In 2022, the best game is definitely The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. This game even won the “Game of the Year”award. And, since this is a Nintendo Wii U/Nintendo Switch exclusive. Therefore, you cannot use it with a PC. But don’t worry.
In this article, you will learn how to download and play The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for free on your PC using the Wii U Cemu emulator. And by using this emulator, you can easily play the game on Windows computer. Keep reading to find out how to play Legend of the Breath of the Wild Zelda on Windows.
How to play Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on PC
Several Legend of Zelda games were developed for the 3DO console in the 90s, but Nintendo does not develop Legend of Zelda games for other consoles.
So you can only play their games on PC if you use console emulation software. And, as a general rule, you need some or all of the following:
- You will need a working emulation application.
- You will also need the graphics and sound plugin files and a copy of the BIOS.
- Digital copy of game data.
- In addition, Emulators and games must be installed on a computer that meets the minimum requirements.
However, you don’t have the legal right to emulate a Legend of Zelda game just because you have everything you need technically.
So, before you start, you should do some more research.
Play Legend of Zelda with Cemu Emulator
1. The first step is to download Cemu, the Wii U emulator. But it is only compatible with the latest versions of Windows. Thus, you should always download the latest version.
2. It is difficult to estimate the requirements for a smooth game in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Several people are testing the game in 4K.
Usually our PCs need to be as powerful as possible. However, emulation glitches can affect even high-end computers.
So we know what are the minimum requirements for the Cemu emulator.
- Windows 7 or higher (always 64-bit).
- 4GB RAM or more recommended.
- Nvidia or AMD graphics card (Intel integrated chipsets usually fail).
3. Cemu will ask us to set up the command after it has been successfully run from the folder where we unpacked it.
So, we must enter the “Options”menu if we skipped this step. And select Input Settings.
4. Now you will see a window where you can set up the command. A touchscreen controller is included with the Nintendo Wii U. Touch features are not used in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Therefore, any standard controller will be able to work on our PC and we will use it. The controls will be assigned on this screen.
However, this is not recommended. Because we won’t be able to play the first minutes if we don’t use a game controller.
There should be no problems with setting up the controller. All we have to do is mark the boxes. Then we need to press the button of the command we want to assign.
Here we explain the terms of Cemu for those who don’t understand.
Main buttons and arrow bar:
We will assign the letters A/B/X/Y to the four main buttons to the right of the controller. d- will be an arrow keyboard.
In other words, “d-up”would be an “up”arrow. “D-down”would be a “down”arrow. And “D-left”would be “left”. And “D-correct”would be “correct”.
Control sticks:
The letter L- is assigned to the stick used to move the character. To move the stick up in “l-up”you must follow the same pattern as the arrow pad.
R- corresponds to the camera. There is also a hidden button at the bottom of each stick that clicks when pressed. Their functions are “l-click”and “r-click”.
Triggers:
On the top side of the control there are buttons labeled L and R, ZL and ZR.
Additional buttons:
The small buttons in the center of the command should be associated with the “+”and “-“symbols.
The middle one is usually larger than the rest and is used for system functions, not games.
6. Now, after setting up the command, all you need to do is use the “File”option.
And select “Load”and locate the image file we previously saved on our computer in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Some Important Tips
When you first start the Cemu game, you may see a message about compiling “shaders”.
And once you start playing the game, you will have to. However, this only happens once per game.
And, depending on the computer, this may temporarily affect performance. But don’t worry, as there is a way around this slight annoyance by loading shader caches uploaded by other users. This should not affect the gameplay in any way.
In addition, you can download “graphic packs”to enhance the header graphics. The community archive can be accessed by doing the following:
1. Select an option.
2. And select a graphics package.
3. Check the “Installed Games”box to only download packages for the games you already have.
4. And click “Download Latest Community Graphics Packs”.
And by clicking on the text of each option, you can see each description.
Is it legal to emulate The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild?
The practice of video game imitation has always been controversial. However, the creators are not embarrassed. Because it has little effect on their benefits. It’s also not as bad as actual piracy.
Sometimes this can be beneficial. However, the Nintendo Wii U is not very powerful. And it’s been four years now. So the support for Breath of the Wild took quite a bit of time.
And you already know that it is illegal to download copyrighted games from the Internet. Internet users are still being punished for this, although it’s strange to see them being punished for it.
However, you can easily download The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild from the Internet. Plus, it comes with a patch that you need to play on your PC most of the time.
Those of us with an official copy of the game should extract the image to our computer if we have one. But the process is still much more complicated even with the original disc at hand.
It would be legal and correct to test The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on our PCs only if we own the original game.
However, we can’t deny that emulation doesn’t harm video game creators as much as real piracy does. Moreover, even the creators themselves rarely talk about it.
And for sure, playing TLOZ: Breath of the Wild on PC won’t stop anyone from buying the unexpectedly successful Nintendo Switch. Because the experience on the emulator won’t even come close.
So, for most PC players, a few minutes is enough to satisfy their curiosity. But they won’t be able to finish a game of this caliber on an emulator.
Final words
That’s all about how to play Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on Windows PC. As we said earlier, playing this game on an emulator is not considered illegal. However, you will not get much pleasure. But you can still try and satisfy your gaming needs.