The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake was always going to prove divisive. Whether it strove to be a faithful retelling or a bold reimagining like Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Zelda’s 3D debut is so beloved, so seminal, and so ingrained in our collective nostalgia that aiming to please everyone was always going to be impossible. Personally? I think it looks just fine.
I was slightly underwhelmed by the fact that, aside from quality-of-life improvements and an essential modernization of certain gameplay mechanics, Nintendo is pretty much poised to deliver a 1:1 remake. The scale of characters, depth of locations, and overall scope of Link’s world is seemingly identical to the Nintendo 64 original. Monsters might be newly positioned and items could be gained in different ways, but it’s clear that the gameplay experience fans are intimately familiar with is being preserved. For better or worse.
Putting gameplay improvements aside though, we need to talk about the visuals. I can’t lie; I got a little emotional when the gameplay demo dropped us straight into a modern take on Kakariko Village, demonstrating the remake’s take on Link glancing around at familiar houses, shops, and friends of the forest he has spent years growing up with. It’s just a shame that our Hero of Time doesn’t look like he belongs in this world at all thanks to his cumbersome design.
There is no denying that Young Link is cute, yet he also feels strangely overdesigned as a way to flaunt both the best and worst parts of this new artistic direction. Link’s piercing blue eyes, rounded cheeks, and emotionless demeanor make him look weirdly out of place, like one of the creepy puppets from Jim Henson’s Labyrinth. This lack of expression worked in the Nintendo 64 original because of the technical limitations at the time, but future versions of Link from Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, and Breath of the Wild understood that even if our hero doesn’t speak, he still needs to act like a human being … or rather, a Hylian. Here, he’s like an aging toy being brought back to life for the first time in decades.
You only need to look at the characters around Link to see what I mean. His childhood friend Saria is introduced early on in the gameplay presentation and looks absolutely adorable, not to mention how she visually matches the remake’s lusciously lit world. Her body language is perfectly attuned to the updated dialogue, while a number of villagers who surround her also feel like they belong in Kakariko Village.
There is one moment where Link dives into a small body of water to collect a rupee, and when he emerges, the liquid gives his entire appearance an uncanny sheen, like he’s some sort of underground mole creature instead of a cherub of the forest.
Such criticisms are impossible to avoid in a remake that wants to remain structurally faithful to a game that came out almost three decades ago but doesn’t want to risk upsetting one of the most passionate audiences in gaming history. Nintendo wants controlling Link to feel like meeting up with an old friend for the first time in years and for the surrounding world to invite familiar curiosity rather than unknown challenge. But this is a foolish task when you’re trying to update the graphics to look better than ever.
Castle Town is where Link feels even more like an outsider, largely because the majority of NPCs are more-or-less identical in design to those of the original game. They are more detailed and expressive, but the consistent proportions and realistic facial expressions make Link seem like he’s been pulled from a completely different game.
They aren’t overdesigned or stuffed with fancy bells and whistles for the sake of it like our forest child, and thus they belong. He looks best when nobody else is around him, and he’s standing alone amid the swaying grass of Hyrule Field. With instrument in hand and maximum fidelity in close-up shots, this version of Link doesn’t look bad at all, but removed from that context, it all falls apart.
Many people have already begun comparing the Ocarina of Time remake to Unreal Engine 5 demos made by fans or the cursed viral video of Mario if he were in a modern photorealistic title. I also can’t deny that I have a lot of nostalgia for Nintendo’s masterpiece, so perhaps I was always going to react this way. But older Link looks great, and so do major supporting cast members like Zelda, Ganondorf, and Sheik; so it stands to reason that Link simply possesses way too much visual fidelity for his own good. The presence of voice acting doesn’t help either, as I’m already picturing Link staring dead-eyed as emotional scenes unfold around him.
The remake is only a couple of months away, and I’m sure we’ll receive a more detailed look at gameplay before November, but I hate that my first impression is dominated by the tragic fact that a relatable child of the forest who once propelled my childhood fantasies now feels like an unfortunate intruder.
