Six months after its release date, and more than 75 hours of gameplay later, I finally finished the main story quests for Tears of the Kingdom (TotK). I was not in any hurry to finish this game. In fact, I stalled a bit on the final main quests Crisis at Hyrule Castle and Defeating Ganon. The reason was because I was scared. One of the aspects of TotK and Breath of the Wild (BotW) that I love is that the games give a true sense of adventure. The path to the Wind Temple, climbing higher and higher into the sky with its sense of isolation feels like you are on a true journey. The Crisis at Hyrule Castle turned out not to be as difficult as I thought. It was a great way to explore the castle, however, because unlike BotW, Ganon is not in the castle in TotK. The Defeating Ganon quest involves exactly what the title implies, only you have to find him first and the game doesn't really give you any hints. Turns out he is hiding right in front of you the entire time.
At the beginning of the game, Link and Zelda go into a cavern beneath Hyrule Castle to explore the disruption known as The Upheaval. The Upheaval causes chunks of land to rise to the sky, forming islands above Hyrule and lifts Hyrule Castle into the sky. From the chasms where the land has risen seeps gloom, a deadly substance. While exploring, Zelda falls into a chasm and disappears, and Link has his hand ripped from his body by a mummy-like enemy. Link awakens on one of the islands floating above Hyrule. The Upheaval completely changes the landscape of Hyrule, and the game begins. It turns out that Ganon is within the chasm created when Hyrule Castle lifted into the air, the same place he was at the very beginning of the game.
The journey to get to Ganon is absolutely epic. You dive deep into the chasm below Hyrule Castle. The path is littered with gloom and enemies. Gloom not only hurts you when you come into contact with it, it removes a heart as well, decreasing your total health. This is why I was scared to start this particular quest. I knew I couldn't just go on this journey without preparing. I had to get plenty of meals to not only restore hearts, but also to restore my total hearts after I came into contact with gloom. At the end of the path you reach a large room where you have to face Ganon's army, which consists of four rounds of enemies. This path takes about 20 minutes to complete, and along the way there are no fast travel locations (shrines), no save points beyond auto save, and no way to restock your supplies. You better come prepared, because there are plenty of opportunities to get injured and lose hearts to gloom.
Once you finally get to Ganon, the battle is absolutely epic as well. There are four rounds to the battle, with the fourth round taking place in the sky as Ganon is transformed into Demon Dragon. The battle is tough. I died probably 15 times, despite my numerous meals prepared by Elle. The four rounds are psychologically tough, because once his health bar is depleted, you think you've defeated him, just for him to transform into a different version of himself. I had 5 or 6 shields going into the battle, including the Hylian Shield, the toughest in the game, and by the end of the battle I was down to one shield that was nearly broken because of all the blocking of Ganon's attacks. I thought I was well prepared, but by the end of the battle I was absolutely on fumes, with low hearts and very few supplies remaining.
Through a separate main quest (that is somehow optional), you learn that in the past Zelda transforms herself into a dragon in order to deliver the Master Sword to future Link to aid in his adventure to defeat Ganon. In the final stage of the battle, Ganon transforms into a dragon, and with the help of Zelda's dragon form, you defeat Ganon in the sky above Hyrule. The entire quest to get to Ganon and the battle that follows is absolutely mega (to quote Zac Brown). It is definitely one of the more memorable battles against Ganon in the Legend of Zelda series.
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