 Tears of the Kingdom at the time of recording this video is just over a hundred days out from launching and there's a lot of things we don't know about the game at this time and maybe we'll find out a ton more in the upcoming month. When February comes, there'll be a direct, maybe the question that we're going to try to answer today will be answered. But there's one thing pondering in my mind and it's been really there since the game was announced back in 2019. And that is, how are they going to handle the beginning of Tears of the Kingdom? And I don't mean from a story perspective, I think whatever they decide to do with it there is probably going to work. We know at the end of Breath of the Wild the true ending that there was a hint that there's more to come and you gotta go check out Varuta and other things happening that are going to probably lead into what happens in Tears of the Kingdom. But the interesting part to me is the beginning area. As you can see on the TV over here over my left shoulder, it looks to your right on camera, you see some gameplay from the Great Plateau. The Great Plateau to me is one of the greatest opening areas in video game history and I think it's definitely the greatest tutorial in opening game history. Look, there's been a lot of Zelda tutorials, a lot of tutorials in many different games. This game I think handles it just right because after all this is a massive sprawling open world to explore and Breath of the Wild's Great Plateau is like a microcosm of that. Instead of just letting you freely go out like in the beginning of the original Legend of Zelda, they first limit you until you do the first four shrines. But in that limitation within there, they create a multifaceted ecosystem that fundamentally teaches you all the tools you're going to need to freely explore the world from the limitations of the climbing mechanics with your stamina to the idea of changing temperatures going to a colder area that requires you to think and maybe cook food to get some resistance or wear different clothing to different weapon types to different gameplay styles to different enemy types and so much more. The idea of the towers is unveiled here. Obviously shrines are unveiled and being able to teleport anywhere. This is an area that is so fun it was the entire focus of E3 2016. Yes, in the Nintendo Treehouse segments, they did show some gameplay off the Great Plateau, but what they showed off the Great Plateau back then wasn't a whole lot. They didn't dive deep into other aspects of Hyrule, in fact you could have just figured that they were still on the Great Plateau just fighting a new enemy. I found this to be fascinating because there was a 45 minute demo and you never really got off the Great Plateau. It was impossible to essentially complete it at the time and get off the Great Plateau. I know now that we know everything and know where everything is, you could speedrun the Great Plateau and get off pretty quickly, but for the most part it was very difficult to pull it off because these were two separate demos. One was a 20 minute, one was a 15 minute and you didn't know what you were doing. Here's the thing, it was a brilliant opening area to a game and is widely considered one of the best tutorials in gaming history. So how are they going to approach this with Tears of the Kingdom? Are they going to approach this as if there is a brand new player base playing this game that has never played it before? That's the way Breath of the Wild, and in that case what sort of tutorial would it be there or are they going to pretend that we've all played Breath of the Wild basically and don't need such an in-depth tutorial outside of new mechanics? How are they going to handle this? We know Link in most Zelda games obviously wakes up, it's just kind of a trope at this point in Zelda, but beyond possibly waking up, in fact there's a little scene in one of the cutscenes we see so far in the trailers where Link's arm has this stuff going on and it sort of looks like maybe he's waking up, he's in his underwear anyways. And maybe that's when the gameplay begins, there's an opening cutscene and then we wake up and our arm is already messed up and now we've got to get out of the cave area or wherever we happen to be. That could be how the game opens up, I don't know. What I do think is going to happen though is I think they're going to explore the idea of maybe we don't need a great plateau. I think the entire development of this game, especially since it started as DLC, that's something I'm going to reference just once because I think it's important to remember, they're going to presume everyone playing Tears of the Kingdom has already played Breath of the Wild. I mean it is a direct sequel so it's not crazy to assume a game that sold 30 million copies, you've probably played it if you want to play Tears of the Kingdom. Does that mean it's going to be a bit harsher to new players? In some regards, Nintendo is usually pretty safe when it comes to new players so while there might be some harshness to it like I don't think they're going to reteach you climbing mechanics or reteach you basic physics in Breath of the Wild, I do think that the tutorial area in this game, because I think there will be one, is going to feel organic. What it's going to do is probably introduce you to some new abilities you gain through the arm or whatever it is. Maybe the arm isn't where the abilities come from. I know we all assume Link's messed up arm is where the abilities come from but what if that's not the case? What if it's those vials on his hip? What if it's something else? I don't actually know for 100% for sure where his abilities come from. Like in one, when we see him do the time stopping, he throws his right hand up which is the hand that's messed up or in another one when we see the fire breathing thing it's actually from a shield in his left hand. So do we even know the abilities come from his arm? That's I think fun to debate as well. It's more of a presumption than direct knowledge of so look this is the way that I am viewing the beginning of Tears of the Kingdom. I think we are going to end up waking up with a messed up arm. However, there will be a more lengthy than expected cutscene. Most of us you know Breath of the Wild had a very short like 30 second thing before it let you go. I think it's going to be a bit longer because there's going to be some