The Legend of Zelda and Autism

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I played breath of the wild for the first time fall of 2023. I had just been injured in a bad accident and paralyzed. Breath of the wild let me explore run jump and adventure. I fell in love with video games because of it. I’m still paralyzed and may never recover, but I’m grateful for my new hobby of video games and Zelda for giving me an adventure when I need one

I like BotW and TotK because of how lonely they feel. As an autistic person who has to mask around others, being alone is safe. And it felt so freeing to just be able to run around the landscape for hours without having to take on bosses or do dungeons. I could run up the entire Eastern shore of Hyrule to look for treasure and secrets and watch the sunrise reflected on the ocean. I could climb snowy mountains and shield surf my way back down. I could find and solve puzzles for 900 different Koroks and get a little serotonin hit every time I heard that Yahaha! I love the wandering, directionless nature of these games. It reminds me a bit of Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley, where you have all these tools to do whatever you want, but it’s up to you how and when you do those things. No pressure.

Open RUclips and the first thing I is link and the big red word “AUTISM” -dawg I JUST woke up stop calling me out 😭😭

The quietness of BOTW was my absolute favorite. I’m not mute, but I can go for days without speaking, even if I’m with other people. Even talking takes too much effort from me and that was something I had learned about myself later in life. I learned to accept it while playing breath of the wild. Like you, the game came at a pivotal moment for me when I was self diagnosing and finally forgiving myself what I thought was me being an awful person. To travel through an entire map and just… be. I liked how NPCs were scattered about so if I wanted to, I could talk to someone! But most of the time it was just me and my thoughts. For the first time, existing felt so blissful. Quiet and nice. I didn’t feel lonely, and yet I was left to my own devices. It’s a game I will always cherish for how it helped me.

Whenever botw and autism, i have always have to tell people why I bought Botw in the first place, and I have a special interest in horses, and I wanted a horse game, and I saw botw, and saw you can ride horses, I bought it, and I had no idea what the game was about and i did not know after that i would spend a lot more money on the legend of zelda series all because you can ride horses in botw

"Life is an adventure and there's no correct way to live it" My absolute favorite take away from this video! You did a stellar job with this video!

I thought Zelda was just a family tradition in my household until I realized I was the only one collecting every game, encyclopedia, manga, and trinket I could get my grubby little hands on.
These games really were my second home for so many of my formative years and still are to this day. When I was a kid I'd play Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess and Wind Waker for hours. Whole days some weekends. Even skipping out on sleep sometimes just to keep playing.
I didn't understand the people around me and in my backwater small town there weren't really many opportunities to get out there and make friends, but I understood these characters and the stories connecting each game together.
This series taught me how heal from grief, to cherish people while they're still here, to move on from the past into a better and brighter future. Hell, Sheik existing as a character even helped me to realize I was non-binary before I even knew the word for it! All this to say that this world and these games mean so much to me.
This is a lot of blah blah blah, but if anywhere's the place to dump all my feelings about Zelda then I'd say it's right here. Thanks for making this video man. It truly means a lot.

This was a lovely and very personal video. Thanks for sharing your zelda journey and I wish you all the best in future video game/zelda adventures!

thank you for sharing. As the father of a son with Autism, I strive for ways to continue to connect with him to help navigate this world and find that social motivation. We bond through video games, particularly Zelda, so this hit very close to home for me.

As a person who has adhd i often play video games because it allows me to fixate and focus on something I love for hours at a time and Zelda games are something that help me whenever I just want to escape to a calmer place where I don’t have to worry about what’s going on around me

clicked purely bc of title and thumbnail expecting something completely different but i loved this so much. genuinely beautiful

I'm so glad that you were able to contextualize your experiences with autism through TotK. I had the benefit of being diagnosed at a young age, so in a way, I've always had some understanding of my autism. But the last 5 years of my life have been especially eye-opening because that was when I also came to the conclusion that I don't have to live my life in the same way that so many other people do. Video games, including Zelda, played their part in helping me to realize this, but for me, the biggest piece of the puzzle was another of my hyperfixations: non-Euclidean geometry.
I learned to crochet 5 years ago because I was inspired by Daina Taimiņa's work in using crochet to create physical models of hyperbolic surfaces, which incidentally got her involved in the art world. Learning to crochet these surfaces not only gave me a hobby and an outlet for my hyperfixations, but it also gave me an insight into how we shouldn't assume that just because something is considered 'normal' doesn't make it universally true. For over a millennia, Euclid's fifth postulate (that parallel lines exist and are unique) was assumed to be necessarily true for geometry to work. Within the last 200 years, we've learned that that isn't always the case, and that even the shape of our universe might be non-Euclidean.
So in much the same way TotK helped you, non-Euclidean geometry has helped me to also realize there is no one correct way to live my life, and that I shouldn't assume the ways in which other people do things are more correct than the ways I do them. For example, 7 years ago, I never would have dreamed that I could be an artist, that I had to become a scientist because my educators made me feel like that was the only thing I was good at, but I'm now using my crochet skills to make art, and I'm trying different creative outlets to find out what else I might be good at.
Anyways, thanks for the upload. This helped me to further contextualize my own experiences.

unlike most people, i never got to grow up with video games. i grew up in a home that was against video games my entire life, and it was until my husband (then boyfriend) bought me a switch lite for my birthday, and acnh with it. that was my first introduction to real video games and once i got my 1000 hours in animal crossing i was ready for something new, and he had spent a lot of time trying to find me the perfect game again, but nothing stuck until he gave me breath of the wild as a last ditch effort. little did he know the game would change my entire life and perspective with gaming. zelda has become something SO close to my heart in just a few short years. i wish i had gotten the experience of playing the games when i was young, but also, maybe it found me at just the right time in my life. totk got me through one of the hardest points in my life as well, after i had finished botw. the games mean so much to me now, my favorite is twilight princess, but anyways, thank you for this video because it really resonates with me. zelda really felt like a missing piece in my life which probably sounds crazy but yea. these games have added so much more to my life than me and my husband initially expected lol.

