By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - This counts as our launch coverage, right?
Given their upcoming non-presence at E3 2023 (since E3 2023 won't exist), Nintendo of America apparently still wants their Treehouse division to be streaming gameplay footage of their most important game(s) of the year. For 2023, that's The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
It's unclear what I'll be doing during E3 2023 week, but since I was prepared to watch streams of Nintendo Treehouse: Live during then, I might as well as prepared to do that a month sooner than expected with this stream. And, hey, MAYBE it'll get me to change my mind and want to buy The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom! ...I doubt it. But I'll give it a chance. The rest of this article will be my live (textual) reactions to Treehouse's stream, with occasional screenshots.
[9:45 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: "Launch Event Livestream & Nintendo Treehouse: Live"
[9:46 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Well, they're late.
[9:47 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Maybe it's a sign that I have better things to do on a Thursday night. (But do I really?)
[9:47 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: There it goes. Everyone 10+ ESRB warning.
[9:48 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: They are livestreaming this from Nintendo New York.
[9:49 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Camille Salazar Hadaway is our host. (Never heard of her.) She is very impressed with a Link statue, which is likely going to also be at Nintendo Live 2023. Nintendo also has a presence in New York's Time Square.
[9:49 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Camille says the stream will not have story spoilers, but it will have gameplay spoilers. (Interesting ones, too.)
[9:51 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: "Content pre-recorded." note as the Treehousers (Sam♂, Jose, and Kindra) are on a couch and playing, using the same lower-thirds treatment you'd see at E3.
[9:52 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: I really don't like how the game has the same UI and Hyrule as its prequel, so it's difficult to tell in screenshots which game it's a screenshot of. You can still tell by the skill rune (don't think they're called runes anymore, though) icons in the upper left corner that are different between games.
[9:53 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: This Korok with a giant backpack needs help. ...Ugh, Koroks. Link needs to move the Korok to another island giving a smoke signal.
[9:54 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: They note Ultrahand, unlike Magnesis, works on things that aren't just metal. And Ultrahand also comes with super-glue.
[9:55 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Link just axed down a tree to create several logs, and attached a convenient hook to glue onto the logs to be attached to a cable that will bring you and the Korok to the floating island where the smoke signal is coming from.
[9:56 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: The Korok on the other island gave you TWO Korok Seeds.
[9:56 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Link came back to the first island by shield-surfing on a rail.
[9:57 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Certainly flashy. (Makes me think of ink rails in Splatoon.......... I wanna play Splatoon...)
[9:58 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: They are setting up a Fuse situation, where a badly damaged Rusty Broadsword got fused with a Korok Frond to increase its durability. (And the frond also creates wind gusts upon swings.)
[10:00 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Like in the previous game, you can do a bunch of things in the menu while everyone else stays still. Link just fused a piece of Amber to a sword, and an Amber to a shield, which makes the shield spiky, so you can thrust the shield and actually do damage.
[10:02 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: "You can still use Breath of the Wild thinking to approach this game." Like if you see a mountain, you can still go climb it. But they want to be more creative with new "Zonai Devices" that run on batteries (Link's energy cell, as opposed to a battery per device), including a fan that will create an upraft and a giant spring. So Link just jumped on a spring to leap up a mountain without climbing it. The devices are able to be held in your inventory as opposed to relying on them conveniently laying around.
[10:02 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: I'm doing a bad job actually reacting and more just summarising.
[10:03 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Link is charging into an enemy camp with a spring-shield and a Rushroom on a sword. Mushrooms are... boingy, just like the spring.
[10:05 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Treehousers fused a Keese Wing to an arrow to extend its difference and speed to hit a faraway enemy and have a chest to spawn. They won't open the chest because spoilers.
[10:06 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: You can now hold a material in your hand and throw them.
[10:06 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: WHOA
[10:06 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Link threw a Ruby like a grenade and it had a BIG area-of-effect, causing a big forest fire.
[10:06 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: That's certainly new.
[10:07 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: In Breath of the Wild, I'd approach big areas of water by slowly Cryonosis-ing ice pillars to the opposite side. But that's not a thing in this game. But Ultrahanding together rafts are. Which should hopefully be faster.
[10:08 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Instead of making a boat, Treehouse is making...
[10:09 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: More Zonai devices include flamethrowers and rockets.
[10:09 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Perhaps if I was an ENGINEER I'd enjoy this process.
