The Depths In Tears of the Kingdom At Their Peak Are True Fear Given Form
The Depths In Tears of the Kingdom At Their Peak Are True Fear Given Form
by Excellent-Hedgehog71
30 Comments
zestysnacks
Lol they’re creepy but I would never use the word fear
Jpup199
Would be fear if all the game was as empty as the depths.
akela121375
My 400 brightbloom seeds in my inventory: **Bonjour**
PepsiPerfect
I spent way too much of my early hours in the game lighting up all the Lightroots, thinking that there was going to be some huge payoff for it. Even though there wasn’t, I’m not in the camp of those who feel like the Depths are a complete waste of time, precisely because of the initial fear factor before you light everything up.
Takoyaki_Dice
The only time the depths bothered me was when I was riding my flying machine through the darkness to light up the rest of the roots and a Caldera just flying right next to me. Scared me lol
ItsTheSolo
The depths was my favourite part of TotK, but even then I wouldn’t say it was scary. I feel like there’s a distinct lack of scary stuff down there. I was honestly expecting more gloom hands, and the Zelda series has so many creepy enemies, it seems like a waste to just re-use overworld enemies and cover them in gloom. By mid-game I feel like all the wonder behind the depths is pretty much gone and it just becomes another overworld.
cardsking
sound like everybody here is thinking of action/shock type of fear, while the post is talking about environmental/setting type of fear.
Startide
Nintendo really missed an opportunity to make the depths truly scary. They should have put some kind of enemy down there that stalks you in the shadows, and will follow you wherever you go whenever you go out of reach of a light root or a brightbloom seed. Also should have gloom hands hiding in the gloom patches here and there that pop up when you least expect it
cura_milk
The depths was so barren. I see why Nintendo didn’t talk much about it.
half_jase
For a long time, I was too much of a chicken to explore the depths because of how creepy and scary it feels. I only ever went down there when the story requires me to. Took me until recently for me to get used to it and it feels nice to explore with the sages as companions.
Gotta say though, it would have been nice if the depths had their own unique bosses – Frox aside – rather than the same ones from the surface level (although I don’t mind the temple bosses rematches).
Vaderaziel
Missed opportunity to put quality content down there. The Gerudo camps can be completed with one arrow. The mines have no enemies, puzzles, or obstacles of any kind. The only really good part were the boss rematches imo. The rest was just empty.
neotank_ninety
It just so happened that by the time I had lit all the lightroots i had gotten enough zonite to fully increase my batteries and enough poes to buy the outfits I wanted. Either they got really lucky or they really thought about it
BustermanZero
Yep, scary as hell. Didn’t even need jump scares to do it. Just the situational creepiness of exploring total darkness giving way to real fear. Diving into chasms where there’s zero hints of light at all are creepy AF. Tears is great at weaponizing the unknown like that.
Jdfz99
Quick tip: The moment you dive into a chasm, hold up on the D-Pad and drop a brightbloom. It’ll activate when it hits the ground. Great for those moments you drop into a boss area.
NightmareRise
Honestly Ganoncorpse was creepier
This-Double-Sunday
My first time down there without knowing what it was or how to light it up was probably the most frightened I’ve been in a Zelda game since the floormaster in OoT. Very well done.
DoctorWalrusMD
My first time down I was greeted by dark souls boss music and a health bar for something called a Scourge of the Depths, wildly I looked in the dark for something and I vaguely see a massive shape *coming towards me out of the darkness*, and I fucking fast travelled and didn’t come back for a good 30 hours of gameplay. That jumping FROX got me good, put the fear of Ganon into me.
mumbling_marauder
My early time with the depths was fantastic. The scope, the mystery of what lurks underneath. The first time I encountered a Yiga hideout I was terrified. I’ll also never forget the horror of seeing the Gibdo Queen scuttling in the distance down there after I thought she was done for good.
Once I understood the depths I wasn’t as in love with it, it’s pretty empty all things considered and could definitely have used another type of terrain or two, as well as some more interesting structures to explore.
GamingSophisticate
The worst part was diving into the depth and landing in water. Unsure how far you have to swim, unsure what’s lurking underneath or above and unable to use brightbloom seeds
Munsoon22
One of my first excursions in the depths began by landing directly on a Obsidian Frox. I screamed and ran away back to the safe overworld lol
StormMalice
More unnerving than scary. Seeing a solid rock or even a giant light root appear before you is just unsettling.
KaiserJustice
The depths just need a bit more variety to them… it’s fun to explore but eventually it’s just a blur of the same trees and no real landmarks as you head to another vaguely orange thing in the distance
xvszero
Early on the depths are pretty intense. Once you have a bunch of hearts and good armor and hundreds of arrows and light seeds though it becomes kind of routine to get around.
