Ocarina of Time Remake Suggestions

Back in May I talked about how a full re-imagining of Ocarina of Time could look like. Well, from the little footage we've got, it's too early to tell whether the upcoming Ocarina of Time for Nintendo Switch 2 will be like that, or more of a faithful remake, where they reuse the game's code and simply wrap a modern graphics engine and some shiny new cutscenes around it (like they did with the new Star Fox).

Whatever might be the case, I took some notes while replaying the Nintendo 64 classic for things that they should improve either way, going beyond what they already have done with the Nintendo 3DS version. This will be a long list, so you have to hit the "read more" button.

 

Seamless Hyrule

One of the most impressive novelties about Breath of the Wild was how it made its game world completely seamless, with the exception of the shrines and Divine Beasts. And with a small and simple game world as that in Ocarina of Time, it's really the least that they should try here. Make me walk into Hyrule Castle Town from Hyrule Field with no loading transitions and no changes to a fixed camera.

Time should potentially even progress despite your location. But that idea would certainly go beyond the scope of a simple remake, because they would need to implement proper movements for all the characters to switch places between day and night. But it would certainly be funny to see how lots of dogs suddenly swarm Hyrule Castle Town at nightfall.

The day cycle should also last much longer, in any case, because it was ridiculously short in the original, making the Gold Skulltula hunt a bit annoying at times. And it really can break the immersion with how fast the sun and moon fly through the sky.

 

Freedom of Choice

A lot of people believe Ocarina of Time to be a completely linear Zelda game, but this is far from the truth. Especially in the game's second half, you can go almost everywhere right away and experiment a bit with the order of the five temples. However, there is some unnecessary gatekeeping here and there. And by simply removing certain obstacles, you could already offer a much more open experience.

The first of these obstacles would be the boulders at the entrance to the Zora River, which prevent you from going to the Zoras before the Gorons for no real reason. You don't need the Bombs anywhere else in the area, not even inside Jabu-Jabu's Belly, and the N64 original was scripted in such a way that you could obtain the two remaining Spiritual Stones in any order. So, why shouldn't you?

You still need Zelda's Lullaby to enter Zora's Domain, so this already serves the same purpose as Zelda's Letter. You need to go to the castle first and talk to Princess Zelda, before you can proceed in the area. (And please don't make Kaepora Gaebora tell you this each time you enter the Zora River, until you've figured it out.)

Well, if they also bring back the Master Quest variant of the game, then they probably should re-add those boulders in that mode, because you actually need the Bombs inside Jabu-Jabu's Belly and don't want to run into a dead end there.

But this brings us to the next obstacle, which creates a number of such dead ends for adult Link in the temples: random eye switches late in the dungeon, which require the Fairy Bow. Both the Water Temple and the Spirit Temple do this, where in case of the Spirit Temple you really only need the bow to acquire the Boss Key.

To be fair, it's not a real problem with the Spirit Temple, because you will need the Eye of Truth to even get there. And in order to get the Eye of Truth, you need to beat the Forest Temple first, so that Sheik moves out of the way in the Temple of Time.

But that's another blockade that should be loosened in the remake. Why does it specifically have to be the Forest Temple and Saria? Having awakened any of the sages should make Sheik happy and let you time travel. Even the dialogue at this point starts with a vague sentence:

You destroyed the wicked
creatures that haunted the temple
and awakened the Sage...
But there are still other Sages
who need your help.

Let's make use of this vagueness and allow for Darunia and Ruto to be the trigger as well. With the former there doesn't really stand anything in the way. The Fairy Bow opens a shortcut to get to the Dungeon Map, but it's not actually required for anything.

In case of the Water Temple, there are two eye switches that will raise gratings on a timer. One is at the end of the winding vortex tunnel and here they could simply replace it with a crystal switch. With the other one in the central chamber it's a bit trickier, because this one prevents you from entering a certain area while it's flooded:

But that might not be necessarily a problem either, because all you do there is push a block around. Also, in the early temple you're asked to light two torches with arrows, but you can easily skip this puzzle with Din's Fire.