[10:10 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Instead, I have no understanding of physics.
[10:10 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: (Which is also a crippling flaw when it comes to being a game designer, too. Physics knowledge is important!)
[10:11 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: I think in the time it's taking them to make this big boat-esque thing, I'd be able to ice pillar myself across this lake in Breath of the Wild.
[10:12 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: They hit the fans on the monstrous boat to activate all of the Zonai Devices, and it propelled itself in glory but crashed extremely quickly.
[10:12 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: But it did get to the other side.
[10:12 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: They tried using Recall to get it back, but it crashed into a tree before it could do so.
[10:13 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: I'm not sure how worth it it was to invest a bunch of resources into building that abominable "boat" only for it to be destroyed almost immediately.
[10:13 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Segment is over and now Camille is talking to Nate Bihldorff, who still works at Nintendo after decades.
[10:14 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Nate pulled out a giant scarf out of his jeans.
[10:15 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: "It's the first time we've seen the Master Sword really decayed and broken like that."
[10:15 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: ??
[10:15 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: The plot of the game is to restore the Master Sword "to its former glory."
[10:15 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Wasn't that a whole arc in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker?
[10:16 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: They're handing out scarves to people in line.
[10:16 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: There are some people in TEAM POWER shirts.
[10:17 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: And a dude in a Sonic the Hedgehog shirt.
[10:17 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: And Dreamcast.
[10:18 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Treehouse segment again. Kay, Gabriel, and Billy are the hosts. Kay's... bright pink aesthetic is burning my eyes. (It's the pink, it's not Discord light mode.)
[10:19 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Some Zonai soldiers are fighting a pack of Chu Chus. Link interrupted by shooting out an exploding arrow to wipe them all out. :(
[10:19 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Customisable controls.
[10:20 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: That's nice. (The controls.)
[10:20 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: The arrow exploded by fusing Red Chu Chu Jelly.
[10:20 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Somehow, attaching a giant wooden board to a stick gives Link the power of wind.
[10:21 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: It's very notable that the game once again lacks music.
[10:21 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: So far, it's just Breath of the Wild but with different (and more) options.
[10:21 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Lack of options wasn't Breath of the Wild's problem!
[10:22 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: They're cooking fish and raw meat.
[10:22 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: With some salt.
[10:22 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Same mechanics as Breath of the Wild.
[10:22 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Today's Hell's Kitchen YouTube channel video was also related to surf and turf and seasoning.
[10:23 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: You can't fuse things to fused things.
[10:23 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Or at least, a "fuse has already been used" was a pop-up.
[10:24 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Fusing a Keese eyeball to an arrow and then fused another Keese eyeball to another arrow seems really...slow.
[10:24 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Like, painfully disjointed combat.
[10:24 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Seems like bad feel.
[10:25 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Also, since Bombs aren't a rune anymore, you need to fuse makeshift hammers now whenever you wanna blow up rocks.
[10:25 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Link encounters another river.
[10:25 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: So now they're going to make ANOTHER raft?
[10:25 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: This might be the same river as before.
[10:25 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Hard to tell the difference.
[10:26 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: He doesn't want to make a raft this time but found convenient floating Zonai platforms.
[10:26 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: He's Ultrahanding a platform into the river.
[10:26 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: And then a fan onto the platform.
[10:26 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: But the fan wasn't attached and fell.
[10:27 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: However, Ultrahand can grab underwater objects too.
[10:27 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Link just used Ascend to climb on top of the platform, which he set to be floating above him.
[10:28 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: "The more Zonai devices you add, the quicker it will drain your energy [battery]", which it seems to be something you can increase the capacity of as you progress.
[10:29 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: I personally do not appreciate the value in making a raft versus a floating platform to cross the river.
[10:29 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Yes, you can get across the river in multiple ways. But I'm not the type of person who...cares.
[10:30 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: They are coming up with a third way to cross a river in the same video.
[10:30 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: A small wooden box with a fan glued to it.
[10:31 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Link moved the box around with Ultra Hand and set it back in front of him. Then he used Recall to make the box move (independently so Link can be on it) back on that Ultrahand path, and then hit the fan to create an updraft and paraglide across the river.
[10:32 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: This Treehouse segment also features a Ruby grenade.
[10:33 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Link is building his own minecart with a fan on it, going on a rail into a mine.
[10:34 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: It's like The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, but using your own technology instead of ancient technology that's there for you.