Never.
Never have I related more to a person than this moment. Thank you for sharing your story and experience with this game. I also couldnt reckon with non-linerarity and followed a route/guide to all the objectives. Had a ton of fun solving the puzzles in the shrines, which to me is the core of zelda

Thank you for this beautiful video. I am in my 50s and I too fell in love with TOTK. I initially watched my son play. Then I had a cancer scare. I picked up the game to help my stress and nerves. I played through it while waiting for whatever test results. I remember just stopping sometimes to take in the beauty of Hyrule. All those tests eventually came back negative. TOTK helped me get through a very stressful part of my life. I absolutely love this game and whenever I am feeling low, I go back to Hyrule.

as an autistic person myself, let me tell you that legend of zelda has been my biggest hyperfixation since i was 12

I don't know how it's even possible but you literally spoke straight out of my soul in a way I've never heard anyone do for 12 minutes straight. Down to feeling like a fraud for calling myself autistic and feeling weird about using too many guides for games and taking way more time than others. Maybe it's just coincidental but it still caught me off guard. I don't usually write comments, especially long and personal ones but I was just fascinated and felt the need to share it for some reason... (Didn't mean to yap lol)

I'm also late diagnosed autistic and Zelda is one of my special interests. It all started when I watched my dad and older sister playing when I was little, but from there it evolved into a deep love for the series. It feels like Zelda is a part of my identity. I'm inspired by the fact that Link is just one little guy, but he can do all these amazing things. He keeps going no matter how bad things may get. Especially in BotW and TotK, Link has to deal with devastating losses but he's able to move on because Hyrule needs him. And I simply love the escapism of exploring a whole different world. I love the version of Hyrule from BotW and TotK because you can simply go wherever the wind takes you. You can play for hours and hours and still discover new things.

Thank you for making this video. Ocarina was one of the earliest fixations I can remember. I would play it over and over and over. Back to back. Now, at 35 with a recent autism diagnosis, it makes so much sense. And this video explained my odd feelings about the non linear zelda games. Even tho I do love them, they're a different feeling. Absolutely subscribed and look forward to watching more.

As an autistic myself, I really resonate with the difficulty with self-direction. I always hated school assignments where they would give you very little direction and expect you to make up the rest. I always just wanted to know what an assignment /wanted/ from me and was doing my best to give them what they wanted. I also used to be very rigid on "the right way to do something". Maybe because it was so often where if what was wanted wasn't specified, my own answers were so strange compared to the average that I would receive negative feedback or maybe it's the stereotypical rigid thinking of autism (likely both imo), but I loathed having to try to produce something and worrying that I would get it wrong. Thankfully, I'm now an adult and a therapist myself with a masters in social work so I have largely "overcome" a lot of these struggles, or at least learned how to deal with them better, but I definitely could have used more understanding as an adolescent for what I was going through

this video hits on another level.
ive played the legend of zelda games since i was 4 years old (mainly watching my big brother play), my favorite being wind waker and majora's mask. i lived in a family where pegi's were very important, so when breath of the wild released, i couldn't play it. i had to wait until i was old enough. that disappointment left my obsession with tloz sleep for the next 4 years.
i furthered my education (i live in europe, its like middle school->high school) after a few years, and lost all my friends due to moving out.
then, in lockdown 2020, i got a very bad case of covid. i just had ordered my yellow nintendo switch light and finally bought breath of the wild. i had all the time in the world, no online classes yet and no one to bother me in my room for a month.
botw was very hard to play for me, and i had to look up a lot of things in order to understand, which angered my brother because i "missed the whole point". even though i found it difficult, it was calming in a time of sickness, and my undevided interest in tloz was back.
after that year, the worst period of my life happened. i had no friends, the stakes were high and i got depression that lasted 2 years. when tears of the kingdom released, it was just like in 2020, a big distraction of life and simply calming to play. it genuinely helped me live longer.
now, since the end of 2024, everything is going well. i moved schools, got friends that love to hear me talk about these games, and i finally got diagnosed with autism 3 weeks ago. i have more understanding of my life and people who experienced the same issues as me. i'm not alone anymore and these games helped me get through it all together.
i am very glad i'm not alone with these feelings. thank you for this video.

I love how these games and the way you play them reveal so much about who you are. While playing, you get to understand yourself better - your strengths, weaknesses, and interests - and I’ve never experienced that with any other games. It’s so interesting to hear about your experience.
I’ve always known I’m a bit of a perfectionist, with a need to explore every tiny detail. These games have reinforced that, and for a long time, I saw it as a weakness. In real life, focusing too much on details can be frustrating and overwhelming. But in these games, there was no pressure - just pure joy in exploring everything they had to offer. That made me realize that the way I approach things isn’t a flaw. It can actually be a strength when applied in the right situations

I got diagnosed with ADHD earlier in the winter time of 2024 and eventually was officially diagnosed with autism in August 2024... I felt *everything* in this video that you said. It hit really deep I thought no one else felt the way I did about botw and when totk came out it was a different experience for me both inside the game and in my day to day life. I struggled to understand botw because of the lack of direction. I was still a teen who once was considered gifted then I almost didn't graduate high school. It was a very depressing time for me. I felt like I couldn't do anything right (I still feel that way I'm trying to break away from it tho) I felt lost because now I had a lot of choices to make I couldn't keep friends because I was mean because of the fact that I just felt so miserable while I didn't mean to be that way I was still really hard on myself. I've been known to be hard on myself since I was younger to the point that "Why are you being so hard on yourself?" was a common question I was asked. It just felt like my whole world was collapsing around me I went into a deep depressive state and for a few years completely stopped trying academically. I would be so exhausted socially and physically from school I wouldn't do homework and just go straight to my bed and sleep.
All of that to say this video made me feel less alone. I've felt so alone in all of this. It just resonated with me so hard that I had to give you a super long comment because this really helped me see that I'm not so alone after all ❤

As a late diagnosed Autistic myself damn this video spoke to me. I also played BOTW before I was diagnosed and it was a STRUGGLE to complete, I also had to look up so much to complete things that seemed to simple. I had tried previous Zelda games and not been able to get very far because I got so stuck on the puzzles or certain mechanics that coming to BOTW was so scary because instead of one or two ways to solve something it started giving you endless ways and that just became even more overwhelming, I got so stuck on doing things the 'right' way because that's how I always went about things that even though I loved BOTW it was exhausting to play. Since then I've been diagnosed with both ADHD and Autism and started medication and when I saw TOTK coming out I was really excited to play but so scared to that it took me so long to pick it up. I ended up starting it a month ago as stuff happened with what I was playing that I had to drop it and wow my experience with TOTK has been so different. I've found so much comfort in doing things my way, not the right way, I've been able to accept when I can't complete a puzzle in the moment and come back to it, I've actually been able to complete puzzles without searching things up, it's been truely amazing. It's helping to remind me that I am capable and that things can still be fun and beautiful while my world is falling apart. I love these games so much, especially for what they do for us Autistics

Thank you for posting this video. This relates to me so much and I'm here crying because I feel like you took my inner most secrets and made them visible. I feel a little less alone now that Zelda also connects with others the same as it does for me. Thank you!

