Evolution of Jumping in the Zelda Series

Arguably one of the biggest gameplay changes in the upcoming Ocarina of Time remake is that you no longer will jump automatically, but instead do it manually with a dedicated button. It's an interesting development, because the automatic jumping was part of the many revolutionary things the original did for 3D gaming, amongst the Z-targeting. You didn't have to worry about timing your jumps, because Link would always do it perfectly. This system remained a staple in the 3D games up until Breath of the Wild, which re-introduced a jump button.

The added level of detail might be part of the reason why they did it for the remake, because you don't necessarily get the same sharp edges to jump off. And it will be interesting to see how this plays out. You get some control back and you can now also climb faster with the added jumps, while parts of the environment also became more jump-friendly, like the small stream near the entrance to Hyrule Field from the forest. There may even be new challenges where you have to time your jumps correctly.

Anyway, with this change in mind, it's fascinating to look back at each game in the series and see how it implemented jumping. When you need to jump over a gap, there have been three different ways for you to do so: with a button, with an item (the Roc's Feather or Cape), or automatically. There are also games where you simply are unable to jump over gaps, so you will need other items to cross them, like the Hookshot. Here is how it's done in every Zelda game: 

• The Legend of Zelda: -
• The Adventure of Link: button
• A Link to the Past: -
• Link's Awakening: item
• Ocarina of Time: auto
• Majora's Mask: auto
• Oracle of Ages & Seasons: item
• The Wind Waker: auto
• Four Swords: item
• Four Swords Adventures: item
• The Minish Cap: item
• Twilight Princess: auto
• Phantom Hourglass: auto
• Spirit Tracks: auto
• Skyward Sword: auto
• A Link Between Worlds: -
• Tri Force Heroes: -
• Breath of the Wild: button
• Tears of the Kingdom: button
• Echoes of Wisdom: button

In the original The Legend of Zelda it wasn't possible to jump in any way or form. You needed the Stepladder to cross gaps and rivers. And while many consider Zelda II - The Adventure of Link to be the black sheep, it did jumping with a button in the Zelda series before it was cool. It was a natural part of its side scrolling action, where you even had special sword techniques to go along with your jumps. The Downthrust eventually became an important inspiration for the very satisfying pogo-technique in the Hollow Knight games.

A Link to the Past was effectively the game to introduce auto-jumping in some form, but it was only there to leap down off a ledge to the lower level. This continued to be a thing in all top-down Zelda games going forward.

Link's Awakening then brought back side-scrolling sections and even added Goombas along with them, inviting you to jump on them. But since the Game Boy only had two buttons, they had to come up with a different solution: you would jump with an item, the Roc's Feather. This item can be assigned to either A or B, instead of your sword, shield, or other things. And this item or its stronger version, the Roc's Cape, returned in all Zelda games on the Game Boy line, as well as in Four Swords Adventures.

As already mentioned, Ocarina of Time then came up with automatic jumping whenever you walk off a ledge – not just to drop down, but also to cross gaps. You could jump from one side of the Zora River to the other... if you picked the right spot. And in all 3D Zelda games from Majora's Mask to Skyward Sword this system was implemented again.

Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks also featured this automatic crossing of gaps for the first time in a top-down scenario, with their touchscreen controls. You would just draw over the gap and Link would automatically leap across, even when there is ground below.

The two Nintendo 3DS titles, A Link Between Worlds and Tri Force Heroes, on the other hand went back to no jumping at all. Instead, they featured items that would lift you up, like the Tornado, Sand and Water Rods. But that doesn't really count.

Finally, Breath of the Wild completely revolutionized the Zelda series from the ground up with its free-climbing nature, where it became necessary for you to manually jump again. It's also there to initiate paragliding, which became an important part of the new 3D Zelda gameplay. And now this manual jump finds its way back into the classics with Ocarina of Time.

Ironically, in its early stages of development, Ocarina of Time used to still have a jump button. But they had removed it in favor of the auto-jumping to streamline the gameplay and shift the focus on other elements (see Iwata Asks). It's funny how things sometimes go... or in this case, how they jump.

Ocarina of Time Remake: New Items?