So, with some very subtle tweaks you could already enter and complete the first three temples in any order. If you let Sheik react to any of these and also replace the one eye switch in the Spirit Temple, then you will be able to play that temple right after the Water Temple. You could have a journey like the following:

1. Water Temple
2. Spirit Temple
3. Fire Temple
4. Forest Temple
5. Shadow Temple 

Of course, all these variations won't matter much, unless there are some interesting advantages from getting certain items earlier. Using the Longshot in the Forest Temple is a good example here, but you could already do this before by leaving the Water Temple halfway through... Maybe this is where the Sage Medaillons could offer some all-new perks, but that this would go beyond the scope of this article.

 

Traversing Hyrule

Having more freedom in where you can go doesn't necessarily make you want to go out of your way. Unlike most Zelda games, Ocarina of Time doesn't have a straightforward teleportation system, with some selectable points on your map. There are only six warp points and you will need to learn a different song for each of them... In addition, traveling through Hyrule Field is quite slow and dull, until you have freed Epona, for which you have to become an adult first.

Well, there is a simple way to make Hyrule Field already more engaging in the early game: let young Link ride Epona as well. He does it in Majora's Mask, after all. Sure, he is a bit older in the sequel, where he can also use items like the Hero's Bow and Hookshot, but it wouldn't be much of an issue to allow him to ride Epona already.

Quite the opposite. This would let them truly bond already, to create a real friendship between the fairy boy and the foal. When you return to Hyrule in seven years, Epona could have been captured and be confined at the Lon Lon Ranch, where you have to race Ingo to free her again. But after having spent more time with Epona as a child, this would make this moment even more impactful.

This would even be the perfect advertisement for the remake. Nintendo should open their first gameplay demonstration with young Link riding through Hyrule Field, leaving an impression with the long-time fans.

However, while Epona makes exploring Hyrule Field a lot more fun, there are still some routes that you have to travel again and again just to get to certain places, because they have neither a warp point, nor some other shortcut.

One of these places is the Gerudo Fortress. The fastest way to return there is to warp to Lake Hylia, call Epona, and then ride the way through Gerudo Canyon. And that's not exactly convenient. An alternative, without completely changing the game's teleportation system, would be adding another one of those portals, which could lead back from the Desert Colossus into the Gerudo Fortress. It should also be blocked by those heavy, grey rocks, preventing you from using this shortcut before ever getting to the Spirit Temple, or as young Link.

This would be similar to the portal from the Lost Woods to Goron City, where first you need to reach it from the other side to open the way with Bomb Flowers. Speaking of, the Lost Woods create a whole network of these portals, quickly connecting Goron City to Zora's Domain, where you have another of these portals right into Lake Hylia.

Maybe they could expand this network even further by adding a portal between the Lost Woods and the Hyrule Castle (Town). Again, this portal should only be accessible once you've reached the town normally. It could be blocked by rocks, or maybe there is a gate on the other end and you have to bribe a guard to permanently open it.

In any case, it would be nice to have another shortcut back into the woods, because the remake may potentially be missing one of original game's method of fast travel: save warping. If you save your game and reset your Nintendo 64, then you will end up either at your house as young Link or at the Temple of Time as adult Link, unless you're in a dungeon.

That's a rather archaic system, where Link's Awakening already did things better on the Game Boy years before Ocarina of Time. In the very least they could adopt the same system, where it saves at the latest entrance / exit, or they could even let you save on the spot, like the modern 3D Zelda games.

Either way, you probably won't be able to return to your house with a simple on and off, meaning that there needs to be a good shortcut back into the forest. This will be especially helpful with the whole mask quest, which brings us to the next topic...

