The Legend of Zelda franchise has been host to a number of unique dungeons and mechanics over the years. Some have lasted across multiple iterations, while others faded into obscurity (poor Spinner, you deserved better). One incredibly common theme across all of the games is, unsurprisingly, darkness and light. For all the posturing around good and evil, however, the games have been terrible at granting Link any power to command sacred light outside of fights with Ganon or cutscenes.
You must imagine, dear reader, my surprise when our Link in Tears of the Kingdom began weaponizing light in a multitude of ways. It does make sense, in a game so focal on the power of ‘divine light’ and the evil of gloom and darkness, that light is a powerful tool and weapon. From the Lightroots of the Depths to the Stal-eliminating Dazzlefruit, Link finds a number of uses for the bright light of day.
Among the mechanics I was happy to see arrive was the many uses of the Dazzlefruit. Link’s arsenal has been quite expansive over the years – swords, sorcery, staves and wands, bows, crossbows, a host of various bombs for any occasion, grappling hooks – but to give Zelda’s knight a flashbang was bold. A Dazzlefruit Arrow may be replacing the Arrows of Light in my head, and the ability to use the simple ingredient as a way to do away with pesky Stal-enemy encounters is a godsend over Breath of the Wild where they were nothing but an irritating nighttime random encounter.
My favorite showing of the new light mechanics was in the strange phenomenon of the Gerudo Desert. In a callback to many previous installments, a token undead (ReDead?) enemy has made a return in Tears of the Kingdom: the Gibdo. Different from their previous counterparts, these distorted mummies take hardly any damage from conventional weapons, and have a particular weakness to elemental damage. They are unique as this elemental weakness is not a one-shot kill, like the flame and ice Wizzrobes or Lizalfos of Breath of the Wild. They do, however, still have a notable one-shot weakness in sunlight. Clearly the Sun Song still haunts them all these generations of Hyrule later.
The Lightning Temple of Tears of the Kingdom calls back to the Spirit Temple of Ocarina of Time, a place in the Gerudo heartlands with puzzles based around light and reflections. It is from here that the corruption of the Queen Gibdo whips up sandstorms throughout the Gerudo Desert, blotting out the sun so the Gibdo can roam freely through the dunes.
The second stage of Queen Gibdo’s fight is all the more unique. As Link topples the Gibdo Hives, natural light begins to filter into the room. The respite and power that a player feels clearing a hive, winning a safe space from the hordes in the heart of Queen Gibdo’s lair, is amazing when experienced firsthand. Watching these enemies that players face with varying difficulty, depending on how early or late in the game you choose to conquer the desert, wither at your feet is a fantastic use of mechanics and level in narrative. You are bringing the light back to the Gerudo, burning away the infestation with pure light. I admittedly had come to despise the Queen so much by this point in the fight that I was just slinging elemental Keese arrows, but watching my partner battle their way through this fight the other week showed me a side that I had never had the chance to absorb.
Frustratingly, Tears of the Kingdom doesn’t allow the player to use the Zonai Mirrors to reflect the light given by Brightblooms or Zonai Lights, so if you were unable to use a Mirror Shield to give the Gibdo Queen and her minions a proper thrashing, you may be due for a new save file. Being able to bring these strategies into the Depths is all I want to do, Nintendo. Allow me to chase the Gibdo Queen through the air with a beam of light like I did in Ocarina with Koume and Kotake’s witchcraft. Let me drop the concentrated sunlight of a Dazzlefruit to fry a horde of Gibdo. Or at bare minimum, give the Light Rod – crafted with a costly Star Fragment fused component – some semblance of the power of these light-generating weapons, not just a piddly discount dancing lights.
I am happy with how light has found its way back into the Zelda franchise as more than just a powerful bow given to the player during a final confrontation with Ganon. I am hopeful that the upcoming Echoes of Wisdom title sees Zelda manifesting the Bow of Light for herself and makes it more freely usable. Tears of the Kingdom did so much right with the mechanic, but perhaps shied away from making it accessible for fear of game balance. I say that if you want Link to become a master of reflections and distractions, that you should be permitted to do so. In any case, I look forward to the decisions that Nintendo continues to make in the production of these new Zelda games, and look forward to more ways in which they break the mold while respecting the games that came before.