Let's take a closer look at the Equipment and Items menu screens again, because speculation is always fun. We haven't seen the Collection screen yet, so an important part of the picture is missing, but it seems like each screen has a clear purpose. "Items" is for what you can put onto the ZR button for active usage. You can also swap these by holding down R for a quick menu, just like in all the Zelda games made for Nintendo Switch.

The "Equipment" screen on the other hand includes everything else that can be changed somehow. Like in the Nintendo 64 original, this is where you alter between the three different swords, shields and tunics. But it now also comes with the "toggle items". These are different from the "action items" on the ZR button, because all they did was to turn a piece of Link's equipment on and off. This includes the Lens of Truth, which are now a pair of goggles, as well as the masks. And in Ocarina of Time 3D both the Iron and Hover Boots became a similar item.

Since all of these used to clog item slots in the past and there is now only one item slot, they have moved them onto the D-pad for convenience. But since the D-pad also triggers the ocarina and Navi, they had to come up with a solution here, where pressing up is for changing headwear and pressing down is for changing footwear. It's not exactly clear yet how you will quickly swap between the two alternate boots, or between the goggles and your mask, because going into the menu for this would be inconvenient. My guess so far was that you will hold down the button for that.

Anyway, there is one more item slot below these four. It's probably for the ocarina, since this item also gets activated via the D-pad. And everything that is completely passive has moved into the Collection screen, like the Goron's Bracle, Silver and Golden Scale and Gauntlets, the Bomb Bag, and so on.

It could also be the Stone / Shard of Agony, which you can simply turn on and off here, similar to the Seashell Sensor in the Link's Awakening remake. But I personally hope that this item won't return at all. It was originally a gimmick meant to sell the Nintendo 64 Rumble Pack, as a means to find all the secret grottos. And these grottos were so obscurely hidden at times that it's basically a remnant of the NES era.

Ideally, in the remake you will have clear visual clues on the ground whenever you can find a grotto. They can be subtle, but they should be there. And these clues should even make it also clear whether you have to use bombs or the Song of Storms to open it. For example, you can spot a ruin in one of the locations that used to have a hidden grotto with a Gold Skulltula on Hyrule Field near Kakariko.

Though, there are different clips on the Japanese website and in the trailer, where young Link fights the Wolfos at the entrance to the Sacred Forest Meadow. And there doesn't seem to be anything there that indicates a hidden secret, but it's hard to tell and they also could have moved the location slightly.

Alternatively, they could just give the new "Goggles of Truth" the ability to easily spot hidden grottos. This would probably be the most streamlined solution – combine both of the secret-finding items into one.

Let's move on to the "Items" screen, because that's where the real question marks await us. It got split into three different sections. One is for young Link's items in the top right, one is for adult Link's items in the top left, and everything in the bottom half can be used by both. Each slot has a shape that resembles the item somewhat, so you can make educated guesses what goes into what.

For young Link you get the Deku Sticks, the Fairy Slingshot, the Magic Beans, and the Boomerang. It's curious that the Magic Beans seemingly remain as an action item in the new system. Maybe they are functioning differently to justify this, where using them anywhere might lead you to the nearest spot of soft soil. But if they work exactly like in the original, then this will be just an unnecessary waste of space, because a simple prompt at the soft soils would have done the trick.

Adult Link gets the Hookshot, Fairy Bow, the three magic arrows, and the Megaton Hammer. Not necessarily in the exact order, because here it's a bit harder to tell what goes into what slot. You'd expect the largest slot for the hammer, but that one is clearly shaped like the bow. But it doesn't matter, because everything is accounted for.

Things get more interesting in the shared section. First you have Bombs and Bombchus. Then you have the Deku Nuts below, an open slot next to them in the same hexagonal shape, and then three magic spells. Then comes a square slot and an octagonal slot below it in the bottommost row. That row has otherwise slots for the Empty Bottles, five in total, which means that they have added a new one.

Either the square or the octagonal slot in the bottom right could be used for the trading quest items, given that they haven't made those prompt-based now. But there are actually two different lines of these, one for the child and one for the adult era, but they should combine these into one, because there is no good reason not to. In the original game Zelda's Letter was replaced by the masks, which now function differently. They could just remove it from your items and then later use the same slot for the Pocket Egg, which eventually ends up as the Claim Check. It would also explain why this slot sits in the shared section.

