I love the flower-like island above lookout landing. It’s the highest place on the map but it’s so difficult to get to, and you get nothing for going there

This series hits my extremely niche intersection of interests of casual philosophy, gaming, and things that are just kinda weird in an interesting way, and I adore every episode.

TOTK is perfect for finding odd and unremarkable places. and just the fact that 90 % of the time you actually can go there makes it so much more fun

Dude honestly it’s not just the odd and unremarkable places that make your content good, it’s your narration and personality you bring to each video

areas around the castle, like the one you found Twilight Princessian, are areas that DID have waterfalls and pools, but when the castle was lifted up, it deprived certain spots from water flow and pooling.  That's why they have puddles.  So you see, they did get thought.  They are there to follow-through the effects of the castle hoisting.  And, since they are in barren and afflicted areas, they get extra dead and barren.

Another one of those "spaces that only exists because it has to" is near Jeddo Bridge if you ride down the Tamio River behind Satori Mountain. There's the normal brown rock of Hyrule and the lighter, yellow rock around the Rito region/Tanagar Canyon, but along this river is the point where those two earth types meet and very abruptly transition. It's not a smooth change, they just bump right into each other. Kind of strange, like a seam in the world that's obviously a relic of development.

It’s unbelievably cool when a game is not worried about letting you get bored to death lol

"Every moment is enjoyable" is such a strong statement, and it really does suit TOTK and BOTW well. Even in the TOTK cover art, Link is just chillin somewhere

I like the term "Self-conscious video game." As a game developer, it can be hard to spend so much time on specific areas, conflicts, story beats, mechanics, etc., knowing that the player could walk right past them. I've never thought of games that railroad players into "the fun stuff" as self conscious, but it's kind of true. If they don't have confidence that players will find fun in any direction, or in any order, or put the story together themselves, why do it?

That point about space between “existing because it must…” — I’ve thought of the same idea in the context of music production. Like, I intentionally author certain points of a song/piece, but it feels like a significant portion of the art makes itself. Like, in terms of rhythm, the movements my hands make, even lyrically. Concepts connect and fall into rhyme and meter. Art has a way of filling in its own blanks and I’ve always loved that about creativity

My favorite little place in TOTK is the sky island directly above the Great Deku Tree.  There's just a small treasure chest there, and once it's gone, there's nothing else really there.  I'm afraid of falling, so I really have no reason to go back up there being so high up, but it's got a nice sturdy retaining wall and a ruined shelter there that it's kind of become a little loft for me.  I like going up there before I turn the game off, or sometimes, even just hang out up there.  You can see everything, and feel safe doing so....

This is one of those meditative videos that reminds us that it's always good to take stock of the world around us, even in virtual environments. Very chill and nice vid.

You could easily do a follow-up to this entirely focused on the Depths. Probably multiple. I found so many places that fit this vibe, places that logically have to exist given that the depths is a mirror of the surface, but are completely devoid of content and often very difficult to access. I'd recommend the edges of the depths and the depth's version of the Faron region with all it's water features in particular.

Honestly one of the reasons I don't mind them re-using the map is that feeling of abandonment and so on you mention during Hyrule Castle.

BOTW does not feel like a calamity. Obviously something's wrong, but not really to you. Everyone's pretty happy and just living their lives, all the kingdoms are mostly fine apart from the divine beasts, and what's especially important is it's the player's first exposure to these places. They are normal because the player has never experienced anything otherwise

Then when you get to TOTK it actually feels like a calamity. The various tribes have been battered and beaten, barely even safe in their own homes. Gerudo town is a sandy waste, Zora's Domain is covered in sludge and mud, Rito Village is in a permanent snow storm, etc. It feels bad because you know what they feel like "Normally." It wouldn't have that same effect if it was a new map, it would just be a new realm of normal.

BOTW sets up the characters and world for you to know and make friends, then TOTK uses that setup to make you worried for them and feel dread about the world because you actually know what it used to be like now, instead of being thrown into the present world and just told "It used to be better"

Thank you for this masterpiece of a game, Al Newman

5:00 ** Spoiler ** Yup, in some of these unremarkable locations, you find remarkable things. By chance, I found a tunnel entrance that lead to a defended prison area under Hyrule Castle. After some head scratching to figure out how to get in a seemingly inaccessible room, I was rewarded with a chest containing a new pattern of fabric.

You should submit your resume to Nintendo as chief middle-of-nowhere-chest-putter supervisor. Austin: director of the moderately interesting.

0:20 he should be beating the game any day now

You would go absolutely wild in Shadow of the Colossus. The entire map is odd, unremarkable and beautiful.

First time I ever got to one of the jumping challenges I was gliding in from a weird direction and sort of landed in the lower but not bottom section.  I obviously thought the top was where the cool stuff was.  I spent like 15 minutes figuring out how to get to the top only to realize it was a "now jump to the bottom" thing.  It was a lot of fun.  My favorite weird place in the game was just riding around on farosh the dragons head.  He likes to dive into the depths and you can just float around on his nose and look at things.