This week, social media has been filled with clashes between Link fans and pocket monster lovers. The second group considers that Pokémon Legends: Arceus It’s fine graphically, but the other group thinks the opposite. For them, breath of the wild is the technical ceiling of Nintendo Switch, and insist again and again that Game Freak has not matched the visual quality of a game from five years ago. Debates aside… How could I become a Zelda —or an open world Pokémon— if there were no technical limitations?
This would be a hypothetical Ocarina of Time with Unreal Engine 5
Nintendo Switch is not the most powerful console on the market, and it did not aspire to be when it was introduced. Those of the Big N changed course after GameCube, a highly innovative console that was crushed by competition that had better hardware and easier programming. Nintendo decided to bet on gameplay instead of graphics. And although we have seen wonders like breath of the wild or twilight princess on very limited hardware, that does not mean that let’s dream with titles that have the graphic quality that we usually see on other platforms such as Xbox Series, PlayStation 5 or PC.
Ocarina of Time has already had ports to various platforms, but the youtuber RwanLink has dared to create a small remake to give us some clues of what would a Zelda game look like on a next-gen console. For your project you have used the engine Unreal Engine 5, which has been available to developers since last September, and looks set to be the predominant engine in this next-gen.
Hyrule is filled with vegetation, details and reflections
According to RwanLink, this project is the most ambitious he has carried out on his channel. This recreating some of the most iconic environments of the original video game, and in a matter of a month he has already managed to make the Kakariko village and Lake Hylia.
The two videos that have been posted so far are absolutely stunning. Not only do they show the power of the engine, but they let us see the technical quality that a Zelda video game could have if it did not have the typical barriers of Nintendo consoles. And all this, taking into account that it is a recreation made by a single person, who is in charge of all aspects of animation, as well as art direction. With a dedicated team, the result would be even better.
Could RwanLink be in trouble with Nintendo?
We imagine that RwanLink will make another episode of his peculiar vision of Hyrule in 4K, so if you like him, check out his channel from time to time. We just hope that Nintendo doesn’t mind the work of this creator. You wouldn’t be the first to get in trouble for showing a alternative view of intellectual properties of the Japanese.
