The recent rumors had me thinking... What if they are not remaking The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, like Grezzo did on the Nintendo 3DS? What if Monolith Soft (or whatever studio is set on this hypothetical project) is actually working on a complete re-imagining of the game? What would that look like? And what could this lead to?
A week ago the original The Legend of Zelda has entered its 40th year of existence, and maybe Nintendo is about to give fans a whole new way of experiencing the classic to celebrate this special anniversary. So, let's take a deeper look of how this could look like.
Of course, a remake always has been a possibility, but one that got dismissed by this blog several times. And there have been good reasons... The NES classics are rather bare-bones and if you start infusing elements from later Zelda games, you will eventually end up with a re-imagining, instead of a remake. And then this may as well become a whole new game of its own.
That's exactly what has happened with Oracle of Seasons. When Capcom was working on Zelda projects for the Game Boy Color, they first had pitched a remake of the first game in the style of Link's Awakening. But before you knew it, you were able to ride on a Dodongo and the project evolved into something else.
You can even see where the idea of changing the seasons may have come from, by looking at the game's world. There is this Akkala-like area of autumn trees to the southwest, while the graveyard to its north is surrounded by white trees and rocks, almost like it has been snowing there. And this sudden change of scenery could have been an inspiration for the game's core mechanic.
Anyway, this perspective has changed with the Link's Awakening remake, which is currently leading to whole bubble of potential follow-ups. There are even rumors that GREZZO has been busy with a third game already for a while now, a project called "Bernard", following "Richard" (the Link's Awakening remake) and "Edward" (Echoes of Wisdom). But we have no idea what "Bernard" actually is, where there are a number of possibilities, like a new coop Zelda game or even a dungeon maker.
But on top of the list is certainly a remake of the two Oracle games, which turned 25 years old just yesterday. However, Echoes of Wisdom came out only one and a half years ago and remaking two whole Zelda games since then is rather ambitious. Maybe a little too ambitious to make it in time for the 40th Anniversary. And that's why they could have considered something simpler: the original The Legend of Zelda.
Now, remaking the first Zelda in the new Link's Awakening style makes sense for a number of reasons. There is the aforementioned history of how Capcom was trying to achieve the same on the Game Boy Color, where this could be finally be realized. It could even serve as an interim step for remakes of Oracle of Ages & Season, since they could re-use new enemies (like the Bubble) and all of the bosses, where Aquamentus, Gleeok and co. were featured in the Oracle games as well.
It also makes sense in the context of Link's Awakening alone. While the Game Boy classic was originally meant to bring A Link to the Past to the handheld, it also looked back at the NES original to make it happen. You have the same screen-transitioning system, and as a result dungeons were constructed in a pattern of square rooms, which ultimately led to the Color Dungeon in the DX version as a homage and the whole Chamber Dungeon feature in the remake. Certain enemies, like the Pols Voice, Vire or even Gohma, also returned for the first time since the original.
And by re-using the assets of the Link's Awakening remake, as well as Echoes of Wisdom, they could actually cover quite a lot already. Most of the normal enemies would already have models. Items like Bombs, Boomerang and Bow have already been implemented before. And they could even re-use the meat echo for the bait item... The more you think about it, the more it feels like the game is halfway remade already.
Keep in mind, though, that such a remake would mainly be about modernizing the visuals and the combat in the current top-down Zelda style. But this alone would already make it much more accessible and fun. Some enemies, like Darknuts or the Wizzrobes, could become less aggravating, while others may even become more challenging, first and foremost the Lynels.
The world and the dungeons should stay the same, however, as it was intended. The overworld would become seamless, just like with Link's Awakening, and they may add some visual clues as to what trees you can burn and what rock walls can be blown up, because nobody got time for that nonsense today. But there is no reason to fill it with stuff that wasn't there before, unless they want to go down the same route as Oracle of Seasons.
You would also now be able to assign items to both the X and Y buttons, while the letter and potions may even work fully automatically, so you don't have to put them on a button at all. And for the remaining seven items the game could make use of the Breath of the Wild quick select, without it being a pain, since there are only so few.
One of those items could even get a dedicated button, where the best candidate is probably the Candle. You needed it all the time in dungeons to light up the dark rooms and this could get annoying very quickly, because it forced you to swap items every so often. Also, the screen-based usage of the Blue Candle won't make any sense when there are no transitioning screens any longer, so it may simply have a cooldown, which gets shortened by the Red Candle. And it should create a sphere of light around you inside dark rooms when you haven't used its fire yet, so you can still see a little bit.
The Bow could also be overhauled to use actual arrows as ammunition. And the shops that offered you an arrow now simply sell bundles of them for a refill. However, to still offer the classic functionality, the Magic Book now also upgrades the Bow (in addition to the Magical Rod), so that it still uses up Rupees when you're out of arrows. Kind of like how the Magic Armor in various Zelda games lets you deplete your Rupees instead of your health.
On the overworld the Clock power-up would probably freeze all enemies in sight or within a certain radius, like it does in Hyrule Warriors on the Master Quest map. And with the Bait it would be nice if you could carry more than just one at a time, so you're not just keeping it to bribe certain Goriyas.
Finally, the Compass would be another good candidate for a revision, because all it did in the original was showing you the location of the Triforce in a dungeon. It should still do that, of course, but it could also give you a signal in dungeon rooms that have a key, just like in Link's Awakening. Or it may even give a general signal whenever there is a secret related to defeating all enemies in a room.
