well made/written when it ends before you realize it has started, and you still retain every word that was spoken.
The Depths are one of the most surprising and fun parts in TotK. When I first dropped down there I was shocked that this already massive game got the whole map, but again in scary mode slapped onto it.
Venturing down there mining Zonaite and gathering decent weapons all day until I almost used up all of my arrows, bows and gloom healing food was such a blast and it's interesting how differently people navigate the Depths. I got used to building this wing with a rocket attached straight underneath it, so I could put it on the stand that holds these stone plates and get a vertical launch before flying off into the dark towards the next lightroot only to backtrack by foot to another mine.
Also the first time I went underground after I lit up an area I saw one of the dragons in the distance and I was like WTF IS THIS PLACE?? WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE NAYDRA??
Best tip I've found for exploring the depths is to slap a giant light seed onto a zonai vehicle. Not only does it help you explore, if you gotta leave the car to fight monsters... you'll know exactly where you left it.
I too, loved the depths. Great video!
the thing that got me about the Depths is how important sites in the present have construction under them from far in the past, and most of these past places have present directly descended equivalents but.... Abandoned Tarrey Mine has been abandoned for tens of thousands of years. And we made Tarrey Town in BOTW... they called it that on a whim. It was just an empty plot of land and yet. the whole time the underground mine had been called Tarrey Mine under where the place would be. or had it. Why is it such a perfect mirror of the present despite the people down their making their own life independent choices. yet it perfectly matches, inverted. What the fuck
It gave me those vibes from Us where the surface and the underworld were opposite and linked but neither knew
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.
The Depths: Dark
Me using the same 9 zonaite hover craft to fly across the lands with a giant brightbloom: 🗿
The first time I jumped into the depths I was legit overtaken with the sense of "oh. I fucked up didn't I?" Even tho it was for the quest, I still felt like I was in the wrong place. As I explored, the growing mixture of dread and wonder never went away. I'm still playing, but the funky little fireflies and cool plants was just. Amazing to see.