setup from Breath of the Wild into Tears of the Kingdom and I think it's going to end up being a multifaceted setup. I don't think it's going to start with us waking up with a messed up arm. I think those opening cutscenes we see in the first trailer with Link and Zelda walking together. I think there's going to be segments of that that is playable where maybe we even still have I don't know the Sheikah Slate abilities potentially. Although I think Zelda took the Sheikah Slate back so maybe we don't. But it's going to seem normal. We're going to be traveling where maybe we defeat a couple enemies along the way on the path. We have some you know conversations some voice acting conversations like we did with Prince Siden along the path and then there'll be some cutaway cutscenes and we'll see two or three different cutscenes before we get to the end where we end up seeing Ganondorf or whoever that person is and then there'll be a more lengthy cutscene at that time and then the next time we control Link is us waking up with that messed up arm. From there I think it might be a bit slow going as we try to find our way out of wherever we are or as we're trying to find Zelda trying to get a grip on what's happening what's going on and obviously learning that hey we don't have any of our abilities or maybe we don't have any of our weapons or our clothes anymore and all of a sudden we come out and find ourselves oddly enough already in the sky. I don't know how it happens I don't know how it's going to be explained but I think we're actually going to start out in the sky and not really know what's going on not have any idea and then we're going to learn pretty quickly all the mechanics of traversal in the sky. I don't think we're going to get this lengthy long tutorial area like we got in like we got in Breath of the Wild with the Great Plateau as brilliant as it is I think they're going to presume we understand a lot of the basics I think it's going to be a much shorter tutorial it's going to involve jumping between different sky islands and then we're going to be that loose once we get through it and there'll be some sort of quest or some sort of thing we're doing to put a purpose to it so it kind of feels not like a tutorial but you really know it's a tutorial if you know things about games and that's it I could be wrong of course there could be a great plateau in the sky there could be maybe a different sort of area maybe there's a really deep intricate underground thing that we're gonna have to explore and fight our way out of and we you know learn things about it and I kind of think it's going to be a bit more linear is sort of what I'm saying to begin for the tutorial before it really just opens up that's just my thoughts though because I think they're going to go in expecting us to have already played breath of the wild now if they're going to do that but then also want to cater to new players maybe it's going to be a lengthier open section and honestly if it's a section that's a lot like the great plateau I'm cool with that I'm actually replaying breath of the wild right now on master mode I've never actually really done much in master mode so as I'm playing and I'm off the great plateau now I was you know playing on the great plateau and dealing with that Lionel and other things happening and what I found interesting is just how much fun the great plateau still is I mean it's 2023 and despite playing breath of the wild a ton over a thousand hours I still find the great plateau area at the beginning of the game to be absolutely enthralling one of the greatest openings ever so they want to revisit an opening like that I think I'm cool with it but I also think that they want to try something different in with the assumption of knowledge of the player so who knows what's gonna happen I know I certainly don't know what's gonna happen it does seem like the Sheikah stuff is gone like there's no Sheikah towers we haven't seen any shrines anywhere Sheikah symbols really so it's been been quite interesting to see that something so fundamentally central to breath of the wild in the Sheikah maybe aren't involved at all is it the Zonai I know there's so many theories around about the Zonai I don't want to beat you over the head with more of that stuff because honestly most of it's unproven it's just there is clearly some references anyways even in the logo with the dragons eating each other like the dragons themselves the heads are sort of shaped like the Zonai dragon heads we've seen but that's still assumptions maybe it's something else maybe there's time travel maybe we go back in time at the beginning of the game or maybe we're in the future in the beginning of the game look I this is just the unknown how do you want tears of the kingdom's beginning to start and I don't mean from like the story perspective although maybe that ties in but how do you want the beginning tutorial to work do you want another great plateau you want something shorter than that let me know down in the comments because I think this is a worthy conversation to have because it's the first experience any of us are gonna have with this game may 12th can't come soon enough can it Nintendo I'm ready to see more baby I know some of you don't need to see more you're already sold that's cool I know I'm already sold and buying the game anyways but I like to see more I like to know a bit more meat about my games heading in and I hope this is one of those things where maybe we know a bit about it maybe they release a playable demo of it even who knows I want to thank all of you guys for tutoring and we just hit 84,000 subscribers thank you so much everyone who's enjoying the content if you are also enjoying the content you're gonna like and subscribe we're gonna have a ton of tears of the kingdom content the rest of this year not just heading to launch we're likely give you DLC and a whole much stuff we have live streams galore but I might even be live streaming Breath of the Wild master mode later today just for fun because I'm having a good time so why not have a good time playing it alongside all of you guys watching you guys don't have to watch of course I'm just excited for Zelda man Zelda is my jam been covering it since I was 12 and here we are in my mid 30s on a YouTube channel still covering it to this day Zelda is amazing and I can't wait for tears of the kingdom catch you guys in the next video