You can now play and beat the newest Zelda without owning a Nintendo system.
The developers of the CEMU Wii U emulator for PC have updated it to the point where The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is fully playable. CEMU’s creators have fixed some of the biggest problems. For example, all of the Runes now work, which means you can get through all of the Shrines and beat the game. Breath of the Wild is also looking better in the emulator now that more of the visual elements are showing up and working properly. Breath of the Wild still has a lot of framerate issues on CEMU, but it’s well past the threshold of playability.
Of course, getting the game in a fully functional state on PC means that it supports resolutions up to 4K, and some people are already showing gameplay videos of how the game looks at that UHD visual standard. In the clip above, YouTube channel YamGaming has the game running at 2160P after tweaking CEMU’s settings. The result is a cleaner-looking version of one of the best games of 2017 so far.
Here’s a direct comparison of some of the improvements:
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Publisher Nintendo is not OK with emulation, and it has a standing comment on the matter on its corporate website.
“The introduction of emulators created to play illegally copied Nintendo software represents the greatest threat to date to the intellectual property rights of video game developers,” the company explained. “As is the case with any business or industry, when its products become available for free, the revenue stream supporting that industry is threatened. Such emulators have the potential to significantly damage a worldwide entertainment software industry which generates over $15 billion annually and tens of thousands of jobs.”
And it is certainly illegal for you to obtain a copy of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for CEMU over the internet without owning a copy already for Wii U. But, as always, the answer about whether it is legal for you to take your legitimately purchased copy of Zelda and rip it to a computer to play on an emulator is in gray area. The defense here is fair use and that you are not doing any financial harm to the publisher, but you are still taking a risk playing any game with an emulator.
