Modern Zelda games have always adopted the third-person perspective, but a mod for Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has shown how the game would look like when it's played from the first-person perspective. Being a direct successor to 2017's Breath of the Wild, Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom once again lets players explore the beautiful open world of Hyrule while poking on some fun side missions. Now, however, some players also have the option to do it in a more immersive way.
Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is the latest mega hit coming to Nintendo Switch's first party catalog as just days after being released, Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has already done really well commercially. While the game is only available on the Nintendo Switch, some creative modders have already ported it to PC through the use of emulation software. The modding community apparently doesn't stop there, as it has also already started to bring out some additional features for the unofficial PC version of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
Over on Nexus Mods, a modder under the alias "trevix" has uploaded a mod for Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom labeled "Immersive Camera - First Person Exploration." As the name suggests, the mod lets player control Link through the first-person point of view. It achieves that by utilizing Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom's camera feature, removing the UI elements in the process so Link can actually navigate while in this mode. The game will automatically switch back to third-person perspective during combat, or when Link jumps or swims.
That limitation is quite unfortunate, knowing that some players might want to try to glide while being in the first-person mode. It will probably need some more tinkering for the mod to be able to achieve that, but the current situation might actually seem to be ideal, especially since gliding in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom can end up horribly wrong even without any mods whatsoever. It's easy to imagine how poorly things can go when done in first-person.
Practically, the first-person mod will be useful for players who want to get even more engrossed in the game. While Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom's open world can sometimes feel somewhat barren, the Kingdom of Hyrule is still a great sight to behold. And with a tighter and closer field of view, the game can probably feel less empty than before, even if it's essentially an illusion that plays out.
If anything, this first-person mod for Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is the perfect example of a video game having an active modding scene without even a single hint of support from the developer. It will be interesting to see how Nintendo would act on it, though, given how vigilant Nintendo's lawyers can sometimes be.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is available exclusively for the Nintendo Switch.