Speedrunning Trick Turns Ocarina Of Time Into Breath Of The Wild
Speedrunning is an art, and the gaming world knows it. The Legend of Zelda is a very big part of this community, with its sense of adventure spurring players across the globe to beat it as fast as possible - but as these players gathered, something almost magical happened.
The idea of speedrunning classic games is the reason that we get incredible events that celebrate the greatest speedrunners out there like Games Done Quick - roping in the best in the business to show off their incredible skills and shoot for massive world records that will determine who can play a game the fastest... once and for all.
How Did Ocarina Of Time Turn Into Breath Of The Wild?
This year's SGDQ was a pretty big deal for speedrunners, but for more reasons than one. That extra reason being a wild event that fans simply didn't see coming.
The event utilised a TASBot - which is a speedrun bot that can input buttons at such a rate and accuracy that can manipulate a game's code - to allow runners to earn the Triforce during a run of Ocarina of Time. It's an item that fans have been wanting to bag for many years.
From there, a mysterious voice whispers to Link and that's where things go really batsh*t. Here, Link is allowed to be King of Hyrule, gain untold riches, or be able to see the future. Of course, the runners chose to see the future, and the run took a surprising turn.
Ocarina Link Travels Through Time At SGDQ
The run takes Link all the way forward in time to Breath of the Wild, seeing him come face to face with his design from the game. He meets with Zelda as the game tells the viewers online to type "here together" in the chat - and all of their comments appear in-game, filling the sky as Link and Zelda look on.
It's a pretty wholesome moment, but the most surprising part of this is that the speedrunners tell us that this first for the event is all accomplished in-engine and played on an N64 - rather than just being a video ported over. This is an incredibly impressive and heartfelt way to close out the event, and it's one that effectively brought the entire speedrunning community together. Nawh.
