One of the simple, yet oft overlooked, pleasures of Breath of the Wild was the tiny squeak the adorable little Koroks would let out whenever you struck them with something. It could be an arrow shot, a slash, or the good ol’ “rock falls on head” fallback. To me –clearly a very mature and well-adjusted adult human being– there was nothing cuter than the hapless yelp of the Koroks.
With the release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, it’s as if Nintendo has finally answered my prayers for a true sandbox game that would allow me to do whatever my sinister heart desired to these little critters. Tears of the Kingdom? More like Torture of the Koroks.
It all started early on in my TOTK adventure, when I encountered my first Korok on the Great Sky Island. “Ah, an old friend!” I thought, “How I’ve missed randomly swinging my sword at you and just watching you take the abuse.” Armed with only a measly little tree branch at the time, I swung at the Korok for a few seconds, enjoyed the dulcet tones of its screams of agony, and chuckled to myself before finally letting the poor thing go.
The abuse picked up a little later on, when I lifted a rock to find one of my bean-sized brethren lying in wait. I collected my reward, dropped the oversized rock on its head, and moved on.
And then again! When I saw a suspicious bag hanging in the crook of a tree in Central Hyrule. I discovered yet another Korok, then proceeded to fire all 30 arrows in my possession at it. Just because.
I didn’t truly begin to appreciate just how much effort Nintendo had put into making Torture of the Koroks a real Korok abuser paradise, though, until I saw that you could now use the Ultrahand ability on specific Koroks to reunite them with their nearby friends for more Korok Seeds. Every so often, you’ll stumble upon a little backpacking Korok who tells you it’s too tired to move, and it’ll ask for your help in reuniting it with a friend who’s often very close by.
These are fun little environmental puzzles that require you to use the abilities at Link’s disposal, while also observing your surroundings for objects and structures you can manipulate to reunite the Koroks. As alluded to previously, these Koroks can also be interacted with by using Link’s Ultrahand ability to move them around. Notably, you can also attach them to various objects. As you might expect, this has opened the door to a whole world of possibilities when it comes to Korok torture.
Things started simply. I found immense joy in simply building tall structures and dropping the Korok from great heights. After that, I simply dropped the Korok into the running river and watched gleefully as it floated away, struggling in the water. I saved my game before doing this, of course. I still want those Korok Seeds.
Then, I found a Zonai rocket nearby and attached the Korok to it. I was a little hasty in activating it, though, and instead of sending it skyward, I sent the Korok flying straight into a rock.
In that moment, it was as if something had clicked in my head. The Ultrahand ability is the greatest thing that’s ever happened to The Legend of Zelda! Bless Nintendo for letting me interact with the Koroks in such a way! It was like seeing the Matrix; suddenly, it had become my life’s mission to create the ultimate Korok death trap and see how far I could push the game.
I’m not alone, either. A quick cursory search on the Zelda subreddit yielded posts from like-minded players who also found plenty of entertainment in seeing how creative they could get with Korok torture.
My personal favorite is the Korok barbecue over a roasted spit.
But attaching a Korok to the front of a train, Spider-Man 2 style, ain’t bad either.
Breath of the Wild truly broke the mold as a proper open-world sandbox game by giving players so much freedom to flex their creative muscles and interact with the game in genuinely interesting ways. Tears of the Kingdom takes things to the next level, with even more interactive objects and mechanics, not to mention the sheer amount of verticality that’s now available for exploration in Hyrule.
Korok abuse may be a niche bloodsport, sure, but it’s just a small taste of the kind of incredible creativity that a game like Tears of the Kingdom has been able to spark. And I, for one, can’t wait for the day when someone inevitably creates a Korok torture theme park. Death-defying rollercoasters! Roasted Korok cotton candy! Korok pinball! Korok high strikers! Make it happen!
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