Nintendo Details Zelda: Ocarina of Time Remake for Switch 2

Nintendo reveals how its team is rebuilding the Nintendo 64 classic, and why the core experience stays the same.

Nintendo published an interview with the development team behind The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, a full remake of the original Nintendo 64 game. The new version is exclusive to Nintendo Switch 2 and launches Thursday, November 5.

In the interview, director HokWai Ng explained that his job was to propose the project's core development approach and oversee the work as a whole. Ng said he played the original in high school and was blown away by it. He wanted to give players across generations a chance to experience its appeal, especially since many first discovered the series with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

Art director Aya Shida leads the visuals, including art direction and graphic development. Shida said she first played the Nintendo 64 version after joining the project and was amazed at how polished a game created 28 years ago was. She also acknowledged how challenging it is to use today's technology to recreate something so tied to its era.

Other team members also described their roles. Programmer Hiroki Taguchi, who joined the Zelda team during Breath of the Wild, moved on to oversee development from a broader perspective. Sound director Masato Ohashi composed the background music, conducted quality checks, and coordinated the music production.

This is the second part of the interview, in which the team suggests that the visuals change but the experience does not.