And that's pretty much it. No fuzz, no nonsense, just the original game modernized. However, to make this a bit more interesting and to offer something new for most fans, this should also come with the maps and dungeons of the first BS-X Zelda game, released in the 90s for the Satellaview peripheral for the Super Nintendo. It was essentially a 16-Bit remake of the original, but it got broadcasted like a TV show with time-based events, where in each episode you were playing two dungeons.
Because of their unusual nature, these games have never been re-released by Nintendo in any way or form, but they still could remake the two maps and their unique dungeons without any of the event stuff. Fans have done it before, so it's entirely possible. In the remake it could look like this:
When you start the game you get a choice between four different quests. The "Classic Quest" is the game as you know it. The "Second Quest" lets you play the devious altered version of the original, without naming yourself "Zelda" or beating the normal game first. And the "Lost Quest", which comes in two variants, would bring you to the maps from the BS-X Zelda.
This could even be seen as difficulty modes. The Classic Quest would be the normal difficult, the 2nd Quest hard, while the Lost Quests would be a lot easier, because their overworlds are only half the size and the dungeons were meant to be cleared within a short time.
Of course, GREZZO could also add the usual Hero Mode option for those who are looking for a bigger challenge. But this probably should be implemented in the same way as in Echoes of Wisdom, meaning that you can just turn it on and off at any time.
Also like in Echoes of Wisdom, outfits could give Link a different appearance, to add some variety and novelty without altering the gameplay. This is where amiibo could come into the equation. For example, the 8-Bit Link could give you something like the Timeless Tunic from Tri Force Heroes, so that Link appears in a retro voxel style (and the music changes to the classic chiptunes from the NES). Or there could be a variant based on A Link Between Worlds, so he looks more like the classic Link, in case you don't like the toy style.
They should call this remake "The Legend of Zelda: The Hyrule Fantasy" to distinguish from the original – at least in the west, since this has been the subtitle of the Famicom Disk game in Japan. It should be available on the Nintendo Switch, but with a free upgrade for the Switch 2. And maybe this could even be something that they will simply shadow-drop at the end of a Nintendo Direct, where they will offer a physical release later on, similar to Metroid Prime Remastered. You know, as a surprise for the 40th Anniversary...
If you're asking fans what (handheld) Zelda game should be remade next, you will often see The Minish Cap as an answer. This is curious, because – unlike the Oracle games and the Nintendo DS games – it doesn't seem like the Game Boy Advance title really needs one. Its 2D sprite graphics are the best looking in the series and have aged gracefully. It also doesn't have some hook, where addressing that alone would already make the game better for most people. There is no convoluted password system and it doesn't have touchscreen or microphone controls.
You can play The Minish Cap just fine in 2024 via Nintendo Switch Online, given that you're willing to pay for the overpriced Expansion Pack. The game is not flawless, but compared to the other handheld Zeldas it still looks and plays quite nicely, so it's not in immediate need of a remake. But this doesn't mean that it won't ever get one...
There is even a big hook here, it's just not as obvious at first, because it's mainly about the graphics. Yes, the 2D pixel visuals of The Minish Cap are the best in the series, as the last game that made use of them. And yes, the game still looks pretty. Nevertheless, 3D graphics would offer a whole new perspective, one that really let's you dive into the world of the Picori.
In The Minish Cap the shrinking was displayed in one of two ways. Either you were a small dot within the environment, similar to the Gnat Hat from Four Swords, or you've entered special zoomed-in screens, like the "Minish Roads", the homes of the Picori, or even entire dungeons. In those you appear normal-sized relative to your screen, but the environments are heavily enlarged.
With 3D graphics you could handle this a lot more dynamically and offer whole new perspectives. Imagine running through Hyrule Castle Town as a Minish, but it's actually zoomed in and you can see details like grass and tiny rocks, while the people around you became huge. It would be breath-taking and a completely new experience. Of course, this could potentially go more in the direction of a re-imagining, instead of a faithful remake, but either way it would be an incredibly charming incentive to re-explore the world this game.
With that in mind, it's easy to understand why people want a remake of The Minish Cap, other than the fact that's probably the most well-rounded out of the Capcom titles. It still has some rough edges, however, and the rest of this article will talk about those.
With the Nintendo Switch you get twice as many face buttons and twice as many shoulder buttons than what you had on the Game Boy Advance. This alone can already provide much more comfort, as demonstrated by the Link's Awakening remake, which didn't even make use of everything. In the very least, sword and shield should get their dedicated buttons. Pegasus Boots and the Roc's Cape are good candidates for this as well, while you still have the X and Y buttons for the remaining items.
Map and inventory should now be separate, with the inventory screen on ⊕ and the map on ⊖. The inventory can also display the main items, all your gear, and the status items at once, so there won't be any need to switch pages via L and R any longer.
As for Ezlo, the Select button was originally dedicated to getting advice from him, where this can move to some direction on the D-pad, together with the Kinstone fusion. Nintendo probably won't support the D-pad for movement anyway, since neither Link's Awakening nor Echoes of Wisdom did so. Plus, the remake will probably become more three-dimensional, where you'd want to use a stick.
Ezlo should also get the Fi treatment from Skyward Sword HD, meaning that he will only make some sound when he wants to give you a hint, instead of popping up and interrupting the game. If the player wants the advice, they can press his button at the moment.
In concept the Kinstone system was pretty neat, but its execution is quite flawed. Some characters won't fuse Kinstones with you until you've reached a certain point in the game, without giving you any real hints about that. And with certain characters, like Epona, you won't ever have the pleasure of fusing Kinstones, because they are part of the random pool that will run out quickly. Finally, finding Kinstones in treasure chests, sometimes even as a reward from other Kinstone fusions, rarely ever feels exciting, because you're getting so many duplicates.