Still, I’ll never forget early on scaling an incredibly high wall completely in the dark and running out of stamina multiple times, using the stamina items I had, running out of those, and getting to the top RIGHT as my stamina wheel turned red. Felt so good.
free_mustacherides
At first super scary. But once you learn how to properly explore it’s much less scary and more intriguing/annoying.
poopymcfarts
Lol at this clickbaity Medium-ass headline. “This level in a video game is crystallized terror personified”
gmr2000
Tips for the depths / linkages with >!the over world map!<
– >!Depth / height of the depths is the inverse of the height of the over world map (mountain on overworld is v low canyon on depths)!<
– >!Rivers / water on overworld is impenetrable wall on depths map!<
– >!Shrines on overworld are light roots on depths!<
– >! Lynels are under stables !< thanks /u/maxens_wlfr!
– >! Abandoned mines with zonite refiners are under cities !<
Having the >!over world map open as your mini map can help you navigate depths even without light roots up (knowing where the huge walls / barriers are v helpful)!<
Three_Froggy_Problem
The Depths are really ominous and scary initially, but I think looking back they’re a bit of a letdown. The concept is awesome, but there’s not enough actually scary stuff down there.
Part of it might have to do with the enemy designs themselves, which tend to look more goofy than menacing, but I think I also wish that there were more unique enemies down there. The Depths kind of stop surprising you before long because it doesn’t take much time to see all of the dangers.
If they bring something like the Depths back in a future game then I hope they go further with it. I want to be wandering through the blackness and come face-to-face with something legitimately frightening.
MovieGuyMike
They’re creepy and cool the first couple hours. After a certain point they start to feel cookie cutter.
thebanzombie
I wouldn’t call it fear per se but the Depths are definitely unsettling for three reasons imo. First obviously the pervasive darkness.
The second is that besides some exceptions, you are very very alone down there. You quickly learn that anyone you see other than your sages and the forge constructs, anyone else is an enemy. There are no friendly hylian, goron, zora, gerudo or rito NPCs to be found, and any you do see are Yiga impersonators.
The third is a little more subtle: the fact that many landmarks in the Depths are a caricature, often a more dangerous version, of the surface. A lake on the surface might be a pool of lava in the Depths. It gives a creepy sense of the Uncanny Valley, which I enjoy very much.
loz_64
My biggest “nope” moment was when I ventured down the chasm near the Korok forest for the first time. I spotted a lightroot and paraglided toward it, but I soon realized I would not make it. Then the music changed and I saw red and black goop form under me in the pitch darkness. Those gloom hands screeched and were waiting for me to land. As soon as I touched down I warped out of there pronto and was so, so thankful for that feature!
30 Comments
Lol they’re creepy but I would never use the word fear
Would be fear if all the game was as empty as the depths.
My 400 brightbloom seeds in my inventory: **Bonjour**
I spent way too much of my early hours in the game lighting up all the Lightroots, thinking that there was going to be some huge payoff for it. Even though there wasn’t, I’m not in the camp of those who feel like the Depths are a complete waste of time, precisely because of the initial fear factor before you light everything up.
The only time the depths bothered me was when I was riding my flying machine through the darkness to light up the rest of the roots and a Caldera just flying right next to me. Scared me lol
The depths was my favourite part of TotK, but even then I wouldn’t say it was scary. I feel like there’s a distinct lack of scary stuff down there. I was honestly expecting more gloom hands, and the Zelda series has so many creepy enemies, it seems like a waste to just re-use overworld enemies and cover them in gloom. By mid-game I feel like all the wonder behind the depths is pretty much gone and it just becomes another overworld.
sound like everybody here is thinking of action/shock type of fear, while the post is talking about environmental/setting type of fear.
Nintendo really missed an opportunity to make the depths truly scary. They should have put some kind of enemy down there that stalks you in the shadows, and will follow you wherever you go whenever you go out of reach of a light root or a brightbloom seed. Also should have gloom hands hiding in the gloom patches here and there that pop up when you least expect it
The depths was so barren. I see why Nintendo didn’t talk much about it.
For a long time, I was too much of a chicken to explore the depths because of how creepy and scary it feels. I only ever went down there when the story requires me to. Took me until recently for me to get used to it and it feels nice to explore with the sages as companions.
Gotta say though, it would have been nice if the depths had their own unique bosses – Frox aside – rather than the same ones from the surface level (although I don’t mind the temple bosses rematches).
Missed opportunity to put quality content down there. The Gerudo camps can be completed with one arrow. The mines have no enemies, puzzles, or obstacles of any kind. The only really good part were the boss rematches imo. The rest was just empty.
