Someone playing The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom noticed an interesting detail about Korok balloons: the bullseye always faces Link. Like Breath of the Wild before it, Tears of the Kingdom litters its map with literally hundreds of cute little creatures called Koroks that, when either found or their puzzles are solved, provide Link with a useful Korok seed.
There are several different varieties of Korok puzzles in Tears of the Kingdom. Some require Link to use the buoyancy of a large cork to unplug a hole that hides a Korok, some are simple 3D jigsaw puzzles, and some are even simpler by requiring nothing more than the lifting of a rock. The purpose of it all is to collect a Korok seed, which Link can later give to a very large Korok named Hestu in exchange for expanded weapon, shield, and bow inventory slots, which come in handy as enemies become more difficult as the game progresses.
One of the ways to collect the many Korok seeds in Hyrule is with Korok balloon challenges. While exploring Hyrule, Link will occasionally stumble upon small brown and orange pinwheels, usually on tree stumps in forests. When Link activates the wheel, a series of balloons painted with bullseyes will spring up somewhere nearby. Link must shoot all the balloons with an arrow to reveal the Korok and obtain its seed. Some of the balloons will move to make it more of a challenge. What a Reddit user named RaccoonAcrobatic6194 noticed is that some Korok balloons will rotate so that their bullseye is always facing Link, no matter where he moves around it.
It’s subtle, so some players may not even realize it’s happening, while others may sense that they’re being watched. While there is no in-universe reason for the movement, Koroks are playful little scamps who want to be found. Given the persistently impish disposition Koroks maintain even while being tortured, of course, they would make the bullseye follow Link. Hyrule is a massive opportunity to play a giant game of hide-n-seek, a game where the fun doesn’t truly begin until the person hiding is discovered.
Of course, there’s a more practical reason for the movement that’s rooted in simple game design theory; it just makes them easier to spot. Hyrule is a visually dense landscape with a lot of information for players to take in. If a player is walking by a tree that has a balloon nestled within its branches, they might not catch the blue and red bullseye as they walk past before missing it entirely when the bullseye gives way to the balloon’s beige base color. By moving the balloons in lockstep with the player, Tears of the Kingdom’s development team ensured they were giving players every chance possible to spot the Korok puzzles they hid in plain sight.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is available for the Nintendo Switch.