There is a simple solution to all of these problems: make all Kinstone Pieces behave like the golden ones, meaning that there is a fixed number of each shape in the game and that every fusion is assigned to a specific character. There should be more shapes and colors, like purple and orange, where many pieces will be entirely unique. Let's say the remake will have 128 different fusions, because they've added some more stuff, then there will be exactly 128 Kinstone pieces hidden in the world. No more and no less.
Characters should always be ready for fusing Kinstones. If you don't have the matching piece yet, it will leave a marker on your map with the other side displayed. This even let's you open your Kinstone Bag to compare, just to be safe that you have obtained the right piece before revisiting the character in question.
If you're not meant to activate the fusion until a certain point in the game, then the required Kinstone piece will be hidden accordingly. For example, there is the Minish who lives in the northeast corner of the Minish Village and who gives you access to the final Heart Container at Lake Hylia. In this case the Kinstone piece should be found behind the 4x4 rock on the schoolyard, ensuring that you already have the Four Sword.
There also shouldn't be a shared pool of fusions any longer, giving you a reason to fuse with everyone, even that Cucco on Anju's house, where reaching it was usually pointless so late in the game. But the remake then also needs to make sure that every character still can be found at the end of the game somewhere.
Speaking of pointless things, you should be able to obtain the Mirror Shield right after summoning Biggoron via Kinstones, which doesn't happen until very late in the game anyway.
A simple fix for the Figurine Gallery would be to increase the maximum of Mysterious Shells from 999 to 9999. This way you can simply collect as many of them as you want and then tend to this minigame whenever you're ready, even if that's at the very end of the game. The main issue here always was that reaching the maximum effectively forced you to stop whatever you're doing and go invest your Mysterious Shells, or else any more you find will go to waste.
The same goes for Rupees, of course, where the individual wallet sizes should probably be closer to what we have in Twilight Princess HD, also with a maximum of 9999.
As for the figurine game itself, there are a number of ways to improve this and speed things up. Like, it could allow you to make multiple draws at once, instead of always ever going for a single figurine. Or maybe it let's you choose between different eggs, so that you can target a specific color, similar to other common Gacha games.
Finally, there shouldn't be a Piece of Heart locked behind collecting 130 figurines. For those who want to have all hearts, but don't care about the figurines, this is just a painful requirement, no matter how much you improve it.
"The Legend of Zelda: Seeds of Courage"
This is what I would call a remake of Oracle of Ages & Seasons at this point, mirroring Echoes of Wisdom in title. As explained in my Oracle of Worlds concept, which I wrote five years ago after the release of Link's Awakening for the Nintendo Switch, I would combine both of the Oracle games into one experience, where you travel between Holodrum and Labrynna via a portal inside the Maku Trees.
With such a combined experience, the game will need a new title, however. In Japanese this completely straightforward, because both games had the same subtitle, but they were divided into chapters. Oracle of Seasons is called "The Legend of Zelda: The Mysterious Seeds - Chapter of Earth", while Oracle of Ages is called "The Legend of Zelda: The Mysterious Seeds - Chapter of Space Time". So, if Nintendo were to remake both games into one, it probably would just be The Mysterious Seeds, without the chapter annotations.
Sadly, this isn't as simple for the rest of the world. You could name such a game "Oracles of Ages & Seasons", but then the title would get much longer and be a bit of a mouthful, while the triple plural isn't exactly nice either. Hence my proposal to call it differently.
And the title "Seeds of Courage" would do a number of things, all in one. As already mentioned, it would mirror Echoes of Wisdom, where wisdom stands for Zelda and the echoes are the main mechanic. While the main mechanics are different for the two Oracle games, they do share the importance of seeds. The Maku Seeds are the end goal, you plant Gasha Seeds all over the world, and then there is the Seed Satchel as one of the most important items. (Which I'd love to see expanded with Frost, Razor and Armor Seeds.)
"Courage" stands for Link, of course, highlighting that this would be his game again, for all those who may not have been happy with a playable Zelda. But it also stands for Farore, who would get a more important role in the remake, connecting the lands of Holodrum and Labrynna.
Finally, this is also a throwback to the unreleased third Oracle games, "Mystical Seed of Courage", where the other two games used to be called "Mystical Seed of Power" and "Mystical Seed of Wisdom", representing the Triforce. So, this should get some fans excited, though technically this won't come with a third Oracle game.
PS: When I first saw the trailer for Echoes of Wisdom with the scene where Link fights Ganon, I even thought for a second that they are going to make a third Oracle game, which takes place after the events of the first two games. "Oracle of Echoes".
"Aus Alt mach Neu."
This is a German saying that translates to "from old make new", and fits nicely into the topic of enhanced ports, remasters, and remakes of video games. You may not like it, you may not need it, but it's an important topic nevertheless, because it helps keeping games accessible to newer generations of gamers, while it's also always a chance to improve older games, to make them as good as you remember them – or even better.
This may backfire, as in case of Majora's Mask 3D, where it's possible to improve something for the worse ("Verschlimmbessern"), but for the most part the Zelda series has a solid track record when it comes to bringing its old games back in new glory. And in this article we will go through all generations of the Zelda series and evaluate their likelihood of making a return on the Nintendo Switch or its successor in the upcoming years.
With the sole exception of Four Swords Adventures, all Zelda games were made playable during the previous generation in some form, on either the Nintendo 3DS or the Wii U, some even on both (see here). But with the Nintendo Switch came the first hard cut in a long time, providing no backwards compatibility whatsoever. And there also came a big wave of new players, who didn't have a Nintendo console for a long time or maybe even never.
