The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild can now be played at 4K on a jailbroken PlayStation 5. The project behind it is PS5CEMU-HAR, which adapts Cemu, the reference Wii U emulator, to run directly on Sony’s console hardware and, in the case of Nintendo’s title, reaches 3840 x 2160 pixels with a stable 30 FPS.
What PS5CEMU-HAR is
PS5CEMU-HAR does not rewrite the emulator from scratch: it is an adaptation of Cemu that takes advantage of the homebrew available on jailbroken PS5 consoles. The build also bundles Azahar, the Nintendo 3DS emulator we have already seen reach other platforms, so a single package covers two Nintendo consoles. According to the project itself, most of the Wii U games it has tested are already playable, with video, sound, controls and save files working.
On the graphics side everything goes through Vulkan, via the PS5 port of the open-source RADV driver. The DualSense controller can be used directly, and its touchpad can stand in for the Wii U GamePad screen.
How Zelda runs on PS5 hardware
Cemu’s choice fits the console’s architecture: the emulator uses its x64 recompiler and the PS5 packs an AMD CPU with Zen 2 cores, the same x86-64 family it was designed for. Render resolution reaches 3840 x 2160 pixels, with several scaling filters and output of up to 120 Hz on compatible displays, though hitting 120 FPS in-game is another story.
The demo that has been circulating shows Breath of the Wild at 4K and 30 FPS. A 60 FPS patch has also been tried in Cemu: with it applied, performance sits around 40 FPS and stability problems appear, so the recommendation is to stay with the 30 FPS experience. On top of that, PS5CEMU-HAR bundles the Cemu community Graphic Packs, the ecosystem that has been polishing the emulator on PC for years and that is what allows it to go well beyond the original Wii U’s visual limits.
What else it can run
Although Zelda is the showcase, the project goes beyond a single game. It is designed to run much of the Wii U catalogue in WUA, WUD/WUX or uncompressed formats, supports installing updates and DLC, allows up to four-player sessions and emulates several Wii U controllers. The work builds on Cemu, which already has a place on other consoles: the Cemu-nx port brought the emulator to Nintendo Switch.
Nintendo emulation keeps moving
The ironic part is where this happens. Nintendo managed to shut down Yuzu and Ryujinx, the two best-known Switch emulators, but development has not stopped: it has shifted to other platforms. One of the company’s most iconic titles now runs on the hardware of its main historical rival, using the Wii U version rather than the Switch emulators that fell. The requirement is still the same: a PS5 with jailbreak and patience, because the project does not promise full compatibility and every title behaves differently.
