This video was released months ago, but I still love it like it was new. Maybe it hasn’t been such a good idea to re-watch this as often as I have, though. I don’t have time to simultaneously play Ocarina of Time and Breath of the Wild, and every time the video ends, that’s all I want to do.
I found this Breath of the Wild 64 sequel trailer, a fan video created by The Regressor, the same way I’m guessing many other people did: Someone shared it on Facebook, and I immediately shared it without hitting “like” on the original post. (We all do it. We should probably all be ashamed, too.) I couldn’t hold in my excitement after watching the video. It was everything my malnourished, circa early-2000s inner child was craving.
Graphics from Nintendo 64 games have a certain charm, though it might be more appropriate to call that charm an “acquired taste” when speaking to a general audience. You might not enjoy working in a cathedral if you don’t see the beauty in stained-glass windows. But like the angles of the classic window art style, the non-contouring contours of the models and environments shown in this video are a unique spectacle. No, rich details aren’t present like they are in the true trailer for the Breath of the Wild sequel, but with enough of that often-undervalued skill called “imagination,” the mind can fill in the blanks with what it creates, rather than just absorbing what is shown. And honestly, that can sometimes make things more vivid and enjoyable.
Add to the visuals the audio, which was, for me, like a reflex hammer to my nostalgia bone. Those muffled, digital sound bites — with their warped tones and rapid, sharp beats — made it unmistakable what era of gaming this video intended to emulate. The regressed music doles out the flattery through this imitation, both for the venerated days of the N64 and the anticipated arrival of the next Zelda game.
Audio and video combined don’t mean a thing without good direction, and The Regressor was like a human TomTom in that regard. The video matches bit for bit the real trailer and carries the same intrigue and rising tension. There are even some added visuals near the video’s end, to keep the video in time. Though, could they also be hopeful predictions of what is to come in the actual game?
This video and the trailer it is born from are full of stress-inducing moments, but my anxiety lies not with Link and Zelda’s fate at the end, but with the idea that it could be a long while before The Regressor makes any more follow-up videos. Nintendo needs to put out a new trailer, and then I need to get busy begging The Regressor to get to it.
