This article contains minor spoilers for dungeons, broad plot developments and one major quest location in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
My visit to Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom's Forgotten Temple began auspiciously with the tragi-comic death of my horse, Dennis. I was peering into a deep canyon north-west of Hyrule Castle, trying to work out the precise elevation of the quest waypoint on my minimap, when Dennis came charging across the grasslands and went right over the cliff, disappearing into the murk without a sound.
I plunged after him, fanning my glider a few feet from the bottom, and caught up with my valiant steed's crumpled body just as it despawned. Not in a cloud of purple smoke, as with defeated enemies - that touch of pantomime which stops Zelda's fights feeling like slaughter. My dead horse just vanished, deleted from the simulation. I felt like I'd crossed a boundary of some kind. Looking up from the space where Dennis no longer was, I found myself on a huge expanse of sandstone, cut into long blocks and raised circular designs.