Catharsis. Like Link’s Awakening, Majora’s Mask, and Twilight Princess but turned up to 11 Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom made me feel catharsis. The dark and lonely games of the Zelda series allowed me to explore the loneliness I feel in trying to be a good person in an often so cruel world.

I haven't really gotten into totk yet, but with breath of the wild the I've really enjoyed that feeling of just existing in the world. I spent so much time walking around the hebra mountains, finding every path to get up to selmies spot and the peak, trying to get a horse up the mountains. The world really feels like home for me, and it's always so comforting when I go back to Breath of the Wild

Thank you so much for making this video, I resonated with everything about this. When totk came out in 2023, I wasn’t secure in myself as an autistic person, and struggled a lot socially and sensory-wise. I couldn’t go to social events without running out crying. Oddly enough, I think this correlates to the fact that I don’t remember much of my first play through. Now, I have a much better social network that understands and supports my needs, and am currently replaying the game for the second time (the hyperfixation is strong rn lol), and the experience is just so much better than I remember. I’m in my final semester of college and will be working towards getting a diagnosis once I graduate, I am very grateful that I have the resources to do so.
Thanks for reading if you did, and have a wonderful day :)

Wow. I don't know if I've ever seen a video that resonates with me so much more than this one. I've loved the Zelda series ever since I was really little and it has been my main interest ever since. I'm diagnosed with ADHD but have had my own suspicions of autism, but have never formally sought out a diagnosis purely because I've heard it's just so difficult. But hearing you describe all of my exact emotions and feelings, and not just about the game but about how others would dismiss you as shy and anxious, really sticks to me. This brought me comfort knowing that a lot of the emotions and my struggle with games that lack linearity and direction isn't just me. You did a really great job explaining how the Zelda series relates to you and it has been kinda eye-opening for me!

surprisingly low view count for the video quality and content. Thumbnail is definitely eye catching lol. enjoyed the video, 10/10

I’m fairly confident that I’m not autistic but literally everything you described about being told you’re gifted and then struggling in school resonated really hard with me. I started out crushing it at school and then all the sudden I was struggling to make passing grades. The part you said about retaining information between lessons was mind blowing to me because I’ve never heard of anyone else having such a similar experience as my own.

It never ceases to amaze me how large of a spectrum Autism is.
I also struggled to get a diagnosis as an adult, however found out after I was diagnosed as a kid and my parents knew. They just wanted me to be “normal” which hindsight, was regrettable.
I am the total opposite on this one. BOTW I loved by the mechanicals and such of TOTK I genuinely could not. At all. I didn’t finish the game. I got so overwhelmed I just shut down.
Regardless of the differences though, hearing people understand feeling “different” and how that affects even our media enjoyment has gotten a sub for me.
Thank you for this!

This is so powerful. I have never had a positive diagnosis and there's a lot of impostor syndrome and denial as a result. Now, dealing with a daughter at 9 years old manifesting symptoms that I see in myself, it's hard to allow space where I denied it for myself growing up. And the draw was so strong to the Zelda series for me I named her after it. Now, it's a bonding experience for us and brings us together in a way that defies explanation. I am suddenly not alone in the act of finding solace in a fantasy world with a short list of rules where you can just... "Be." Thanks for giving this perspective.

i also always brushed off my autism because of so many doctors and educators at my high school (including learning disability tests that caught neither my adhd nor autism) and that’s just the beginning of the frustrations with not knowing you’re autistic. and i also felt like there was no way i had it…until the psychiatrist who tested and diagnosed me with adhd told me i should be tested for autism, and after living in denial for a year and a half i finally did it and it’s honestly freeing in a way to know what’s wrong, to research and understand yourself more deeply. it makes you feel less alone and so, so validated. autism is so different in each person. thanks for sharing a small part of your story. zelda has been my escape from confusing masking and complicated feelings since i was 11. it’s cool to hear about how your relationship with the game has changed as you discovered your diagnosis.

I share this same feeling of isolation.. I have a very small group a friends I hold closely but i tent to feel like I don't make much of a difference in their lives.. I struggles to makes friend because I felt like no one understood me and I was just.. not a likeable person, many in school went out of there way to make me feel as such daily. I never had the chance to discover what it means to be me or make self discoveries because I was the oldest in my siblings and family life was far more complicated they any child should have to go though, but that meant I had to take up so much more reasonability that should have been on my parent. But he worked away from home and would be gone for months at a time so it let me alone to take care of my sister, get her to school, make sure food was prepared, get us up and to school on time and even make sure bills where paid on time.
I had no time for myself.. I should have figured out I was a trans man years ago.. but now my life seemed to fall apart realizing this, because I lived in a very conservative area and I would never truly be happy in my own body ever.. all the signs where there but I never gave myself the time nor did I have the means to figure it out. now I face a strange problem where I am in my late 20's and I still feel like in jus now turning 19 for the first time. apparently that's something autism can make you feel..
Now I live with someone I love very dearly who saved me from being married to someone who would have never loved me for me and would have made me stay in the closet.. my girlfriend has really guided me though the hardest memories I could stand to bare reflecting on, but she makes it easier reflect now. I am not ashamed of myself anymore.

I have a suspicion that I may be somewhere on the spectrum. Your video really resonates with me!
When I first played BotW I also found the sheer enormity of the world and the lack of linear game play really overwhelming. I stayed happily exploring in the Great Plateau for months too afraid to venture out because it was intimidating. But after getting through that initial overwhelming feeling, I've grown to love the world and honestly my favourite thing to do is just walk around and explore the environment / nature. It's so peaceful and takes me to another world. I'm not bothered about beating Ganon anytime soon!

i relate to so. SO much of what was said in this video. I am still young and I am not diagnosed, (but those around me are convinced that I have autism, so I hope to be diagnosed soon). these past few years, I was able to discover immense comfort and joy through the legend of zelda series where nothing else was able to make me feel this way, though I’ve been trying to cope with the hardships of my life through fiction for a while now. I really appreciate this video, because a great amount of it is exactly how I feel, too, and i’ve been able to discover more about myself through living this way.

