Edit: Based on feedback, it seems like this might be used when certain NPCs approach Gloom Spawn too. Interestingly, this doesn’t seem to apply for Gleeoks and overworld bosses.
As you know, Guardians are not present in the Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. That’s because these enemies apparently vanished once Calamity Ganon was defeated in the last game, and (from an out of universe perspective), act as the mascot for the Sheikah technology throughout the series.
However, did you know this wasn’t always the case? That at one point, it seems Guardians were meant to be in TotK too?
Yep, dataminers have actually found evidence of their presence in the game’s files. Most notably, in NPC reactions to events around them.
Since in both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, NPCs have shorter pieces of dialogue that change based on things that happen nearby. These range from an enemy in the area, to Link attacking them with his items, to the weather.
And two of these events in TotK involve Guardians! Yep, there’s special dialogue for various NPC types if a Guardian is spotted nearby, as well as if one is defeated by Link in said area.
Admittedly, this doesn’t seem too interesting at first glance. After all, the Guardian reactions were in Breath of the Wild, weren’t they?
Yeah, they most certainly were. Except Tears of the Kingdom’s script doesn’t just have the same interactions and dialogue from its predecessor there.
No, it seems to have new text for this instead. Including dialogue for characters and character types that never appear in Breath of the Wild, such as the Zonai Constructs:
Guardian Spotted Dialogue:
Danger sighted.
Oh no.
Be careful.
Guardian Defeated Dialogue:
Has the danger passed?
Is it safe now?
Lowering defenses.
So this only leaves a few possibilities:
- That the dev team were playing a joke on someone
- That some other enemy activates it (given there’s nothing else tagged as a ‘Guardian’ in the files, this seems doubtful)
- Or that Guardians were actually intended to be in Tears of the Kingdom
Honestly? We’re going with the last possibility here, given how much more sense it makes comparable to the alternatives.
So yeah, it seems Guardians were indeed intended to be in Tears of the Kingdom at some point. Pretty cool, eh?