Update: Ocarina of Time Online Public Beta Available Now
Posted on April 09 2019 by Rod Lloyd
Update: The public beta for Ocarina of Time Online launched last week, as announced by project programmer MelonSpeedruns. You can find the download link on OOT Online’s official Discord server or right here.
Original: Ocarina of Time just celebrated its 20th birthday, and after over two decades, the game still maintains a hold on the imaginations of countless Zelda fans. From ambitious fan remakes to randomized speed runs, the OoT community is as active as ever, still finding new ways to enjoy the Nintendo 64 classic. Aiming to elevate the game beyond its single-player roots, a team of talented modders, for example, has been hard at work developing a multiplayer version of Ocarina of Time.
Ocarina of Time Online is the latest effort to bring cooperative multiplayer to the Nintendo 64 classic. Currently being developed by a small team of modders, the project will allow up to 15 players to experience the game, in its entirety, simultaneously on a server. Development on the mod began last year, and its current iteration is certainly something to marvel at. As highlighted in a recent video by BSoD Gaming, the mod currently allows for multiple players to explore Hyrule, complete dungeons, and fight enemies together. There are even plans to implement a PvP element!
So how does Ocarina of Time Online work? Well, while each player on a server controls his or her own “instance” of Link in the game world, the mod replicates the movements and actions of all other players through NPC “puppets” within that same space in real time. The result is a seamless cooperative experience, in which all players can interact with each other and with the world at the same time. The mod works very much in the same way as a multiplayer mod developed for Breath of the Wild from a few years ago.
While certainly not the first attempt to add multiplayer to Ocarina of Time, this mod shows a lot of potential. The development team has clearly approached the project with a standard of quality, as evidenced by recent gameplay videos. I’m curious to see if the Ocarina of Time Online‘s team will alter the original game’s dungeons in any way to better accommodate multiple players.
Ocarina of Time Online is currently in development. No release date has been announced. You can check out the project’s development blog right here and watch the team’s live streams on Twitch and YouTube.
What do think of Ocarina of Time Online? Are you prepared to share the mantle of Hero of Time with up to 15 friends? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Source: Kotaku
Rod Lloyd is the Editor-In-Chief at Zelda Dungeon, overseeing the news and feature content for the site. Rod is considered the veteran of the writing team, having started writing for Zelda Informer in 2014 as a Junior Editor. After ZD and ZI officially merged in 2017, he stepped into the Managing Editor role and has helped steer the ship ever since. He stepped up to lead the writing team as Editor-In-Chief in 2023.
You can reach Rod at: rod.lloyd@zeldadungeon.net
