Descending into Gloom's Lair (All Phases) - The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (OST)

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Also when it said, "A Sages Power Cannot Reach You" I was like 🥲

I love how in all previous Zelda games with Ganondorf, the music always builds and builds as you ascend to his tower. But in this one, it builds as you descend down into the loneliest and darkest depths to his level. Him being so far underground is in some ways far more sinister than him waiting in a tower if you ask me.

Once Phase 4 of Into the Gloom kicked on and that organ came in, my wife looked at me while I was playing and said, “okay, this isn’t fun anymore, this is scary. It’s like you’re descending into hell!”

for all that its worth, this is exactly how you execute a "this is it, the end of the game" type of beat.

One of the greatest soundtracks and atmospheric sequences in video game history. Two moments stick in the mind; 1) "A sage's power cannot reach you." 😬 2) When you get to that final platform at the bottom, this music peaking in the background and it says "Jump". I was like "fuuuck!" So good.

Me diving from the Imprisonment Chamber: "Here we go, we're now deeper than the intro, let's go!" Hitting the bottom, chanting begins, Zelda's torch at the bottom: "... shit, what have I done"

“….The wind, it’s blowing”

all of this reeks of "You aren't supposed to be here."

The power of a sage cannot reach you.

When I got there the first time and noticed Zelda's torch still lying around, I knew shit gets real

23:19 This. This part right here. The absolute fear this part induced in me when descending was like no other. The first time in ANY game that I’ve ever played that the music alone made me genuinely scared to keep moving forward. An absolute masterclass in invoking anxiety and fear into the player about what comes next.

If you look on minimap radar, you can see how deep or high you are at the sea level. The deepest point down in the gloom origin is about 2.5 kilometers deep... In real life, only select few mines are deep beneath 1000 meters...

In heinsight, I should’ve realized that this was the path to the final boss a LOT sooner than I did

Running past enemies I wasn't confident enough to fight, just to reach a chasm, and see a huge red object far, far below me as 23:39 hit was an experience I'm not gonna forget soon.

The Depths in general can be pretty scary but despite this place not being completely dark, the music really helps sell this place in particular feel like Hell. It's so scary, I love it

The entire finale, from the descent into Gloom's lair to saving Zelda after the final battle, is just incredible. Nintendo went all out on making TotK's endgame memorable.

This was a masterpiece. This entire final descent. The music had throwbacks to so many previous game soundtracks. The cave theme from link to the past, choir notes from ocarina of time, the spirit tower from phantom hourglass, and the battle themes had twilight princess vibes. This final descent turned the game into a horror game. The stone pillar that holds up hyrule castle reminded me of that big spike lodged in the imprisoned from skyward sword, and the chasm did remind me of his arena. And lo and behold, at the base of that pillar we drop into a suspiciously skull shaped formation into one of two eye socket looking holes to begin the descent into the gloom. As if showing us just how potent demise's influence is with this incarnation. And we were descending into his body of influence to the twisted heart of the gloom. Speaking of which, I know some of us were thinking calamity ganon was the closest to demise he's been, then nintendo just goes "hold my lon lon milk." Makes you wonder just what was calamity ganon? I'm starting to think it was a glorified phantom ganon. Either it was an attempt to build himself a body since he was imprisoned beneath hyrule, or just wanted SOME way to wreak havoc on hyrule. And since ganon was comatose the whole time, he was able to focus and channel more power through the blight.

The Hyrule Chasm into the decaying castle and from there into the Forgotten Foundation then the Gloom Lair is the most amazing slow burn ending in video game history. Spiraling into the depths without end is an isolationist darkness without compare. Some evil genius who is perfectly in tune with nightmares becoming reality made this. Nobody else could dream of this level of abandon and arcane mystery.

Best video game ending i ever played tbh