Follow-up of a similar project I had done for BotW "back in the day" ;)
What has changed in the locations from Zelda's pictures / the memory flashback scenes? I have 3 comparison pictures for each location, one from Zelda's time (the pictures on the Sheikah Slate), one from Link's time (gameplay in BotW) and one from the time of the Upheaval (TotK)
For the BotW version, I was able to more or less recreate the pics in a recognizable manner including the right weather conditions and time of day/night so that the shadows align in the same way, but this was sadly no longer possible in TotK as the devs flipped the sun's path. In BotW, it goes East - North - West while in TotK it goes East - South - West instead.
During any of the daytime pictures, the shadows will point in the opposite direction as in the original pictures. There is no longer an overlap where the shadows would be perfectly identical.
(original compass credit: wikimedia commons, JamesLucas[^1] and edited by myself) [^1]: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Compass-rose-32-pt.svg
With that being said, some locations still haven't changed at all, especially the ones with pictures that were taken at night (so the shadows don't matter anway).
For bigger pictures, open them in a new tab/window:
1. Sacred Grounds / Lookout Landing
...this however is a location that has changed drastically. While in BotW, the only noticable changes were the broken pillars and the ominously gloomy castle in the background, the place is barely recognizable in TotK. If it hadn't been for the pillars and the Triforce emblem, there wouldn't have been similarities. The castle is hovering now, the forest is gone, buildings have appeared and even the name itself has changed, from "Sacred Grounds" to "Lookout Landing".
2. Lake Kolomo
The ruins of the garrison are identical in all pictures - noone tried to rebuild the garrison, but it didn't fall apart further either. If you know what kind of creature lurks there in TotK, you might know WHY they didn't send any builders there ... or maybe they did, and the builders just never returned.
And yes, that is a Korok puzzle rock.
3. Ancient Columns
The differences are solely background items here. and the shadows of course, as mentioned in the intro text. Notable changes between Zelda's and Link's picture are the Sheikah Tower (not present in Zelda's time) and the fact that the shrine is now in standby mode instead of turned off (no glow VS orange glow).
In TotK then, both of them are gone completely and so is Vah Medoh. The perpetual thunderstorm in Hebra will be there until you've cleared the Rito questline.
Other than that, there are floating islands now, but you can say that about almost all pictures here anyway ;)
4. Kara Kara Bazaar
Basically no changes at all between Zelda's and Link's picture. In the Upheaval time tho, the water levels in the oasis are noticably lower than before and the barricades and structure atop the arrow shop stick out like a sore thumb. At least the water levels go back to normal after clearing the Gerudo questline, but the other changes are here to stay.
And like the Lake Kolomo picture, the palm trees are also still completely identical. No offshoots grew, no old tree withered, nothing. From a meta perspective it makes sense to not change too much (the pictures have to be easily recognizable and TBH it is a lot of work to change plant growth instead of just copypasting the area) but from an in-game perspective it is just plain weird to see that these things haven't changed at all in a whole century.
5. Eldin Canyon
The murky thing down there is the Military Training Ground. In Zelda's time there seems to have been clear water (the sun reflects in it) while in Link's time it was already a muddy mess (no reflection) and in the Upheaval it got worse (now the Lost Woods are dark and murky too).
I couldn't get the heigth right for this pic as it is very hard to build a sufficiently high tower of crates with Magnesis alone, and even harder to then actually climb it without it toppling over for the umpteenth time, but since TotK has Ultrahand, Hoverstones, Ascend and the ability to bring your own platforms to stand on via Autobuild (or just more Zonai devices), this problem was a lot easier to solve in the sequel.
6. Irch Plain
In-game, the picture and location are just called "Hyrule Field" despite not being in Central Hyrule and having an actual name on the in-game map. I am unsure whether this is an oversight or the devs might have wanted to not make the location too obvious by spoiling its name.
Again, there is no plant growth, the tree and the bush are the same ... and the lack of little flowers in "my" pictures is due to the fact that I had to mow a part of the meadow because the camera angle is so low to the ground that you'd otherwise just see the grass and not much else, like you're lying face-down in a field.
