Due out this Thursday 5 November on Nintendo Switch 2, the remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time will bring a few new additions compared to the original version released in 1998 on Nintendo 64. One of them could have been a fast travel mechanic to make getting around the kingdom of Hyrule easier, but the developers decided to drop the idea.
“In The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, there are many teleportation points that let you move quickly around the game's vast world. In the original The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, you could speed up your journeys a little by using the forward roll, and I think a lot of players spent their time rolling over and over across Hyrule Field whenever they needed to get somewhere in a hurry,” explains Eiji Aonuma, producer of the series.
He then adds: “That was something we had to address in this new version. So I asked for teleportation points to be added that didn't exist in the original game, to give players access to shortcuts. Except that when we tried playing with those teleportation points, we realised we were missing out on certain moments of discovery, because we'd stop along the way and wonder: “Hang on, what's that?””
“It reminded us, once again, how important those moments of discovery are to the very structure of this title. The upshot is that, even though I was the one who pushed for those teleportation points in the first place, I eventually decided they didn't work and asked the team to remove them all. (laughs)”
No open world either
Another element the developers wanted to preserve: the way the map is divided into several distinct areas, when they could easily have offered a single seamless open world along the lines of Breath of the Wild. “We didn't want to change the atmosphere of each location, nor the way they connect to one another, two particularly striking features of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time,” points out HokWai Ng, director of the remake. “This time, as in the original game, we chose not to make the world entirely seamless and instead used separate maps for each area.”
He adds: “We wanted every new location to give players the same thrill as in the original. We hoped that moving from one map to another would naturally provide a point of transition, giving them a chance to reflect on their adventure so far while looking ahead to what awaits them in the next area. We also wanted to capture that exciting moment when you think, “I'm going to explore this world”, so we asked the artist who created the illustrations for the Nintendo 64 version to draw a new map for this title.”
That 99 out of 100 on Metacritic in its sights
While we're here, a reminder that the Nintendo Switch 2 The Legend of Zelda 40th Anniversary Edition has been available since 29 October. The console is currently out of stock, but Nintendo has promised restocks without giving any date. The machine's price ranges from €490 to €520 depending on the retailer, bearing in mind that the game isn't included in the bundle.
Finally, let's not forget that, on Nintendo 64, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time earned a record score of 99 out of 100 on Metacritic. Will the remake manage the same feat? We'll get a first idea tomorrow when the first reviews go live.