Now, this still leaves (at least) two items unaccounted for. One idea would be that they are introducing the Pictograph Box from Majora's Mask already. They love giving you the option to do selfies in the 3D Zelda games, and Nintendo loves dedicated photo modes in general. They may even introduce a new side quest line where you have to take photos of monsters and other things, but it doesn't have to go full "Hyrule Compendium".

Then there is the open slot next to the Deku Nuts. The identical shape suggests that this might become a similar item, so potentially another consumable, maybe also something that can be thrown at enemies. Maybe it's something like the Scent Seeds from the Oracle games, which lets you attract and distract enemies.

Or, if they were to redesign the Ice Cavern to turn it more into a proper dungeon, then maybe the Blue Fire could evolve from a bottled item. Maybe you have something like fire crystals that can be thrown and turn into a flame on impact. This could even give you more options for burning enemies, in addition to Din's Fire and the Fire Arrows, or the possibility to light fires even when you're out of magic. But that's just an idea. It would be totally fine if the Blue Fire worked the same as before, especially when there is one more bottle to find.

Alternatively, there now could be something like the Flame Lantern, either as a new magic item, or as a way to store and spread fire, including the blue flames.

Anyway, if there is a new consumable, it could mean that you might be able to expand its totals, like with the Deku Nuts and Sticks before. Well, it could get the same treatment as the Bombchus, where their total is maxed out from the start and you're not using them as frequently anyway. But if it's another plant-based item, and maybe something that appears early in the game, e.g. "Deku Fruits", this could warrant a new reaction at the Forest Stage.

Ocarina of Time Remake: Master Quest?

It's a question that many Zelda fans have on their mind right now: will the remake come with the Master Quest mode and dungeons? Ocarina of Time 3D did, but the Nintendo 3DS game was truly a 1:1 remake, even based on the original game's code, so they could easily duplicate the quirky ROM hack nature of the modified dungeons, where you suddenly have cows stuck in the walls of Jabu-Jabu's Belly.

This may not be the case for the remake, where they are truly redoing everything from scratch and also taking many liberties in the process, especially when it comes to the environments. The Water Temple, for example, now features a new bombable wall in of the tunnels around the middle section, as you can see above.

They could, of course, still replicate the ideas and nature of Master Quest, maybe also throwing in some spins of their own, but it would be a lot of extra work. Luckily, they haven't said much about additional features yet, other than the amiibo masks and the microphone support, where they are likely introducing some at a later point. And maybe the Master Quest mode will become a headline then, or maybe they will release it as paid DLC in the future.

If they add Master Quest, then I hope that they won't mirror the game this time. I hated it when they did this in Ocarina of Time 3D and I will always find the Wii / Hero Mode version of Twilight Princess to be utterly confusing. I'm not a fan of Mirror Modes in general, because they are just the cheapest and most literal way of putting a spin onto a game. The remade world of Ocarina of Time will be novelty enough.

Also, things like double damage should probably moved into a simple Hero Mode option, which can be chosen right from the start. It could just be a toggle like in Echoes of Wisdom, so you won't end up with four combinations of different game modes.

Nintendo Store Catastrophe

In the past I have been an advocate of the Nintendo Store. But not anymore. Not after today. Everything went wrong for me from start to finish and I'm so very pissed, so get ready for some venting.

Usually, they will list their articles days after the other retailers, like Amazon. So, by the time you can preorder in the Nintendo Store, most people will have already preordered elsewhere, and there isn't much of a crowd, unless they have some weird exclusive, like the Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Collector's Edition. But today the Nintendo Store actually had their products available right in the morning. Combine this with the store-exclusive stand for the Pro Controller, which people seem to want really bad, and you're in for trouble.

In the past they have done this thing where you could register your interest for an upcoming product and then they would send out e-mails in waves to prevent their store from crashing. Which had worked for the most part. But this isn't the case anymore, it's "first come, first serve, all at once."

You would think that I was lucky to already be on the store page when the articles got listed, but this wasn't the case. This had first put me inside some weird limbo, where their awful Vercel / Next.js would block my many login(?) requests. By being patient enough I could eventually get into the basket and even place the order, but then the application crashed as a whole. I had the Switch 2, the Pro Controller and the carrying case all there, it was processing the payment... and then boom. All I got was an error page and nothing to show for.

