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The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (opens in new tab)‘s world is full of details that link it to the past, especially in Hyrule Castle. Unfortunately, the devastation and looming presence of Calamity Ganon make it hard to appreciate the castle’s original splendor – at least while you’re playing Breath of the Wild. Enter this incredibly detailed Minecraft (opens in new tab) recreation of pre-Calamity Hyrule Castle by Japanese Minecraft group Team-Kyo, which was noteworthy enough that Nintendo interviewed the creators (opens in new tab) (in Japanese).
The project was made at an intricate, 1:1 scale. I’m especially impressed by all the little details in places like Princess Zelda’s Study – right down to the bookshelves and lovely hanging plants. Then there’s the colorful Sanctum, which looks much nicer without that creepy Ganon-sack hanging from the ceiling.
Given Minecraft’s cubic nature and Hyrule Castle’s circular design, it’s interesting to see which parts of the castle are rendered straight-on and which areas are sort of gracefully askew. Whichever way the blocks face, it all works. According to the interview, the production involved 13 people and took about two months of work from design to final polish. The group typically uses Minecraft to recreate real-life cities, so it must’ve been an interesting break to do some sweeping fantasy architecture instead.
We’ll probably be waiting a while until we get a full-on follow-up to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, but there’s still an unusually high quantity of Hylian hijinks in our near future: there’s Cadence of Hyrule coming this spring (opens in new tab), followed by the Link’s Awakening remake (opens in new tab) later this year.
For more Nintendo goodness to look forward to, check out our list of upcoming Switch games (opens in new tab). Or see what’s coming up this week in games and entertainment with our latest Release Radar video.
