Zelda Modder Fuses Elements of Tears of the Kingdom into Ocarina of Time
Posted on July 22 2024 by Josh Wittmershaus
An integral part of every Zelda game is the unique abilities you gain throughout your journey, whether it be an item obtained in a dungeon or a mechanic used throughout the story. Tears of the Kingdom brought us a new set of abilities that allowed us to navigate the vastness of Hyrule, its Depths and Sky Islands, and the puzzles within Shrines and Temples.
What if those skills were transmitted to the games and Hyrules of our past, though? A glimpse into what sort of quirky chaos this might cause can be found on the YouTube channel for video game modder notCHase. notCHase’s videos demonstrate various modifications of other games applied to the Ocarina of Time world (in this case, specifically that of Harbour Master’s Ship of Harkinian open-source port for PC), and today we’re going to look at the three powers notCHase has converted over from Tears of the Kingdom.
Last week, Nintendo Life published an article that showcased notCHase’s newest endeavor: incorporating the Fuse ability from Tears of the Kingdom into Ocarina of Time.
In the video, Link shows how the build goes beyond simply gluing items onto his sword and shield: examples include fusing a Beamos to a shield to create a laser pointer, fusing a sign to his sword to create a fan weapon, and using a rock on his sword to break other rocks. Perhaps the coolest fuse ability shown in this almost four-minute video, however, is attaching a Sheikah Stone to his shield. If you recall from Ocarina and other games, these small statues skyrocket into the air when interacted with in certain ways; now, they act like Zonai Rockets, shooting Link upwards and across Hyrule Field. I’d be remiss to not mention the last scene in the video, where a Hyrule Town guard is fused to Link’s sword to smash pots in the Guard House. What a helpful guy!
It’s clear that notCHase has been hard at work, as it was only a few months ago that they also brought Ultrahand into Ocarina of Time. Like the Fuse video, it becomes clear pretty fast how broken having this ability could be, at least when given the freedom to do things like attach Mido onto your cart and take him on a tour of Hyrule. I’m curious to see how this ability could be used in other ways, especially in a place like the Shadow Temple, where having the ability to make bridges or hovercrafts would really come in handy.
Perhaps the silliest of all of these videos was Link using Recall in Ocarina of Time, which notCHase published about a month ago. At first, a very practical use of Recall is shown, as Link brings the drawbridge back down so he can enter Hyrule Town at night. Recall is also ingeniously used alongside Ultrahand to allow Link to travel over the Hyrule Castle moat, keeping him from having to wake up Talon. Towards the end of the video, though, we see Recall used for some… not so sensical things, such as closing the Deku Tree’s mouth back up and moving King Zora ever-so-slowly back in front of the entrance to Jabu Jabu — a process that takes roughly thirty seconds to sit and watch.
You can find many more notCHase mods on their YouTube page, including one of Breath of the Wild‘s Stasis being used in the Ocarina of Time world. “Grateful” doesn’t begin to describe the feelings I have for the modders in our community who work to create these alternate Zelda universes, where we can mesh mechanics from one game into the world of another. The real question is: would we have to bring weapon durability to Ocarina of Time as well?
What do you think of mods like this? Which ability from Tears of the Kingdom — or any other Zelda game — would you love to use in the Ocarina of Time world? Let us know in the comments!
Source: notCHase (1, 2, 3) (via Nintendo Life)
Josh Wittmershaus is a writer at Zelda Dungeon. Originally from Erie, Pennsylvania, he now resides in Northern California. Aside from Zelda, Josh enjoys playing music, seeing live music, music history, and all other things music. He also enjoys skating, hockey, and the occasional political or philosophical thought exercise.