I really relate with you on a lot of the things you talked about. You put a lot of things into words that I didn’t know how, especially with getting diagnosed. I seriously appreciate all your work and hope to thank you for everything you do

I have literally played 1500 hours of BoTW and ToTK with my autistic son since he was five. He's now 10. Watching how he navigated Hyrule; from the terrain, to the shrines, to the Divine Beasts; it's crazy to me how much he's grown.
My son felt the same way at first. He was like "Where do we go, what do we do?" I told him "Where ever we want, and whatever we want."
He struggled with the lack of linearity as well. But he grew to the point that he would seek out the NPC side quests, then spend two hours just hunting Lynols.
The bonding experience we have shared over these two games is part of his growth, but also, the problems the games presented, the frustration when things don't go his way, the challenges over hundreds of hours.... I know that was mostly it.
And his great teachers, and therapy, of course.
Great post...

i really resonated with a lot of the descriptions you gave during your time and struggles being undiagnosed. I'm still waiting for a diagnosis myself and now might be the perfect time to play totk for myself. Very cool video man :)

This video is so wonderful!!! Thank you for sharing your experience and feelings! Your story and my own are so close, and The Zelda franchise was my salvation too. For me it was OOT when I was a teen but I felt fear and anxiety facing no set path in BoTW, (but the ADHD in me ((yay for AuDHD)) was thrilled at ability to go and do side quests while I figured out how to go about what was needed next) and ToTK was just the glorious creation that BOTW was the play test for.
I’m so thrilled you have a diagnosis and found comfort in this beautiful game, because it makes sense to me! Thank you again for sharing this!

As someone who is trying to get a diagnosis (most places won’t take insurance), I’ve felt a deep connection to this series after my partner introduced me to it. I’ve watched every lore video, collected the books, items and anything else I can get. BotW was the first game I watched someone play and there’s just something about it that intrigued me.

for me, botw and totk have helped my autism’s rigidity ease up honestly. i also was used to the cut&dry formula of loz & have been since i was a child. i wasnt diagnosed until a few years ago as an adult though, & i also wasnt diagnosed when i started playing botw. the frustration with not being able to figure out what i’m supposed to do next, or watching someone else do something i did but a lot easier or more efficiently…it really helped me & my autism realize that not everything HAS to be so rigid. not everything has to be the same all the time, things can be done differently than how i do it if the end result is still the same. i obviously still struggle with this because autism doesn’t just go away because i had some realizations from a video game, but it’s truly helped me be more okay with the lack of rigidity & structure in the world. thank you for your video!!!

I relate too I discovered that I m autistic for about a year ago and I learned so much about myself and I m much nicer to myself I feel so much better and my social anxiety is way less now because I worked on removing the shame of being shy and trying to be perfect
I realised connecting with people doesn’t matter how it looks like in the outside, but I instead I connect with people differently in my own way without trying to be perfect cause I thought I had to improve myself in order to connect but that’s not true I just go for it and turns out people are really nice and understanding ❤
I don’t have to worry about not having something to say it’s ok to go and just say hi and bye and just talk about random stuff like what I m interested in

thank you so much for sharing this video, i have never related so much to someone else’s experience. botw was my first zelda game, and since then the franchise has become my most intense interest. i was also a “gifted” child, and have always struggled with isolation and have rarely had more than a few real friends. zelda has shown me that being alone is not always a bad thing, and to appreciate the beauty in the world around me. i really appreciate you sharing your story, and how your life has gotten better in recent years. as a senior in high school who is struggling a lot right now with many things you mentioned, your story gives me a lot of hope for the future!

2:20 feels so relatable to me right now.

I’m only halfway through the video, but I had to pause to make this comment. It is SO comforting hearing about your experiences with autism and how you approach games like BOTW. Thank you for being so transparent yet so interesting and entertaining during this video, I’m looking forward to watching more of your videos!! 💛

I can relate to almost everything you said, I just didn’t really play Legend of Zelda growing up (my childhood “safe” series was Pokémon). I wasn’t diagnosed with Autism yet when TOTK came out, but I was waiting for my assessment. I had already played BOTW, but hadn’t finished it for much of the same reasons you stated. I remember trying the demo for it in a GameStop and falling absolutely in love with it, and it was the game that convinced me to buy a Switch, but after getting off the Great Plateau, I felt my passion slowly drain away despite still thinking the game was a masterpiece. I powered through BOTW in the weeks up to TOTK release because I wanted to have the full narrative experience, but I wouldn’t say I felt much of anything. My strongest feelings from the game came from the first time I picked it up, playing the tutorial, and the one cutscene of Zelda praying at the Spring of Power. Her line “What’s wrong we me?” actually broke me and I think I cried. But throughout the remainder of my time playing it, I felt aimless. When TOTK came out, I was in a different phase of my life, kind of a recovery phase. I hadn’t even suspected Autism when BOTW released, and by the time TOTK came out, I had been doing self-research for a few years and was reorienting myself. However, I was still in a bad place mentally, and the changes made between games overwhelmed me. I experienced a dissonance in the setting and I couldn’t wrap my head around how I should use the new gameplay mechanics. The mechanics of BOTW were pretty straightforward, so the new ones just disoriented me. I finished one dungeon, and then just sort of stopped. Fast forward to after finally getting my diagnosis, I decide to start fresh in TOTK a few months back and I found that this time around the new gameplay mechanics actually really versatile and enjoyable, not as overwhelming as the first time. I could make weapons that suited my preferences, not just make do with what I stumbled upon! The game forces you to be creative because you can’t rely on the basic weapons BOTW had, and the more I tried out different combinations, the more fun I had. It was no longer what weapon will do the most damage or last the longest, it was what effect will serve me the best for specific situations. I still haven’t finished, mostly due to life prying my attention away from it, but I know when I get back to it I’ll have an enjoyable time.

This was a truly insightful video, thank you very much for writing it. As an autistic person myself, when I started getting much more strongly interested in Zelda, it was something so pure and untouched by the awfulness of the world. I could retreat at any point into the perfect, predictable, musical bubble of the games I loved so much, and ignore everything else. I took my ds lite, phantom hourglass and spirit tracks to mh treatment, and those really got me through. Other patients and staff saw my BotW poster and talked to me about the games. I kept a countdown to TotK. (It was actually mentioned when that doctor thought I was autistic- he said “I see you playing your game in that chair in the corner of the unit everyday, not talking to any people” ouch, called out, but he was right) I have found nothing to be as fascinating or fulfilling as Zelda and art. Something about Zelda lacks the sort of disappointment in other people that can occur when people in my life don’t care, or are abrasive or rude. It’s enough that I love it, others appreciate it too, even if they’re not near me. I’m so glad it exists.