Eventually, I was put into the waiting line, with 45,000 people ahead of me. When I finally got back into the store after one whole hour, I made the crucial mistake of also adding the game. At first I wanted to preorder this separately, but with so much trouble I thought it best to buy it just all at once. Now, I picked the edition with the ocarina pin. Costs five Euro more, but who is counting at this point? Things went even downhillier from there, because when I then tried to place my order, it told me that it was unable to ship to my address.

I was stuck there. I was using my saved address from previous orders, which worked fine, but for some reason it was now unable to ship there. And before I could figure out what was going on, both the Pro Controller and the Switch 2 went out of stock. The culprit was the game + pin edition, which somehow couldn't be ordered. It was a bugged product, but the shop software didn't communicate that this error is caused by that product. The game without the pin then worked for me, but now I only have that and the carrying case.

Update: The Switch 2 was briefly available again, but I have yet to get my hands on the Pro Controller. And I really wanted that stand... So, my disappointment is immeasurable, and my day is ruined. They could stream the best Nintendo Direct ever in two hours... I'm really not in the mood for more Nintendo stuff right now.

Update 2: Luckily, I just stayed on the store page and kept refreshing it, because I also was able to get the Pro Controller now. Had to place three orders in total for everything, with what could have been achieved in one, but at least I got all the items (except for the silly pin). And now I can watch the Direct in peace... I swear if they announce some Collector's Edition for the new Metroid, I'm going to riot.

Ocarina of Time Remake: Zelda Notes Support

Other than Miyamoto and Aonuma, our hero Hidemaro Fujibayashi came also on the 40th Anniversary Direct stage, for the first time in the role of a producer. He has been a director ever since the Oracle games, so this is a huge promotion for the guy, where he may even replace Aonuma once he retires.

However, he had the questionable honor of introducing the newest additions to the Zelda Notes app, where Ocarina of Time will support it for various features. This is what's on the app:

• Map
• Gossip Quests
• Hall of Fallen Foes
• Today's Record
• My Play Data
• Global Play Data
• Photo Studio
• Threads of Time
• amiibo
• Play Ocarina
• Ocarina of Time Quiz 

Some of it looks like fun. I'm looking forward to the quiz and also the Gossip Quests, even though the latter seems a bit trivial due to the size of the world. Learning to play an actual ocarina via the app is also an oddly charming addition.

But there is also some questionable stuff in here. The "Today's Record" would have been nice-to-have for Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. It would have even been super useful for me personally when I first had blogged about playing these titles. But it doesn't necessarily make much sense for a 20 hour game, which some people will have 100% completed right on November 5th.

I'm also not a fan of how this is effectively spying on me with the automatic screenshots, so I'm not sure if I will even turn this feature on, given that you can turn individual features on and off, and not just the Zelda Notes connectivity in general.

It's also interesting how you can pay for retries in the quiz with your Rupees from the game. I was hoping that they would find some more usages for Rupees in the remake, but this was certainly not on my list...

 

PS: I really hope that one day they will update Link's Awakening again to also support Zelda Notes. The QR code sharing would be perfect for the Chamber Dungeon.

Ocarina of Time Remake: amiibo Announced

Well, it was certainly expected that we're going to see some new amiibo during the Direct. And it's going to be two amiibo for the new Ocarina of Time, one for Young Link and one for Young Zelda, both sitting down. The funny part is what they will actually do in the game:

They will unlock new masks for Link to wear, where he can pose in the classic Nintendo 64 polygonal style. It will be interesting to see if they will create new reactions, where people will talk about how clunky you look. And you may even truly be able to carry around multiple masks at once, instead of just renting one at a time, but that's only speculation.

Anyway, I was certain that such an amiibo feature was somewhere in my list of ideas for the remake, but this doesn't seem to be the case. But I had given it some thought what amiibo could do in Ocarina of Time and "unlocking new masks" was the best I could come up with. Well, it looks like Nintendo agrees.

Now is the question whether other Zelda amiibo might also unlock additional masks, but they probably would have shown this. I would love to run around with a goofy Ganondorf mask or with some Zonai goggles. But maybe they will reveal something when the Mineru amiibo hits the stores next week.

Curiously, these amiibo are scheduled for 2027, so you won't be able to use them for the game right away. (But this won't stop people from spoofing NFC chips, so we can already see what they will do in detail once the game has launched.)

