From above, Hyrule looks calm – or perhaps it’s just that this place feels so peaceful. The wind seldom gets above a whisper, the sparse score a calming accompaniment to the gentle chime of a bell marking the start and end of each workday for the automata that serve as stewards for the Temple Of Time and the islands surrounding it. It’s beautiful up here, too, with sumptuous skyboxes that are a comfortable match for anything on more powerful hardware. Little wonder, then, that we quickly realise we’re in less of a rush to get back to ground level than we ever anticipated.
We do, however, find a quite delightful way of getting there. As we explore, we discover a mysterious object: a thick piece of slate adorned in decorative markings, with two others nearby. At first, we try to glue them together: do they perhaps form a circle? Not quite. It’s only when we detach them, accidentally dropping one into a set of grooves on the ground, that we identify its avian design, wingtips curving up aerodynamically. It begins to move, sliding forwards toward the island’s edge. We run after it, hurriedly hopping aboard what we later identify as a Zonai Wing; instead of falling, it catches the air, its trajectory shifting as we carefully adjust our position atop it.