Why Nintendo Is Remaking Ocarina of Time Again: The Ocarina of Time Remake Arrives Nov. 5

Nintendo’s second Ocarina of Time remake lands on Switch 2 on November 5, and the company has now explained why it wanted to revisit the 1998 classic a second time. In the first of a series of Ask the Developer interviews, Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma framed the project as part anniversary celebration and part training exercise for the next generation of Zelda developers.

A 40th anniversary and a teaching moment

Aonuma pointed first to the calendar. This year marks 40 years since the original The Legend of Zelda, and he said he began thinking about what he should create as the series’ producer to mark the occasion. His answer was shaped by a concern about his own team. Many of the people now working on Zelda games, he said, have only developed the more recent titles, which left him wondering whether they truly grasp how significant Ocarina of Time was to the series.

That is a notable admission from a producer who worked on the original Nintendo 64 game and has carried its lessons through the decades since. His theory is that rebuilding the game as a full remake, and learning its structure and development style along the way, could spark insights the team will carry into future Zelda projects. If that happens, he said, it would be “incredibly valuable,” and it convinced him that now was the right time to return to the game.

Why a carefully paced adventure now

The second reason is about players. After Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, many fans have grown used to wide-open exploration. Aonuma said the team wanted them to enjoy the opposite experience: a carefully paced adventure that gradually builds the player’s growth and their understanding of the story. In other words, the Ocarina of Time remake is partly pitched as a counterpoint to the open-world model that defines the series’ recent era.

It is also the second time Nintendo has taken this route. The first remake arrived on the Nintendo 3DS in 2011. Despite the years of experience behind the decision, Aonuma has said he remains “nervous” about how players will respond.

The team behind the Ocarina of Time remake

The same interview series settled a question that fans had been debating. Polygon reports that the Ask the Developer post confirms the project is led by Nintendo’s Entertainment Planning & Development (EPD) Production Group No. 3, the longtime Zelda team. Of the six developers interviewed, four come from that group. The other two are Aonuma, a former group manager of the team, and Hidemaro Fujibayashi, who has directed several Zelda games there.

That was not a foregone conclusion. The 3DS remake was handled by Grezzo, which also made the 3DS version of Majora’s Mask and led 2024’s Echoes of Wisdom. Monolith Soft, the Nintendo-owned Xenoblade studio that supported Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, was another popular guess. Monolith is reportedly busy with Xenoblade Genesis, slated for 2027 on Switch 2.

Polygon notes that some fans may be disappointed to see the main Zelda team on a remake rather than the next big original entry. It also points out that support studios may be sharing the workload, and that Grezzo and Monolith may now be free for other projects. The full list of contributing studios should become clear when the game releases.

What to watch at launch

Several details are still unsettled. Polygon has also published a related report, headlined as the team confirming that fast travel was added and then removed, though the details were not part of the material reviewed here. A separate GamesRadar piece noted that retailer Woot has cut the price of the Switch 2 just days ahead of launch, though that report offered no further detail in the material available.

What is clear is the stated intent. Nintendo says this Ocarina of Time remake is as much about the people building future Zelda games as the people playing this one. Whether that bet pays off will only be visible in the games that follow, but players will get their first verdict on the remake itself on November 5.