The Breath of the Wild 2 reveal trailer has been 'demade' with N64-era graphics

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Party like it's E3 1999

The reveal trailer for Breath of the Wild 2 was one of the most exciting moments of E3 2019, and now thanks to modeler and animator The Regressor, we know how it would've looked at E3 1999. This N64-era demake of the Breath of the Wild 2 reveal trailer is one of the more surreal fan creations I've seen in some time, bringing the future of the Zelda franchise back to the generation I was introduced to it.

It's a wonderfully well-made product of talent and passion, and yet its creator takes a rather light-hearted approach to their work and implores viewers to do the same. They explain that the project was purely for fun, that it wasn't meant to be a precise representation of the visuals in Ocarina of Time or Majora's Mask, and that comments pointing out any technical discrepancies would be ignored. From the untrained eye, it's exactly what I would've imagined the Breath of the Wild 2 reveal trailer would look like had it released in 1999.

Every character, environment, and effect you see in the trailer was built from scratch by The Regressor using Maya 2009 and Photoshop. The animator natively rendered the video at 240x320 resolution and 30fps, but it's tweaked to look like it's running at a lower framerate.

For the most part, it's a fairly direct interpretation of the trailer we saw at E3, but The Regressor goes a step further by adding in a short clip of 100% original footage near the end, just before the scene fades to black and we see the words, "The sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 64 is not in development." 

The Regressor is an animator and modeler who specializes in "regressively" modeling based on the limitations of the N64/PlayStation/Dreamcast-era hardware. The cracking score and sound effects were done by Vince94.

Did we tickle your nostalgia bone? Here are the best retro consoles in 2019 to help you relive the glory days.

Jordan Gerblick
Jordan Gerblick
Staff Writer

After earning an English degree from ASU, I worked as a corporate copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. I got my big break here in 2019 with a freelance news gig, and I was hired on as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer in 2021. That means I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my home office, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.