So, before we talk what Zelda games will potentially be remade or remastered in the upcoming years, let's first look what the Nintendo Switch has to offer at the moment. The following games run natively on the system:
With a Nintendo Switch Online (+ Expansion Pack) subscription you can also get access to a variety of emulated games:
All in all, that's twelve of the 20 mainline titles and three out of six spin-offs (from those released outside of Japan), which is very solid. But there is still a good chunk missing and some of the emulated games haven't aged all too well, which is why we will also consider them for potential remakes despite their presence.
There is currently no reason to believe that the next Nintendo system won't be backwards compatible, which means that all of the above titles will likely carry over, some might even get performance improvements or upscaling. In the very least, it should be in Nintendo's own interest to keep their current account model, together with the Nintendo Switch Online service, which gives you access to the classic console libraries.
The two Zelda games for the NES are the most re-released titles in the series, where they have been playable in some form on every Nintendo system for the past 20 years, with the sole exception of the Nintendo DSi. They were on the Collector's Edition disc for the Nintendo GameCube, they were part of the NES Classics series for the Game Boy Advance, they were on the Virtual Console on the Wii, Wii U, and Nintendo 3DS. And finally, you can play them with a basic Nintendo Switch Online subscription, as mentioned above. In addition, you can also find them on dedicated hardware, where we had the Nintendo Classic Mini in 2016, as well as the Legend of Zelda Game & Watch system from two years ago.
Nintendo made sure that you can play these two games somehow, if you're truly interested. Still, despite the availability, they aren't the easiest games to get into, where fans have been asking for remakes since the 90s. But the NES classics aren't exactly remake material, because they are lacking many of the elements that make a Zelda game today and that were introduced with A Link to the Past. Better graphics and controls wouldn't change that these games are rather archaic in comparison to later titles in the series.
They are better candidates for re-imaginings, similar to Metroid: Zero Mission and Metroid: Samus Returns, where you still have the same premise and roughly the same worlds, but it's been updated in every possible aspect, putting them on par with games of their era. But by doing so you are more likely to end up with something that becomes a Zelda game of its own...
In fact, that's what happened with Oracle of Seasons, where originally Capcom was going to remake the first The Legend of Zelda for the Game Boy Color, but then they've added in new ideas, like the animal buddies or changing seasons.
It would still be nice to get something one day, which captures the magic of the original games in a new livery. But the reality is that there is to gain a lot more with less effort from remaking or remastering any of the later Zelda games...
We are skipping over A Link to the Past for now and move right on to the next duo of games, Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. Both already got remade on the Nintendo 3DS, but at some point Nintendo will start over with the 3D Zelda games. And there already have been rumors about a potential remake of Ocarina of Time coming to the Nintendo Switch, but the timing is rather odd, because you can't say Ocarina of Time without Majora's Mask. These two games belong together and whatever treatment Ocarina of Time gets, its sequel should get it as well.
With that in mind, it makes more sense to have a remake of Ocarina of Time in the early lifecycle of a Nintendo system, so that they can follow up with Majora's Mask, using the same engine and assets, later on. They could potentially make HD remasters of the Nintendo 3DS remakes (which are technically close to being remasters as well), or they could remake both games from scratch.
Whatever will be the case, they should undo some of the changes made with Majora's Mask 3D, which weren't well received. With more buttons available you can already separate the fast swimming of Zora Link from his magic barrier, and there is no good reason to limit the Ice Arrows like they were... But let's not dwell in details here.
Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask are of course not the only case where two Zelda games share the same visuals and engine, which ties them together. In this case we even have three...
The Nintendo Switch saw the excellent remake of Link's Awakening and it makes all the sense to follow up on this with a remake of the other two Game Boy Color titles, Oracle of Ages & Seasons, which were made by Capcom back in the day. They've reused a lot from Link's Awakening, where GREZZO could just take what they had created for the remake to bring back these games in the same glory in one neat package.
There is a lot of potential for improvements, where you can read all about it here: Oracle of Worlds. And this could also be something that still makes it onto the Nintendo Switch in 2024 or 2025. If we're going to see another Zelda remake in the near future, it's likely going to be this, because everything needed is in place. The only problem might be music rights, but they could just make new music for this.
While Oracle of Ages & Seasons are already playable on the Nintendo Switch via the Game Boy library, the whole password system for linking both games has never been all that convenient and can also be a bit confusing at times. To experience both games as a whole, without having to deal with that, would be an additional selling point, other than the upgraded graphics and other quality of life improvements.
If there's one 2D Zelda game that still looks very good today, then it's without a doubt The Minish Cap. You can play it on the Nintendo Switch via the Expansion Pack online membership, which features the Game Boy Advance library, and its visuals have aged very gracefully.
This doesn't mean that it wouldn't profit from a remake. 3D graphics really could make the shrinking effect a lot more impressive and let you dive even deeper into the world of Picori. It could make an already beautiful game even more astounding... But because it still looks and plays as nice as it does today, The Minish Cap is not very high on the priority list, where other top-down Zelda games have to gain a lot more from being remade.
Now, The Minish Cap probably wouldn't exist without Four Swords, where the multiplayer Zelda episode was used as a basis for Capcom's final Zelda project. That game was once re-released as DSiWare during the 25th Anniversary of Zelda, which added a singleplayer mode and new levels, but this is already its whole history.
Remakes or remasters of the multiplayer Zelda games will be questionable in general, because Nintendo would probably invest that effort into a new multiplayer game instead, which was designed for the Nintendo Switch. But in case of Four Swords there is at least the chance to see it again, since the Nintendo Switch Online game libraries all support online multiplayer with friends. If A Link to the Past & Four Swords were to make it onto the service, the game really could really see a new dawn, and this may even allow some Zelda fans to experience it for the first time ever.