[10:35 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Brightbloom seeds are useful for lighting up dark caves.
[10:37 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: They are showing off a "Zonai Device Dispenser".
[10:38 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Which is a gacha gumball machine that dispenses Zonai Devices to take with you.
[10:38 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: There is ANOTHER Korok with a giant backpack that needs help getting to a distant location with a smoke signal.
[10:39 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Clearly, Koroks are as repetitive as the previous game.
[10:40 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: They are torturing this Korok with Ultrahand.
[10:41 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: And they can Rewind to go back to the other island fairly efficiently.
[10:41 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: A portable cooking pot is one of the Zonai Devices.
[10:42 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: They created some cold-resistant chicken to prepare for a cold environment.
[10:43 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: (But first they divert into a cave... which has a pre-existing cooking pot.)
[10:43 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: You can keep Fused weapons into your inventory to use for later.
[10:46 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Link has many fire-based weapons to play with with fusing.
[10:47 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Kay fused Raw Meat to a shield for a meatshield.
[10:47 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: There are now Bomb Flowers.
[10:48 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: It doesn't seem like they really need cold resistance when they can just spawn fire.
[10:48 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: LIKE LIKES
[10:48 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: The Like Like ate a Rock Hammer instead of a Meat Shield.
[10:48 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: "Maybe it's a vegetarian."
[10:49 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Like Likes weren't in Breath of the Wild.
[10:53 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Link can't climb an icy mountainside because there's no grip, but he can chop some trees, Ultrahand the logs together, and shoved the long-logs against the mountain and climbed the logs.
[10:54 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Hidemaro Fujigayashi (?), a Nintendo director, has appeared with Camille as the Treehouse session ended.
[10:54 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: They're talking about how Link enjoys eating steak.
[10:54 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: :(
[10:55 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: The Japanese guests also ate New York Steak and thought it was wonderful.
[10:55 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: As well as a filling sorbet.
[10:56 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: He worked on Breath of the Wild and Skyward Sword as well.
[10:59 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Whenever they say "Treehouse Live" in Japanese, I keep thinking they're saying "Three Houses".
[11:00 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: I gotta say I'm impressed that translators don't need to ask one of the sides of the conversationalists to repeat themselves but they get it on the first try.
[11:01 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Kindra, Jose, and Sam are back for Nintendo Treehouse: Live. They're spelunking in a cave.
[11:02 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Link is wearing a Ravio hat.
[11:02 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: "Caves are much more prominent in Tears of the Kingdom" due to an event called the "Upheaval".
[11:02 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: I THOUGHT THEY WEREN'T GONNA DISCUSS STORY??
[11:05 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: If you shield-surf on a shield with a Zokai spring, it's a pogo-stick.
[11:06 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: (I mean, just jumping on the spring normally gives the same result too.)
[11:08 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Link just threw some meat at the Like Like and the Like Like at it.
[11:08 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: (This one is not a vegetarian.)
[11:08 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: It also just ate a Bomb Flower to...suicidal results.
[11:10 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Link is pretending he has a Mega Buster, but we all know he's not an Armarouge.
[11:10 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: And it's not actually attached to his arm.
[11:12 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: It's just a handheld cannon.
[11:14 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: NEW ABILITY called AUTOBUILD
[11:15 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Sidequests and treasure give you Schematics.
[11:15 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: And a HISTORY of stuff you previously built.
[11:15 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: So you can instantly recreate stuff you've done before.
[11:16 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: You can also generate materials you don't have (at the cost of another resource).
[11:16 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: This should hopefully substantially reduce tedium of building stuff.
[11:17 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Link is building a turret with a battery, cannon, and a spring to blow up a giant pile of spooky rocks.
[11:17 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Game-provided Schematics have names of things.
[11:18 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: But it doesn't seem like you can name things in your history.
[11:18 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Underneath the rocks is a Stalnox in the "Royal Hidden Passage".
[11:19 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Link can Recall spam whenever the Stalnox throws projectiles at you.
[11:19 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Seems overpowered.
[11:23 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: You can use Ascend to get out of deep, deep caves.
[11:24 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: They're done with this segment, but there's MORE.
[11:25 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Eiji Aonuma is here, with Ethan as translator.
[11:26 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: He is very impressed with the Zelda billboard in Time Square.
[11:26 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Camille asks Aonuma if he is looking at fan reaction on SOCIAL MEDIA.
