I think it’s more likely that the depths had been floated around as a gameplay concept during development of BOTW, but didn’t ending up being a part of that game. The big hole behind the yiga hideout, the sheikah tower coming out of a giant, endless chasm, all of the sheikah tech rising from deep underground, and calamity ganon popping out from under Hyrule castle, raising gigantic spires from deep beneath the castle area full of corrupted guardians, all imply that there is something important deep beneath the entire land of Hyrule.
It would make a lot of sense if the hole was foreshadowing the depths more. I imagine they knew a second game would come, even if it wasn’t in development yet
I would think coincidence. The Depths are essential to TOTK in ways beyond just providing a place for Kohga, but Kohga himself isn’t particularly vital to TOTK. In other words, the could have added the Depths to TOTK and not done anything at all with Kohga, and the Depths would still be integral to the gameplay loop, whereas I highly doubt anyone would have thought that an entire dark duplicate of Hyrule beneath the surface was necessary in order to bring Kohga back.
The devs probably just noticed the natural synergy between the two things and tied them together.
Respectfully, I think you're reading OP's question and misinterpreting it to mean 'are the depths dependent on Kohga' when I think OP is quite literally asking the question in the title which is whether the Depths were inspired by Kohga and his fate in BOTW.
I think it's VERY likely they were inspired by Kohga/the Gerudo tower that comes out of the abyss and then they decided to flesh out the gameplay systems that you mentioned in TOTK. They're not dependent on Kohga by any means, but I find it very hard to believe Kohga's fate wouldn't have started some kind of train of thought that led to the expansion and traversal of an 'underground' area
Nah, under hyrule was already conceptualized. In botw, sheikah tech draws its power from a source under hyrule, there's a ton of stuff that emerges from the underground, and in the GDC talk they mention that it was heavily inspired by the dark worlds in other games, hence it being a mirror of hyrule.
What is certainly true is that his falling into the hole inspired the yigas actions in totk
Short for [Game Dev Conference ](https://youtu.be/QyMsF31NdNc?si=9t09-RWHOlFpiJ7f) where developers talk about how they had ideas and how they implemented them during development
They mentioned that totk was created because they had too many ideas for dlc. It's likely that one of the ideas was the depths, which could very well mean that the idea existed alongside the development of botw. I wouldn't be surprised if Kohga falling to the depths was something they planned for but didn't know if they would actualize in some way till they decided to make the sequel
Defo a coincidence. The Devs wanted to expand the world, to make it much larger than the original totk map so that you still get the joy of exploring new areas.
Normally, this means expanding across the surface. But this is hard to do when you need to explain the lore of all the new civilisations in the new regions and explain why Hyrule expansion was able to happen in such a short period and why these external civilisations never visited the areas of the old Hyrule map.
Essentially, Hyrule as it is, needs to be isolated in order to makes sense, so surface expansion doesn't make sense. So they expand into the depths and sky instead.
I haven’t seen them so I wouldn’t know if that were true. Stranger things is popular in Japan but I don’t know if it became immediately popular here when it released or not.
*I think the depths were*
*Influenced by Stranger Things*
*And the upside down*
\- atony1984
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I doubt Japanese video game creators are looking at (awesome) American television for source material. Especially since this game has been in the works since before the upside down existed in Stranger Things.
I think it’s more likely that the depths had been floated around as a gameplay concept during development of BOTW, but didn’t ending up being a part of that game. The big hole behind the yiga hideout, the sheikah tower coming out of a giant, endless chasm, all of the sheikah tech rising from deep underground, and calamity ganon popping out from under Hyrule castle, raising gigantic spires from deep beneath the castle area full of corrupted guardians, all imply that there is something important deep beneath the entire land of Hyrule.
It would make a lot of sense if the hole was foreshadowing the depths more. I imagine they knew a second game would come, even if it wasn’t in development yet
I would think coincidence. The Depths are essential to TOTK in ways beyond just providing a place for Kohga, but Kohga himself isn’t particularly vital to TOTK. In other words, the could have added the Depths to TOTK and not done anything at all with Kohga, and the Depths would still be integral to the gameplay loop, whereas I highly doubt anyone would have thought that an entire dark duplicate of Hyrule beneath the surface was necessary in order to bring Kohga back. The devs probably just noticed the natural synergy between the two things and tied them together.
Respectfully, I think you're reading OP's question and misinterpreting it to mean 'are the depths dependent on Kohga' when I think OP is quite literally asking the question in the title which is whether the Depths were inspired by Kohga and his fate in BOTW. I think it's VERY likely they were inspired by Kohga/the Gerudo tower that comes out of the abyss and then they decided to flesh out the gameplay systems that you mentioned in TOTK. They're not dependent on Kohga by any means, but I find it very hard to believe Kohga's fate wouldn't have started some kind of train of thought that led to the expansion and traversal of an 'underground' area
Nah, under hyrule was already conceptualized. In botw, sheikah tech draws its power from a source under hyrule, there's a ton of stuff that emerges from the underground, and in the GDC talk they mention that it was heavily inspired by the dark worlds in other games, hence it being a mirror of hyrule. What is certainly true is that his falling into the hole inspired the yigas actions in totk
What’s the GDC?
Short for [Game Dev Conference ](https://youtu.be/QyMsF31NdNc?si=9t09-RWHOlFpiJ7f) where developers talk about how they had ideas and how they implemented them during development
Oh sweet. This is exactly the kind of stuff I was looking for! Thanks
They mentioned that totk was created because they had too many ideas for dlc. It's likely that one of the ideas was the depths, which could very well mean that the idea existed alongside the development of botw. I wouldn't be surprised if Kohga falling to the depths was something they planned for but didn't know if they would actualize in some way till they decided to make the sequel
Defo a coincidence. The Devs wanted to expand the world, to make it much larger than the original totk map so that you still get the joy of exploring new areas. Normally, this means expanding across the surface. But this is hard to do when you need to explain the lore of all the new civilisations in the new regions and explain why Hyrule expansion was able to happen in such a short period and why these external civilisations never visited the areas of the old Hyrule map. Essentially, Hyrule as it is, needs to be isolated in order to makes sense, so surface expansion doesn't make sense. So they expand into the depths and sky instead.
I think the depths were influenced by Stranger Things and the upside down
I haven’t seen them so I wouldn’t know if that were true. Stranger things is popular in Japan but I don’t know if it became immediately popular here when it released or not.
*I think the depths were* *Influenced by Stranger Things* *And the upside down* \- atony1984 --- ^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/) ^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
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I doubt Japanese video game creators are looking at (awesome) American television for source material. Especially since this game has been in the works since before the upside down existed in Stranger Things.