This may sound like a broken record, but The Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD are some of the few Wii U titles that haven't been ported over to the Nintendo Switch yet. With such ports all 3D Zelda games would become playable on the Nintendo Switch and that in itself is already a desirable milestone, where this would be the perfect filler for the year 2024.
The real question is how they are going to bring back these two games. Most people would certainly prefer a two-in-one collection, but since we're talking about Nintendo here and these two games couldn't look any more different from each other, it's also possible that they could see individual releases. But maybe those would come at a discounted price, like Metroid Prime Remastered, or they could follow the excellent example of Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury, where they add they add a side game as an incentive...
In case of Twilight Princess HD it would make a lot of sense to include a remaster of Link's Crossbow Training. This small Wii shooter was fully based on Twilight Princess, so they could bring it back in the same HD assets, and maybe even add some new levels to it. That would certainly sweeten the deal.
With The Wind Waker HD on the other hand it's not as obvious, but there is one game that would fit nicely here and which was never released in the west: Navi Trackers. It uses the same art style as The Wind Waker and is even a direct follow-up, where Link has to master a pirate test.
It was originally meant to be its own title on the GameCube, but then got released as part of the Japanese and Korean versions of Four Swords Adventures, which is in a similar position to Four Swords. Maybe one day the Nintendo Switch Online service will offer GameCube titles (which is more likely to happen on the next system) and with it you will be able to emulate the unique setup that Four Swords Adventures required, where each player had their own screen in the form of a Game Boy Advance, while the TV showed something for everyone.
In an online environment you could just put the player's screen and the main screen both on the TV together, so this could actually work just fine. Navi Trackers could also be played alone or against a CPU Tingle, so it wouldn't necessarily require an internet connection to be played today. But overall it remains questionable whether Nintendo would be willing to put in the effort to fully remake/remaster such a title. At least it would bring some novelty to the table for the players in the west.
Alternatively, Nintendo could also decide to save The Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD for later, to upgrade them to UHD on the next system(s), maybe even make a 4K-collection together with Skyward Sword. The graphics of both The Wind Waker and Skyward Sword should scale very nicely and look beautiful in any resolution, but in case of Twilight Princess they will eventually arrive at a point where upscaling the textures isn't enough. Here you would need more detailed models, which means a lot more effort.
This may even be an argument for why it's in Nintendo's own interest to bring Twilight Princess HD from the Wii U on the Nintendo Switch as soon as tomorrow. On the other hand, if they have the resources for a remaster that turns heads the way Metroid Prime Remastered did, then they will be making something that gets much more praise and potentially also more sales.
The two Zelda games that would easily profit the most from a remaster or remake – in visuals, controls, and gameplay – are without a doubt the ones on the Nintendo DS, Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks. Their graphics have aged very poorly, where they look worse than N64 games today. The touchscreen controls weren't received well by everyone, and parts of the gameplay are despised. Here's an article from 2016 about this topic, which still holds up today:
Remaking Phantom Hourglass & Spirit Tracks
One concern remained at the time and that was how button controls couldn't possibly match the speed and precision of the touchscreen controls, especially when it comes to aiming with the Bow or Boomerang. But the newest Zelda games have provided a solution for this problem: just slow down time. Whenever you take aim, it will make everything around you go in slow motion, giving you the necessary time to align your shots.
If we're getting more remakes of handheld Zelda titles, then Oracle of Ages & Seasons should have priority. But Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks would certainly be worthy candidates to become the next duo of Zelda remakes afterwards.
Remastering A Link Between Worlds is what you would call an "easy win". The remake of Link's Awakening already has re-used some of the assets from the Nintendo 3DS title and brought them into HD, where this could go full circle and GREZZO could use the same engine to bring A Link Between Worlds onto the Nintendo Switch. It's not that easy, of course, but out of all Zelda games that aren't already available in high definition resolution, this probably would be the one that requires the least amount of effort to make it happen.
Now, we haven't talked about A Link to the Past yet in this article and this was for a good reason: if they ever remaster A Link Between Worlds, they could remake A Link to the Past right along with it. A Link Between Worlds is entirely based on the Super Nintendo classic and provides at least 80% of the assets required for a remake. It's one of the reasons why fans already wanted such a thing on the Nintendo 3DS, because it seems like a no-brainer. The graphics, all the enemies, most items and sounds... It's all there, it just needs to be re-arranged accordingly.
So, this could become a nice two-in-one, A Link to the Past & Between Worlds, where you both get to re-experience the beloved Super Nintendo and the Nintendo 3DS classics on a modern Nintendo system. A very sweat deal.
Tri Force Heroes on the other hand wasn't as beloved and falls into the same multiplayer trap. We may see it again one day, especially since it also shares part of its visuals with A Link Between Worlds and the Link's Awakening remake, but since this game wasn't a big hit, Nintendo may just move on and create a completely new multiplayer Zelda game instead.
Now we're already getting ahead of ourselves, but both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom will eventually get remastered at some point. Their graphics allow for some upscaling, maybe not as simple as with The Wind Waker, but still. Theoretically, we could even see an update for both games on the Switch successor, making them 4K-ready. But full re-releases in the form of remasters probably won't happen until the generation after.
After the remake of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening for Nintendo Switch, it's only natural to assume that GREZZO will continue to work on the other GameBoy Color Zelda games: Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons. While those were originally made by Capcom, let's assume for the sake of this article that this won't be an issue. And Nintendo does have all the rights for the scenarios and its characters, only the music might become an issue.
