Yesterday was weird, because I've spent like eight hours writing about the remake and maybe 90 minutes of playing... But it's a good sign that I have so much to say, and I wouldn't want to miss doing this. Anyway, in the little time I had left, I went to Kakariko Village and have done some good old grave-digging in the night. It was also the grand opening of the Happy Mask Shop.
After a bit of an odyssey, this fancy controller has finally found an owner. I've began to worry that I would miss out, but after contacting Nintendo's support four times, a package got finally delivered today. The post sent my initial delivery back last Friday on their own accord, because the shipping box was damaged. And that's fine, because I wouldn't want to receive a damaged item or an empty package.
But after messaging Nintendo's support, they first had to ask me whether I wanted a refund or a replacement. Since you cannot get this item anywhere else and it's completely sold out, the only sane choice would be a replacement, but I guess they had to ask this anyway. And then there was a long radio silence from their end, but it eventually got shipped.
It was worth the wait, though, because it's quite the beauty. I wasn't even aware of this before, but the edition with the stand gets delivered in a special box showing the stand, which is different from the ones without. I expected this to be some sort of extra item, but it's really a separate edition.
The stand has the same old map artwork on it as the Switch 2 carrying case on its back, which is also something you could find in merchandise from ten years ago, like Hyrule Encyclopedia. If I could, I would use the stand to display my Tears of the Kingdom Edition Pro Controller, since it can now retire, but that's not compatible. The handles have a slightly different shape.
Now, this is my first Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller, and this comes with the convenience of modern Bluetooth protocols, so I can now turn on my Switch 2 from the couch again. It wasn't a huge problem, because I'm not that lazy, but I had the occasional situation where I've sat down and just wanted to game and chill, only to realize that I had to get up again and press that power button on my Switch 2...
But those days are far from over, because I'm not going to use this shiny controller for everything. Only for the good Zelda stuff, like the Ocarina of Time remake. And I don't really want to buy a normal S2 Pro Controller when I still have a total of three for the old Switch... Though, it is very tempting.
Another improvement is the matt upper side of the controller. That area used to be glossy on the Nintendo Switch Pro Controllers and therefore was always prone to scratches, where you had to be super careful with inserting the USB-C charger. That's of the past as well.
It also comes with a 3,5mm audio jack at the lower end, which was totally made for me. I'm one of the three people out there who still prefer some good old wired headphones and whenever I play in table top mode, because my partner is playing her PlayStation 5 on the TV, I'm a bit worried I might accidentally pull the Switch 2 over. This won't ever happen with this controller now.
And it feels so smooth overall, compared to the Switch 1 iteration. I honestly thought that there wouldn't be much of a difference between the two, but it's a significant upgrade with the coating. Only the new GL and GR buttons are a bit weird, like something I might press on accident. But you don't have to use them...
In case you've been wondering, this is how both the 40th Anniversary Edition Joy-Cons and Pro Controller look inside the Nintendo Switch 2 menu. It's a little bit more detailed than what we had on the Nintendo Switch, because now you can also see the colors of the sticks and of the upper side of the Pro Controller with the shoulder buttons. Which is neat.
Following my detour through the south of Hyrule during the endless day, it was finally time for that day to pass and visit the castle. But it's easy to get distracted again when Hyrule Castle Town is filled with so many new details... And after my audience with the princess, I went back to the Lon Lon Ranch for a bit.
Yesterday evening I mainly spent my time with running around Hyrule, before going into the town and castle. This included a visit to the Lon Lon Ranch, Lake Hylia, and Gerudo Valley. I call this the "heart run", because you can find exactly four Pierces of Heart on that tour, letting you obtain another Heart Container very early in the game. But I've also had some interesting discoveries...
Let's play like it's 1998 again, but with graphics that now look better than the world outside. In this first entry I will explore the Kokiri Forest, roam around the Lost Woods a bit, and beat the first dungeon, the Great Deku Tree.
Whenever a Zelda title releases, whether that's a new game, a remake, or a major spin-off, I usually share my first time impressions. It's the primary purpose of this blog. And the remake to Ocarina of Time shall be no exception, where I'm calling this series the "Ocarina of Time Notes". There will be individual entries for the different parts of the games, starting with Kokiri Forest and the Great Deku Tree, but first I wanted to cover some general things.
