A fan has made the entrance to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time's Forest Temple in Halo 5: Guardians' custom map editor. Halo 5: Guardians' Forge mode allows players to create their own maps and levels and share them with other players. While some fans have designed original maps and used the tool to flex their level design skills, others have recreated popular existing levels and maps. One fan remade the campaign demo area from Halo Infinite in Forge, giving fans a way to pass the time while they wait for the launch of the mysterious next game in the franchise.
Besides Halo areas, maps and locations from The Legend of Zelda are also popular choices for recreation in other engines. Parts of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time were recreated in Unreal Engine, prompting many fans to wish that Nintendo took the time to polish the series' actual games with that level of graphical fidelity. Two fans even went the extra mile and made a playable version of Link's Awakening in Minecraft, complete with fightable enemies, boss battles, and dialogue. The Legend of Zelda's level and map design continues to be an inspiration for creatively-minded fans.
In a similar vein as those recreations, one fan has remade the entrance of the Forest Temple from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time in Halo 5: Guardians. Reddit user and YouTuber Mojoswoptops2020 (thanks, GamesRadar) made their creation on Xbox Series X, and it looks fantastic. While the original Forest Temple's entrance has a somber feel, with moody lighting and a forgotten-looking entrance, Mojoswoptops2020's creation is bathed in light and shadow and looks to be very much a part of the natural environment around it. Though Mojoswoptops2020 admitted in the comments that this is their first time working with Halo 5: Guardians' Forge, they previously built the Forest Temple in Far Cry 5 and have constructed a variety of other recreations in that game.
As is always the case with recreations of The Legend of Zelda locations, many will ask why Nintendo's own environments don't look nearly as nice as fan-made versions. While it's true that Nintendo has a lot that it could be doing in the graphics and fidelity departments, some fans are also saying that regardless of the way the originals actually looked, the rose-colored glasses of nostalgia mean that the recreations are surprisingly close to their childhood memories of Link's adventures. When fans remember The Legend of Zelda, they don't think of frames per second or resolution; they think of the way the games made them feel.
Recreations in more powerful engines, like Mojoswoptops2020's and others', can stand on their own without diminishing the glow of the original games. Maybe the actual Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Forest Temple didn't look as beautiful as it does here in Forge, but it did look that beautiful in players' memories, and that's what matters. Being able to recreate not only a game's location, but the way it made players feel, is a powerful skill. The accessibility of creativity afforded by tools like Forge ensures that the gaming community won't stop seeing gorgeous recreations like this anytime soon.
Halo 5: Guardians is available on Xbox One and PC.
Sources: Mojoswoptops2020, GamesRadar