Somewhere among all its gods and ghosts, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time draws its true power from its human center: a familiar story about growing up and returning home after a long absence. As the time-afflicted Link comes to learn in the seminal Nintendo 64 classic, a lot can change in seven years. Shifting political struggles leave a neighborhood in total disrepair.
That one local eccentric he came to love is nowhere to be seen. There’s a Starbucks — or an archery range, I mean — in town now. But underneath the jarring changes that taunt your memory, you know that the place that you love is still there.
You can feel its heart beat when you plant yourself in the shade of that tall tree you played around as a kid. It’s what makes the concept of an Ocarina of Time remake so challenging, but impossible to resist. How fitting — fated even, written in stars and ancient code — to bring generations of adventurers back to the sprawling field where they first learned to run.
Like your hometown, a game as foundational as this is perhaps meant to be revisited throughout a lifetime rather than locked away in your long-term memory. Nintendo doesn’t squander the opportunity for a meaningful homecoming in its lovingly crafted Switch 2 remake. The timeless classic is still a joy to reappraise in its dazzling new form, even if some of its modern developments might send protective fans marching to town hall.
Yes, there’s a Starbucks where that quaint café used to be now, but Ocarina of Time’s soul still shines bright enough to guide you home. One part faithful remake and one part modern retelling, the new version of Ocarina of Time is bound to take old players off guard in its opening moments. The story is unchanged: After getting paired with a fairy, Navi, for the first time, a young Link gets swept into a kingdom-trotting quest to save Hyrule from the nefarious Ganondorf.
The sequence of events is unchanged from the original, but the presentation is very different. The Switch 2 remake leans into the fairy tale nature of the original game with storybook narration that clearly lays out the “legend” being told. It’s a smart bit of narrative framing, emphasizing that Ocarina of Time is a story meant to be passed down and retold like a fable.
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