Let me know if you want a part 2! I’m sure there are hundreds of NPCs out there I could follow around for another video!!

also: apologies in advance! I mis-remembered when you can actually receive an item from an NPC after protecting them. Was mixing up what credentials are needed, but it's still interesting some NPCs will put up a fight!

also also: a few people are mentioning AnyAustin in the comments and I just wanted to say his videos are incredible and please check them out if you haven’t. He has great content exploring interesting/vague things in games too! But this "following BOTW NPCs" idea came to me after my “what does an animal crossing villager do in a day?” video I made a few months ago. I love BOTW and wanted to come up with an idea similar to my ACNH video, but since the hour to hour cycle matters less in this game compared to Animal Crossing, I made it more about finding the npc start and end points and learning about the character themselves. Appreciate you all checking it out and reading this far if you have!

Some NPCs create the illusion of traveling by putting clones all over the map. Beedle isnt just one dude, there's actually 16 Beedle clones and with enough patience you can push one of him to another!

This is the kind of thing i would do when playing video games as a kid, just follow NPCs around and pretend we were having conversations, i love it 😂❤

your point on NPC 2 about playing zelda like a "normal citizen" is truly one of my favorite ways to play. i love to slap on the royal guard outfit and wander around slowly on my horse, looking for any NPC's that need help

If you do another part you should wear Majora's mask, that way the enemies aren't interested in attacking Link. That might make it more organic to how it would be if he wasn't there

14:00 imagine being a Hyrule NPC, walking to your local stable, and finding the hero of Hyrule barbequing himself

15:30 I’m pretty sure these guys do sleep if you go out and come back in again. they just don’t have a getting into bed animation so they’re waiting for the player to not be looking at them and then teleport into bed

You can tell Celessa isn't a Yiga because it gives her a name other than "traveler".

I've followed some NPCs around in Tears of the Kingdom.

1. Non-stop rain will stunlock some NPCs into running around in circles (especially tiring to watch while following the Gerudo woman who climbs Akkla Span near the Monster Control Crew camp)

2. My findings are that Juga is adorable and her quest to be a famous scientist is endearing.

3. Link's presence causes most Monster attacks. Especially from horse riding Bokos.

4. Merchants also seem to only get attacked if Link is on the cart or nearby.

There's a map that was datamined of each NPC's path in TotK and something a bit amusing is that the Bridge of Hylia is treated as a dead end because of the Flame Gleeok on it. Effectively this means any of the NPCs in the southern Faron region are trapped there. There are also some NPCs that can be found in multiple different areas, notably Meeshy. I like how a lot of them have continuity with their character and interests in BotW. (If only they gave that much attention to the game's own continuity...)

Also, at least in BotW, the reason Yiga Clan members kept spawning so often is that their spawns require Link to be on or close to a trail.

One thing you didn't mention that occurs to me, is that the trips are actually made more dangerous for Link then they would be for other characters. This is because the Yiga clan aren't going to be out to murder innocent hylian merchants and travelers. They ambush Link because they are trying to assassinate him specifically. Of course other monsters are a threat to normal people, but the Yiga clan members at least probably shouldn't be considered as threats to them.

Mina keeps forgetting her swimsuit on her way to Lurelin. I tell her she doesn't need it. It's interesting that she walks the jungle area as a treasure hunter before Lurelin is liberated then later, she keeps walking back and forth between Lakeside stable and Lurelin forgetting her swimsuit over and over again.

When i was a kid, I used to do this a lot in Majora's Mask. Every NPC had unique cycle in 3 days span. It was fun follow them around and see their interactions with the world and other NPC.

0:19 i never realized how goofy link's face is when he is in cold weather LMAO

i loved how in totk npcs had updates on the world events bc of the newspaper. an npc who originally says something about the rito snowstorm will later say how the snowstorm has gone away after link finishes that area. i thought it was really neat how much more in touch the npcs were with the world around them and how they could even give little hints about interesting things going on elsewhere around the world

I think more of the enemy spawns are triggered by Link being in range. If you follow the NPC from much farther back i don't think anything will ever bother them.

Wearing the Sheikah set for stealth and doing a new file before you made the Yiga mad would further remove the chance of Link interfering with things.

2:57 based on your equipment / health the game considers your Link to be higher leveled, this will increase the frequency of yiga clan members spawns etc.

9:28 You can recognise most Yiga clan members when they don’t have a name tag above them. However if you haven’t talked to a npc their name wouldn’t show up either so this trick is recommend for late game in case you don’t want to mess with the yiga

Fun fact: you can tell Yiga clan members in disguise apart from regular NPCs because they don't display their name atop their head when you're close to them. This also carries over to TotK

16:40 Teli, the Ancient Parts Salesman is the rarest NPC who might just have one of the widest ranges.  I found him only ever in my own playthrough by/just inside the woods outside Hateno.  I also swear I sae Teli in a video by Fort Hateno. Teli is seldom seen and i have watched a LOT of BoTW content.