Ocarina of Time Remake: Playing the Ocarina

In the gameplay footage Aonuma demonstrated how the ocarina is played in the Ocarina of Time remake. And... they have changed the buttons yet again from the Nintendo 3DS version. L and R seem to be the same notes, but A, X and Y have all been swapped. So, Zelda's Lullaby is now Y X A Y X A, instead of X A Y X A Y. As if the change in Ocarina of Time 3D wasn't already confusing enough, you now have to relearn all of the songs a third time.

But worry not... You can just hum the melodies into your Nintendo Switch 2 microphone now! No need to remember any buttons. Ain't that nice? Or... you can even play an instrument, like the official ocarina they are going to sell in the Nintendo Store.

Well, that could be fun, but it certainly won't be more convenient. At least you can also check your songbook via the ZL button, so this should make things easy enough. And to be honest, by now I have completely forgotten how the songs go in Ocarina of Time 3D, because it's been ten years since I have last played that version.

I was considering to replay the 3DS version before the remake comes out, but maybe I will refrain from that to not build some song muscle memories that won't be compatible.

Update: after sleeping a night on this, I came to realize that the new order is actually more intuitive, because it follows the alignment of the C-buttons from the Nintendo 64. So, the fault is with Ocarina of Time 3D here, because they already should have done it like this back then. Well, the idea was to go from left to right, from the lowest note to the highest, but this wasn't easy to learn when you've grown up with the Nintendo 64 songs.

Ocarina of Time Remake: Item Swapping

The Ocarina of Time remake will receive a number of bigger changes in its gameplay. You will now jump with the press of a button, which was a common request. After a roll you can now hold down the A-button to keep sprinting, similar to TUNIC, but without limited stamina.

You jump with the X button, while Y is probably used for the sword. It's not entirely clear yet what B is for, but it could be that Aonuma misspoke and that's for rolling and dashing (instead of A), just like in Breath of the Wild. And your main items are only used via ZR. That's right, from three different face buttons in the original game, this went down to a single shoulder button. You will be able to quickly swap what's on it via a Breath of the Wild-style quick menu:

But you can still use a traditional item menu from what it seems. And to make things at least somewhat convenient, some items are toggled via the D-pad, first and foremost the ocarina on its left. The Japanese website also shows the Iron Boots set to down on the D-pad and the Lens of Truth (which now look more like Purah's goggles) to up. And they demonstrate how you can quickly toggle both the lens and the Hover Boots in a clip, which takes place inside the Shadow Temple. It's still unclear how you will swap between Iron and Hover Boots, however, because you will need to do this in the Shadow Temple as well...

Maybe you can hold down on the D-Pad to swap them, but this would still be awkward. But it's possibly also how Link will equip his mask as a child. If you look at the new item menu, you can see dedicated sections for both adult and young Link:

There don't seem to be slots for the boots or masks in here. But it looks like there is going to be a fifth Empty Bottle for you to obtain, hopefully with an interesting new side quest or challenge for it, like how it was done in Majora's Mask 3D.

Update: the equipment menu has special item slots for the D-pad up and down, two per direction. Those will likely be the two boots, the Lens of Truth, and your mask. Up is for the things you wear on your head, and down is for your footwear. It makes sense. But it's unclear whether there is going to be a quick way to switch between the two in the same category, without going into the inventory screen.

Ocarina of Time Remake: Altered World

While the Ocarina of Time remake largely follows the same map as the original, they have taken quite a number of liberties, which will make exploring this Hyrule exciting for new players and veterans alike. If you look around in Hyrule Field, then you will be able to see all of Hyrule around you. Hyrule Castle, the smoking Death Mountain, the spinning windmill of Kakariko Village, the sandstone rock formations of Gerudo Valley. It's all there, visible right from the entrance to the field from the forest.

You can also spot enemies in new places. There are little Peahats flying around everywhere. There is a larger section now leading from Hyrule Field into the Zora River, with some Blue Tektites waiting there. And this might only be the beginning. There is stylized map of Hyrule for you to find in the background of the official European website:

Not only looks this very charming, but it does reveal that certain locations may have received an overhaul, most notably the Ice Cavern. There is now a staircase leading to it, which might be an indication that they want you to still reach it even when there is no ice at Zora's Domain any longer, where unfreezing the place after the Water Temple should be on top of every fan's wishlist. It also looks like it is in its own location, separate from Zora's Fountain, though this might be misleading.

