Untold Secrets Unveiled: Exploiting the Astonishing Link Between Hyrule's Map and Japan's Real World

Highlights

The map of Hyrule in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has a connection to real-world Kyoto, with each shrine named after locations in Kyoto.

The names of the shrines in Tears of the Kingdom are derived from anagrams or rearranged letters of actual Kyoto locations, while the overall map of Hyrule in the game draws inspiration from Kyoto's topography, incorporating similarities with real-life Kyoto landmarks.

One observant fan recently made an intriguing observation about the map of Hyrule in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. They quickly shared their discovery on social media, following another player's revelation that the game's map features a scorching hot area.

While Tears of the Kingdom borrows a substantial portion of its map from Breath of the Wild, it also introduces notable modifications to the Hyrule landscape compared to its predecessor. In addition to giving a refreshing twist to various locations and incorporating numerous new areas, Tears of the Kingdom replaces the previous game's 120 shrines with over 150 new ones.

The shrines in Tears of the Kingdom are all named after real-world locations in Kyoto, one of Japan's largest cities and the home of Nintendo's headquarters. A Reddit user named Chubby_Bub recently shared this discovery, giving credit to Twitter user SO_far_69 for originally making the connection between the game's shrines and Kyoto's locations.

Interestingly, the shrines in Tears of the Kingdom don't use the full names of their real-world counterparts. Instead, Nintendo appears to have come up with each shrine's name by creating anagrams or rearranging letters from the original location names. For instance, one of the shrines in the Korok Forest is called Musanokir, which is likely derived from the Murasakino district in Northern Kyoto known for its purple hues. Similarly, the In-isa shrine in Hyrule Field is an anagram for the Saiin train station located downtown.

While the coordinates of the shrines in these examples generally align with their real-life counterparts, this is not always the case. However, Chubby_Bub suggests that the overall map of Hyrule in Breath of the Wild seems to be inspired by Kyoto's topography. For instance, locations like the Arashiyama hills and Katsura River share similarities with the Gerudo Highlands and Hebra regions, respectively.

Nintendo has a history of using real-life inspirations for naming patterns in Zelda games. In the previous installment, shrines were named after the developers who worked on the game and the Divine Beasts were named after iconic characters from past Zelda games. Just like the recently discovered shrine naming pattern in Tears of the Kingdom, both of these Breath of the Wild Easter eggs were only uncovered by the most dedicated and passionate fans.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is available now on Switch.