It just so happened that by the time I had lit all the lightroots i had gotten enough zonite to fully increase my batteries and enough poes to buy the outfits I wanted. Either they got really lucky or they really thought about it
Yep, scary as hell. Didn’t even need jump scares to do it. Just the situational creepiness of exploring total darkness giving way to real fear. Diving into chasms where there’s zero hints of light at all are creepy AF. Tears is great at weaponizing the unknown like that.
Quick tip: The moment you dive into a chasm, hold up on the D-Pad and drop a brightbloom. It’ll activate when it hits the ground. Great for those moments you drop into a boss area.
Honestly Ganoncorpse was creepier
My first time down there without knowing what it was or how to light it up was probably the most frightened I’ve been in a Zelda game since the floormaster in OoT. Very well done.
My first time down I was greeted by dark souls boss music and a health bar for something called a Scourge of the Depths, wildly I looked in the dark for something and I vaguely see a massive shape *coming towards me out of the darkness*, and I fucking fast travelled and didn’t come back for a good 30 hours of gameplay. That jumping FROX got me good, put the fear of Ganon into me.
My early time with the depths was fantastic. The scope, the mystery of what lurks underneath. The first time I encountered a Yiga hideout I was terrified. I’ll also never forget the horror of seeing the Gibdo Queen scuttling in the distance down there after I thought she was done for good.
Once I understood the depths I wasn’t as in love with it, it’s pretty empty all things considered and could definitely have used another type of terrain or two, as well as some more interesting structures to explore.
The worst part was diving into the depth and landing in water. Unsure how far you have to swim, unsure what’s lurking underneath or above and unable to use brightbloom seeds
One of my first excursions in the depths began by landing directly on a Obsidian Frox. I screamed and ran away back to the safe overworld lol
More unnerving than scary. Seeing a solid rock or even a giant light root appear before you is just unsettling.
The depths just need a bit more variety to them… it’s fun to explore but eventually it’s just a blur of the same trees and no real landmarks as you head to another vaguely orange thing in the distance
Early on the depths are pretty intense. Once you have a bunch of hearts and good armor and hundreds of arrows and light seeds though it becomes kind of routine to get around.
Still, I’ll never forget early on scaling an incredibly high wall completely in the dark and running out of stamina multiple times, using the stamina items I had, running out of those, and getting to the top RIGHT as my stamina wheel turned red. Felt so good.
At first super scary. But once you learn how to properly explore it’s much less scary and more intriguing/annoying.
Lol at this clickbaity Medium-ass headline. “This level in a video game is crystallized terror personified”
Tips for the depths / linkages with >!the over world map!<
– >!Depth / height of the depths is the inverse of the height of the over world map (mountain on overworld is v low canyon on depths)!<
– >!Rivers / water on overworld is impenetrable wall on depths map!<
– >!Shrines on overworld are light roots on depths!<
– >! Lynels are under stables !< thanks /u/maxens_wlfr!
– >! Abandoned mines with zonite refiners are under cities !<
Having the >!over world map open as your mini map can help you navigate depths even without light roots up (knowing where the huge walls / barriers are v helpful)!<
The Depths are really ominous and scary initially, but I think looking back they’re a bit of a letdown. The concept is awesome, but there’s not enough actually scary stuff down there.
Part of it might have to do with the enemy designs themselves, which tend to look more goofy than menacing, but I think I also wish that there were more unique enemies down there. The Depths kind of stop surprising you before long because it doesn’t take much time to see all of the dangers.
If they bring something like the Depths back in a future game then I hope they go further with it. I want to be wandering through the blackness and come face-to-face with something legitimately frightening.
They’re creepy and cool the first couple hours. After a certain point they start to feel cookie cutter.
I wouldn’t call it fear per se but the Depths are definitely unsettling for three reasons imo. First obviously the pervasive darkness.
The second is that besides some exceptions, you are very very alone down there. You quickly learn that anyone you see other than your sages and the forge constructs, anyone else is an enemy. There are no friendly hylian, goron, zora, gerudo or rito NPCs to be found, and any you do see are Yiga impersonators.
The third is a little more subtle: the fact that many landmarks in the Depths are a caricature, often a more dangerous version, of the surface. A lake on the surface might be a pool of lava in the Depths. It gives a creepy sense of the Uncanny Valley, which I enjoy very much.
My biggest “nope” moment was when I ventured down the chasm near the Korok forest for the first time. I spotted a lightroot and paraglided toward it, but I soon realized I would not make it. Then the music changed and I saw red and black goop form under me in the pitch darkness. Those gloom hands screeched and were waiting for me to land. As soon as I touched down I warped out of there pronto and was so, so thankful for that feature!