An indie developer has just shown off their prototype for a fan-made The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild demake, featuring graphics and gameplay from the Game Boy Color era. Nintendo released The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on the Wii U and Switch in 2017, and the open-world entry has received a constant stream of praise and adoration from not only players and critics, but developers large and small.
Fans are still eagerly awaiting the release of the game's much-anticipated sequel, going so far as to create Breath of the Wild-inspired works of their own, ranging from recreations of iconic locations to brand new games. With no release date set for the sequel, the community is using their creativity and time to fill the four-year void since the first game's release, and indie developers have used the game many times over as inspiration for their own takes on truly open-ended, open-world adventure gameplay.
Single-person indie developer Ohana Studio has followed this trend by building a Game Boy Color demake of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, using a mix of assets from the Zelda seriees and their own original creations to form a unique world. As shown in the prototype video, players will have control of Link in the top-down gameplay style of the original games, but one feature that immediately stands out for those familiar with the series is the addition of Breath of the Wild's weapon and loot system, letting Link pick up equipment dropped by fallen enemies and carry multiple weapons at a time. Also present in the gameplay prototype is the ability to harvest fruit from trees and even cut down those same trees with an axe. The game's world is filled with a variety of enemies and wildlife to encounter, featuring animals such as wolves, horses, and sand seals scattered throughout the game's different environments.
Ohana Studio might not be a household name, but the solo dev has worked with a retro style like this before. The developer's first game, The Tides of Time, is currently available for purchase on Steam, featuring a similar gameplay style but with more detailed pixel art than this prototype. The developer has also noted plans to possibly turn this prototype into a full-fledged game, replacing all of the assets with their own and turning the project into its own unique indie survival game experience. "I might swap the assets with my own [...] and make a full non-Zelda survival gbc-style game out of this. Actually I'd love to do that because I love the genre and also the artstyle so much," stated Ohana Studio in the video's description.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was a game-changer for the industry. The game's unique cooking and resource-gathering mechanics breathed new life into the survival genre, giving other studios creative new ideas to work with to help set their projects apart. Creative projects such as this show that there's still plenty of room for innovation in the games industry and that the passion of fans and communities can lead to fresh and unique creations in any medium.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is available on Nintendo Switch.
Source: Ohana Studio