One of these things is the title screen. I was worried that the remake might just throw you right into the game, like how the last three Zelda games did it, but that's not the case. And it's an important first impression to have with that lovely music, based on the classic flute tunes from The Legend of Zelda.
They have also removed the Spirit Temple cutscene that would appear after the title sequence as some sort of "demo mode". Instead, it will linger now around different places of the overworld, like Gerudo Valley. And I think this is a good change, because that scene was just confusing without context. And it was a bit of a spoiler, though it did create a sense of accomplishment when you finally made it to that sequence within the game.
Now, there only seems to be one save file... Which is odd, since they deliberately upgraded both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom to have a second save file per account on the Nintendo Switch 2. Echoes of Wisdom has a second one as well, so why not this? With a game so short and replayable you just want to start over eventually, without losing all progress from your first playthrough.
You also can't name Link any longer. Well, that's a consequence of the voiced cutscenes, where Link gets called by name a number of times, so it couldn't be helped. But the days of naming him "Dude" or "Penis" are definitely over. Well, I usually use "Tourian" on my first file and "Tourist" on my second, but there isn't even a second file here...
It also let's you access the options right from the title screen and activate or deactivate Zelda Notes. It's off by default, but you probably want to activate it right away to not miss any statistics. I will use it during my first playthrough to unlock everything in the app, but probably keep it off in the future...
Likewise, I will use the normal HUD mode for now and probably switch to either the Pro or Master mode later, once I have seen enough of the new interface.
Now, these options don't include a Hero Mode, sadly. A simple toggle like in Echoes of Wisdom would have sufficed here, but maybe they are saving this for a potential Master Mode later, which they can sell together with that second save slot.
That's it for the basics. With that out of the way, see you in Kokiri Forest!
It has just arrived: the remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. And I've already found all three Spiritual Stones, that was quick!
This is the first print release, but you can't really see the foil cover on the photo, because it's only noticeable with changing light reflections. It's a nice detail, but so subtle that you won't notice it on first glance, so I wouldn't really worry about it if you were unable to find one now. Though, ideally Nintendo would just keep producing them like that, instead of making this another FOMO item. They should set a signal for pretty physical releases in times of digital-only.
The inside of the box also shows the new map, but since the Nintendo Switch 2 boxes are made of that red, translucent plastic you don't really see much of it either.
As for the Spiritual Stones, they were a limited preorder bonus on the Nintendo Store. They also come with a small, black casket with the remake's logo on it entirely in gold, which is nice and makes it feel less cheap.
PS: I still haven't received the 40th Anniversary Edition Pro Controller yet, so my trusty Tears of the Kingdom controller will have to do the trick. Nintendo recognized that the package got sent back to them and offered my a replacement or a refund. Naturally, I went with the replacement, which has yet to happen... They went into radio silence after that, making me a bit worried.
It's release day! And if you're still waiting for your copy to arrive (like I do), then you can use the time to set up your Nintendo Switch Online profile with some fresh icons from the game. Though, I'm personally not the biggest fan of the new character arts.
There were also seven more tracks added to the special release in Nintendo Music, like Hyrule Field and all of the major settlements, including Gerudo Valley. So, you can pass some time with that as well.
Finally, I like how they have set up the animated Zelda artworks in Nintendo Today. For the first five days you get the first five games in order and this now led to an artwork for Ocarina of Time on the 5th, which is perfect.
Actually, they go through the entire series in order, but this includes all the remakes and remasters, which is why you will get Link's Awakening again tomorrow instead of Majora's Mask to represent Link's Awakening DX. Otherwise they wouldn't have been able to fill the month.
If you go on r/zelda, you will be flooded with spoiler posts from people who have acquired the new Ocarina of Time somewhere early. Some of them have the remake since Saturday already and have beaten it by now. So, you can pretty much find out everything about it at this point if you really want to know...
Well, I have been avoiding most of this as best as I could, but there was one thing that I wanted to be confirmed: the remake does indeed not contain the Master Quest mode. It's good to know this already, so this spares me the disappointment after the credits. And I've expected this to be the case anyway, because otherwise they would have definitely featured it in last month's overview trailer.
Not all hope is lost, though. It still could return later, added to the remake as either as a free update or as paid DLC. This could even go hand in hand with the release of the two upcoming amiibo or the ocarina accessory, where we don't have a release date yet for either. Such an addition would be a natural way to keep Ocarina of Time in the news, since this is Nintendo's biggest hit this year.