So my mom passed away from cancer in 2020, Breath of the Wild had already been out for a long time, and I had already beaten it numerous times at that point... but I ended up going back to the game and I used it as a coping mechanism to deal with the grief that I had over the loss of my mom. Somehow, the lack of a sweeping overworld theme song, and the wide open world that was overtaken by nature put my mind at ease and helped calm my soul. And then coming across a character who trys to talk you down from jumping off a bridge... I don't think that Nintendo could have ever imagined that a simple, silly interaction like that could have actually had a meaningful impact on gamers, but it honestly felt like it was put in the game specifically for me for the purpose of helping me get though the most difficult time in my life. I wish I could share that directly with Nintendo, and thank them for the care they put into the games they make.

Honestly, I’m excited to hear someone had a similar experience to me with BoTW and ToTK. Everyone loved BoTW and claimed it was the best direction for the franchise, but for me, I felt like something was missing. I forced myself to finish the game, but never really fell in love with it.When ToTK came out, I felt similar to you. I found a comfort in Hyrule being set up the same, but with much more to explore. For me, the game was overall just better put together. I also felt a deeper connection to the characters than I did in BoTW. I was very recently diagnosed with autism and I’m still figuring out a lot of things about myself.

I was recently diagnosed and this is the first media I've watched where I felt seen. So much of your video resonated -- currently going through Baldur's Gate and feeling the way you did about BOTW. Thank you for making me feel like my experiences were normal, and that I was not/am not alone in those feelings.

It sometimes really is about the point in your life when you encounter games or an other piece of media. I've been a huge Zelda fan too, probably since I was 8 and played Ocarina of Time. Fast forward to 2017, where I got into a huge burn-out and even had to take a looong break from college. I was just overstimulated, migraines multiple times a week, chaos, stress and I was waaaay to strict. I always put school and study on the first place. But... I also didn't know I was autistic. So there we are, 2017, 26 years old and I just felt broken. Then march came and with that BotW! For me it clicked right away. I always assumed it was because well duh it is Zelda. But now that I think about it, the serene, be free, calm, focus on yourself aspects of the game were just what I needed at that time ❤ a wake-up call, to not always rush and go with the flow of my needs and curiousity. Makes me love the game even more now!! ❤

I adore that TOTK means so much to you. I love that you can see your growth and learning from 2017->, know that there's still work to be done, and appreciate where you are right now! I never grew up with Zelda apart from playing Twilight Princess once, so when I re-discovered it after having my first baby (and going through a rough few years), I really sunk into the whole world and lore. I played TOTK before ever playing BOTW (although I knew all about them both beforehand) so I haven't had the 'completely new botw experience' that many others harp on about. I've grown to appreciate my hyper-fixations without letting them overrun my day-to-day life (..... mostly). Thank you for sharing

I recently discovered your channel, and I just wanted to say I really love the personal style of videos you create. We, the audience, can feel your passion and love for all your favorite games and it makes for a joy to listen and watch. Much like you, I was a struggling teen at the time of BoTW’s release, and it wasn’t until January 2023 when I decided to finally complete the game just in time for Tears of the Kingdom. Our favorite stories stick with us forever and shape who we are, and IMO, they’re the highest form of art there is. Subscribed :)

although it’s never always been this way, over time majoras mask has become my favorite game ever. it’s so weird playing it, i’ll feel so many feelings that i cant even count, making me feel certain ways that other games just cant. and the magic never wears off, it happens every time i take the journey, helping everyone in termina. in a way, it’s sad for me to think about it but i’ve come to realize that to me, majoras mask is just like real life, and the more i grow up and replay it the more i become attached to it. every time i return to the game i always find someone whos in a situation i’ve dealt with, it’s extremely heart breaking and at the same time extremely heart warming when you help them succeed. it’s the only game that i always 100% (the 3ds ver def not the n64 version but i always collect all the masks just not the hearts) because i feel guilty when i dont help everyone. growing up ive come to realize that people are usually horrible, but games like majoras mask makes me realize everyone wants to be a hero and everyone wants to help others. we can be ruthless and cruel but deep inside we’re all loving and caring, and i think that its just beautiful and it always makes me hope for the best out of people

this resonated with me so much. i had the same experience with botw and struggling to let myself just exist. im in a really hard place rn in my own life in a similar way where im so obsessive about optimising things and not knowing how to just slow down. ive never seen someone describe their experiences with autism in such a similar way to my own struggles especially with the Wanting social part. this is an amazing video it resonates with me so much. just starting to get into playing totk for the first time rn and planning to push myself to slow down and not look everything up haha. hope your channel gets much more love because you deserve it this video is amazing.

fellow recently diagnosed autistic, it’s actually crazy how much i can see myself in the story you give here, botw came out when i was in high school and at a time when i was struggling a lot in school after having been told i was “gifted” for most of my life, i really enjoyed playing breath of the wild, but the lack of clear direction really scared me, and i ended up playing the game in a way that took from the experience of simply existing in the world and appreciating the beauty, i used guides like they were a checklist, and fought the same battles over and over again when i needed equipment. this comment is already long enough, so i’ll just finish by saying that i’m still learning, and it’s a difficult and slow process, i restarted therapy a few months ago, and even after starting medication for my adhd, i was torturing myself trying to stick with college, and ended up dropping out a couple weeks ago. i would like to revisit botw, and maybe get totk, thanks for reminding me of them.

When you get to TOTK and start speaking about your personal experience with autism, I related so heavily! When I got BOTW in 2019 I was misdiagnosed as bipolar, in a horrible relationship, and tbh just lost in the world. TOTK is super overwhelming for me and I still need guides but since i had the experience from BOTW, it gave me the confidence that I can do things in TOTK just like BOTW. When TOTK was released I was feeling way better about my life, in a better relationship, a better place to live, etc. I like that when I get pissed off fighting big bosses, I can just go to the forest and start collecting apples or mushrooms, or just help a korok reach his friend 😅

There's so much you articulate here that I never realized I related to until you said it out loud- forming opinions on media by absorbing other people's, struggling with self-direction/motivation, etc.
Thanks for making this

These videos are amazing, and touching. Keep it up!

