The story of the TierraGuide

Hello! Today I wanted to talk about perhaps the most important thing in the game, the TierraGuide. Having a "guide" is fairly common in audio games, it simplifies a lot of things, but I enjoy when the mechanics of the game fit into the world. In breath of the wild, your mini map is your physical sheikah Slate. In pokemon you have a Pokedex. Having gameplay mechanics tied into the world always felt nice to me, as well as made for interesting game play opprotunities!

So I'll talk about the TierraGuides both from the perspective of the world, and from the gameplay side!

In the world of TierraMon:

TierraGuides are a rather new type of Construct for the humans of this world. For as long as humans have lived, they have used TierraShards to make constructs and tools to make every day tasks easier. Simple creations that closed fences, pulled plows, and helped cut down trees. These are now considered First Generation constructs.

The second generation came later when humans became frustrated by the simple rule of, the larger a construct made of Tierra was, the stronger said creation would be. So they began exploring ways to make smaller Tierra Constructs, do more things. Much of this entirely revolved around practical engineering and beginning to do experiments much like our own engineers would. 

Creating Tierra Constructs built directly into systems of levers, pulleys, and gears gave them much greater mechanical advantages. Instead of having every cart be pulled by their own Tierra Construct, meaning every road needed to be made to handle the heavy stone creatures, they instead created systems of pullies and elevators and had constructs built in a specific spot, meaning only one Tierra Construct needed to be built and maintained for each system, and it could be built into a system of engineering that maximized it's power. So any Tierra Construct built around a mechanical system became known as Second Generation.

After the second generation is when the TierraMon were discovered. Naturally formed creatures made of Tierra Shards that broke all the rules humans followed the with Tierra Shards, they lived under and were incredibly dangerous.

The Third Generation of Tierra Constructs is very new. As the humans of the world realized that there were large deposits of Tierra Shards underground, they realized they needed something new. The TierraMon down there were more powerful than any previous Constructs, getting lost down there was a constant threat, and the lack of light was also incredibly dangerous. So the creators of the world put their heads together and created the Tierra Guides, the first of the new generation of Constructs. Through a years long process a small Tierra Construct can be filled with the knowledge and personality of their creator, given the ability to perceive its surroundings without light, and most importantly, it was given the ability to overwhelm the strange natural instincts of a TierraMon, allowing a Tierra Guide to fully control TierraMon.

These small constructs are the most important tool for the Rangers that find new deposits of Tierra Shards, hunt TierraMon, and learn more about the strange Tierra Shards underground.

Gameplay:

The player will play as a ranger, and as such they will be given a TierraGuide! Your TierraGuide will be, as said, the most important tool for your journey. In game, they handle all these tasks:

Narrating battles

Explaining the physical Characteristics of TierraMon

Handling directions

Being a compass

Guiding you back to camp no matter how lost you are

Guiding you back to the start of a region, no matter how lost you are.

Explaining the effects of the different abilities of TierraMon abilities

Be able to remind you of important details at any time

Being your GPS. If requested, the TierraGuide can give you step by step instructions to get to a new area. But don't worry, they'll only do that for you if you ask!

Manages your TierraMon, such as which ones go into battle, which ones hold what items, and what level they all are. Story wise, they also help with capturing new ones.

Has a handy dandy tutorial menu! TierraGuides don't judge rangers who ask questions, they judge rangers who don't. As such, you'll be able to re-listen to any tutorials previously through your TierraGuide.

While not the most exciting update, making sure people enjoy the TierraGuide is something very important to me, because they will be a constant companion on your play through.