Link, the Hero of Time, adult and newly awakened from a seven-year magical sleep.
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With its story of an idyllic world stripped by the lust for power, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time feels as relevant today as it did in 1998. Nintendo’s remake, released Thursday on Switch 2, enshrines its place in the gaming canon for generations to come. But despite its great production values and painstaking detail, the game left me feeling strangely helpless.
Maybe I should have waited so long. Ocarina of time uses nostalgia as a weapon even within its narrative, as protagonist Link ventures out to save his post-apocalyptic world as an adult after first working on it as a child. You will discover old characters who endure new catastrophes. You will try to rescue everyone you find. You will strive to make things go back to the way they were before; no, better than they were before.
Seven years span between Link’s childhood adventures and adulthood. 28 years yawn between the remake and the release of the original. Both in and out of the game, Ocarina of time It makes us long for an idealized past.
how to play
Decent remakes evoke how remember a game instead of recreating dated controls and chunky graphics. In countless small ways, Nintendo has contributed Ocarina of time up to contemporary standards while preserving (for the most part) its soul.
In one of the game’s most touching scenes, young Link answers the call to adventure, leaving his friend Saria and the Kokiri Forest they called home.
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I miss the carefully composed camera angles of the original, but I quickly got used to the over-the-shoulder camera the remake employs (although I was annoyed that it abandoned the top-down view when you sneak into Hyrule Castle). New jump and sprint buttons made navigating the world more natural. Combat is also more fluid, although it’s still not easy to switch between specific enemies (unlike modern third-person games like Elden Ringwhere you can switch between enemies by simply moving the right stick).
Fortunately, you can switch between items in a quick menu – the same system introduced in the series in 2023. Tears of the Kingdom and continued in 2024 Echoes of wisdom. It’s still not as fast as I’d like (I would have preferred a customizable wheel), but I prefer it to constantly pausing to access my computer. It made it easy for me to change my strategy on the fly. I often cast Naryu’s Love and deploy Bombchus, for example, whereas before I mainly stuck to Longshot and Bow.
The villainous Ganondorf, on the brink of his initial triumph over Princess Zelda, Link, and all of Hyrule.
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If you get stuck, a new “Threads of Time” quest log can point you in the right direction (although you’ll probably still need to find a guide for the tricky ones). Quest for Biggoron’s Sword!). And yes, the notoriously frustrating Water Temple is much more tolerable this time around. But be careful with your rupees! Inflation hits Hyrule. While wallets can now carry twice as much cash as before, Great Fairy upgrades are no longer free. They can cost up to 500 rupees!
how does it feel
It is the aesthetic changes of the remake that stand out the most. The game’s strikingly ornate textures can clash with its cartoonish proportions. Ninety-eight percent of the time the translation is a clear improvement, but other times it leads directly to the uncanny valley (Nabooru looks oddly yasified with huge red lips and gold eyeshadow, for example.)
The Gerudo thief Nabooru, flanked by the malicious witches Kotake and Koume.
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The animations are much longer, to the point that new cutscenes, especially in the game’s opening hours, can slow down the pace. The game also fleshes out unspoken implications and smoothes out rough edges. Mido, the jerk who blocks your progress in Kokiri Forest, has been subtly rewritten from bully to overbearing but well-intentioned boss. Kaepora Gaebora, the talking owl who guides your path, will not repeat itself at the slightest provocation. Navi, your fairy companion, no longer chimes in with an incessant “Hey! Listen!”
These changes risk eroding the character of the game. Still, ultimately, it remains one of the most faithful adaptations I’ve seen, short of the demon souls remake but much more than the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy or even the Resident Evil 4 redo. It gives me hope that Ocarina of timeThe surreal sequel, Majora’s Maskcould receive such treatment in the future.
Sheik, Link’s ally in the fight against Ganondorf, displays one of the many songs you’ll play by pressing buttons or humming directly into the Switch 2’s microphone.
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However, this new version will never eclipse my memories of the first. Ocarina of time. Of course it couldn’t: that game helped launch a new 3D era and defined the childhood of an entire generation. Where it once innovated, it now represents the safest of safe bets.
But by lavishing so much attention on an all-time classic (before a zelda movie next year: Nintendo has made sure it doesn’t go out of style for at least a few more decades. I hope to share it with my nephews and eventually my own young son. as much as me detest Although the media giants can’t seem to top the hits of yesteryear, it’s worth going back in time for some harmonies.