The well in Kakariko is also pictured as its own location, while in the trailer it can be seen right where it always has been. Though, they have changed the layout of Kakariko quite a bit:

The Skulltula House and the construction site have swapped locations, while overall the village isn't set on an orthogonal grid any longer... It looks a lot more organic, which is great.

It's the same with the back alleys in Hyrule Castle Town, where a lot of it was made seamless, which includes going into buildings. However, they have kept loading transitions between the major areas, like going from the forest into the field. Aonuma said that they have done this to "preserve the essence of the original game", but I call that an excuse.

I understand that this was necessary for the dungeons, because their insides are much larger than what the outsides would allow, but I don't see how the overworld couldn't have been entirely seamless, especially with how they have re-arranged everything on the map to fit together perfectly. Unless they have faced some technical limitations.

At least the time will keep running everywhere, which means that the folks in Hyrule will have much more sophisticated routines, where they will go to their homes at night and such things. You can also spot Sakon running around the back alleys, while previously he was only present in the main area. I'm excited to find out whether you can already go to night time during the game's tutorial phase in Kokiri Village or time will simply be frozen for that part.

The area from where you exit the forest has also changed drastically. It's no longer on a bridge, but a path surrounded by roots. You can still go under it, from what it seems, but I personally hope for the the Lost Woods to feel a lot more like proper woods and less than a 3D chamber dungeon.

The Water Temple also looks like it got changed quite a bit, where you can spot a new bombable wall around the middle section, but sadly it still requires the Fairy Bow for you to complete it, so they are probably not allowing for more dungeon freedom. However, the altered Hyrule Field makes me hopeful that you at least can now go to the Zoras before the Gorons as young Link.

Ocarina of Time Remake: Visual Style

Let's talk about the horse in the room, which is the new visual style for the Ocarina of Time remake. Like various art styles in the Zelda series before, e.g. The Wind Waker or the Link's Awakening remake, it is quite divisive. Some love it, some hate it, some don't know what to think about yet it.

My personal reaction really ranged over the full spectrum. The environments look phenomenal. I love how much attention to detail went into everything and how much they've added, going way beyond of what was already done in Ocarina of Time 3D. Like, in the shops they have pinned those paper notes under the items, which tell you the bundle sizes. Okay, maybe this is a very random detail to obsess about, but there is so much new to look at. Take the Zora River, for example:

There have been structures here before, but it now really looks like ruins of Zora architecture. And they have done a lot like this all over the world, where this feels like a whole new game to explore, even if it follows largely the same map. And this has me amazed...

Enemies look great. The tongues of the Deku Babas are now like roots and they also have these root collars on their heads, it's impressive. Can't wait to see what they have done with the Redeads.

The character designs on the other hand look so uncanny that I just downright hate them. Ocarina of Time 3D managed to capture the style of the original artworks perfectly, but this new Ocarina of Time has gotten so realistic that the unrealistic proportions simply stand out.

And what's with young Zelda's face? It looks so bad that it probably scares me more than any Redead ever could... What is this? Why is her nose bigger than Ganondorf's? She doesn't look cute anymore, she looks like a little freak! It totally ruins the moment. And the characters also look too "plastic", especially when they are wet, which is a general problem with the lighting.

It all makes this feel like one of those super ambitious Unreal Engine 4/5 fan projects somehow got adopted by Nintendo and turned into a full game. The realism clashes so much with the character designs that it just looks weird.

And as impressive these graphics are for Nintendo standards, where this is going to be the graphically most advanced game released by Nintendo so far, it won't age very well. Naturally, this is a common problem for games that aim at such realistic graphics, instead of a more timeless approach (which is normally the way to go for Nintendo). But I guess they can just remake it again in 15 years...

Still, a part of me can't wait to see Termina in the same style in 2030. This level of realism offers a good chance to make Majora's Mask creepier than ever. And Clock Town in the same level of detail as this new Hyrule Castle Town would be amazing. 

Ocarina of Time Remake: Cover Art and Texture Foil Release

The cover of the upcoming Ocarina of Time remake not only looks gorgeous, its initial print will come with a special texture foil, where you can also feel the details. That's very neat and certainly a statement in the times of digital only. It also looks like the game will be fully on the card.