I clicked on this video because I love legend of Zelda, and my friends have always joked that am autistic, so I thought it would be a fun watch
I didn’t expect to nearly cry. I really relate to all of the things you talked about in this video, I’ve never heard someone actually articulate how I feel on a day-to-day basis so well. Thank you so much for sharing, you might have just motivated me to get a diagnosis 😅

Amazing!!! 😭😭😭❤️ I have ADHD and I understand being overwhelmed from anxiety and the judgments from society. Zelda, Mario, Kirby, Nintendo in general has helped me find a world where I fit and where I’m not judged based on the way I think and handle situations. These games taught me problem-solving, how to manage time and prioritize while doing puzzles and side quests, and also how to believe in myself. Video games have improved my confidence and taught me how to trust myself and others. I love this video. Thank you so much for it. ❤️❤️❤️❤️
I’m really glad to hear you’re in a better place with everything. 🙏❤❤❤

I'm so impressed by the level of self-awareness and reflection you posses. I'm a 34-year-old autistic person with a late diagnosis and the way you describe your experience with BOTW is the exact same way I felt with different forms of art that challenged me in ways that I wasn't used to. Being an autistic kid is such a lonely path. I'm glad TOTK helped you adapt to the unexpected

Very relatable. I was in a good place, left a bad relationship, found a supportive boyfriend, was finally finishing my degree when Breath of the Wild came out and I loved that game as you did Tears of the Kingdom. I had been grappling without structure in my life for over half a decade by that point and realizing I can follow my own path, but overwhelmed by what to do. I do exactly what you do, everyday I have a list of tasks to do, prep food, clean this or that, work on fixing x, y, or z. Funnily enough a therapist who treated mainly adolescents with autism taught me to do that and she was very helpful in helping me sort some of my issues out and finally having some validation to my suspicion of autism.
I'm still struggling with stuff, I don't have a high social drive and motivation/initiation are hard especially since I have a sleep disorder, Narcolepsy, that makes everything harder due to fatigue. I have still pursued therapy and am in therapy right now to help me get to know myself better. So far it is helping me get in touch with my feelings due to having alexithymia and having childhood emotional neglect. Something to consider if you still find yourself struggling to understand yourself and what you want. It is a pain because not all therapist you click with, circumstances cause us to have to find another one and sometimes a therapist has given all they have to offer and we need something different.

I relate to this SO MUCH. As a fellow late diagnosis autistic I have and or still an experiencing so much of what you’re talking about. It’s such an isolating experience you genuinely believe you are entirely alone. Thanks for making this video and remind us we ain’t alone.
Also I freakin’ LOVE BOTW (havnt had a proper go at TOTK sadly 😂)

feeling so seen!! i got breath of the wild around four years ago, and was utterly overwhelmed by it including the constant breaking of weapons and stress that this caused. now that i have picked it back up, i feel much more connected with how i like to play games and the importance of taking things slow and accepting change - there will always be another weapon, another opportunity, around the corner. ❤

I have never felt more seen in a yt video. Any time I play through totk no matter how well I know th game makes it feel like just the first time playing and I learn to enjoy it more and more the more I play. The sentiment of life being an adventure and there's no wrong way to live it really resonates with me especially after playing through totk.

What a beautiful video thank you so much! I am currently in my journey of getting diagnosed with autism after getting diagnosed with adhd about a year ago and so many of the things you discussed here I relate to deeply and just the thought that not everything has to be this great epic adventure is such a nice thought to have. Thank you! ❤

As a person with AuDHD, this video made me tear up. My whole life, I've had difficulty understanding and expressing my emotions. When I'm asked how I feel, I just end up with default, simple responses like "I'm doing good," when in reality, I’m not. And when I do try, I just end up with scrambled, messy sentences that don’t make sense, leaving the other person looking at me like I’m dumb or stupid. Because how can I explain to someone how I’m feeling when I don’t even understand it myself?
But in just 12 minutes, you captured my emotions in a way I never could, and I feel a bit more seen and understood. I admire how you're able to put your emotions and experiences into words so perfectly. I hope that one day, I'll be able to express myself more clearly, like you do.

ive grown up with the games, i havent gotten my autism diagnosis yet (but i have another npf diagnosis and are doing an evaluation) and ive very recently started to come to terms with the fact im most likely autistic. ive also always wondered why these games had such a hold on me bc i didnt know what special interests and hyperfixations were. even though ive taken a break from playing i still buy everything zelda related i can find. i have such a hard time with botw bc its so unlike the other games and i really cant handle changes but i still play it bc deep down its related to something i love. idk where im going with this i just got excited hearing someone similar to me share their experiances! great video!

Wow thank you for sharing. I’m coming to terms that I’m not able to do as much as others because of being neurodivergent. I really appreciate the time you put into making this, and it couldn’t have come at a better time with totk becoming my special interest again.
I’m so happy to know that there are other people that experience the same types of things as me.
God bless my friend :D

This video perfectly describes my experience. Breath of the Wild terrified me at first for the same exact reason. I'd get overwhelmed and then shut down. It broke my heart to have so much anxiety about a franchise I've been obsessed with since the 90s. I've had a few therapy breakthroughs and am almost ready to beat BOTW for the very first time. I just freed the last divine beast! I was anxious about TOTK, but this video gives me so much hope. Thank you!

The bit you said about not knowing what to think of a movie until you read enough or other people's perspectives really hit me hard. I'm the same way most of the time. Glad to know I'm not alone.

Oh my god hearing your story made me feel less alone. Went from "smartest" kid in the class to a straight F student, and always felt that same isolation. I also struggled with BOTW when I first picked it up; for me there was just so much content that I was so overwhelmed. I didn't necessarily need linearity, I was okay doing things randomly. But I felt really overwhelmed just knowing how much there was. I'm a completionist, I like getting games 100% done, and to do that with BOTW I had to do a lot more lol.
So much of what you're saying is just so heavily relatable, down to the loneliness and difficulty connecting and getting out and socializing. I feel heard and seen.
This content is so so important for me and so many other autistic people, I think. Please never stop speaking on your experiences, it makes so many of us feel much less alone.

I’ve never met someone who felt this way about being autistic before. Thank you for this. Mostly the need for deeper social connection and wanting to fit in. Just thank you.
ALSO YES I AGREE OPEN WORLDS ARE ANNOYING! I hated subnautica a few years ago. But I absolutely loved TotK and took forever to play BotW.

Tears of the Kingdom has been my ultimate special interest. I knew I had ADHD already but I began picking apart myself and questioning if I was autistic the year before TOTK was released. I heavily related to your story here! TOTK has allowed me to accept that I have special interests and actually deep dive into them. I struggled with allowing myself to be hyper fixated on things I loved because it wasn’t socially acceptable or it was seen as weird. I’ve been on an unmasking journey over the last couple years and have been working on being able to fully accept who I am as an autistic person and the things I love and am obsessed with. I felt so heard watching this video! Thank you for sharing!!!!