7. West Necluda
This tree is just a bit west of the Deya Village ruins, atop the hill. And again, the tree didn't grow or wither at all within the last century. The bridge is also still in the same state of disrepair, but this time, there is an understandable in-game reason for it: during Link's time, there were barely any Hylians left save for a handful of villages, and repairing something as huge as this bridge requires a LOT of workers, tools and materials. Someone has to chisel big enough stones for the missing parts, transport them through a Guardian-infested Hyrule to the bridge, set them into the right place, all with the added logistics of feeding and housing the workers while they're in the area and having to build, operate and maintain a big enough crane ... not exactly a top priority when there are barely enough villagers to work the fields.
In TotK the population might be bigger and with the availiable Zonai devices, moving huge stone slabs around wouldn't be that big of an issue, but now there is this three-headed jerk camping smack in the middle of the bridge, and noone wants to go chase it off when all they have is pitchforks and rusty halberds.
I also took the liberty of taking a pic during good weather conditions ... in Zelda's picture it was raining, and I tried to recreate that weather effect in BotW, but you can barely see any details then, so whatever.
8. Hyrule Castle
Since the weird permanent malice effect from BotW is gone now, the area looks a little closer to Zelda's time, tho the castle walls are still broken as noone had rebuild anything here yet. And there are still monsters, malice/gloom particles floating around and debris scattered everywhere.
Not much has changed about this place, apart from the fact that the entire castle is now floating, but you can't really make that out that from this picture alone.
9. Spring of Power
Basically no changes at all, at least regarding the landscape. The only differences are that, in Zelda's pic, nothing is glowing, while in Link's picture both the statue of the Goddess and the memory location spot are shining brightly, and in TotK the memory spot is gone but the statue is still enveloped in light.
10. Sanidin Park Ruins
Despite looking pretty clean and well-maintained, this area has been called "ruins" from the very beginning for whatever reason. The second picture has a noticably different camera angle because I simply wasn't able to reach the correct spot for the picture, as this would have required Link to float twenty feet up in the air six feet behind the parapet, and good luck trying to get there when all you have is Magnesis and a couple seconds of Stasis.
In TotK, this was lo longer a problem thanks to the various new features offering more mobility, so the third pic has the "right" camera angle again. Apart from that, barely anything has changed here.
11. Lanayru Road East Gate
No visible changes between the first and second picture, but that's because I hadn't freed Naydra yet. Comlpeting that quest removes the huge cloud from the mountaintop permanently, which is likely the reason it is just gone in TotK as Naydra is "clean" right from the start then.
There's also now a Skyview Tower up there that the player would otherwise not have been able to see properly, which is a tad inconvenient when those towers are the only things that can unlock the map.
12. Nameless Forest
It really doesn't have a name, whether on the picture itself (it's just called Central Hyrule) nor on the in-game map, which is a tad weird when you consider that this forest has the last and most important memory location in it. There are also a lot of noticably smaller, way less important places that do have names (like every single bridge even if it is just 5 feet long and smack in the middle of nowhere) and the forest isn't exactly small either.
As for actual changes here .... none. None at all. Even the dang ferns are still in the same spots and each individual leaf is still in the exact same place as 100+ years prior. The only unique thing here is the glowing memory location spot, but that disappears from BotW once you interacted with it, and it isn't present in TotK in the first place.
13. Ash Swamp
The first isn't an actual picture but instead a painting hanging in Impa's abode in Kakariko. I guess she asked a painter (Pikango,maybe?) to create that picture way after Link was already put into the Shrine of Resurrection, but before he awoke - because the dead Guardians are already present and look like they have been sitting in that field for quite some time (overgrown with moss), but the Sheikah Tower isn't in the painting yet and that only appears once Link activated the "main tower" on the Great Plateau.
It was rather hard to find the correct spot in TotK again, because all of the Guardians are gone and the background / other topography here looks incredibly generic and insignificant. Just another meadow with some broken pillars on it ... but to be fair, this place no longer holds any significance in TotK anyway, so there was probably no reason to make it stand out from the rest.
If you have questions, requests, anything to point out / add or you spotted a mistake, please let me know ;) If you're interested in a video version with a little more backgound info, you can find it here.