[11:26 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Sheesh, not everyone is a social media addict, right?
[11:26 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: But he's giving a lengthy answer in Japanese.
[11:27 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Aonuma has apparently been "checking a little bit" and is going into a story about Ultrahand use.
[11:28 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Aonuma is laughing during his answer about a "Zelda vacation" trend on Twitter, where people are taking days off from work to play The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
[11:28 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Aonuma claims that he does not take days off.
[11:28 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: (He should consider it.)
[11:28 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: (Days off are nice.)
[11:32 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: "If you can share anything about the story development..."
[11:32 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: THEY SAID THERE WOULDN'T BE STORY SPOILERS
[11:32 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: WHY IS CAMILLE ASKING ABOUT STORY????
[11:34 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: The relationship between Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf will be further developed, but Aonuma said you should play the game yourself and he won't spoil it.
[11:34 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Good answer to a terrible question.
[11:36 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Aonuma hopes that everyone will become an engineer and express their what-if ideas.
[11:36 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Treehouse has one more gameplay segment. Gabriel, Kay, and Billy are back.
[11:37 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Showing off "raids" to fight alongside NPCs.
[11:37 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Seems spoilery.
[11:37 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: They want to raid a docked pirate ship.
[11:38 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Captain Flaxel is a captain of a "monster-control crew" to kill off some dudes. Unfortunately, the bridge to the ship is broken, which might also mean that the monsters aren't gonna bother anyone since they can't get across a broken bridge either. But they plan to repair the bridge for the NPCs.
[11:40 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Link very simply Ultrahands the bridge together.
[11:42 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Your friendly NPCs don't die, they just lie on the ground knocked out.
[11:43 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Unlike the monsters that poof.
[11:44 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Captain Flaxel, by the way, is not on the ship. She is leading from behind and hasn't even crossed the bridge while her minions do everything.
[11:44 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Not a good leader!
[11:44 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: SAD!
[11:46 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Freeze is a very powerful effect, basically stunlocking enemies.
[11:46 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Flaxel cheers that she won despite her doing nothing.
[11:46 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Everyone magically becomes conscious.
[11:49 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: They're now in a snow-land and have saved an airplane in their build history.
[11:49 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Link is leaving behind his horse on the plane.
[11:50 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: This snowstorm is full of emptiness and Ice Wizzrobes.
[11:50 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Eventually, there is a fortress.
[11:51 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: There is a Korok on top of the fortress.
[11:52 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Link is very slow running in snow when he's not flying around.
[11:54 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Link is piloting a customised pre-built fire-breathing plane.
[11:54 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: To raid the fortress.
[11:54 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: An iron ball was preventing Captain Flaxel's folks to enter, but Link just went and fused it with his weapon (and instantly shrunk it) to clear it.
[11:56 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: "Building these things by hand would take a very long time" but with autobuild she just built a rotating Tower Defense thing.
[11:59 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Treehouse Live done.
[11:59 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Camille back.
[11:59 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: "We are moments away from the launch!"
[12:00 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: "The doors are about to open!"
[12:01 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: I can't say I particularly care about who is the first customer to enter.
[12:01 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: The people waiting to buy the game at Nintendo New York have been waiting for DAYS.
[12:02 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: The fans are raiding now.
[12:02 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Doug Bowser in the background.
[12:03 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: He's in the foreground now.
[12:04 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Sold a copy of the collector's edition to a dude walking around with a sword.
[12:04 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: "Thanks for watching!" stream over.
[12:05 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Well, the Autobuild/Schematics are a very good and wise addition.
[12:06 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: ...
[12:06 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Still, I don't have a feeling of, "Oh, now I want to play this for myself!"
[12:06 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: More like, "Well, that's neat for the people who are doing that."
[12:06 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: I...guess that means it's not calling out to me.
[12:07 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Oh well! That's as expected.
Did you also watch the Nintendo Treehouse: Live stream? What did you think? Will you be getting The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom? Note that this went into midnight, so be sure you've caught this reaction log when it's actually done. (Which is now.)
Given their upcoming non-presence at E3 2023 (since E3 2023 won't exist), Nintendo of America apparently still wants their Treehouse division to be streaming gameplay footage of their most important game(s) of the year. For 2023, that's The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
It's unclear what I'll be doing during E3 2023 week, but since I was prepared to watch streams of Nintendo Treehouse: Live during then, I might as well as prepared to do that a month sooner than expected with this stream. And, hey, MAYBE it'll get me to change my mind and want to buy The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom! ...I doubt it. But I'll give it a chance. The rest of this article will be my live (textual) reactions to Treehouse's stream, with occasional screenshots.