In any case, the Oracle games would really profit from such a remake if it were to happen. There are many things that could be improved with these games, where this post will offer a complete concept for a remake in the same style as Link's Awakening.
The main idea behind this remake is that there won't be two separate games any longer and there also won't be any passwords, the so called "secrets". That's all history. There will be only one game, where there won't be Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages, but only "Holodrum" and "Labrynna". It will be one adventure with two big chapters, spanning the two different lands, as it was originally envisioned.
Similar to Link's Awakening, there will be three save slots and one auto save. You start with a single save file and in the beginning you can choose whether the Triforce should send Link to Holodrum or Labrynna. Depending on your choice the adventure will unfold in that land.
After beating Onox or Veran respectively, the second chapter will begin and you will arrive in the second world. So, if you've started in Holodrum, you will now go to Labrynna and vice versa. In the second land you will always have the opportunity to return to the first world via a portal. You can't bring any items or additional hearts through the portal, however, so you can only use items in the second land if you also acquired them there. The exception are the Magic Rings, which are always transported between the lands via your ring collection at Vasu's shop.
There are also the special side quests that span both worlds, where you can get certain item upgrades, Magic Rings, as well an additional Heart Container. Here you will be able to get these items in the second world as well, so it's worth it to return to the first world and attend these quests. Originally, you needed to tell certain people "secrets" for this, now all you need to do is talking to the right persons to initiate the quests. Since these messages are delivered vocally by you, you can actually bring them with you through the portal, unlike items.
After beating the real final boss you will now have the possibility to start Hero Mode, a New Game+, where your entire Magic Ring collection will carry over, but you will also take double damage and more enemies will appear. This will effectively replace the "Hero's Secret", while combining it with the typical Hero Mode feature as a balance for keeping all your (strong) Magic Rings.
Again, you will have the choice whether you want to go to Holodrum or Labrynna first. If you do the opposite now, you will be able to experience different scenarios in the second chapter, as well as new world-spanning quests with some exclusive rewards, where in the end you might get a complete ring collection for the first time. If you start another Hero Mode from that file, you will eventually be able to start a new adventure where you have all rings in your possession right from the get-go.
This system has the disadvantage that you won't be able to carry over your rings to your older save files. So, those save files will always stay incomplete, but in a way this was also true on the GameBoy Color with the one missing Heart Container. The big advantage is that this system will be much easier to understand and that it's highly compatible with the save file system from Link's Awakening.
In a way all of this is very similar to the old linked game system, but instead of passwords you have one big, shared save game, in which you can switch between Holodrum and Labrynna at any time. How will this happen? Well, meet the new star of the remake...
On the GameBoy Color the third of the Oracles had a relatively minor role. She was known as the "Oracle of Secrets" and was responsible for managing the passwords, which let you link both Oracle of Ages and Oracle Seasons and get some special items. In the remake her role will be similar, but also more important.
There will now be a portal inside both Maku Trees, which links both Holodrum and Labrynna, but only after you've already visited both lands. Maybe it's opened by one of the Maku Seeds. Farore, who is now known as the "Oracle of Worlds", is the gatekeeper of this portal and will explain the whole thing to you. Remember that you can't bring any items through this portal, so your current equipment is tied to the land that you're in.
If you now go on world-spanning quests, she will also be the one to reward you afterwards. So, if the Great Fairy in Holodrum asks you to visit Tingle in Labrynna to tell him that he's not actually a fairy, he will reward you with a bigger Seed Satchel for this intelligent insight. If you now return to Holodrum, Farore will give you this Seed Satchel upgrade there as well and a pat on the back.
"Wait a minute! This isn't much different from what Farore did on the GameBoy Color... How is she any more important in the remake now?"
Excellent question! This is where the following comes in...
Whenever the Maku Tree grows after you've completed a dungeon in either Holodrum or Labrynna, you will be able to pick "World Seeds" from its top. This will be a new item in the remake and the big new feature, essentially this game's version of the Chamber Dungeon, where Farore will be its host, like Dampé in Link's Awakening.
Farore can use these world seeds to create small new worlds inside the Maku Tree, which you can go explore through a portal. Her new item, replacing the Book of Secrets, may even reflect that, where she could have a magical watering can for example, like a gardener of worlds. Or maybe she still has a book and you will have to collect pages for her "Book of Worlds".
These worlds will be randomly generated and always consist of a small overworld area and at least one dungeon. Defeating all dungeon bosses will clear the world, where Farore will reward you with new Magic Rings, Pieces of Heart, additional World Seeds, or a new Heart Container.
Every World Seed will be based on your finished adventures. So, if you've beaten the Spirit's Grave, you will get access to a Halloween-themed graveyard world and a tomb dungeon, where you can fight against Pumpkin Head again. If you've beaten the Moonlit Grotto, you will be able to visit an island world. And beating the Ancient Tomb lets you play a dangerous fortress world full of Darknuts and Lynels... You can also combine multiple seeds to get a larger world that mixes the different themes, like a desert next to a graveyard.
But all of it can look very different for every player, where both the overworld and the dungeons get procedurally generated via certain patterns and templates. You can always abort your adventure and ask Farore to re-plant the World Seeds if you didn't like the outcome. But if you like the current world, you can also save it to an amiibo, so you can play it in other savegames or share it with friends.
So, in many ways this will be like the Chamber Dungeon, just that instead of building something that you need to beat afterwards, you will always go explore something new and unknown. And instead of collecting chambers for a dungeon, you collect different themes for the worlds based on the adventures in Holodrum and Labrynna, where you can even mix the two. You will be able to replay bosses this way, but also face new challenges.