I think this is the first time I've heard someone talk about this struggle. Whenever I play a game I always think about what the "right" way to play is, like how the developers thought it would/should be played. I know that you're supposed to play games however you want, but that's the way I want to play, the "right" way. And nobody I ever talked to has understood how I feel. Thank you.
And I'm so afraid I'll miss something that I almost always open a guide at some point of the playthrough, then I want to do everything exactly like the guide says, and lose motivation after a couple days, especially if there's an interactive minimap.
I gotta say though, I'm still completely overwhelmed by the sheer possibilities in totk, especially the building/engineering parts - that's why I never finished it, but perhaps now's the time to give it another try :)

I really appreciated hearing about your experiences in life and with Zelda :)
Breath of the Wild, which I played first in 2023 after several years of turbulent mental health and learning about myself, was my first “controller” game (my first game where you have to control the camera and the actions of a character at the same time)- so Link’s time on the Great Plateau was also me learning how to do many video game things! I probably put 15 hours just in that area, and it was so wonderful. Just the fact that there are so many different insects and animals with lovingly programmed unique behavior patterns… the way the light changes throughout the day… It really felt the way spending time in the woods alone felt as a kid: this big, strange, beautiful world is my friend.

This hits hard, a lot of the circumstances you found yourself in I myself can relate to especially with 2017 being a dark time and my feelings towards BOTW at that time. I'm glad you were able to learn more about yourself over time and come to grasps with your uniqueness, working on yourself and becoming a better version of you. I'm glad to hear TOTK helped you significantly :)

I fully expect any youtube video about video games and autism to be at minimum 4 hours long.

The feeling of passing the control to my brother after my ten minutes of struggling to defeat a shine only for him to solve it in 2 minutes was just pure FRUSTRATION for me. But when tears of the kingdom came out, it showed me multiple ways to solve a puzzle and I loved it! Although both games are open world, I feel that TOTK just had better experience in true creativity, and it’s awesome! Thank you for sharing your opinions as well, I loved this video!

Great great video.
I’m an older person (old enough to say I started playing Zelda on NES) and hearing you describe your personal relationship with the game was incredible and I relate in many ways. I definitely had those same exact feelings as a kid and young adult but well before we today’s understanding of mental health. I agree that the freedom of the newer games is far beyond what I could’ve imagined in the 80-90’s. I think your growth and understanding of the game is tied to your experience and understanding of life. As a young adult you have a better understanding of taking full control of your experience whereas when you are young, the direction of your life is guided by the adults. This is something I’m teaching my kids as they get into BotW and I tell them there’s no true right way to go, but rather choices, consequences, and experience. I think games like Zelda better prepare kids for dealing with adulthood. Now as a grown man, I just play for fun. Even my dad in his 60’s still likes to play then new Zelda games.

Zelda has been such an important thing for me in my autism journey as well. I'm currently "self diagnosed," mostly just due to the insanely high costs of getting a diagnosis in the US as an adult. BOTW came out the year my oldest kid was born, and I didn't really get in to it. I played it, but only got through 2 Devine beasts and life made it so I couldn't continue. Covid meant that I had time to complete the game finally, and I fell in LOVE. Once I had that time to really just take it all in and take my time on every task, I understood the joys of "new Zelda." Around the end of 2020 I started to really get into the Zelda community to get more information on the upcoming Age of Calamity game. Then I started to get into the lore and history and made a goal to 100% every game (I only have the two 4 swords games left). So many people were talking about how much Zelda fantasism and autism often go hand-in-hand. That was my first foray into some self reflection about myself and autism. I was ADAMANT that I wasn't for a few months until I started to truly begin to understand what autism is. I've been waiting to watch this video since the day it came out until I could sit and watch it uninterrupted, and I'm so glad I did. Thank you so much for sharing your story. I've never felt more seen and understood in society than I have with the Zelda community and I really appreciate the insights and hearing a story which so accurately reflects my own!

I started crying watching the video. I clicked on it not really thinking about anything. And felt like I was watching into the mirror. Everything you said about your feelings, your life experience is exactly what was happening to me and how I was feeling all my life. I was never diagnosed. I knew I am neurodivergent, but I didn't thought that I might be autistic. And I started crying while understanding I wasn't the only person like that. Everything in this video is me, but unlike you I am still in my BOTW stage. I am litteraly trying to play it right now with tutorials. I hope one day I'll find peace with myself just like you did. Thank you

Ok yeah, whenever someone asks me how it's like, I'll send them this. I've been a lifelong Zelda fan, and I tend to get sucked into whatever I play, sinking hours into it. When Elden Ring came out, my grades had a noticeable drop, and I had gotten in 100 hours in the first month.
I was officially diagnosed in October 2024 with AuDHD, Anxiety, and Depression. I grew up being in gifted classes, but slipped a ton during middle/high school. I'm about to end my sophomore year of college. I've always had a hard time making friends, but not because I didn't want to, but because I didn't know how to relate.
I think the only thing I don't relate to in this video is the fact you have a girlfriend, but I'm probably Ace, so who cares.

i first played botw on my brother's switch right at the start of the pandemic, and i think i didn't have the mental space to appreciate its different approach at the time when life was already changing so much, i never finished that playthrough and i didn't really care that much. but in 2022 two of my family members got really sick, and after one of them passed away, a person who had been really important to my childhood, i felt this desperate need to go back to being a kid again. i basically played through every zelda game i owned bc those were a huge part of my childhood, and i finished them right as botw went on sale after the first trailer of totk came out. so i bought it, and i played it, and it was beautiful and heartbreaking bc it felt so similar to how i was feeling. all alone in a world that was broken by a terrible being, that still loomed over my head. i finished it right before totk released, and then started that game right as my sick relative had surgery and started recovering from their illness. i spent months on it, all through summer vacation as we all recovered from everything that happened that year. even tho sadly my relative's illness has since returned (ironically again very similar to totk's narrative of a rebuilding world falling into ruin again), i will never forget the solace i got from botw, and the immense joy and relief i felt playing totk. they mean an awful lot to me, as does the whole franchise

Thank you for your video, it was very helpful for me. My son has autism and he loves Zelda. He has not played Breath of the wild or Tears of the kingdom yet, but I am sure he would love those games.
Personally I had the exact opposite of what you describe. I loved BOTW and ever since the first rumors for TOTK came to RUclips I was looking forward to that game. I bought it on the first day, but did not play it a lot the first year. Because I was so stressed with all kinds of other things the game was simply too overwhelming for me. There were too many options and not really a clear path where to go. Instead of TOTK I started playing Link's Awakening again, which I really enjoyed. After a while I gave TOTK another chance and now I love it and I have put quite some hours in it.

i just finished the video and it was great! it was so cool to hear about someone elses experience with this really specific thing..
for me it was almost the opposite, botw was my first zelda game and it felt so, i guess, magical? to me that it honestly changed my life and set me on a different path. it was a pretty traumatic time for me but i found that link became a huge comfort character for me that helped me through it all, and zelda in general. its been my special interest ever since and i dont think i could ever lose my love for it. im a teenager now who’s not always very mentally well lol and due to that i still havent finished totk, but despite that zelda and especially link still continues to pull me through.
great video once again ^^

Not me clicking on this video fully expecting a breakdown celebrating the wonderful character of Link, and instead finding an equally wonderful self-reflection. I aspire to find this level of inner peace over the way my mind works, and you've given me some introspection that brings me some calm today :)

I relate so much to that feeling of feeling lost. Even though I eventually beat BotW, I didn't connect to it like everyone else did. Speaking as an autistic as well, Zelda has always been a comfort game for me partially due to the linearity and the familiarity of the series, so when BotW broke all of that I felt frustrated by it. I still haven't beaten TotK for that reason, but after beating BotW and knowing that I am autistic (I didn't know during BotW), I am waiting for myself to feel ready to play TotK because while I do like it, it still feels intimidating to me.
Thank you for this video!

