Tears of the Kingdom continues tribute to Satoru Iwata in an even lovelier way
Iwata passed away in 2015.
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A lovely tribute to the late Nintendo president Satoru Iwata carries on into The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, and is even nicer than the last one.
Spoilers for Tears of the Kingdom ahead!
Breath of the Wild was a special game for a lot of reasons, but easily one of the most memorable moments is to do with a particular location: Satori Mountain. At some point during your playthrough, you might have seen said mountain glowing in the distance, and if you made your way over there you would find the Lord of the Mountain, also known as a Satori. There's no life changing gameplay mechanic to be found there, it's just a beautiful moment that served to honour Iwata, who was beloved by many at Nintendo. And in Tears of the Kingdom, the Lord of the Mountain returns to continue that tribute, and doing so in a unique way.
In your travels across Hyrule, you might come across a pink cherry blossom tree. They will typically be quite easy to spot, as there's very few of them in the whole game, only eight in total. At these trees you'll find a small stone statue with a plate attached to it where you can offer up a piece of fruit - if you do, you'll start to see glowing auras scattered around the nearby landscape that point you towards hidden caves.
If you've explored the caves, you'll know that hidden amongst them are Bubbulfrogs, which once hit enough times produce Bubbul Gems, a key item that helps you unlock various items as part of a particular questline. These auras don't stick around forever, but you can just offer another piece of fruit and they'll appear again.
Iwata was known for being very hands on and involved in the development of multiple Nintendo games (it's thanks to him you can explore the whole of Kanto in Pokemon Gold and Silver), so it feels fitting that the tribute to him has the Lord of the Mountain assisting all of us across our new journey in Hyrule.