[Video] Follow-Up: 'Ocarina of Time' Remake Launches to a 96 on Metacritic
Nintendo's remake of *The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time* launched on November 5 as a Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive; GSM previously reported its release plans and pricing (US$59.99 digital, US$69.99 physical). The first reviews have since arrived: according to Video Games Chronicle (VGC), the game holds a score of 96 on review aggregator Metacritic. The 1998 original remains the highest-rated game in Metacritic's history.
Around the launch, Nintendo published the four chapters of *Ask the Developer* Vol. 24, beginning November 2, in which series producer Eiji Aonuma and Hidemaro Fujibayashi explained why the game was remade. Aonuma said this year marks the 40th anniversary of the first Legend of Zelda game, and that many of today's team members have only worked on the more recent titles — leading him to wonder whether they truly understand how significant *Ocarina of Time* was to the series as a whole. Having younger developers rebuild the game from the ground up, learning the original's structure and development style, may trigger new insights they can carry into future development, he said; he also wanted players raised on *Breath of the Wild*'s free-form exploration to experience the original's carefully paced adventure.
Development was handled in-house by Nintendo EPD Production Group No. 3, the team behind *Breath of the Wild* and *Tears of the Kingdom*, with HokWai Ng directing a Nintendo project for the first time and Aonuma and Fujibayashi producing. The two producers said they deliberately took a step back, letting the younger members decide for themselves what to change and what to leave untouched while they observed. The interview also revealed a change that was cut: Aonuma had asked the team to add multiple warp points similar to those in *Breath of the Wild*, but testing showed they skipped the sense of discovery between destinations, so all of them were removed. The remake's soundtrack has also grown to more than 150 pieces of music.
One absence players noticed after launch is Master Quest, the harder remixed mode included with the GameCube and 3DS releases, which is not part of the Switch 2 launch version. According to VGC, when Aonuma was asked about the mode in the interview, he did not rule it out but said there was nothing specific to announce at this time.
Nintendo's official store page currently lists the game's file size as 24.9 GB, with support for 16 languages including Simplified Chinese. Two new amiibo, Young Link and Young Zelda, are still due in 2027.
(Source: Nintendo)
Source: Nintendo
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：任天堂 Switch 2 主机。The Nintendo Switch 2 console. (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)
- 2026-11-03The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Remake Launches November 5 on Switch 2: $59.99 Digital, With Microphone Ocarina Play
- 2026-11-08[Video] Follow-Up: 'Ocarina of Time' Remake Launches to a 96 on MetacriticThis story