Wow, I resonate with this so much. Although somewhat older at 35 on that same journey currently following:
My divorce
Healing from that while living alone for the first time.
Raising my diagnosed autistic son, currently 8yo. He is my purpose 🥲
Going through the diagnostic process for Autism, but everyone knows it.
But LoZ has always been a therapeutic part of my life since OoT on the N64.
And TOTK has been a massively therapeutic game that came at the time I needed it... Bought it for my son too, but he struggles with the non-liniarity. But helping him with it 🙂 his first game like this was FFXV that we played since he was 5yo. Definitely a deep game for a child that young, but the companionship in that is noteworthy and warming, also with deep sadness, I feel that helped him as me and his mum separated, while the world was locked down, as he explored while I assisted when needed.
But on my experience, TOTK gave me a safe space, with rules and safe creativity.
My strong indicator of my autism has been my sound sensitivity, especially people eating.... Or being unable to escape such situations to regulate myself... Currently in a stage of social withdrawal while I pour myself into my work when my son is in education or at his mother's. But TOTK is an amazing safe space 😊

My brother has autism, so I thought I already had a pretty good understanding of it, but this video just made me understand autism so much better, I only have ADHD (he has it too) and Zelda has just captured me the second I picked up my first Zelda game (Skyward sword), it was just unexplainable, just so capturing, that continued with every other Zelda game I picked up, but when I played Breath of the Wild, I just had a feeling that my brother would love it, I tried to convince him to try it, until tears of the kingdom came out, the game strengthened my theory even more, so I tried to convince him to play that gam, I haven’t convinced him just jet, but your video basically confirmed my theory, so even if my theory turns out to be wrong, I now have a much deeper understanding of autism, so that I can recommend him other games to play, thank you so much!

this is something that No Man's Sky has been saying to me for years... the line about "Existence can be beautiful if you let it, life is not a question, there does not need to be an answer"
this video says it a bit more in-depth:
"It really is enough to simply exist sometimes. To notice. To learn about yourself and how you can cope better, moving forward. To learn about the world, and the people and things you love in it. Life doesn't have to be an epic, not for everyone. It's an adventure regardless, and it's enough simply walking that path. Not everyone has to run it."
thanks for putting Midna's lament at the end, that was very sweet. Twilight Princess got that shadowy darkness feel to it that pleases me.
I've always been telling my friends, "Darkness and exploration are my two strengths" because I am 40 years old (as of yesterday) and I used to play rpgs like Final Fantasy 4 where Cecil Harvey has to explore his darkness.

This video is so validating. I was also undiagnosed, extremely anxious, and sad when I first played breath of the wild. I was sick, all of my once deep friendships were failing, and everything I knew was changing. Different to your experience though, it became my escape and my special interest. I related to Link so deeply, and the music in the game meant a lot to me. The connections between the characters and the storyline in general was really meaningful to me. The lack of linearity was frustrating at times, but I loved being rewarded for exploring every area I could possibly find. I wanted to walk around and see every single thing the game had to offer. That's what I loved so much about it. Funny enough, tears of the kingdom is a bit more overwhelming to me in terms of just how big the game is, BUT it's still my second favorite game, and I adore it so so much.
From one autistic Zelda fan to another, I hear you, and I'm so happy you're doing better now than you were when it came out.
Zelda makes autism go crazy and I wouldn't have it any other way :)

I bought BotW as one of my first games on Switch, and was in a similar situation as yours. I lived most of my life trying to figure out what was "wrong" with me and find a way to change it, but it was simply impossible and led me to a really hard time dealing with mental illness.
I remember feeling overwhelmed by the lack of rules that the game has, and just couldn't enjoy it at all, so I stopped without exploring much of the story. Then, after around 2 years, I started seeing a therapist and going to especialized doctors, and the diagnosis came: AUTISM!
Everything clicked for me, things started to make sense and I started this journey of getting to know my real self, since I masked nearly 24/7.
Last October I decided to pick BotW again, and it was a truly wonderful experience. I'm still playing it, finding treasure chests, discovering locations, doing side quests, etc... I could find joy in playing a game from my favorite franchise again!
Just wanted to share my story here, your videos are great btw! :D

I'm a huge fan of both games also and have never thought of it in those terms. I completely understand what you are saying about struggling with the lack of linearity. I struggle with that also and in life and I am not autistic as far as I know. The game is a great analogy for life and how people approach it. It holds great lessons that can be applied. Thanks for sharing. I guess I need to finish my third play through of BOTW and start my third of TOTK. Each time is unique and feels like experimenting with a different life.

me personally, i loved the games because when i first picked them up, i was able to find the freedom in doing things how i wanted to and how i wanted to play it was “walk in a straight line”. i play the game in pretty much the exact same order i do from when i first played, but the game still leaves room for me to break away from that and look around. it also helped that i related to link, a quiet, short, and mostly emotionless boy who is trying to find himself from clues left behind in a desolate world. my world often feels desolate and at the age i was playing it (like, 15) i was trying to find myself too. it just felt like the world of hyrule was everything i needed from real life that real life wasnt giving me. these pairs of games are honestly life changing for me.

what you said about going from being told you were gifted your whole life to watching your grades slip away struck a chord with me as the same thing happened with me in my last two years of university. i don’t have an official diagnosis, but i’ve suspected that i have adhd and/or autism for a few years now (despite my psychiatrist not thinking so). i can imagine the leap from gifted teenager to depressed autistic adult wasn’t any easier for you than it has been for me, but regardless i’m glad to have found someone else like me through a random video on my recommended page.
this has been a hell of a ramble but yeah keep up the good work friend 💖🫡