First Impressions: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (NS2)

 

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
System: Nintendo Switch 2
Release Date: November 5th, 2026
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo EPD
Time Spent: Unknown / First Played 4 Days Ago (November 5th, 2026)

Prior to watching the announcement during the Nintendo Direct five months ago, I wasn't very excited about the rumors I'd been hearing for a while about an Ocarina of Time remake.  It was admittedly not my favorite game of the franchise, as I much preferred the sequel, Majora's Mask, when comparing the two.  I had never been really happy with the sound chip quality of the music, especially when there was music that was the quality of ActRaiser on the SNES eight years earlier and on the previous console.  I'd already played through the game dozens of times on the N64, and I have a copy of the 3DS remake (which I haven't played yet).  I felt that going backwards from Tears of the Kingdom to such a smaller, more contained version of Hyrule wouldn't do the series any favors, at least in my opinion.

But that Direct lit something in me that I thought had long fizzled out.  Then Nintendo released their Legend of Zelda 40th Anniversary Direct with a three-and-a-half-minute gameplay trailer, and that solidified the decision to pre-order the game.  And so I set up the pre-order that afternoon after weighing my different retailer options.

I haven't played that much of the game so far, maybe around three hours.  I've only just talked with Princess Zelda and Impa at Hyrule Castle, but I have been wandering around and looking at everything in the game.  I haven't so much as B-lined my way through the game as A-to-N-to-K-to-D-to-E-lined my way through.  I don't know how much time I spent wandering around Kokiri Forest before I even made it to the Great Deku Tree, but it was easily an hour.  I should also mention that I have the In-Game Interface set to Pro, which states "Display with minimal information," and what little information there is seems to only be button cues such as "Press A to Talk"; hearts are visible when I take damage, but then disappear, and a counter shows up when I collect items like rupees, Deku seeds, and the like.  I'm also enjoying the fact that there is no map because it's easily been, at least, 25 years since I last played Ocarina of Time, but I'm still finding the world to be nearly the same.  I am finding that the added jump mechanic to be intuitive, but I did move the jump button from the X button to the B button, because it just feels better.

I'm really happy with this game so far, and I especially feel that Koji Kondo's score, arranged here by Masato Ohashi, Hayato Sato, Kairi Hamada, and Rika Hayashi, has been what I've wanted from this music from when I first listened to the soundtrack 28 years ago.  Being performed in-game on real instruments has brought this soundtrack more life than I'd given the MIDI compositions credit for.  There have been so many times I've thought while playing that "this is now the definitive version of the game," and "This must've been what Nintendo's original vision for the game was, before the tech was developed."

I am having a blast, and I love it.  I'll have more to say as I play more of the game, or I'll just come out with a Game EXP by the end of the month.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
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