 

Magic Masks (and Boots)

The Happy Mask Shop was a precursor to one of the central gameplay elements in Majora's Mask, where it's practically begging to receive some of the goodness from the sequel. And the most obvious approach is giving the masks some additional effects:

• Keaton Mask: cutting grass yields more Rupees
• Skull Mask: Keese and Guays won't attack, Stalchildren won't spawn
• Spooky Mask: Redeads and Gibdos won't attack
• Bunny Hood: increased walking speed
• Goron Mask: no damage from explosives
• Zora Mask: increased swimming speed
• Gerudo Mask: Leevers won't spawn

This way you'll have an incentive to be using these masks for more than just some altered interactions. Once you've tried the masks on all the different people, there is no real reason to ever use them again in subsequent playthroughs, especially with the Goron, Zora and Gerudo masks. And some of these perks already existed in the game, even.

Preventing Stalchildren from spawning, for example, was originally a perk of the Bunny Hood. But it makes thematically more sense for the Skull Mask to do so, in addition to its protection from the annoying flying enemies.

Anyway, these are all just some smaller perks to make these masks a little more interesting. Nothing game-breaking, but useful enough to wear them in certain situations. The only exception is the Bunny Hood, which was a top tier mask in Majora's Mask with that speed increase. Some players are going to use this all the time once they have it.

But that's another issue: you will probably just pick the most useful effect and then never use any of the other masks, because switching between them is simply too inconvenient... Unless you were allowed to carry more than one in the remake! Once you've completed a trade, you should be allowed to purchase each mask for your own collection. 

The remake could even introduce a quick inventory changing menu via the D-pad, which lets you switch between the masks on the fly, without the need to assign them to any buttons. The same system then could be used to switch boots as adult Link, probably even using the exact same button.

They even could introduce some additional boots. For example, there could be the Pegasus Boots (for the first time in a 3D game) as an equivalent to the Bunny Hood. And with Snow Boots you would be able to walk on ice without slipping, similar to the Snowshoe Ring or the Ice Spikes from the top-down games, but maybe at the loss of some speed. While the Iron Boots can already do this for you, they make you too slow to be useful in this way.

 

Gossip Stones Goals

Going back to the masks, the point still stands that the altered interactions are only really interesting for the first time and easily ignored on subsequent playthroughs. And with the Gossip Stones this becomes even more apparent, because you really have to go out of your way to read them all, mainly because you are not able to obtain the Mask of Truth before gathering all three Spiritual Stones.

For example, there is a Gossip Stone found inside Dodongo's Cavern. Or, there are two very obscurely placed ones at the southern edge of Lake Hylia.

Locating all 32 Gossip Stones and reading their trivia was certainly a worthwhile task back in the 90s, but it's not exactly engaging today, especially if you have played Ocarina of Time before and already know all these hints and lore details.

However, in today's times things automatically become more engaging once there are checkmarks... The Gossip Stones could be glowing blue once you've read them, maybe even be marked on your map, but then you would only be reading them again for the sake of 100%. So, maybe activating Gossip Stones with the Mask of Truth will lead to additional rewards, like a new Piece of Heart, or more capacity upgrades. As long as those rewards aren't just more Rupees, it will be fine, because...

 

Rupees 

...are useless in Ocarina of Time. The only thing you will ever need to buy are the Deku Shield and ten Magic Beans for less than 600 Rupees. You can also buy potions and Bombchus, but other than that there is rarely a reason to be spending Rupees in the game.

The masks could be a start. If you want them all in your inventory, you should have to purchase them (instead of renting) and the Happy Mask Salesman could make the later additions costly. Want that Gerudo Mask? How about 400 Rupees? Things like additional boots could be shop-exclusive as well. As long as there is something to finally waste your Rupees on, it will be fine.

At the same time they should increase the sizes of the different wallets to the same levels as in The Wind Waker HD. So, you should start with a maximum of 500 Rupees and then increase it to 1000 and 5000 Rupees respectively. As little Rupees as you actually need for everything, the restricted wallets can be somewhat annoying in the early game, urging you to return to the bean seller regularly to not let go anything to waste.

 

Engaging Combat 

Having more usage for Rupees could potentially already help with one of the biggest issues in Ocarina of Time: combat is simply not fun, nor is it rewarding. Most of the enemies were designed to be annoying, so you can't just easily ignore them, but often that's still the best way to go. So, you may only fight enemies when you really have to, whether it's to open a door or spawn a treasure chest.

