Ocarina of Time Remake Isn't a 1:1 Remake — And That's a Good Thing

Ever wondered what it'd be like to step back into Kokiri Forest for the very first time all over again? That's exactly what IGN got to do with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake — and what they found is way more than a fresh coat of paint.

Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma called this a "faithful interpretation" of the Nintendo 64 original, and that phrase stuck with IGN throughout their hour-plus hands-on. But faithful doesn't mean identical. This is far from a 1:1 remake. Familiar rooms now hold redesigned challenges that change how both the world and the player function. Old friends have new things to say, adding texture to Hyrule and its people. Updated controls and detailed art design redefine the old-school combat and puzzle solving for modern players. As IGN puts it: this remake isn't about scope, it's about depth.

Let's talk about how it looks and feels. This is the series' proper Nintendo Switch 2 debut (not counting last-gen upgrades or spinoffs), and the leap is immediately noticeable. Sunlight pokes through the trees, moss and mushrooms cling to withered bark, and Link's tunic is decorated with handwoven flourishes — all running at a crisp 60 fps. The forest's original MIDI theme gets a pleasant new performance that sounds like just a handful of real musicians. Hyrule has never felt more intimately realized.

The dialogue is a big part of that intimacy. A Castle Town citizen gawks at Link's outfit, treating him like a foreign outsider from the distant forest. The forest shopkeeper apologizes for empty shelves, blaming stubborn Kokiri ringleader Mido for blocking the path to the Great Deku Tree. And Mido? He still won't let anyone pass without a sword and shield — no matter how hard you try to juke him.

Here's where the redesign really shows. The old N64 challenge to reach the Kokiri Sword — a chest tucked in the back corner of a maze with a giant boulder — is gone. Now the chest sits on a high platform in the center of the room, with the boulder rolling around it. Why does that matter? On N64, that room taught you to recenter the camera with Z to avoid the boulder. That lesson is obsolete now that the right stick gives full camera control. Instead, since Link can jump with a button press, this room becomes your first required jump to reach the treasure. An outdated tutorial swapped for a newly relevant one.

Link himself feels excellent. His movement is immediately familiar to Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, with a dash, a jump, and snappy third-person gyro aiming for projectile weapons like the slingshot. IGN was running, leaping, and sniping spiders like a pro inside the Great Deku Tree. The remake also loves a logically constructed world — a floating N64 platform becomes a crumbling bridge actually built into the environment. In the Forest Temple, atmospheric fog blankets the ground as Adult Link hunts four ghosts, and while the layout is mostly unchanged, new cutscenes flesh out the dungeon's antagonists. After two open-world Zeldas, pushing blocks and collecting small keys feels like a welcome homecoming.

So, will you be picking this up when it launches? And if you've never played the N64 original, does this sound like the perfect first trip to Hyrule? Let us know in the comments.