Zelda Mod “Relics of Hyrule” for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Posted on March 06 2014 by Legacy Staff
The
Elder Scrolls series is nothing short of one of the most well-known and
respected open world action role playing-games that money can buy, and if
you’re like me, you’ve probably put a few hundred hours into more than a few of
Bethesda’
Elder Scrolls installments. While the main storyline quests of many
of their titles are rather short by most standards, the amount of side content
and guild quests within the game can keep just about any gamer satisfied for
hours, entering the triple digits. So what do you do when you finally
“finish” the game, it’s downloadable content, and have all the side
quests wrapped up? In most cases, gamers would call it quits and move on, but
if you’re playing on a PC then perhaps that isn’t quite the case. Bethesda is well
known to be more than accommodating to the modding community that has found
itself well established among its series, and
Skyrim has one of the largest to
boot. Like any passionate fans, we can’t let our favorite hero live only within
the constraints of his own game series;
Zelda’s characters, items, locations and
even some of its villains and baddies have quickly found themselves being
pulled into the world of Tamriel thanks to the work of many very dedicated
modders and the main man himself, who ‘goes by the name of
“JKalenad”.
The Fun Stuff
To say JKalenad has gone above and beyond is short-handing his work. This
isn’t just a few small trinkets added into the vast world that is Tamriel but
is actually a massive collection of every
Zelda related mod he has made to
date, now neatly packaged up and ready to install into your very own game. This
collection has a taste of everything in it, ranging from the iconic
Master Sword (found
inside of a pedestal I might add) and
Hylian Shield which are
customizable through a brand new reforging process called the
Terminan Forge and Ancient Enchanter, the Giant’s
Knife and Biggorons’s Sword, or the Megaton
Hammer if you want to add some blunt force trauma to your enemies lives. If
you’re playing as a hunter or assassin, fear not, for he has not forgotten your
play style as well; for range attacks and silent kills you can pick from a
variety of classic weapons such as the classic
Hero’s Bow, Terminan Bow, and
Bow as well. Did I mention that you won’t be stuck using those lowly iron
arrows anymore? Seven Sages.. they’re truly terrible… No my
Zelda loving
friends, JKalenad has included Fire, Ice and Light arrows to add even more
interesting ways of taking down the swarms of Draugr you’ll take on in all of
those caves you get seemingly lost within on a day to day basis.
If you’re more
interested in playing akin to the Hero of Time himself, you may find use in the
vast array of shields that have been added to the world including everyone’s
favorite, the
Shield and all three of its iterations, as well as the Sacred, Divine, and
Goddess shields; most of which can be reforged as well. A
Zelda mod in Skyrim
wouldn’t be complete without its share of Zelda themed clothing and armor, and
so our favorite
tunics have been added and are now available in all of your classic colors
for when you’re not happy with staring at the iconic green look. If that wasn’t
enough, you also have the option of finding new gauntlets in three metal
shades, scout armor, soldier armor’ and a Hylian Glass armor set for when your
stamina just never seems to recover fast enough and you need to take those hits
like it’s nobody’s business.
“These are the relics of
Hyrule, the shards of an age long forgotten, the remnants of a civilization
older than the Dwemer. So old that it was a myth during their time, and little
evidence of the civilization remains. All that remain are artifacts: weapons,
armor, and magic.”
For those of a more mischievous nature and whose
favorite
Zelda titles fall within the darker side of the series, there is a
Mask, allowing you to relive your favorite moments of the game but instead
wreaking havoc throughout Tamriel as the Skull Kid himself once did to you in Termina. On
top of all of these options, new locations such as the House of Skulltula,
Rorikstead Secret Grotto, the
Stone Camp and others have been added within the world of Tamriel,
making Hyrule seem as if it had once existed here in ages past, bringing all of
these pieces to life in a setting never before seen.
This barely even skims the surface of what is contained within the ‘Relics
of Hyrule” mod, the sheer amount of content is so vast that he created a
to explain each and every one, all of which have corresponding video pieces in
order to showcase and help explain where you can find each individually in case
you get lost… like I did many a time myself.
What is most surprising about
this mod isn’t just the size of it, but the way in which all of its contents
have been kept true to the fashion of an
Elder Scrolls game by creating new
lore for each piece allowing a connection between the world of the
Legend of
Zelda
and the world of the Elder Scrolls. JKalenad explains it best himself,
stating that:
“The Relics of Hyrule also re-imagine and frame the
tragic beauty of Hyrule and Termina in the harsh landscapes of Skyrim and Solstheim.
Instead of just adding items from Zelda, I link them to the world as though
they have always been there.”
Features Not Included
While “Relics of Hyrule” includes a great many
Zelda related
modifications, any die hard fan might quickly realize that there are a number
of features that have been left out and this is in most part by choice of the
author himself, but also due to limitations of the game as well. JKalenad says very clearly that he is more than open to suggestions
for new ideas to create, add, or modify for his collection, but that there are
also some that he would prefer not to delve into. Passion is an important tool
in creative work, especially one as daunting and time consuming as creating
lore friendly material for an entirely separate and enthralling world such as
Tamriel, thus this plays a large part in what he eventually decides to invest
himself in working on. Understandably, even the beautifully crafted Creation Engine which
Skyrim is built upon has its limits and so
certain items are quite impossible to bring to fruition within this world. More
specifically though, this is a brief list of what you will not see included:
- Quests
- Dialogue
- Hookshot/Clawshot/Grappling
Hook
- Ball &
Chain
- Boomerang
- Any Zelda
dungeon (fire temple, Great Deku Tree, King JabuJabu’s belly, etc.)
- Any Zelda
character (Link, Zelda, Ganondorf, Anju, Kafei, Tingle, etc.)
- Any new
race (Zora, Goron, Hylian, etc.)
- Any Zelda
music
- Any
re-created
Zelda location (Death Mountain, Lake Hylia, Spirit Temple, the
surface of Kakariko Village, etc.)
The Technical Babble
So you’ve gotten this far and
obviously the next step it to get your hands on the mod. Now this is where you
may fall into two different categories. If you’ve already used modifications
for the game before, you can skip this and go straight to the Final Thoughts
section, if not then you may want to stick around and read on. As I stated
before,
Skyrim has an extensive modding community and because of this, you are
in luck my friend! Getting started is rather simple, assuming that
Skyrim is
already installed, the first thing you’re going to need to do is register for
an account on the website at
and then download the program called “Nexus Mod
Manager”, the tutorial for which can be found here. Hold up though,
because before you get started you’re also going to need something called the
“Skyrim Script Extender” which can be found through the
SKSE Download here, once you’ve
installed this you’ll be alright to proceed by downloading the
mod. If you’re like me and have the game and the Dawnguard expansion, then
you’ll want the first option while the other two are rather self explanatory;
if you have no downloadable content then you’ll want the third option, and if
you have both
Dawnguard and Dragonborn you’ll want the second. That’s it, once
its installed you can launch the game through either an SKSE shortcut on your
desktop or through Nexus Mod Manager and be on your way to find the Master
Sword (sorry guys and gals, it unfortunately doesn’t shoot a beam)!
Final Thoughts
All in all, considering the amount of extra game
time alone that you’ll get out of searching for each item, this mod is more than
worth its weight. Add in the fact that it’s all
Zelda related and we have a one
heck of an amazing collection added to what is already one of the greatest role playing games available. If you’re like most
Zelda fanatics and are looking for
something to tide you over until we hear about more
Zelda U news or the release
of
Hyrule Warriors sometime in 2014, then this mod is something you simply have
to try for yourself.
Source: Relics of Hyrule – NexusMods
