Review: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake is superb, streamlined and safe
With its tale of an idyllic world despoiled by the lust for power, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time feels as relevant today as it did in 1998.
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it → despoil → 1998
Nintendo's new remake, out Thursday on the Switch 2, enshrines its place in the gaming canon for generations to come.
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remake → enshrine → generations
But despite its stupendous production values and painstaking details, the game left me feeling oddly bereft.
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game → leave → me
Perhaps I should have expected as much.
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I → expect → much
Ocarina of Time weaponizes nostalgia even within its narrative, as the protagonist Link ventures to save his post-apocalyptic world as an adult after first working through it as a kid.
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Link → weaponize → kid
You'll uncover old characters enduring new catastrophes.
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You → uncover → catastrophes
You'll try to rescue everyone you meet.
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you → try → everyone
You'll strive to bring things back to how they were before — no, better than they were before.
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they → strive → things
Seven years stretch between Link's childhood and adult adventures.
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years → stretch → adventures
28 years yawn between the remake and the original's release.
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years → yawn → remake
Both in and out of the game, Ocarina of Time makes us yearn for an idealized past.
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us → make → past
How it plays
Decent remakes evoke how you remember a game rather than re-create dated controls and chunky graphics.
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you → play → controls
In myriad small ways, Nintendo has brought Ocarina of Time up to contemporary standards while (mostly) preserving its soul.
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Nintendo → bring → soul
I miss the thoughtfully-composed camera angles from the original, but quickly got used to the over-the-shoulder camera the remake employs (though I was irked that it abandoned the top-down view when you sneak into Hyrule Castle).
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you → miss → Castle
The new jump and sprint buttons made navigating the world feel more natural.
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navigating → sprint → world
Combat's smoother too, though it's still not easy to switch between targeted enemies (unlike modern third-person games like Elden Ring, where you can toggle between foes by simply flicking the right stick).
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you → switch → stick
You can, thankfully, swap between items in a quick menu — the same system introduced to the series in 2023's Tears of the Kingdom and continued in 2024's Echoes of Wisdom.
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You → swap → Wisdom
It's still not as fast as I'd wish (I'd have preferred a customizable wheel), but I vastly prefer it to constantly pausing to access my equipment.
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I → wish → equipment
It made it easy to change my strategy on the fly.
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it → make → fly
I'd often cast Naryu's Love and deploy Bombchus, for example, where before I'd mostly stick to the Longshot and Bow.
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I → cast → Longshot
If you get stuck, a new "Threads of Time" quest log can point you in the right direction (though you'll likely still need to look up a guide for the convoluted Biggoron Sword quest!).
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you → get → quest
Inflation's hit Hyrule.
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Inflation → hit → Hyrule
While wallets can now carry double the cash that they used to, Great Fairy upgrades are no longer free.
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upgrades → carry → that
They can cost up to 500 rupees!
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They → cost → rupees
How it feels
It's the remake's aesthetic changes that stand out most.
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that → feel → ?
The game's astonishingly ornate textures can jar with its cartoony proportions.
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textures → jar → proportions
Ninety-eight percent of the time the translation is a clear upgrade, but other times it leads straight into the uncanny valley (Nabooru looks bizarrely yassified with huge red lips and golden eye-shadow, for example).
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Nabooru → lead → example
The animations are much more extensive — so much so that the new cutscenes, particularly in the game's opening hours, can drag down the pacing.
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cutscenes → drag → pacing
The game also fleshes out unspoken implications and flattens rough edges.
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game → flesh → edges
Mido, the jerk who blocks your progress in Kokiri Forest, has been subtly rewritten from bully to overbearing but well-intentioned boss.
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who → block → boss
Kaepora Gaebora, the talking owl who guides your path, won't repeat himself at the slightest provocation.
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who → talk → provocation
Navi, your fairy companion, no longer chimes in with an incessant "Hey! Listen!"
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Navi → chime → Listen
Such changes risk eroding the game's character.
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changes → risk → character
Still, it ultimately stands as one of the most faithful adaptations I've seen — less than the Demon's Souls remake but far more than the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy or even the Resident Evil 4 remake.
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I → stand → trilogy
It gives me hope that Ocarina of Time's surreal sequel, Majora's Mask, could receive such treatment in the future.
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sequel → give → future
Yet this remake will never eclipse my memories of the first Ocarina of Time.
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remake → eclipse → Time
Of course it couldn't — that game helped launch a new 3D era and defined the childhoods of a whole generation.
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game → help → generation
Where once it innovated, now it represents the safest of safe bets.
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it → innovate → bets
But by lavishing such attention on an all-time classic — ahead of a Zelda movie next year — Nintendo has ensured it won't go out of style for at least another few decades.
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it → lavish → decades
I look forward to sharing it with my nephews and, eventually, my own toddling son.
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I → look → nephews
…and 1 more, not listed.
The Aporia
