Nintendo confirms Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake rebuilt entirely from scratch

This is a new development in a story we reported earlier: Hands‑on previews show Switch 2 Ocarina of Time remake’s updated controls and puzzles. Earlier in this story: Nintendo reveals Switch 2 Ocarina integration in Ocarina of Time remake trailer.

Nintendo confirmed on November 3, 2026, that The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake for Switch 2 was rebuilt entirely from scratch instead of using the original game as a base. Director HokWai Ng and program director Hiroki Taguchi discussed the remake in an interview published on November 3, 2026. The interview covered Link’s redesigned actions and the decision to preserve the original game’s fundamentals.

The remake launches for Switch 2 on November 5, 2026. The release time is 12 AM ET under a local midnight launch schedule.

The remake costs $60 digitally and $70 physically and is one of the main pieces of Zelda’s 40th anniversary push, which also includes a special Nintendo Switch 2 console on October 29, 2026, a world concert tour planned for 2027, museum activities in Kyoto, and more merchandise. Google launched a time-traveling Easter Egg to help build hype for the new Switch 2 game.

Nintendo plans new Young Link and Young Zelda amiibo figures for 2027, and both figures unlock cosmetic-only masks based on their Nintendo 64 designs. Both amiibo figures were already up for pre-order as of October 4, 2026, though amiibo stock had been going in and out and the argument about locking extras behind amiibo kicked up again.

Because 28 years passed since the original release, Nintendo needed to recreate everything from scratch for the remake. The developers said starting over made sense because nearly three decades passed since the original launch. Taguchi said a common remake approach carries over the original game’s code and data, then adds updates on top, and he explained this contrast to show why Ocarina of Time took a different path.

The developers implemented each feature, compared it with the original game, and repeated that process over and over. This iterative method guided the ground-up recreation. The team rebuilt the game mindfully so it would not turn into something completely different, and developers wanted to preserve the feel of the original while modernizing it. Developers paid especially close attention to the hard-to-describe sense of responsiveness from actions during research and development, and this focus came as part of the ground-up rebuilding process.

HokWai Ng said the team agreed the fundamentals of Link’s actions from the original game should be preserved, even as the team redesigned actions for the reimagined world of Hyrule. Nintendo made adjustments so players who have played Zelda titles from Breath of the Wild onward would not find the remake experience jarring. The team carried over controls from more recent series entries to ease the transition. Ng said “Even with Link’s actions, we agreed that the fundamentals of the original game should be preserved.”

In the original game, Link automatically jumped when players pushed the Control Stick forward in specific locations, and the design assigned no button to jumping; this design defined where jumping was and was not possible. The remake removed that auto-jump system and added a dedicated jump button, making it possible to jump anywhere with a single button press. Eiji Aonuma said removing auto-jump makes exploration much more exciting, and he acknowledged the change removed a development convenience that restricted where players could jump. Ng cited this as one reason for removing auto-jump, alongside avoiding jarring transitions for modern players, and he said this change addressed confusion players familiar with newer games might feel about inconsistent jump locations.

Removing the jump restriction required the team to expect all kinds of player behavior and make corresponding adjustments to the environment. Adult Link and Young Link can jump slightly different distances in the remake, and finding the right balance for terrain gap distances was challenging because of those differing distances. Shida described the difficulty of designing single pieces of terrain with this constraint.

The remake includes free camera control and faster swimming. It also adds manual jumping, bigger spaces, an expanded Hyrule Castle Town, and a new Trails of Time guidance system.

Nintendo describes the visual approach as stylized realism. The remake gives the classic Nintendo 64 adventure a dramatic new look alongside quality of life features. Eiji Aonuma said the goal is to hold on to nostalgia while giving the game a more modern look, and the response to the art direction has split fans.

Nintendo’s Entertainment Planning & Development Production Group No. 3 leads the remake, confirming the team after fans speculated Monolith Soft might lead development. Nintendo had not said which team was developing the remake as of October 4, 2026, and Monolith Soft rumors were still making the rounds at that time. The core team is the same group behind most Zelda projects from the last 30 years. This reassured longtime fans of the original and the 2011 3DS remake.

Franchise producer Eiji Aonuma and series directing veteran Hidemaro Fujibayashi are featured in the first interview chapter. They appeared in Nintendo’s Ask the Developer Q&A series installment on the remake. EPD Production Group No. 3 staff HokWai Ng, Aya Shida, Hiroki Taguchi, and Masato Ohashi are listed as interviewees for future highlights, joining Aonuma and Fujibayashi in the developer interview series.

Eiji Aonuma tried to let the developers make whatever changes they genuinely felt were necessary. He wanted the team to make Ocarina of Time their own and follow through on their own ideas about what the game should be. Aonuma delivered lectures along the way and took a step back to observe how younger team members would reimagine the game using their own insights, and he wanted to see how they would answer design questions on their own. Hidemaro Fujibayashi said it was important to have a clear outline early on for what would and would not change from the Nintendo 64 game, and he noted that people familiar with both old and new Zelda games have many opinions on design.

Fujibayashi took a step back to support the team from a broader perspective, helping clarify things they needed to be mindful of when designing, because veterans have many things they would like to say about designing the game. Eiji Aonuma admitted he is still nervous to see how fans will respond. This came despite having a good plan for the remake from the start. Nintendo has not confirmed new story content for the remake.

A physical ocarina will work with the remake, and Link performs the exact notes fans play on the fully-fledged instrument. Eiji Aonuma showed the feature by playing Epona’s song, the ditty that hailed Link’s trusty steed. Players can input notes through dedicated controller buttons or hum notes into the Switch 2 controllers’ microphone for the same effect. This is an alternative to using the physical ocarina or humming, and it provides another way to trigger in-game ocarina notes.

The Nintendo Switch app feature Zelda Notes has 11 different options, though Nintendo only explained a handful of them, and the feature includes Today’s Record, Gossip Quests, Play Ocarina, and a quiz among others. Today’s Record is like Nintendo’s version of achievements but specific to Zelda. Nintendo indicated the listed Today’s Record stats are not the entirety of what the game can track, as Nintendo did not scroll all the way to the bottom of the options.

Gossip Quests offers photographs with locations the player must find, and when players locate the area, they earn points exchangeable for ocarina scores playable in-game. Prompts range from highly visible locations to esoteric areas like specific rock formations; the challenge level is variable, and players can tap a button to receive a hint.