[9:45 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: "Launch Event Livestream & Nintendo Treehouse: Live"
[9:46 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Well, they're late.
[9:47 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Maybe it's a sign that I have better things to do on a Thursday night. (But do I really?)
[9:47 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: There it goes. Everyone 10+ ESRB warning.
[9:48 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: They are livestreaming this from Nintendo New York.
[9:49 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Camille Salazar Hadaway is our host. (Never heard of her.) She is very impressed with a Link statue, which is likely going to also be at Nintendo Live 2023. Nintendo also has a presence in New York's Time Square.
[9:49 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Camille says the stream will not have story spoilers, but it will have gameplay spoilers. (Interesting ones, too.)
[9:51 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: "Content pre-recorded." note as the Treehousers (Sam♂, Jose, and Kindra) are on a couch and playing, using the same lower-thirds treatment you'd see at E3.
[9:52 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: I really don't like how the game has the same UI and Hyrule as its prequel, so it's difficult to tell in screenshots which game it's a screenshot of. You can still tell by the skill rune (don't think they're called runes anymore, though) icons in the upper left corner that are different between games.
You can see the Ascend icon on the upper left corner. Definitely not a skill in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. |
[9:53 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: This Korok with a giant backpack needs help. ...Ugh, Koroks. Link needs to move the Korok to another island giving a smoke signal.
[9:54 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: They note Ultrahand, unlike Magnesis, works on things that aren't just metal. And Ultrahand also comes with super-glue.
[9:55 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Link just axed down a tree to create several logs, and attached a convenient hook to glue onto the logs to be attached to a cable that will bring you and the Korok to the floating island where the smoke signal is coming from.
[9:56 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: The Korok on the other island gave you TWO Korok Seeds.
[9:56 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Link came back to the first island by shield-surfing on a rail.
[9:57 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Certainly flashy. (Makes me think of ink rails in Splatoon.......... I wanna play Splatoon...)
[9:58 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: They are setting up a Fuse situation, where a badly damaged Rusty Broadsword got fused with a Korok Frond to increase its durability. (And the frond also creates wind gusts upon swings.)
[10:00 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Like in the previous game, you can do a bunch of things in the menu while everyone else stays still. Link just fused a piece of Amber to a sword, and an Amber to a shield, which makes the shield spiky, so you can thrust the shield and actually do damage.
[10:02 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: "You can still use Breath of the Wild thinking to approach this game." Like if you see a mountain, you can still go climb it. But they want to be more creative with new "Zonai Devices" that run on batteries (Link's energy cell, as opposed to a battery per device), including a fan that will create an upraft and a giant spring. So Link just jumped on a spring to leap up a mountain without climbing it. The devices are able to be held in your inventory as opposed to relying on them conveniently laying around.
[10:02 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: I'm doing a bad job actually reacting and more just summarising.
[10:03 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Link is charging into an enemy camp with a spring-shield and a Rushroom on a sword. Mushrooms are... boingy, just like the spring.
[10:05 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Treehousers fused a Keese Wing to an arrow to extend its difference and speed to hit a faraway enemy and have a chest to spawn. They won't open the chest because spoilers.
[10:06 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: You can now hold a material in your hand and throw them.
[10:06 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: WHOA
[10:06 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Link threw a Ruby like a grenade and it had a BIG area-of-effect, causing a big forest fire.
[10:06 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: That's certainly new.
[10:07 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: In Breath of the Wild, I'd approach big areas of water by slowly Cryonosis-ing ice pillars to the opposite side. But that's not a thing in this game. But Ultrahanding together rafts are. Which should hopefully be faster.
[10:08 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Instead of making a boat, Treehouse is making...
[10:09 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: More Zonai devices include flamethrowers and rockets.
[10:09 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Perhaps if I was an ENGINEER I'd enjoy this process.
[10:10 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Instead, I have no understanding of physics.
[10:10 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: (Which is also a crippling flaw when it comes to being a game designer, too. Physics knowledge is important!)
[10:11 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: I think in the time it's taking them to make this big boat-esque thing, I'd be able to ice pillar myself across this lake in Breath of the Wild.
