The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is a fan favorite of many gamers from the nineties, but holds an extra special place for YouTuber SwankyBox. SwankyBox is a popular YouTuber who posts tutorial videos of hidden gems players didn't know about and fan theories, many of which cover the ins and outs of the Legend of Zelda. Now, SwankyBox has taken on the epic task of living in The Legenda of Zelda: OOT for twenty-four hours straight.
If players are wondering if Nintendo has officially licensed out the Legend of Zelda franchise to VR company, they'll be sorely disappointed. However, Ocarina of Time and other N64 classics have been modded into certain VR headsets by Kaze Emanuar. This allowed SwankyBox to view the world of Hyrule through the eyes of Link, albeit with some restrictions with fixed backgrounds.
SwankyBox described his experience as "haunting" after he spent a full 24 hours in the headset. There were a few complications in terms of motion tracking, jumping, and just graphics in general. The graphics from Ocarina of Time have not been updated for this mod, so the experience for SwankyBox was nothing in comparison to the Breath of the Wild landscapes. Most of the difficulty he experienced was that unless Link was facing forward, head-on attacks didn't work if he was just looking behind himself, so aiming was a difficult task. Climbing and jumping also presented awkward experiences as the mechanics from the archaic system don't really translate to VR functionality.
The visual fatigue for SwankyBox proved to be wearisome, and he was constantly searching for places to rest that weren't too noisy. SwankyBox finally settled on a spot in the on top of a house at the base of Death Mountain, and on a cot in the real world, to lay his head for the night. "I feel like I have some pressure behind my eyes, probably from staring at this blurry world for so long," he describes. SwankyBox wasn't fully able to shake the headache in the morning but described running around the fields of Hyrule was an amazing experience to explore.
In the last hour, SwankyBox climbed to the top of Death Mountain and worked out. "It was super satisfying in the weirdest way." SwankyBox described the final experience as extremely relaxing and totally surreal. While the Russians are using VR headsets to calm cattle, SwankyBox used his time to reflect on the nostalgia of one of his favorite games. "Even if it was physically uncomfortable," SwankyBox concludes, "it was worth it."
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time can be played on Nintendo 64, or the VR mod can be modded and played on Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.