The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is an incredibly polished game, so what happens if you try to completely break it? YouTuber Shesez pulls back the curtain on some of the game’s hidden secrets in latest video and reveals all of the amazing stuff Nintendo doesn’t want you to see, including what the Depths look like when it’s not shrouded in darkness.
Shesez’s Boundary Break series dives into all sorts of different games and shows players what’s going on beyond what they can usually see while playing. By using various mod tools to operate multiple cameras and change lighting effects, he was recently able to take control of Tears of the Kingdom’s in-game camera and show what’s actually happening during cutscenes, while exploring the sprawling map, or even during certain ability animations.
You should watch the whole video above, but one of the coolest bits is what the game’s Depths look like when fully illuminated. Tears of the Kingdom’s underground map is completely dark until players begin activating Lightroots and using Brightbloom flowers. Even when the map is fully revealed, there’s still a pervasive sense of darkness.
Shesez managed to cheat and fully dial down the Gloom in the Depths, revealing the underworld zone in all of its glory. It has a ceiling complete with unique textures, and I actually got a sense of relief seeing all of the darkness removed. I wouldn’t want to play the game that way, obviously, but it provides a completely new appreciation for just how vast and different the game’s second map is. It also makes it look way less terrifying.
Other highlights from the video include what happens when Link uses Ascend to travel up through ceilings. The game goes to dark and shows Link swimming upwards in a swirl of green colors, but Shesez reveals that, when this is happening, the rest of the world actually disappears. All that’s left is a giant black box with Link flailing around for a couple moments in the center.
Tears of the Kingdom is also full of particle effects that make the world feel alive and help mask some of 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 the wind, fog, and other screen effects? Hyrule looks very bright and super ugly, though I actually like the increased vibrancy of the colors.
Tears of the Kingdom’s 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 mask what an eyesore the world is when it’s not fully loaded. Stick around until the end of the video and you’ll even get to see King Zora’s feet.
