A fan of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has made a real-life prosthetic version of Link’s arm from the game. A new gameplay element in Tears of the Kingdom revolves around Link’s ability to manipulate the world around him with various powers like Ultrahand, which can maneuver objects and attach them together, or Ascend, which allows Link to move through solid objects above him. The new abilities are made possible after Link’s arm is replaced with a new, magically-imbued appendage.
At the start of Tears of the Kingdom, Link has his right arm replaced with the arm of a legendary figure from deep in Hyrule’s past. The arm grants Link various abilities that allow him to manipulate the world around him to his whims. Whether it’s making a killer mech or passing straight through solid walls to bypass platforming challenges, Link’s blackened and decayed new arm act as a cornerstone to not only the game’s story but the gameplay itself.
A member of the Tears of the Kingdom subreddit who goes by Fullmetalharmony has made a real version of Link’s magical arm. Fullmetalharomny requires the use of a prosthetic right arm and likes incorporating the prosthetic into their cosplay projects whenever possible. It seems Link’s new arm in Tears of the Kingdom was too good of an opportunity to pass up. With the press of a button, a circle on the back of the prosthetic's hand lights up. In the comments, Fullmetalharomny clarifies that the movement of the fingers, which are themselves designed to perfectly match Link’s blackened and bestial fingers in the game, are not programmed to move independently. Fullmetalharomny moves the fingers in accordance with muscle movements in their arm.
Except for a few more rings on the fingers, Fullmetalharomny’s custom Tears of The Kingdom-inspired prosthetic arm is a near-perfect recreation of the one in the game. Fullmetalharomny won’t be using a magical energy beam to combine ancient pieces of technology into a disco ball that triggers a Hyrulian rave party anytime soon, but it’s mightily impressive nonetheless.
So many players have been inspired to use the tools and systems in Tears of the Kingdom to create some wildly impressive devices. But fans like Fullmetalharomny prove that creativity does not end when they try to break that creativity out to the real world to turn what was once fantasy into reality.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is available on Nintendo Switch.