You start with zero equipment and the items that you'll get are based on the selected seeds, e.g. you will get the Magnetic Gloves in a world that has the Unicorn Dungeon theme. In a way it will be like playing your own small Zelda game.
Other than the World Seeds that you get from the Maku Trees, there will also be additional ones that you can get from Farore, shops, mini-games and maybe even your amiibo. These will either add new worlds or enhance existing ones. There might something like the "plus effects" from the Chamber Dungeon to make the worlds more challenging or more forgiving.
All in all, there will be many similarities to the Chamber Dungeon here, just without the baggage of the limited dungeon builder and with focus on an almost "roguelike" experience with procedurally generated levels.
The Mystical Seeds are some of Link's most important items in the Oracle games, where the Seed Satchel was basically the Magic Powder on steroids. It was quite inconvenient to switch between the different seeds, however, because similar to the Ocarina in Link's Awakening you had to go back into the inventory, re-assign the Seed Satchel to a button and select the Mystical Seed you need in a small pop-up menu.
In the remake this will be much easier. With the Pegasus Boots gone (which got replaced by the Pegasus Seeds), the Seed Satchel will take its place on the L-button, so you can always quickly use your currently selected seeds, which are shown in the bottom right of the screen with their amount. Using the right analog stick will now activate a small ring menu with all the different Mystical Seeds in them. If you remember their positions, you can easily switch between seeds with a single flick of your R-stick.
If you have the Seed Shooter or the Slingshot equipped to the X or Y button, then those will also make use of your currently selected seeds. This will make certain fights, where you constantly have to switch between different seeds, much easier.
Well, with such a ring menu it could easily support up to eight different seeds instead of just the five from the original. And since it only takes a couple of seconds to come up with three new Mystical Seeds, these get added to the remake as new items:
The Razor Seeds and Armor Seeds should sound familiar, because those already were a thing in Four Swords on the GameBoy Advance, made by the same development team as the Oracle games. In the remake they will function like the Piece of Power and the Guardian Acorn from Link's Awakening, where you get an attack or defense boost for 30 seconds.
To balance this properly, you will only be able to use one at a time and there will be a cool-down for both of these seeds afterwards. Unlike all the other Mystical Seeds you will also only be able to hold a few of them, 5 in the beginning, 20 in the end.
The Frost Seeds are basically the opposite to the Ember Seeds and let you freeze enemies and extinguish torches. You will only be getting them near the end of the game and they will be very helpful when fighting Frypolar or Twinrova, since you now can damage both their fire and ice forms with the respective seeds. (As for Frypolar, using his own ice pillars against him will still deal massive damage, unlike the seeds.)
With these new types of seeds, there will also be Razor Trees, Armor Trees, and Frost Trees present in both Holodrum and Labrynna for additional warp points. Those will be in areas that need them the most, like North Horon, Mt. Cucco, and the Temple Remains in Holodrum. You will also be able to warp directly to the Maku Trees now.
The inventory itself will have 16 slots, just like in the GameBoy Color games. Sword, Shield, Power Bracelet, Power Glove, and the Seed Satchel are permanently assigned to certain buttons, where they will be replaced with four Fairy Bottles. This leaves the following items on the remaining twelve slots:
That's eleven items in total for Labrynna and ten items for Holodrum. But the Biggoron's Sword will take two slots now, both in the menu and on your X and Y buttons. This might even be a good reason to keep the Roc's Feather as a normal item and not have a dedicated button for it as well, because the Biggoron's Sword will come with the tradeoff that you won't be able to jump using it.
Anyway, we're still one item short in Holodrum, since you can't get the Switch Hook there. So, there will be a new optional item instead to make things more even: the Whip. It lets you fight enemies and grab items from a certain distance, like a quick alternative to the normal Boomerang.
The Rod of Seasons will also be now more convenient to use by swinging it in a certain direction for a specific season. Up will summon winter, right will summon summer and so on.
Also, with having a dedicated action button (A) and a dedicated sword button (B), the swimming with the Mermaid Suit can just function normally now, since you can swim and use your sword at the same time.
In the original games you were able to collect up to 64 Magic Rings and of course the remake will add to this count for a total of 100 Magic Rings to collect.
All of them will have unique effects, where the remake will focus much more strongly on rings with transformation abilities. On the GameBoy Color you could become NES Link, a Moblin, a Like Like, an Octorok or a Subrosian. The remake will add the following:
Basically anything interesting that can walk. With some of these transformations you will even be able to use sword and shield, while others might give you unique attacks or abilities. Using the Guard Ring for example lets you freely walk around Ambi's Castle undetected.
The First Gen Ring now will work similar to the Timeless Tunic in Tri Force Heroes, so it turns Link into a voxel being and the music will turn into the 8-Bit soundtrack of the GameBoy Color originals. The GBA Time and Nature Rings will have to be replaced with something as well, since it won't make sense to have any GameBoy Advance-exclusive rewards in the remake.
Other than transformations there will be new abilities as well. Here are a few ideas:
The most important change to the Magic Rings, however, is that getting them all won't be left to chance any longer, which means there won't be any randomization behind finding the rings. You will still be able to obtain duplicates, but each and every ring will have its dedicated way of obtaining them, whether it's a certain treasure chest, shop item or mini-game score. You will also now find them more often in the environment, similar to Secret Seashells.
Gasha Trees will now all have one primary reward, which you will get after growing the tree for the first time. This will either be a Piece of Heart or a specific ring. Afterwards the trees will give either Rupees, Magic Potions, Hearts or Fairies. This will be an incentive to find absolutely all Gasha Spots in the world and to plant at least one tree on every spot. The trees will even stay there after you've grown them for the first time, so you will know immediately whether you've already planted a Gasha Seed there or not. This also means that Gasha Seeds will become a strictly limited collectible, where there's one to find for every Gasha Spot.
