See how the enlightened depths of the kingdom’s tears are illuminated
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is an incredibly polished game. So what happens when you try to completely wreck it? YouTuber Shesez reveals some of the game’s hidden secrets in the latest video, revealing all the amazing things Nintendo doesn’t want you to see including what the depths look like if it is not shrouded in darkness.
Shesez’s Boundary Break Series dives into all sorts of games and shows players beyond what they can usually see while playing. Recently, he was able to take control by using various mod tools to operate multiple cameras and change lighting effects Tears of the KingdomThe in-game camera shows what’s actually happening during cutscenes, while exploring the vast map, or even during certain ability animations.
You should check out the entire video above, but one of the coolest aspects is how the game’s depths look when fully lit. Tears of the KingdomThe underground map of is completely dark until players start activating Lightroots and using Brightbloom flowers. Even with the map fully revealed, there is still an ever-present sense of darkness.
Shesez managed to cheat and shut down the darkness completely in the depthsand reveals the underworld zone in all its glory. It has a ceiling with unique textures and I actually felt a sense of relief to see all the darkness removed. Of course, I wouldn’t want to play the game like this, but it gives a whole new understanding of how vast and different the game’s second map is. It also makes it look much less terrifying.
Other highlights of the video include what happens when Link uses Ascend to travel up through ceilings. The game goes dark and Link swims to the top in a whirl of green colors, but Shesez reveals that when this happens, the rest of the world actually disappears. All that’s left is a giant black box, with Link spinning around in the middle for a few moments.
Tears of the Kingdom is also packed with particle effects that give the world a living feel and help somewhat mask the lack of detail in the backgrounds as you explore (the overworld is a seamless area with no loading screens, after all). What happens if you remove all wind, fog and other screen effects? Hyrule looks very bright and super ugly, although I really like the increased vibrancy of the colors.
Tears of the KingdomThe overall aesthetic is a bit too washed out for me at times. But it’s impressive to see how effectively the rest of the game’s effects help hide how ugly the world is when it’s not fully loaded. Stay until the end of the video and you will even see King Zora’s feet.
