Triforge's second trailer shows off 3D maps and built-in Zelda mods

Independent developer LeJiww has shared a second trailer for Triforge, showing off interactive 3D world maps, 21:9 ultrawide support, and two built-in expansion mods for The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.

First revealed on October 25, Triforge is a native PC game engine rather than an emulator (and despite the phrasing in the original announcement, it has nothing to do with NEC's TurboGrafx-16 hardware). It's a pretty exciting project. LeJiww built it by taking snesrev's zelda3 C reverse-engineering codebase and porting it line by line into C# using .NET and MonoGame. Because it distributes zero Nintendo assets, you'll have to supply your own legally obtained Super Nintendo ROM to extract the sprites, audio, and data.

Pulling the camera back over Hyrule

The biggest visual trick in the new footage is how the engine handles the overworld map. Instead of swapping to a flat mode-7 style overview, the camera pulls straight back from Link into an interactive, full-overworld 3D view rendered with native game tiles, real-time lighting, and moving clouds. Players can toggle between the Original map, a Parchment style, and this Real World 3D perspective.

Standard gameplay supports both 16:9 widescreen and 21:9 ultrawide aspect ratios, alongside 21 pixel-art upscaling filters and retro shaders that mimic CRT monitors, Game Boy screens, and worn VHS tapes. Optional HD water reflections, lantern light halos, and moving cloud shadows can all be toggled in real time while playing. Even with the visual upgrades turned on and display output unlocked for high-refresh monitors up to 160Hz or higher, the underlying game logic stays locked at 60 frames per second so physics, timings, and classic speedrun glitches behave identically to the 1991 Super Famicom release.

Two built-in mods and a busy Kakariko blacksmith

Triforge will ship with two major mods included out of the box to show off its C# modding API: Living World and Extended+. Living World adds a 24-hour day and night cycle, dynamic lighting, weather systems covering rain, snow, and fog, plus seasonal changes across the map.

Extended+ turns the 16-bit adventure into something closer to a modern RPG. Nighttime brings tougher monster spawns, and defeated enemies drop crafting materials like bones, crystals, linen, and recipes. "In Kakariko, the smith learns your recipes and forges your spoils into gear," the trailer's in-game text explains. You can also haul monster parts to the Witch's cauldron to brew potions and elemental bombs. I'm curious whether a full crafting economy will break the tight pacing of the original dungeon crawl, though it's completely optional if you just want a vanilla playthrough.

Those additions sit alongside the features announced last week, which include an in-game map editor, support for hundreds of community .zspr character sprites, custom MSU-1 music pack mixing, and a built-in randomizer compatible with alttpr.com seed rules. LeJiww hasn't put a firm release date on Triforge yet, ending the seven-minute showcase with a "coming soon" tag.