So whats up with the titular waking cloak any

So what’s up with the titular Waking Cloak? Any cool abilities or nifty magic it can perform?

Yes indeed! :D

So some backstory (because I’m a bit long-winded and hopefully someone finds this interesting, lol, but if not, just scroll down to the bold text):

The Waking Cloak–the game, not the item–was inspired initially when I saw my brother playing Oracle of Seasons. When I saw him playing it, all that nostalgia came rushing back (the GameBoy Zeldas are my favorite). I looked at him, probably with crazy person eyes, and said, “We have to make a game.”

We did a fair bit of brainstorming. I loved the Zelda idea of “switching” between game worlds–Dark and Light world for LttP, Past and Present for OoA, Child and Adult for OoT, Seasons for OoS… you get the picture. They provide a lot of opportunities for puzzles and lore and require you to think a bit. Tides was one suggestion for our game, as was treetops/forest floor, as was day/night.

Another fun fact is that there were originally going to be three Oracle games. The third one never got made. So:

• Oracle of Ages - Past/Present - Nayru - Puzzle focus
• Oracle of Seasons - Seasons - Din - Action focus
• Oracle of ??? - ??? - Farore - ??? focus
  

Notice how Ages and Seasons are both measures of time… so my brother and I were both on board with day/night being the strongest of the suggestions so far (and besides… tides are part of the cycle of the moon, so that was just one of the concepts we could include for puzzle gameplay if we went with day/night). In other words, The Waking Cloak would be a spiritual successor, the third Oracle game that never got made. My semi-secret name for it is Oracle of Days. Also, this kind of plays into The Waking Cloak’s focus–if OoA was mainly puzzles, OoS was mainly action, what would be a third core of Zelda games? My submission is “exploration”. It would still have plenty of puzzles and action, obviously, but the main focus would be finding all kinds of secrets in a deeply interwoven world. Essentially:

• Oracle of Days - Day/Night - ??? - Exploration focus
  

deep breath So back to your question. The Waking Cloak is just like the Harp of Ages or the Rod of Seasons. It’s used to “wake up” from the mysterious night that won’t go away. In gameplay terms, you’ll use it to warp between day and night, as there won’t be a normal day night cycle due to story reasons. You’ll solve puzzles–some places might only open up at night, or people might only be out during the day, or you might need to access something that’s only available during the night but must be unlocked during the day, or there might be dungeons that are completely different in the day than in the night… you get the idea.

Mechanically, I’m thinking the Waking Cloak will work more like the Harp of Ages. Initially, you’ll only be able to switch between day and night in certain places, but as you level up the cloak, it will eventually allow you to switch anywhere you want.

….and maybe this will give ya’ll hints on some of the the themes of the story as well. :)