•The remake of Ocarina of Time is only a few weeks away, with hands-on previews beginning to trickle out for the game that will be many players’ first introduction to a classic. According to reports from outlets including The Verge, The Guardian, VGC and NPR, Nintendo appears aware there is a cohort of neophytes on the way—players raised on later games such as Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom—and has crafted an experience better suited to modern conventions.
A common thread among the previews is the game’s quality-of-life updates. Unlike in the original, where Link would automatically jump off appropriate surfaces as needed, here he can jump on demand with a dedicated button and finally sprint. Cameron Faulkner at The Verge wrote that swapping between items and weapons “no longer requires hopping into the pause menu,” adding that holding a shoulder button halts the action so players can navigate with an analog stick to find what they want in near-realtime.
The Guardian’s Matthew Castle noted that while the control scheme might be familiar, “it’s undeniably striking to enter familiar territory with a hero who feels this different under the thumbs.”
The updates aren’t just mechanical; they’re narrative too. Chris Scullion of VGC recounted how the original was miserly with rupees, making the quest to buy the Deku shield a bit of a slog. “The remake is comparatively generous with them,” he wrote, noting that by simply heading up to the higher part of the forest and entering the tunnel to find the sword, he had already collected enough rupees along the way to buy the shield without having to actively go looking for more cash.
The previews also gush about how pretty the game is. Faulkner wrote that “Link traverses rooms in the dungeon that have red stained glass windows, and as he passes through beams of light, he is cast in the color of blood,” adding that “the visual evolution frequently made me stop playing for a second while I took in the changes.”
In NPR’s write-up, James Perkins Mastromarino detailed his time in the Forest Temple. He thought he was on track to complete the dungeon—his favorite—in the time allotted, but it turned out he’d actually missed a critical key chest. “A Nintendo representative pointed me in the right direction, acknowledging that the rich details could overwhelm the eye and make it hard to know exactly where to go next,” he wrote.
“The remake is comparatively generous with them.” — Chris Scullion of VGC
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