Also, Maple will now always drop both Maple's Ring and her Piece of Heart until you got them both. Afterwards she will keep changing to new rewards, like other rings, but it will always be a specific ring that you can get next. Like the Trendy Game in Link's Awakening, she will add new rewards after every dungeon.
Like with Link's Awakening, the total amount of hearts will be increased to 20. The fourth Heart Container that you get from starting a game with a password will now be gone and instead replaced with a Heart Container you can get from Farore for exploring World Seeds. Otherwise there will be 16 new Pieces of Heart in both Holodrum and Labrynna for you to find.
In the original both game worlds did have their empty spots, where adding Pieces of Heart (as well as new Magic Rings) will make exploring every nook of Labrynna, Holodrum and Subrosia will be worth your time.
As already mentioned before, both Gasha Trees and Maple won't handle their Pieces of Heart at random any longer. There will be specific Gasha Trees that give you Pieces of Heart with their first Gasha Nut, while Maple will always drop her Piece of Heart until you get it.
GREZZO did a great job at updating all the mini-games in Link's Awakening with new mechanics and rewards. However, there were only three mini-games on Koholint and they were already quite good on the GameBoy.
With the Oracle of Seasons and especially Oracle of Ages GREZZO will have to go wild here, since there are about a dozen mini-games in the worlds of the Oracles, including some of the most-hated mini-games of all time, like the atrocious Goron Dance. Making this more fun to play would already be a huge win for everyone.
This number also includes some of the one-time mini-games that you face, mainly in some of the quests that bring you back to Holodrum, like the diving mini-game or the Old Man's combat test. Those could even be expanded to proper mini-games, which you can keep playing for additional rewards, like some of the new Magic Rings.
Ricky, Moosh and Dimitri – those are your trusted companions during your travels in Holodrum and Labrynna. Well, on the GameBoy Color one of them was, because you only ever could get one flute per playthrough. This even affected one entire environment, where depending on your flute a part of Holodrum and Labrynna will look completely different (more information here).
The remake won't have any of this. Instead you will be able to get three different songs for the flute, similar to the Ocarina in Link's Awakening, one for each animal buddy. And the Natzu and Nuun areas will now be unified with paths for all three animals.
The latter will even be a necessity for the remake if it keeps the seamless overworld scrolling of Link's Awakening, because then you would get something like the following, where you can take a good look at the Nuun Highlands from Lynna City right at the beginning of the game:
Normally, this area won't be determined until after the third dungeon, which is where you were able to obtain the flute for the first time. But if you can already look past Bipin's and Blossom's house, this wouldn't work any longer and there needs to be something fixed here from the beginning. (Or they would have to put the Nuun Highlands so high up that you can't see them early on.)
In Labrynna this change will even be very straight-forward. You will meet and help the three animal buddies around the quest to Crescent Island, exactly like in the original, and when you have to gather all three carpenters in the Nuun Highlands, you will notice that you need all the animal buddies for the job, one for each worker. This brings you back to the Fairies' Woods, where you now have to search for them all and where at the end you get the flute with all three songs.
In Holodrum you will be able to meet and help either Ricky or Dimitri on your way to the Spool Swamp, which will earn you one of their songs. You will also get Moosh's song in the Spool Swamp after rescuing him from monsters. The "Natzu Crossing" will now offer three different paths to the Moblin's Keep and the Sunken City, one for each animal buddy, where you can choose which one you prefer.
Once you've arrived at the Sunken City you will be able to recruit Dimitri, if you haven't already, while you can recruit Ricky at any time by bringing him the boxing gloves from Blaino. And at Mt. Cucco you will need to collect the Bananas for Moosh in any case or else he won't help you. This way all the special animal buddy events will still be in the game.
In the end you will be able to summon all three of the animal companions in both Labrynna and Holodrum for your convenience. There might even be certain Magic Rings, Gasha Seeds, and Pieces of Hearts that can only be gotten with a certain animal friend.
You will also be able to summon while exploring Farore's World Seeds, where some of the worlds might require the usage of either Ricky, Moosh or Dimitri.
Other than the animal buddies, there was another thing that could end up being very different on your playthrough on the GameBoy Color: the offspring of Bipin and Blossom. Depending on what answers and help you gave the family, he could grow up to become a hero, an arborist, a musician or a slacker.
The remake will add some new outcomes, but there will also be a new mechanic, where you can get the son to leave and start his own life elsewhere in the world. In this case Bipin and Blossom will quickly make a new child, which then you can influence again and again to experience all different outcomes in a single save file. There might even be some exclusive rings that you can only get if their son turns out a certain way.
The dungeons in the Oracle games have larger "chambers" than in Link's Awakening, where as a result it would constantly scroll on the GameBoy Color, because the chambers wouldn't fit on a single screen. This won't be the case in the remake, where it only scrolls, if there are multiple connected rooms, exactly like in the remake of Link's Awakening.
If GREZZO ever were to remake Oracle of Ages & Seasons in the same style as Link's Awakening, there would be lots of things that they could add and improve. No passwords, new Hero Mode, easier to use items, more Magic Rings and Pieces of Hearts, updated mini-games and the ability to get all three animal buddies for the first time would all be good reasons for such a remake.
On top they could add a complete new feature, similar to the Chamber Dungeon, where in this example Farore lets you explore many new small worlds, which get procedurally generated. But of course GREZZO could also go for a more sophisticated version of the Chamber Dungeon or something else entirely.
