Post Script
Up in the sky: how Kingdom’s floating archipelago allows Zelda to soar to new heights
From above, Hyrule looks calm – or perhaps it’s just that this place feels so peaceful. The wind seldom gets above a whisper, the sparse score a calming accompaniment to the gentle chime of a bell marking the start and end of each workday for the automata that serve as stewards for the Temple Of Time and the islands surrounding it. It’s beautiful up here, too, with sumptuous skyboxes that are a comfortable match for anything on more powerful hardware. Little wonder, then, that we quickly realise we’re in less of a rush to get back to ground level than we ever anticipated.
We do, however, find a quite delightful way of getting there. As we explore, we discover a mysterious object: a thick piece of slate adorned in decorative markings, with two others nearby. At first, we try to glue them together: do they perhaps form a circle? Not quite. It’s only when we detach them, accidentally dropping one into a set of grooves on the ground, that we identify its avian design, wingtips curving up aerodynamically. It begins to move, sliding forwards toward the island’s edge. We run after it, hurriedly hopping aboard what we later identify as a Zonai Wing; instead of falling, it catches the air, its trajectory shifting as we carefully adjust our position atop it.
The slow descent that follows is blissfully serene. And when it’s finally time to touch Hylian grass, the sky’s call is tough to resist. It’s not simply that the Great Upheaval has left the land in disarray, or that it’s a particularly unpleasant place to be – the threat below may be greater, accompanied by climate shifts that show the pandemic is not the only real-world concern occupying the thoughts of Nintendo’s writers, but that makes you only more keen to put things right. In large part, the appeal is down to the ways it belatedly fulfils the promise of not one Zelda game but three.
Skyward Sword is the most obvious antecedent, a game that also attempted to reckon with the region’s past while letting players soar through its skies as well as explore the land beneath. With hindsight, perhaps hindered a touch by the tech (another commonality), it slightly fudged any meaningful connection between the two. Sure, there were fleeting skydiving sections as you plunged from Skyloft or leapt from your Loftwing, but they felt like different worlds, linked only by being in the same game. Two console generations later, it’s still hard not to marvel that they occupy the same space, and that your location above has a bearing on where you can land. There’s something special, too, about seeing the spot from where you dropped – such that you feel like excitedly grabbing the nearest local to tell them.
The reverse is also true. Fast travel can return you from whence you plummeted, but why would you bother when there are several better ways to get back up there? If Breath Of The Wild’s Sheikah towers presented an engaging test of stamina management, Kingdom’s sky towers offer a different challenge. Here, you don’t have to worry too much about your upward trajectory, since the mechanised tentacles of a repurposed Guardian strap you in and hand you a rope, before a burst of air shoots you skyward.
From here, Link can scan the land below, filling in his map and highlighting any nearby islets in the sky, which in turn encourages you not to simply dive straight back down. The sense of discovery here is reminiscent of Wind Waker, as you plot a path to an undiscovered landmass, not knowing what you’ll find. But while that game’s seas were enjoyable to traverse, there was little challenge or thought to it once you’d tamed the wind. The allure of the air is similar, but requires more attention – and it’s here that stamina management comes back into play. You must deploy your glider carefully, while making use of an ally’s ability to help you along. Young Rito companion Tulin comes with a Gust power that can knock enemies over in battle, but up here this strong tailwind fills Link’s sailcloth, pushing him farther.
Even then there’s a natural sense of peril, since fully depleting your stamina effectively means death; it’s more thrilling than ever to approach the edge of a platform and mantle up it with a sliver left (though a prepared player should have stamina-boosting meals to scarf down mid-glide). The alternative is to assemble a vehicle of some sort, either via found Zonai devices or obtained from capsule machines. Getting parts is a good excuse to seek out more fights against robotic opponents, not least since it brings you into contact with one of the game’s best new recurring bosses.
Nintendo itself described Breath Of The Wild as an ‘open-air adventure’, but Kingdom feels like a superior expression of that ideal. That game was all about scaling hills, scouting out potential destinations and dropping a pin to highlight them before gliding down to begin your journey, and its successor takes that concept to its logical extreme. It says much that only at high altitude can you get a clear view of a series of geoglyphs, allowing you to pinpoint the eponymous tears: these crucial items fill in events leading up to where the story begins, each cinematic rewarding your diligence in locating the droplet within these intricate patterns. Surprisingly, it’s in a sand-shrouded Gerudo that the game’s defining philosophy is outlined, via an optional conversation. “The key to making new discoveries is being able to get somewhere high up,” says treasure hunter Calisa. “So get high up and look around – you’re bound to discover all kinds of things!”
In large part, the appeal is down to the ways it belatedly fulfils the promise of not one Zelda game but three