There won't be a Collector's Edition of the game, but that's actually considerate, given that a lot of Zelda fans will be buying a Nintendo Switch 2 and Pro Controller soon. Something like a cloth map for the new Hyrule would be nice, but they can always drop that as a bonus item in the Nintendo Store.

 

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The Legend of Zelda 40th Anniversary Direct Announced

Nintendo is always good for a surprise. For the first time ever, we're getting a dedicated Direct presentation for The Legend of Zelda, for its 40th Anniversary no less. I would have expected this to be part of the general Nintendo Direct, which is scheduled for the day after (on September 9th), because this is how they did it for the 40th Anniversary of Super Mario Bros. a year ago. Both Super Mario and Zelda are the big crowd pleasers that draw in attention, but with a total runtime of 30 minutes they probably wanted to keep this separate and not overshadow the other Nintendo news.

It's also surprising that they are announcing this on a Friday, giving us the weekend to digest the news and speculate as much as we can. Normally, they would have announced this next Monday, leaving you with little time to mentally prepare.

Anyway, with 30 minutes this sure is going to be beefy, where people are wondering what else could there be next to the Ocarina of Time remake. A deep dive into the already announced title will most likely be the start of the Direct, where I'm still hoping for this to be a true re-imagining co-developed by Monolith Soft.

With all certainty, they will give us the exact release date, probably in November or December. Maybe they will also announce some sort of Collector's Edition for the game, or even a series of new amiibo.

Speaking of, people have been speculating that it will release November 12th, mainly because Nintendo is presumably shipping some Kirby Air Riders amiibo on that day. But we also got the Chef Kawasaki just yesterday, with no new Nintendo game to coincide, so this is rather weak evidence. It still could be November 12th, or maybe it's November 19th or later. Unlike the rest of the gaming industry, Nintendo doesn't care about Grand Theft Auto VI. They are doing their own thing, like they always did, and the nostalgia for Ocarina of Time is so strong that it can beat anything.

After said nostalgia trip, Nintendo will have to talk about the 40th Anniversary itself. There already was a leak about some upcoming merchandise, where this could become an expensive Christmas for any Zelda fan. Other than that, we could be looking at more amiibo, a new LEGO set, or other goodies...

A 40th Anniversary amiibo line could lead to updates of some existing Zelda games to support them, in the very least new paraglider fabrics for Tears of the Kingdom. But wouldn't it be lovely to get some more outfits for Zelda in Echoes of Wisdom, or new special chambers for the Chamber Dungeon? 

And I also see the middle segment as a strong chance for another game announcement. Yes, I'm convinced that this Nintendo Direct will bring more on the release table than Ocarina of Time and I'm not talking about the next 3D Zelda. That one is likely still a couple of years away, where they might want to wait with an announcement until after the movie hype, so June of next year or later.

Instead, I'm hoping that we will also see GREZZO's next project, where we have a number of options for a new top-down title. This could be a multiplayer sequel to Echoes of Wisdom, or it could be another remake. Unlike Ocarina of Time, however, this one would be more faithful, based on what they did with the Link's Awakening remake. This could either be the Oracles, scheduled for 2027, or maybe even a remake of the original The Legend of Zelda, which could even come out as early as next week.

Alternatively, I could see Nintendo do something with the original game in some other form, like some remixed version of it, a multiplayer variant, or even a whole Zelda Maker. I've already went over these ideas in more detail in past blog post, so check them out if you're interested to learn more about them:

• New Multiplayer Zelda
  
• Oracle of Ages & Seasons Remake
• The Legend of Zelda Remake
• The Legend of Zelda - Anniversary Edition

But one of these could be a strong possibility for next Tuesday, where I'm personally hoping for the Oracles to come out next year. This would be the most interesting scenario and also the strongest option, as this would give us two Zelda games in one.

Of course, remaking games is not the only way to bring back classic Zelda titles. Twilight Princess will celebrate its 10th anniversary later this year, where this will be the perfect timing to bring it onto the Nintendo Switch 2 via the GameCube Nintendo Switch Online library. Sure, getting the HD remaster onto Switch and Switch 2 would be even better, but this would distract too much from the new Ocarina of Time, so I'm not expecting this at the moment.

screenshots by u/EruditeWho

Another interesting NSO title could be Four Swords Adventures, especially if we were able to finally play it online. This was a big deal with Four Swords two years ago, where I'm hoping that Four Swords Adventures will get the same spotlight eventually, because this is the oldest Zelda game to never come back in any way or form. They could even try to localize Tetra's Trackers for the first time ever, or at least make it accessible in all regions.