[10:12 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: They hit the fans on the monstrous boat to activate all of the Zonai Devices, and it propelled itself in glory but crashed extremely quickly.
[10:12 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: But it did get to the other side.
[10:12 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: They tried using Recall to get it back, but it crashed into a tree before it could do so.
[10:13 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: I'm not sure how worth it it was to invest a bunch of resources into building that abominable "boat" only for it to be destroyed almost immediately.
[10:13 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Segment is over and now Camille is talking to Nate Bihldorff, who still works at Nintendo after decades.
[10:14 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Nate pulled out a giant scarf out of his jeans.
[10:15 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: "It's the first time we've seen the Master Sword really decayed and broken like that."
[10:15 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: ??
[10:15 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: The plot of the game is to restore the Master Sword "to its former glory."
[10:15 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Wasn't that a whole arc in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker?
[10:16 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: They're handing out scarves to people in line.
[10:16 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: There are some people in TEAM POWER shirts.
[10:17 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: And a dude in a Sonic the Hedgehog shirt.
Sonic the Hedgehog... Dreamcast... this is a Nintendo line! (Shout-outs to the winners on Team Power.) |
[10:17 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: And Dreamcast.
[10:18 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Treehouse segment again. Kay, Gabriel, and Billy are the hosts. Kay's... bright pink aesthetic is burning my eyes. (It's the pink, it's not Discord light mode.)
[10:19 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Some Zonai soldiers are fighting a pack of Chu Chus. Link interrupted by shooting out an exploding arrow to wipe them all out. :(
[10:19 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Customisable controls.
[10:20 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: That's nice. (The controls.)
[10:20 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: The arrow exploded by fusing Red Chu Chu Jelly.
[10:20 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Somehow, attaching a giant wooden board to a stick gives Link the power of wind.
[10:21 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: It's very notable that the game once again lacks music.
[10:21 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: So far, it's just Breath of the Wild but with different (and more) options.
[10:21 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Lack of options wasn't Breath of the Wild's problem!
[10:22 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: They're cooking fish and raw meat.
[10:22 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: With some salt.
[10:22 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Same mechanics as Breath of the Wild.
[10:22 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Today's Hell's Kitchen YouTube channel video was also related to surf and turf and seasoning.
[10:23 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: You can't fuse things to fused things.
[10:23 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Or at least, a "fuse has already been used" was a pop-up.
[10:24 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Fusing a Keese eyeball to an arrow and then fused another Keese eyeball to another arrow seems really...slow.
[10:24 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Like, painfully disjointed combat.
[10:24 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Seems like bad feel.
[10:25 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Also, since Bombs aren't a rune anymore, you need to fuse makeshift hammers now whenever you wanna blow up rocks.
[10:25 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Link encounters another river.
[10:25 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: So now they're going to make ANOTHER raft?
[10:25 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: This might be the same river as before.
[10:25 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Hard to tell the difference.
[10:26 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: He doesn't want to make a raft this time but found convenient floating Zonai platforms.
[10:26 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: He's Ultrahanding a platform into the river.
[10:26 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: And then a fan onto the platform.
[10:26 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: But the fan wasn't attached and fell.
[10:27 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: However, Ultrahand can grab underwater objects too.
[10:27 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Link just used Ascend to climb on top of the platform, which he set to be floating above him.
[10:28 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: "The more Zonai devices you add, the quicker it will drain your energy [battery]", which it seems to be something you can increase the capacity of as you progress.
[10:29 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: I personally do not appreciate the value in making a raft versus a floating platform to cross the river.
[10:29 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Yes, you can get across the river in multiple ways. But I'm not the type of person who...cares.
[10:30 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: They are coming up with a third way to cross a river in the same video.
[10:30 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: A small wooden box with a fan glued to it.
[10:31 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Link moved the box around with Ultra Hand and set it back in front of him. Then he used Recall to make the box move (independently so Link can be on it) back on that Ultrahand path, and then hit the fan to create an updraft and paraglide across the river.
Link's Ultrahand manipulation of the box also can be Recalled. |
[10:32 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: This Treehouse segment also features a Ruby grenade.
[10:33 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Link is building his own minecart with a fan on it, going on a rail into a mine.
[10:34 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: It's like The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, but using your own technology instead of ancient technology that's there for you.
[10:35 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Brightbloom seeds are useful for lighting up dark caves.