In dungeons enemies will respawn each time you change a room, which quickly negates any previous efforts. It would already help if enemies were to stay down longer, maybe even until you leave the dungeon, just to give you the cleared space.

Ideally, the combat itself would be more fun mechanically. Maybe they could introduce a shield bash, which staggers certain enemies after attacking you, like the Stalfos, Lizalfos, or Gerudo. There's generally quite a bit from later Zelda games that they could incorporate here, or maybe they could even come up with something fresh.

What certainly could use a major upgrade is the horse combat, or the lack thereof. All you could do is use your bow, where this is completely boring compared to Twilight Princess. In the very least, let us swing our swords while riding. And maybe add some more monsters to the field while they are at it...

Inventory and Controls

Ocarina of Time 3D already had improved a couple of things when it comes to managing your inventory, like making the Iron and Hover Boots assignable items, but it couldn't utilize a full a modern controller. Here is a suggestion of how the default control scheme could look like:

• A: actions / roll / dodge
• B: sword
• X, Y, R: assignable items
• L: item quick select
• ZR: shield
• ZR: target 
• Right stick: free camera controls
• Right stick button: switch to first person view
• D-pad up: play Ocarina
• D-pad left: toggle Lens of Truth
• D-pad down: equip masks / boots 

The goal here is to reduce how often you need to open the menu, ideally never. Like on the Nintendo 3DS, the Ocarina should definitely get its own button, so it doesn't block one of the assignable spaces. And the same is true for the Lens of Truth. It's a completely passive item that you need somewhat regularly in the later game, but you always had to make space for it on your buttons. And it's not something that you need to have on your face buttons, like the bow, because you're simply turning it on and off. So, having a dedicated space for it on the D-pad would certainly make things more convenient.

Looking at the classic item selection, there are a number of items that really don't need to be there. The biggest offender are easily the Magic Beans. They should go into the status screen and simply alter the interaction with the soft soils into a prompt. You press A and it will ask you whether you want to plant them or not.

The Magic Arrows should be combined with the Fairy Bow, but not like how it was done in Ocarina of Time 3D. Instead, do it like in The Wind Waker HD, where you can just quickly switch between them while using the bow. Maybe with the L button.

So, together with the ocarina and the lens, those are already six of the 24 items eliminated. As mentioned above, both the masks and boots can probably also be quickly changed via the D-pad. Just like the Eye of Truth, these are simple "on and off" items and nothing that needs to be on one of those valuable slots on the main buttons.

Three items are exclusive to either young or adult Link, which means that there should be at most 10 different items to switch between, plus the four bottles. And this can be achieved with a quick selection, where you hold down the L button and then just select and swap your items on the fly. No need to open a whole menu. The bottles could even get their own quick select.

The Biggoron's Sword could also become one of the assignable items, like the Great Fairy's Sword in Majora's Mask, so you can quickly switch between combat styles, without the need to go into your inventory. The only things that still requires this would be changing your shield and armor, but you only do this when going into different areas. Well, maybe you need to swap shields somewhat more often as young Link, since this also alters your combat style...

 

Unfreeze Zora's Domain

You know you want it. You know you need it. Well, there was a practical reason as to why you never get to see Zora's Domain thawing, despite breaking the curse: you still need access to the Ice Cavern and the Piece of Heart on one of the ice floes. One of the Gold Skulltulas might also be tricky to obtain without the waterfall being frozen.

But there could be other ways around this. Maybe they just leave the ice at Zora's Fountain, but return Zora's Domain to normal and reposition that Skulltula a bit, for the least friction. Or, they could be ambitious and upgrade the Ice Arrows, so that they create platforms on the ice, like in the original Majora's Mask, and maybe even temporarily freeze that waterfall again. That would be something.

 

Conclusion

Whether Ocarina of Time for the Nintendo Switch 2 is going to be a faithful remake or a complete re-imagining, there is a ton of things that can be improved upon from the Nintendo 64 and 3DS originals. Hopefully, it will make good use of all this potential to make one of the best games of all time truly shine again.