Review: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake

No game’s perfect, but The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time gets pretty close. The Nintendo 64 action-adventure juggernaut has long been the highest rated game on review aggregator Metacritic. When developer Grezzo remastered it for the Nintendo 3DS in 2011 as The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, they stuck to the tried-and-true philosophy of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Nintendo’s latest take on the classic mostly follows in the same footsteps, though this time, it’s remade from the ground-up with smoother gameplay, reimagined visuals, and modest changes to the whole experience. No remaster or remake can fully replace an original so influential, but The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for Nintendo Switch 2 is the N64 masterpiece at its most polished and enjoyable.

Within the woodlands of Hyrule live the Kokiri, a tribe of children protected by fairies and the guardian of the forest, the Great Deku Tree. However, there is one among the Kokiri who doesn’t have a fairy companion. This strange boy, Link, wakes up one day to find a fairy named Navi has come to him, and that it is his fate to save Hyrule from the evil Ganondorf. Entrusted with this duty by the Great Deku Tree, Link and Navi embark on a journey across the land to gain the power of the legendary Triforce and prevent Ganondorf’s twisted ambitions from ever seeing the light of day.

Ocarina of Time perfects the hero’s journey. Like The Lord of the Rings or The Odyssey, Link’s quest is both exciting and harrowing. A quiet life becomes a fantastical adventure overnight, and a call to destiny soon becomes a fight against great evil. Hyrule feels like it’s ripped out of a fairytale, and all the races and people that populate it have their roles to play as the world turns. The lively atmosphere is a harsh contrast to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s desolation, though it doesn’t shy away from danger and maturity either. It’s a timeless tale of courage against the odds that’ll remind longtime fans why they fell in love with the series to begin with.

The remake’s fully-voiced cutscenes, character redesigns, and dazzling art style bring the story to life like never before. Matt Mercer reprises his role as Ganondorf after The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, and his character feels more active and alive than in the original, much like the rest of the cast. The redesigns of Link and Princess Zelda emphasize youthfulness and their elvish features, making them feel right at home in a more mystical and colorful Hyrule. The real standout of the cast is Navi, who’s much more likable than in the original thanks to her new, cheery voice and far fewer interruptions during gameplay.

As Link, players will explore every corner of Hyrule, brave dungeons, purge its evils, and gather all sorts of treasures and tools before meeting Ganondorf with sword in hand. Three of the biggest changes to gameplay in the remake are full camera control, a dedicated jump button, and the ability to dash. None of these were in the 3DS remaster, making them brand new additions unique to the remake. All three changes give players more freedom and fix issues such as jumping being automated and unwieldy in the original. Items are also easier to equip and switch between, and a host of small changes have been made to puzzles like the Kokiri Sword trial and areas across Hyrule for the sake of accessibility.

Nearly every change is unintrusive, and newcomers may even be convinced that this is how the game has always been with how seamless it all is. As memorable as rolling around Hyrule Field as young Link was, dashing is much more natural. As unique as some of the original’s archaic design choices were, the luxury of full camera control and gyro aiming is hard to resist. Annoyances in dungeon design that fans learned to live with have since been ironed out. The adventure is easier this time around because of it, but jank was one of the few flaws holding the original back.

As amazing as the open-world era has been, Ocarina of Time is the Zelda series at its most concise and tasteful. Progression is natural, and dungeons like the Forest Temple are crafted meticulously to be as well-paced and entertaining as can be. There’s also a surprising amount of variety in quests, NPCs, and towns for such an old game, and a game world that hides secrets around every corner. The sword-and-shield combat is simple but cinematic, with more visible hit feedback and visual effects in the remake lending battles a ton of weight. Between the inherent quality of the original game’s design and the remake’s improvements, Ocarina of Time’s gameplay is now polished to a T.

However, all of the other changes pale in comparison to the revamped visuals. The original’s blurriness and rough polygons are a relic of the past, never to be dug up again. The Switch 2 remake features modern lighting, hyper-detailed environments, and a fully-realized art style not restricted by weak hardware. The 60fps performance in both docked and handheld is a dream, and in exchange for occasional loading screens, players are treated to some of the best image quality and visuals seen from Nintendo yet. Ocarina of Time’s world is now twice as inviting and twice as beautiful than before.

Stunning sunsets, rolling hills, and emerald waters make places like Hyrule Field—a wasteland held up by imagination in the original—seem like a playground in paradise. Towns have more NPCs out and about, and Lon Lon Ranch is integrated into the game world instead of seeming like its own thing. Dungeons feel isolated as they should, but they also seem like real places with history etched into their walls. Some of the unsettling horror of the original’s darker areas is lost, but the remake’s visual face-lift grants it the color, detail, and life that the original only has when viewed with rose-tinted glasses.

Along with the less eerie atmosphere, fans of the original may also lament that players can no longer choose Link’s name and that there’s only one save file per profile. Name customization was likely removed to make voice-acting possible—we may never see it in a Zelda game again—but there has been some backlash for Nintendo repeatedly opting for a single save file per user instead of allowing for multiple. Many may take no offense to it, but it’s a small oddity to keep in mind. Something else to consider is that the game is generally easier than past iterations due to all of the changes made to its design and controls. The final third ramps up in challenge, but it’s a mostly frictionless 20-30 hour experience. The brisk pacing and tight gameplay are actually enhanced by a smoother ride, but everyone has their own views when it comes to difficulty.

Throughout the years, countless people have likely wondered why Ocarina of Time is so special, and the Switch 2 remake makes the answer clear as day. The Legend of Zelda has always been about adventure: about a young Shigeru Miyamoto who once left the comfort of the indoors behind for the thrill of wandering in nature. Ocarina of Time gives players a second chance to be that kid who can explore a wonderland of make-believe and be the hero that they can never be. Gaming has evolved to tell complex stories and turn escapism on its head, but at the end of the day, a medium built around fun can only be ruled by a game that’s as fun as it gets.

The Switch 2 remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is the legendary classic touched up to live up to its reputation, making it impossible to put down. It’s lucky to be working with such quality material, but Nintendo had the unenviable task of making a near-perfect game even better—and they pulled it off. Not all of its changes are incredible in isolation, but together, they bring a masterpiece up to speed with modern sensibilities. It sounds too good to be true, but a lot of people are going to wake up on 5th November to find that Christmas has come early this year and that the childlike spark in their eyes went nowhere—it was just waiting to see Hyrule once again.

10/10

A copy of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was provided by Nintendo UK for the purposes of this review.