[10:37 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: They are showing off a "Zonai Device Dispenser".
[10:38 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Which is a gacha gumball machine that dispenses Zonai Devices to take with you.
Lots of items are dispensed out of this thing, so you can build what you want without needing conveniently placed materials nearby. |
[10:38 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: There is ANOTHER Korok with a giant backpack that needs help getting to a distant location with a smoke signal.
[10:39 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Clearly, Koroks are as repetitive as the previous game.
[10:40 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: They are torturing this Korok with Ultrahand.
[10:41 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: And they can Rewind to go back to the other island fairly efficiently.
[10:41 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: A portable cooking pot is one of the Zonai Devices.
[10:42 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: They created some cold-resistant chicken to prepare for a cold environment.
[10:43 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: (But first they divert into a cave... which has a pre-existing cooking pot.)
[10:43 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: You can keep Fused weapons into your inventory to use for later.
[10:46 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Link has many fire-based weapons to play with with fusing.
[10:47 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Kay fused Raw Meat to a shield for a meatshield.
[10:47 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: There are now Bomb Flowers.
[10:48 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: It doesn't seem like they really need cold resistance when they can just spawn fire.
[10:48 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: LIKE LIKES
All of the Treehouse members were scared of dealing with Like Likes. |
[10:48 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: The Like Like ate a Rock Hammer instead of a Meat Shield.
[10:48 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: "Maybe it's a vegetarian."
[10:49 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Like Likes weren't in Breath of the Wild.
[10:53 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Link can't climb an icy mountainside because there's no grip, but he can chop some trees, Ultrahand the logs together, and shoved the long-logs against the mountain and climbed the logs.
[10:54 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Hidemaro Fujigayashi (?), a Nintendo director, has appeared with Camille as the Treehouse session ended.
[10:54 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: They're talking about how Link enjoys eating steak.
[10:54 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: :(
[10:55 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: The Japanese guests also ate New York Steak and thought it was wonderful.
[10:55 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: As well as a filling sorbet.
[10:56 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: He worked on Breath of the Wild and Skyward Sword as well.
[10:59 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Whenever they say "Treehouse Live" in Japanese, I keep thinking they're saying "Three Houses".
[11:00 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: I gotta say I'm impressed that translators don't need to ask one of the sides of the conversationalists to repeat themselves but they get it on the first try.
[11:01 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Kindra, Jose, and Sam are back for Nintendo Treehouse: Live. They're spelunking in a cave.
[11:02 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Link is wearing a Ravio hat.
[11:02 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: "Caves are much more prominent in Tears of the Kingdom" due to an event called the "Upheaval".
[11:02 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: I THOUGHT THEY WEREN'T GONNA DISCUSS STORY??
[11:05 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: If you shield-surf on a shield with a Zokai spring, it's a pogo-stick.
[11:06 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: (I mean, just jumping on the spring normally gives the same result too.)
[11:08 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Link just threw some meat at the Like Like and the Like Like at it.
[11:08 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: (This one is not a vegetarian.)
[11:08 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: It also just ate a Bomb Flower to...suicidal results.
[11:10 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Link is pretending he has a Mega Buster, but we all know he's not an Armarouge.
[11:10 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: And it's not actually attached to his arm.
[11:12 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: It's just a handheld cannon.
[11:14 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: NEW ABILITY called AUTOBUILD
[11:15 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Sidequests and treasure give you Schematics.
[11:15 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: And a HISTORY of stuff you previously built.
[11:15 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: So you can instantly recreate stuff you've done before.
[11:16 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: You can also generate materials you don't have (at the cost of another resource).
[11:16 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: This should hopefully substantially reduce tedium of building stuff.
[11:17 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Link is building a turret with a battery, cannon, and a spring to blow up a giant pile of spooky rocks.
[11:17 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Game-provided Schematics have names of things.
[11:18 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: But it doesn't seem like you can name things in your history.
[11:18 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Underneath the rocks is a Stalnox in the "Royal Hidden Passage".
[11:19 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Link can Recall spam whenever the Stalnox throws projectiles at you.
[11:19 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Seems overpowered.
[11:23 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: You can use Ascend to get out of deep, deep caves.
[11:24 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: They're done with this segment, but there's MORE.
[11:25 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Eiji Aonuma is here, with Ethan as translator.
[11:26 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: He is very impressed with the Zelda billboard in Time Square.