Update: They could also go crazy with Four Swords Adventures and do a special Anniversary Edition of the game, like they had done with Four Swords fifteen years ago. How about a game called "Forty Swords", where up to 40 players can play together? (Kudos to u/Adept-Butterfly642 for the idea.)

As for the HD remasters, Skyward Sword HD might receive a free update for Nintendo Switch 2. This should be a "simple" thing, because the game's art style is always ready for an upscale. But it would offer a nice headline in between.

Update: the Zelda Direct could potentially also show some love for Hyrule Warriors, even though there won't be coming a new game any time soon. There probably also won't be any conventional DLC for Age of Imprisonment, because the free updates made things very much final. They could, however, add a whole other game mode in form of a Ganondorf campaign, where you play as the Demon King and only the Demon King.

Alternatively, we might be looking at a Nintendo Switch 2 Edition for Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. The game could really use the upgrade and there is some potential for additional content and improvements.

The 40th Anniversary Direct will likely be concluded with a first trailer for the upcoming The Legend of Zelda movie, which technically won't really be part of the 40th Anniversary any longer, because the series will already be 41 years old when the movie launches on April 30th... But Nintendo probably doesn't care and will want to use the anniversary to hype up the movie, because that's the biggest thing for Zelda in the next years – not the Ocarina of Time remake, not the next open world Zelda game, and certainly not some other remakes or goodies. This movie will be the largest investment around the franchise in its entire history and they will want this to be a huge hit, ideally the next Lord of the Rings, maybe even spawning two sequels.

If the recent casting rumors are to be believed, things are already looking quite promising. They will likely announce all of that cast and then leave us with a trailer that will hopefully blow everyone's mind.

Both the movie and the Ocarina of Time remake are in a similar position here. They already have been announced and we have seen very little about them. Both of them have the potential to be really good, but there is also the worry in the air that they might not be. Next week the curtains will fall.

PS: I just came back from a vacation, so I'm a bit overwhelmed by today's announcement and had some catching up to do with this blog. But there are worse reasons to be overwhelmed. 

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.

Ocarina of Time Remake Announced

The rumors were true, the leaks were real... Nintendo is going to release a remake, or re-imagining, of Ocarina of Time later this year. They have revealed this at the end of today's Nintendo Direct in a short teaser trailer, which shows the story tale from the beginning of the game, about the Kokiri boy without a fairy.

This is done via a tapestry and you can already tell how this is not going to be a mere remake or remaster, like Ocarina of Time 3D, but a whole re-imagining with its own spins. One of the major differences is how the Triforce already resonates with Link here, glowing on his left hand. This didn't happen in the original, because at this point the Triforce was still in the Sacred Realm and not yet split. (But other Zelda games have done something similar later on.)

Visually, this looks a bit like one of those Unreal Engine projects you keep seeing. And maybe Nintendo has hired one of those people to just work on this remake, who knows? Jokes aside, it's actually still the biggest question mark: who is making this remake? Judging by all the leaks, it's probably not Nintendo themselves.

There was some speculation about how Monolith Soft may be working on this, where this had me quite excited, but they are still having their hands full with all the Xenoblade stuff. They are a very big team, so it can't be ruled out completely, but this assumption remains questionable at the moment.

Meanwhile, I really hope that this isn't done by GREZZO (again), because this would mean that we're not getting any more top-down Zelda games in the near future. With their experience on Ocarina of Time 3D, they would be a good choice for this project, but this would be a very painful trade for me personally, because I really liked the direction of Link's Awakening and Echoes of Wisdom.

And whoever is remaking Ocarina of Time here, they will be busy with remaking Majora's Mask next. It will be the same story as with Majora's Mask 3D, where the fans keep asking for it until it eventually happens. It is the natural follow-up, though I've been saying the same for years about Oracle of Ages & Seasons.

But first let's see how this remake will actually look like. So far we haven't really seen much, certainly no gameplay. And we will probably have to wait until the September Direct to learn more...