Of all the franchises that Nintendo has under its belt, very few are as closely associated with the mega developer as The Legend of Zelda. The first game debuted over 40 years ago at this point, and since then, it has only been able to be played on Nintendo’s proprietary consoles, whether that be the SNES or the Nintendo Switch 2.

That said, recent times have seen the landscape shift, mostly thanks to the efforts of fans who want to play older games in a more convenient manner. That has led to a glut of older titles making their way over to the PC via both emulation and native ports, all of which make it a lot easier to keep the memory of those games alive.

Now, Zelda has cropped up over on PlayStation, and far from being a retro effort, it’s actually one of the most recent games in the series.

As first reported by TweakTown, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is now playable in 4K on PlayStation 5 consoles, if you’re willing to go through some technical steps. Essentially, the game is running on a jailbroken PlayStation 5 console in 4K at 30 FPS, via the PS5CEMU-HAR emulator.

As the name suggests, that technology adapts the CEMU and Azahar emulators (which are focused on the Wii U and 3DS) for the PlayStation 5. It uses Mihawk’s PS5 port of the RADV driver, which adds full support for DualSense controllers, while CEMU does all the heavy lifting to render the game at the PS5’s native 4K (3840 x 2160) resolution with upscaling and additional frame pacing.

This adjusted Wii U release looks pretty great and it runs well, even if it is quite far from a legitimate Legend of Zelda release on PlayStation. The fun doesn’t stop there either, as it also supports installing community-created graphics and texture packs, with many options available that bring the game much more into line with modern expectations.

The latter is needed a little more as well, chiefly because this is the Wii U version of the game, rather than the Nintendo Switch release. With this approach now a possibility, don’t be surprised if modders quickly come up with additional downloads that are designed to take advantage of the PS5’s capabilities specifically.

Fans of The Legend of Zelda have plenty to look forward to from official sources as well, even if the community continues to bring out memorabl steps forward. The Ocarina of Time Remake is up first in November, bringing back an all-time classic title for a whole new generation of gamers. That’s followed in relatively short order by the big movie adaptation, which is set to drop in April of next year.

Released

March 3, 2017

ESRB

E for Everyone: Fantasy Violence, Use of Alcohol, Mild Suggestive Themes

Developer(s)

Nintendo EPD

Publisher(s)

Nintendo

Engine

Havok

Cross-Platform Play

no

Cross Save

no

Steam Deck Compatibility

yes