168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Legend of Zeld🐎a: Tears of the Kingdom is a deceptively horr✤ifying game. One defined by countless iconic genre tropes that flow throughout its very being. It begins with a descent, Link and Zelda exploring dark, abandoned underground ruins deep beneath Hyrule Castle. While Zelda’s academic glee lightens the mood, unease ꩲgrows as you descend further until you are confronted with the upside-down rictus grimace of a mummified Ganondorf. We all know what happens next.
The hours that follow are considerably lighter in tone. Great sky islands are devoid of gloom, Zonai constructs make for conveniently inorganic, non-threatening enemies, and the magic of classic Zelda tutorials weaves the 𝔉joy of discovery throughout. But things take a sh𝄹arp turn back to horror once you return back to the ground.
Hyrule is terrifying. While the land se🎉ems to be recovering from the devastation caused by Calamity Ganon, the recent Upheaval has only disrupted things further, bringing forth new horrors that have climbed from the depths to send Link into a cold sweat.
Take the Evermeans,𝓀 walking, evil trees that look like they’re ripped right out of Snow White. They’re easily defeated, but after just one or two encounters, forests become Schrodinger’s jump scare, and you’ll never find yourself without a chopping weapon ready to combat whatever fauna suddenly springs to life. They’re not the only new mon🥂ster whose design errs on the creepy - Horriblins are incredibly disconcerting. They hang out in caves, dangling from the ceiling and wielding incredibly long pointy sticks. They are similarly non-threatening once you clock how weak they are to headshots, but there’s something uneasy about them. The way they clamber along walls with their apelike arms places them in an uncanny valley of human-like paranoia. Imagine one running at you and tell me it wouldn’t be the perfect horror movie monster.
However, no monster comes close to the Gloom Hands in terms of inspiring pure terror. These swarms of sweaty red palms spread red gloom while grasping at you. Getting caught in their grip is easily done, as they’re quick and relentless, and fighting them is an upward battle. Escaping from their clutches, only to be snatched up once again by another hand close by, instills a palpable sense of panic that few actual horror games can rival. The way they force you to strategise in a way no other monster does is impressive and can catch you unawares - what initially♋ looks and sounds like yet another Blood Moon turns out to be a horrific jumble of hands with eyes trying to choke the life out of you. They’re an eerie masterclass.
It’s not only the monsters that get in on the jo𝔉y of fright - some of the quests💎 you take on feel like they’re borrowed straight from the horror genre. Entering Korok Forest for the first time gives you a short cutscene that establishes what a dismal, cursed place it has become.
The Great Deku Tree is swathed in dank, purple fog, and the normally joyful and friendly Koroks stand silently, acting as disturbing sentinels that refuse to speak to you. It’s a great moment and serves as a wonderful call to action - something about the Korok Forest is not right, and you must sort i꧙t out. What follows is a fight against those wriggling Glo♏om Hands in what feels like a cleansing ritual, and the resulting purification of the forest is as relieving as any horror movie monster death.
Another quest gets in on the action, this time as part of the main storyline. As part of the Regional Phenomena quest, which has you journeying all over the world to deal with specific problems in the homes of the four non-Hylian races, you’ll eventually come to Gerudo Town. This sequence introduces you to Gibdos, which resemble shambling zombies as tough to take down as any woken undead, requiring specific strategies to remove their invulnerabilities. One part of this quest has you defending Gerudo Town from an endless horde of these zombie stand-ins, forcing you to destroy their spawners while keeping your pals alive. This battle felt as close to a blood moon in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:7 Days to Die as it’s possible to get - exhilarating, tense, and far too short. The reveal that some Gibdos can fly is 💟a fantastic detail to drop into a climactic battle, upping the ante and provoking no small amount of dread.
While these moments are spread out thanks to the sprawling open world, it’s 🔯clear that Tears of the Kingdom makes a conscious effort to bring the heebie-jeebies. What should have been a world rebuilding itself after catastrophe is marred by the Upheaval, bringing new dangers and the oppressive gloom. The result is a world that feels exciting to explore, teeming with anticꦗipation of the unknown. Zelda’s forays into horror are historically effective (see also: Majora’s Mask, Twilight Princess), and Tears of the Kingdom is no exception.