Zelda Series Producer Eiji Aonuma Explains the Reason to Remake The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - News
by William D'Angelo , posted 1 hour ago / 353 Views
The Legend of Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma in a new Ask the Developer posted on the Nintendo website explained the reason for remaking The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
"This year marks the 40th anniversary of the very first The Legend of Zelda game," said Aonuma. "With that in mind, I was thinking about what I should create as the producer of the series.
"Many of the team members who work alongside me on The Legend of Zelda games today have only experienced developing the more recent titles. That led me to wonder, 'Do they truly understand just how significant The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was to the series as a whole?' Of course, there are team members who vaguely know the game, and those who played it in their childhood days. But I started to wonder how they'd interpret The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time as they go about developing future The Legend of Zelda games.
"By learning the game structure and development style behind the original The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and by actually rebuilding it as a full remake, it may trigger new insights that they can carry forward into future development. If we could achieve that, I thought it would be incredibly valuable. That’s what led us to the conclusion that now is the right time to revisit The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time once again."
He added, "Of course, that wasn’t the only reason behind this project. In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, part of the fun comes from progressing through a carefully paced adventure and story, gradually building up the player’s growth and their understanding of the narrative along the way. We wanted players who had grown accustomed to The Legend of Zelda games like Breath of the Wild, where they can freely choose their own path from the start, to experience that kind of gameplay as well."
Aonuma was asked as the producer if he gave directions such as "this has to change" or "this is something we must preserve"?
"If the producers say, 'This is how it should be,' the team would naturally feel obligated to do it that way," said Aonuma. "So I basically let the developers make whatever changes they genuinely felt were necessary. I wanted the team to make The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time their own, and to follow through on their own ideas about what the game should be. That said, I did deliver my fair share of lectures along the way. (Laughs) I took a step back to observe how the younger members of the development team would reimagine The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time using the insights and answers they had arrived at on their own.
The other producer on the game Hidemaro Fujibayashi added, "From my side, I told the development team that it was important to clearly define early on what to change and what to leave unchanged. For example, given that the controller layout and available features are different, should we aim to recreate the same feel as the original game, or should we change it?
"For people like us, who know both the original The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and the recent 3D The Legend of Zelda games, there's no shortage of things we’d like to say when it comes to designing a game. (Laughs) That’s why I took a step back and supported the team from a broader perspective by helping them clarify the things they needed to be mindful of when designing the game."
Aonuma was asked if anything during development gave him a fresh perspective and he stated, "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. (Laughs)
"I thought we needed to address this in this new version. So I asked the team to add warp points that didn’t exist in the original game, giving players access to shortcuts. But when we actually tried playing the game with those warp points, we realised that we were missing out on the moments of discovery that came from stopping along the way and wondering, 'Wait, what’s this?' Through this development process, we were reminded once again just how important those moments are to the very structure of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. So even though I was the one who proposed adding warp points, they just weren't working for me in the end, so I got the team to take them all back out again."
The remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time will launch for the Nintendo Switch 2 on November 5.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can follow the author on Bluesky.
