The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is being given all sorts of modern touches for its upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 remake (the owl seems to be less talkative to begin with), but there is at least one quality-of-life feature borrowed from Breath of the Wild that the developers felt was better left out: fast travel.
In Nintendo’s latest Ask The Разработчик blog post, long-running series producer Eiji Aonuma explained that he initially asked the game’s remakers to add warp points so players could get around Hyrule without having to spam rolls and presumably make Link violently ill in the process. But he and the team quickly realised fast travel doesn’t work so well in a game that’s still, at its core, almost three decades old.
“In The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, there are many warp points that enable players to move quickly around the game’s vast world. In the original The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, you could get around a bit faster by spamming forward roll, so I think a lot of players spent their time doggedly rolling across Hyrule Field whenever they needed to be somewhere in a hurry,” Aonuma said.
There you have it. There are no fast-travel points in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time’s remake, and it sounds like it’s for the best. I avoided warping around Breath of the Wild’s open world for the same reasons Aonuma laid out – spotting something odd way in the distance, slowly finding a way to reach it, and then discovering a funky little Korok seed was always a thrill that wouldn’t have been possible by cutting out the trek in between main objectives.
Talking about why Nintendo chose to revive Ocarina of Time now, Aonuma said some of the younger developers on the team had maybe never played the original game 28 years ago, and remaking it could “trigger new insights that they can carry forward into future development.”
As for the remake’s somewhat divisive art style, art director Aya Shida said the team “used phrases like ‘a puppet-show feel’ and ‘the analog feel of practical effects films'” early on in production. “Neither puppet shows nor practical effects films reproduce reality exactly as it is. Even so, both create a convincing sense that the characters truly exist within their respective fantasy worlds,” Shida continued.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time comes out on the 5th of November. After getting some hands-on time with the revival, Lottie thought it was shaping up to be a brilliant remake.
Mentioned in this article
Awaiting cover image
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Switch 2)
Nagoshi Studio has officially shut down and its first game called Gang of Dragon is seemingly no more, months after publisher NetEase pulled funding from the Yakuza-like project.
Toshihiro Nagoshi (often cited as the creator of the brilliant Yakuza and Like A Dragon game series) opened his new studio in 2021 and announced his next game with a very familiar title almost one year ago. Now, the Tokyo-based developer has closed its doors, as confirmed in the Japanese government gazette Kanpo.
The news comes months after employees were told that the studio’s future was at risk due to NetEase’s funding cuts. Nagoshi Studio reportedly needed another £33.1 million (about $44.4m at the time) to get Gang of Dragon past the finish line — a paycheck NetEase purportedly didn’t want to cough up.
The China-based Marvel Rivals and Where Winds Meet publisher has been significantly scaling back on international investments these past few years. Visions of Mana developer Ouka Studios was shut down just after launching its gorgeous action game, Worlds Untold (a studio formed by Mass Effect veteran Mac Walters) had to pause operations to find a new partner, and Halo Infinite lead Jerry Hook’s studio also ran into very similar issues last year.
Some developers have been a little luckier. Suda51’s Grasshopper Manufacture saved itself with a management buyout and now operates as an independent developer, for one.
Not much is known about Gang of Dragon, but its debut trailer featured the violent crime and high drama you’d expect from Nagoshi’s previous work. The game also starred Ma Dong-seok, the acclaimed actor you might recognise from films such as Train to Busan and Marvel’s Eternals.
Mentioned in this article
Gang of Dragon
Have thoughts, questions, or benchmarks on this topic? Join the discussion on our forums.
Join Discussion ➔
2 comments