You might assume that two years post-launch since Tears of the Kingdom debuted, enthusiasts would have run out of novel self-imposed challenges that apply unique restrictions on a playthrough. Yet, while numerous gamers have tried to complete the game using just a stick, content creator the streamer holds the record as the individual who aimed to clear the game with a single branch—meaning, the very same one from start to finish.
PointCrow is renowned for such difficult playthroughs, like the instance he went through the title solely with bombs or the attempt where he tried to defeat the game with no stamina. A single stick playthrough, however, sounds impossible at face value. There's the opening sequence, which requires the hero to use the legendary blade. Additionally, there's the whole weapon wear system, which is especially important when dealing with the weakest tool in the entire world. Yet if the branch shatters, that's it. Game over.
So, How?
How did he do it? The straightforward explanation is glitches. The complete answer, believe it or not, is parallel universes. It turns out, you can tweak the game's saving mechanism to have distinct playthroughs that affect one another. So the creator creates a “setup” save where he advances standardly, and the real save, where he's restricted. The setup save has him going through the intro and initial starting area, and this character gains maximum endurance and hearts. From here, he triggers a cinematic and halts midway through to tell the software to load an auto-save from the stick file. The game gets mixed up and creates a third game file that combines the conditions of the first two files.
This causes fresh issues, though. The merged file has a protagonist that did not obtain the ability to access shrines. Luckily, this is something that the save glitch fixes readily, but pulling it off means depending on an buggy version of the title that refuses to load certain locations. Like other obstacles, he has a technical solution for it: He starts Tears of the Kingdom on its pre-release version 1.0, and then patches the software partway through to ensure it starts working properly.
Bypassing Weapon Wear and Additional Hurdles
Curiously, the introductory version of the hero is coded so that he is unable to break any tools he uses, likely to avoid a situation where the player gets stuck at the beginning of the game. But that's additionally how PointCrow bypasses the wear problem, as the Link he pulls across universes is the one from the beginning of the game. It's a clever technique, but not one that eradicates all possible difficulty. The branch is nonetheless a weak weapon that renders encounters tedious. But at that stage, it's entirely a matter of grit and dedication. It also helps that there's a duplication glitch that gives him an plentiful supply of consumables to boost his strength, or accumulate on revival fairies. He additionally employs a bug that allows Link to phase through the world. A few would consider these methods reason to question the validity of the run, but in my mind, he's a inventive player who is ready to do anything necessary to entertain his viewer. He further uses a safeguard of sorts stating that, for each fairy he employs, he'll remove one fan from his live stream, establishing an incentive to avoid depend too much on them.
Major Battles and the Last Encounter
The streamer manages to get through several of the game's bosses, but the battles look grueling. The YouTube edit of his quest doesn't make the audience endure the entire fights, which is a good thing when a few of them last multiple hours. One boss fight, Queen Gibdo, requires an astonishing twenty-three straight. The Ganondorf battle, which erases the hero's hearts as it unfolds, is a notable nail-biter. The unbreakable branch is still just a piece of wood. He is unable to always clone objects during the fight.
So, is it possible? Technically, PointCrow manages to defeat the beast form of Ganon. But the game compels the player to use the Master Sword as the final strike, so technically, it's not fully a branch-exclusive playthrough. But what fun is that?
In the end, the streamer removed over a thousand people in his Twitch chat. Rest in peace.