[11:26 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Camille asks Aonuma if he is looking at fan reaction on SOCIAL MEDIA.
[11:26 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Sheesh, not everyone is a social media addict, right?
[11:26 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: But he's giving a lengthy answer in Japanese.
[11:27 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Aonuma has apparently been "checking a little bit" and is going into a story about Ultrahand use.
[11:28 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Aonuma is laughing during his answer about a "Zelda vacation" trend on Twitter, where people are taking days off from work to play The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
[11:28 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Aonuma claims that he does not take days off.
[11:28 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: (He should consider it.)
[11:28 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: (Days off are nice.)
[11:32 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: "If you can share anything about the story development..."
[11:32 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: THEY SAID THERE WOULDN'T BE STORY SPOILERS
[11:32 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: WHY IS CAMILLE ASKING ABOUT STORY????
[11:34 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: The relationship between Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf will be further developed, but Aonuma said you should play the game yourself and he won't spoil it.
[11:34 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Good answer to a terrible question.
[11:36 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Aonuma hopes that everyone will become an engineer and express their what-if ideas.
[11:36 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Treehouse has one more gameplay segment. Gabriel, Kay, and Billy are back.
[11:37 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Showing off "raids" to fight alongside NPCs.
[11:37 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Seems spoilery.
[11:37 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: They want to raid a docked pirate ship.
[11:38 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Captain Flaxel is a captain of a "monster-control crew" to kill off some dudes. Unfortunately, the bridge to the ship is broken, which might also mean that the monsters aren't gonna bother anyone since they can't get across a broken bridge either. But they plan to repair the bridge for the NPCs.
[11:40 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Link very simply Ultrahands the bridge together.
These monsters didn't do anything wrong! |
[11:42 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Your friendly NPCs don't die, they just lie on the ground knocked out.
[11:43 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Unlike the monsters that poof.
[11:44 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Captain Flaxel, by the way, is not on the ship. She is leading from behind and hasn't even crossed the bridge while her minions do everything.
[11:44 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Not a good leader!
[11:44 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: SAD!
[11:46 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Freeze is a very powerful effect, basically stunlocking enemies.
[11:46 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Flaxel cheers that she won despite her doing nothing.
[11:46 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Everyone magically becomes conscious.
[11:49 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: They're now in a snow-land and have saved an airplane in their build history.
[11:49 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Link is leaving behind his horse on the plane.
[11:50 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: This snowstorm is full of emptiness and Ice Wizzrobes.
[11:50 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Eventually, there is a fortress.
[11:51 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: There is a Korok on top of the fortress.
[11:52 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Link is very slow running in snow when he's not flying around.
[11:54 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Link is piloting a customised pre-built fire-breathing plane.
If anyone is a marauder here, it's Link. |
[11:54 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: To raid the fortress.
[11:54 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: An iron ball was preventing Captain Flaxel's folks to enter, but Link just went and fused it with his weapon (and instantly shrunk it) to clear it.
[11:56 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: "Building these things by hand would take a very long time" but with autobuild she just built a rotating Tower Defense thing.
[11:59 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Treehouse Live done.
[11:59 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Camille back.
[11:59 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: "We are moments away from the launch!"
[12:00 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: "The doors are about to open!"
[12:01 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: I can't say I particularly care about who is the first customer to enter.
[12:01 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: The people waiting to buy the game at Nintendo New York have been waiting for DAYS.
[12:02 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: The fans are raiding now.
[12:02 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Doug Bowser in the background.
[12:03 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: He's in the foreground now.
I hope this guy didn't slash that sword where it shouldn't be. |
[12:04 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Sold a copy of the collector's edition to a dude walking around with a sword.
[12:04 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: "Thanks for watching!" stream over.
[12:05 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Well, the Autobuild/Schematics are a very good and wise addition.
[12:06 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: ...
[12:06 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Still, I don't have a feeling of, "Oh, now I want to play this for myself!"
[12:06 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: More like, "Well, that's neat for the people who are doing that."
[12:06 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: I...guess that means it's not calling out to me.
[12:07 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Oh well! That's as expected.
Did you also watch the Nintendo Treehouse: Live stream? What did you think? Will you be getting The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom? Note that this went into midnight, so be sure you've caught this reaction log when it's actually done. (Which is now.)
Will Nintendo pay royalties to Sega for those shirts displayed?
ReplyDeleteIf anything, SEGA should be paying Nintendo!
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