Breath of the Wild mod Second Wind is an ambitious, massive fan project

It has been almost a whole year since the last update. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s still-unnamed sequel, Nintendo recently announced it will delay the game’s release until spring 2023. The good news is that those who wait are rewarded with great things.

Then there are Zelda lovers who choose to create their own games.

Jannik Wagner goes by Waikuteru on the internet. He has used his coding skills with others to embed mods. Take a deep breath of the wild and share them with the Zelda community — with mods ranging from mechanic enhancements to outlandishly silly avatars. First, you will need to make. Take a deep breath of the wildWagner was able to enjoy his beloved game more by using mods. But now, the modder’s work is gaining enough online attention to make him into something of a fan icon.

Super-mod The Second Wind

Second Wind, a hobbyist project that’s powered by Wagner and over 50 other Zelda fans, is the mother of all Take a deep breath of the wild mods. Rivaling even Nintendo’s successful Champion’s Ballad DLC, this super-mod is meaty enough that Nintendo could sell it and fans wouldn’t bat an eye. This mod adds new content, including bosses and weapons, quests, as well as new difficulty levels.

A close friend of Wagner’s approached him some time ago to help take the reins of the project, and Wagner led the charge in programming the camera work, game events, background music, and sound effects. A potion shop was created by Wagner last year with a NPC named Nancy. You can buy elixirs, which are items that you program with rupees or other materials from the shop. The effects of elixirs that are bought at night will multiply if they’re purchased. Another Second Wind mod is Ordon Village. It has both main and side quests.

While accustomed to flying solo, Wagner describes working with 50 modders as “a bit different,” but a good experience. “We used GitHub to make the process easier to pull the latest commits [or coded file updates]And then, they worked together [the files],” he says. “I also worked together with people I mostly knew, so I had a good connection!”

GitHub, a web-based software platform used by millions of developers worldwide, is headquartered in San Francisco. It’s not open source, but the company encourages hobbyist developers to use its free option to openly share and store Git code like a public backup service.

Wagner stated that Second Wind was approximately 60% complete shortly before this article was published. Players can still experience Second Wind via the Discord server, although there is much more that his group wants to do. Wagner says that the development of Second Wind has been delayed due to the pandemic’s effects on the personal lives of several modders. He is still optimistic about the completion of Second Wind. He is now able to continue his experiments with the mod, having completed his initial work. Take a deep breath of the wildMods are available in the interim.

From player to modder: one fan’s love letter to game design

Image: Jannik Wagner

To many in the online fan community, Wagner’s Take a deep breath of the wild mods aren’t simply part of the niche-within-a-niche modding scene. They’re overbuilt, over the top, and filled to the brim with a playful attitude. Wagner may have even been the founder of Take a deep breath of the wild’s exploding modding culture.

Though Wagner is best known for his work on Second Wind, his passion for video games didn’t begin that way. Modding wasn’t on his mind when he got his hands on a copy of Take a deep breath of the wild2017 was the release date. “I didn’t think much of it since I wasn’t the guy [who did]There are lots of other activities you can do on the computer, besides just playing League of Legends,” he says. He was a casual gamer and enjoyed it.

Wagner became curious when he heard the game worked without any frame drops with a Wii U emulator called Cemu. Was it possible to play Zelda games with more features?

Wagner let his curiosity take over in 2018. Wagner tried out Take a deep breath of the wild on Cemu, as he didn’t want to risk adversely affecting his console. The process proved to be difficult. Legend of Zelda game information is known for being difficult to swallow. The open-world mammoth was called Take a deep breath of the wildIt was quite another beast. “I looked into Cemu and had to realize that my PC was not capable of running this game since it didn’t even reach locked 60 [frames per second]On the simple-to-run League of Legends,” he says. That mountain of data didn’t stop him. With his research, he created a brand new gaming system that year with an i7-8700K powerful CPU. He attempted again.

His results were far superior to what he had hoped.

“I booted up the game with some performance and graphic-enhancing mods and was [blown away] by the gameplay,” says Wagner. “Just awesome!”

He was addicted to modding from that moment on. He tweaked and tinkered to his Hylian heart’s content, adding mod enhancements to Take a deep breath of the wild’s performance and graphics, and then modded extensions to the game itself. “They must have triggered something special in me,” he says. “New content for a beloved Nintendo game […]You can choose the quality and content of your articles whenever you like […] It just sounded like a dream!”

Pipe dreams come true

Wagner made many of his customs. Take a deep breath of the wildMods prior to Second Wind (including several that were inspired by). Skyward Sword, a Ghirahim boss fight, a time trial minigame, and even a throwback stage of Whomp’s Fortress from Super Mario 64. The first modification he built, which he fondly recalls. Skyward Sword Complete Music Overhaul. He modded more than 200 songs for that project. Skyward SwordSound effect and music files are available in Take a deep breath of the wildAll for the love of nostalgia.

“It was the first time that I have invested so much time in such a project. […] It made players happy and gave them a new experience,” he says. “I realized that this shouldn’t be it and more had to come.”

It did come, as a map editor in summer 2019. Wagner was able to make his Zelda from scratch with it. dungeon in Take a deep breath of the wild, or at least as much of a dungeon as he could with the game’s limited shrine assets. “I realized that it was rather hard for me to model new objects myself and only pretty much worked with squares,” he says. He was able to import some of his designs with just a bit of ingenuity. Skyward SwordMake a game map. It was then that the Knight Academy was created, which is the first time Wagner’s mod was showcased on YouTube. His subscribers were less than 100 at that time. He now has more than 26,000.

Modifying a custom Dungeon takes Wagner on average one to two weeks. Wagner was eventually able to modify original items. He imported Ocarinas of Time’s Lon Lon Ranch as a test, and the results were stunningly accurate to the original aesthetics — and even improved upon. The mod he loves most is Take a deep breath of the wildRandomizer is a project that he started last year following his time with Second Wind. On that project, he’s poured in hundreds of hours and counting.

A beloved favourite is given new life

Image: Jannik Wagner

Gaming culture is rapidly embracing modding. Bethesda is one of the companies that has embraced fan modding as a way to increase audience engagement and add value. Proponents of modding tout its importance in priming future programmers for today’s technology-heavy industries.

Wagner, like many Zelda lovers, hopes the sequel will be a success. Take a deep breath of the wildWill resurrect much-needed traditional items and dungeons. “I hope that new abilities will allow for creative puzzles,” he says. He was intrigued by the patented avatar mechanics that were discovered last year. “We saw that Link can traverse through terrain, which can result in pretty nifty puzzles, I believe.” Wagner already plans to mod the sequel after he has played the game.

He might not be as eager to modo, but it could be something he pursues in the future.

“No doubt,” says Wagner. “It’s very likely I will join and help out on Second Wind once again when I have not too much else on the list! It was a fun experience every time I was involved!”