They could also mix and match things with their own ideas, where not everything of what was effectively just a ROM hack will translate well into the remake, e.g. cows sticking out of walls and serving as switches. They could even introduce changes to the overworld, making this worthy of a proper add-on.
Or... they simply don't care or won't bring it back. In that case I hope that Ocarina of Time - Master Quest will be added to the Nintendo Switch Online library at some point, so it's not completely lost in time.
Nintendo has released a new volume of their "Ask the Developer" series, this time for the remake of Ocarina of Time. It has four chapters in total, which got released yesterday and today. And it features the two producers and four members of the Nintendo Entertainment Planning & Development Group No. 3, EPD3 in short.
That's the main Zelda team, which was also responsible for Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom during the last years, where it certainly must have been refreshing to work on something simpler. And this is pretty much the most important fact coming from this interview series – the remake was developed inhouse, unlike most of the Zelda remakes and remasters in the past. Only The Wind Waker HD got made by Nintendo alone, but that was practically a one-man-job.
Like other remakes of Nintendo games, however, this served as a training grounds for the newer developers, who are mainly familiar with the recent open world titles. This is what Aonuma had to say:
By learning the game structure and development style behind the original The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and by actually rebuilding it as a full remake, it may trigger new insights that they can carry forward into future development.
And this is a good call. The open world direction is here to stay, because it has simply been too successful for the series to return to its classic formulas, but many fans are hoping for more of a compromise between the different formats, especially when it comes to dungeons. Echoes of Wisdom already showed how this could look like, but that game got developed by GREZZO, yet another Zelda team that got trained by various remakes over the years.
But this isn't just about new developers learning what made such a classic game so beloved, because it goes both ways. The two old-fashioned producers also stepped back to let the younger developers bring in their own perspective and ideas into the remake. And this led to one of the bigger changes, the manual jumping.
Now, this also raises the question how this will actually affect the development of the next 3D Zelda game. Ideally, these projects were running in parallel, or else it might take until 2030 before we see a new game. And while there haven't been any news about this, it's still possible that Monolith Soft has been helping out here, e.g. with developing graphical assets. We will probably find out tomorrow when the reviews embargo gets lifted.
We also learn that they have recreated everything from scratch. It's not like Ocarina of Time 3D or the recent Star Fox remake where they had used the original game's source code as basis. This already seemed clear with how different everything feels and looks, but it's good to have the direct confirmation from the developers.
They have also confirmed a popular theory from IGN by Logan Plant, who had the impression that this remake is supposed to be viewed from the perspective of a theater. The art director, Aya Shida, had the following to say:
We wanted to rebuild Hyrule as a rich, dense world that felt as though it could truly exist, while retaining the feel of the original. At the same time, we wanted its colorful and quirky characters to feel like a natural part of that world. Figuring out how to strike the right balance became one of the main themes of the art development. To help the team understand what we were aiming for, early in development we used phrases like “a puppet-show feel” and “the analogue feel of practical effects films” as keywords. Neither puppet shows nor practical effects films reproduce reality exactly as it is. Even so, both create a convincing sense that the characters truly exist within their respective fantasy worlds.
Something that I will always love about the Zelda series is how diverse it is in different art styles, much like with its gameplay ideas. And it's great that Nintendo is even trying something new with remakes, instead of just playing it safe, which was also the case for Link's Awakening and its cute toy diorama style. It is certainly not to everyone's taste, but I appreciate that they try to create something unique.
And like with Echoes of Wisdom, this may even lead to a new Zelda game in the same style. But it would be also pretty much perfect for a hypothetical Majora's Mask remake, because stage play and performances are an actual part of the game's story, setting, and theme.
We also learn that there will be over 150 pieces of fully orchestrated background music, though not all of them go with a full orchestra, and some of them make use the old Nintendo 64 tunes, kind of like how the Link's Awakening remake did it. As a reference, the original soundtrack has 82 titles in total, so they have almost doubled it. These are mainly for new cutscenes, but probably also for different variants of the existing themes.
If you currently search for "Ocarina of Time", or simply "Zelda", then Google will give you a neat, little gimmick on its webpage: the Master Sword and its pedestal will appear in the bottom right and clicking on it will let you time travel back into the early days of the internet, at least visually.
Nintendo will certainly appreciate the free advertisement. After all, they are probably paying Google entire fortunes for SEA. And this little stunt plays with the power of nostalgia, much like the Ocarina of Time remake.
