Daily Debate: Did Nintendo Maximize Ultrahand’s Potential?

Nintendo’s pride and joy with Tears of the Kingdom is evident. The Ultrahand mechanic is the focal point of many of the game’s physics engine conversations and hilarious fiascos. After putting hundreds of hours into the game, I began to think more critically about my experience with Ultrahand and how it relates to Nintendo’s mission of creating the most sandbox-like Zelda game to date.

This discussion requires a small disclaimer. I advocate that once a game gets into a player’s hands, there is no right or wrong way to play, regardless of what the developer intended. Whether that’s spending 100 hours alone building mechs or discovering glitches for a speedrun, the goal is to have a good time. In short, how you play is always the right way so long as you’re having fun. 

My ideas overlap with the Ultrahand-specific discussions in Zeltik’s video essay “Tears of the Kingdom: A Disappointing Masterpiece” (starting at around 37:57). I wanted to give credit for how it helped clarify what I was considering about the mechanic. I am not discussing the other opinions/aspects of this video here.

All of this being said, I wonder if the freedom and incorporation of Ultrahand hindered me from experiencing the true wonder of Tears that many felt with Breath of the Wild. Is the player at fault for not using it in extremely cool ways, or is the game’s design unintentionally conditioning us to cheese certain things? Several factors are at play. 

Zonai Devices

First is the Zonai devices. They are all over the place, especially in the Depths and Sky Islands, encouraging players to traverse the vast landscapes with handmade vehicles. The Skies typically give you Wings with Fans or Rockets, and the Depths often deliver Balloons, Big Wheels, and Sleds. They gave us plenty to work with in terms of quantity, but it’s pretty similar in each environment. Does this generous distribution and constant inventory access provide enough desire for players to intimately experiment with Ultrahand, instead of just making the same devices over and over again? 

Map Traversal and the Hoverbike

Either could be true. However, in my experience, I was instead incentivized to take the cheap (by Zonaite standards) and expedient option — the game-breaking Hoverbike. The beauty of Breath of the Wild was experiencing the landscape for the first time. Even though players had two new maps to rummage through, I don’t think I could get the same experience I had in Breath of the Wild because I could swiftly zoom past the empty Sky and, arguably, barren Depths with a simple, uninspired machine. 

Some may think the Hoverbike-style options are a blessing for players who don’t enjoy the building elements, but I felt conflicted. Awe-inspiring exploration became a blur before I even knew I was missing out on it. Explore Reddit for a few minutes, and you’ll find Hoverbike discussions claiming it is so over-powered that it’s cheating and blaming the Hoverbike on skipping content is unfounded because you could just not use it. Again, play the game however you like, so long as you’re having fun.

But, this debate sparks another intriguing question I still don’t know the answer to — is this a map design fault or Ultrahand issue? Not sure. On one hand, I know Nintendo crafted a vast world for us to explore because of how much people enjoyed this aspect of Breath of the Wild. However, the landscapes were not consistently populated or interesting enough to drive me to create more tactile, intricate vehicles. I knew the air was enemy-free, and most of the Depths’ appeal was from its aesthetics — not ground-level interactivity. Using the Hoverbike seems, and is, the most frustration-free approach to long-distance travel.

To clarify — I love aspects of the Sky and Depths, but they are far from perfect from a gameplay perspective. Can players experience the sandbox bliss of Ultrahand when there is this disconnect?

Puzzles and Quests

Regarding the concept of balance, the areas which arguably encourage the most experimentation — the Bring Peace side adventure quest line and Shrines — don’t give the Zonai devices enough juice to motivate players to leverage them. Have you ever attached Shock and Frost Emitters on a beastly vehicle, only to be sad when it barely hit anything and dealt little damage? This applies to Mineru, too, who should’ve had one of the coolest abilities in the game. Then, your inventory just keeps piling them up, collecting dust. 

And let’s not talk about how Tears had so many Addison sign quests that most completionists just used Hover Stones to solve the puzzle rather than analyzing the cut-outs to form a stable structure. Again, if this was fun for you, great. For others, it was repetitive and annoying when spending ten minutes to build something to keep the sign up ended up falling over numerous times. 

Simple solutions just worked better, and this is the case with most of the game.

Temples

Finally, let’s assess the game’s Temples. Obviously, classic Zelda fans were so hyped to see this callback. However, it was effortless to skip most parts of the Fire and Water Temples, specifically, with cheap Ultrahand mechanics. The feeling fans wanted from these Temples, to resemble old games in a fresh light, could dissolve completely. Zeltik points out in his video that perhaps certain restrictions would have made the gameplay more involved, especially in these sections laden with puzzles and environmental uniqueness compared to the rest of the map.

The game may suggest basic Ultrahand mechanics to players, but never deepening their relationship with the mechanic to a degree that matches its expansiveness and creativity. Ultrahand is a marvel — a feat of engineering. I rarely felt this admiration while using it, unfortunately. 

Outside of viral videos showing off insane creations, most Tears players are not taking full advantage of Ultrahand. I still adored my gameplay experience with Tears, even when relying on the Hoverbike, but could I have gotten “more” if I hadn’t taken the easy way out? Is this Nintendo’s fault or did they do as much as they could to excite us? Let us know how you feel in the comments!

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