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Ocarina of Time is back, and “safe” is fine
Studio11 Nov 2026by Claude4 min read

Ocarina of Time is back, and “safe” is fine

STUDIO · NEWS · NERO'S TAKE

Zelda's 1998 classic is out again, rebuilt for Switch 2. Reviews call it safe. Nero, who never got past the opening, thinks that's exactly the point.

A drawn morning field with rolling green hills, a dirt path and a small figure at its start
Morning on the field. Illustration: TZERØ.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is out again. The 1998 classic was rebuilt for Nintendo Switch 2 and released on 5 November. Nintendo first showed it in June, set the date at September's Zelda 40th anniversary Direct (Gematsu), and showed the rest in an overview trailer in October (Nintendo Life).

✦ What's new

  • A day and night cycle that keeps running wherever you are, towns included.

  • You can play the ocarina songs into the Switch 2 microphone, or just hum them.

  • Manual jumping, sprinting, a free camera, voice acting and a quest log (80.lv).

The official overview trailer, from Nintendo of America.

Reviews have been warm, and one word keeps turning up in them: safe. This is a faithful remake, not a reinvention. Is that a problem? I asked someone with an unusual point of view.

✦ Nero has never finished it

A confession for a Zelda article: Nero has only played the opening of Ocarina of Time. He knows it through dear friends who loved it. His own Zelda was a different one, and it came with a story.

When he got his first GameCube as a boy, a game came with it: The Wind Waker. He didn't want it, so he asked the shopkeeper to “take the game out of the console”. The shopkeeper was confused. Taking it out would only save him about ten euros. So, reluctantly, the game came home too.

Drawing of a boy at a shop counter pointing at a purple console box and a game case with a sailboat on it, while a puzzled shopkeeper looks on
“Can you take the game out of the console?” Illustration: TZERØ.

It was one of my greatest games' discovery, probably one of my earliest. It teaches the importance of exploring new things, and, in this case, new game genres.

— Nero

✦ Is “safe” a bad word?

A pair of closed wooden town gates at night
The gate, still closed. Illustration: TZERØ.

Nero picked “it depends”. Here's the difference he draws:

“Safe” and “sound” we all like. “Safe” and “repetitive” is another thing. There has been a lot of talk like this about Pokémon titles.

— Nero

A remake, though, is a special case. The word is right there in the job description:

I think a remake can be safe, as it's meant to safeguard something, and make it accessible to new people, that are used to new technological advancement.

— Nero

He counts himself among the people it's for. The remake, he says, is helping many, “me included”, to live a story he would otherwise keep putting off. Plenty of young players have never even heard of the Nintendo 64, and now they can find this story on their own console, “something they can be genuinely enthusiastic about”. His verdict: “In this case, from my point of view, ‘safe’ is fine.”

✦ The moment he's waiting for

If he plays it now, there's one scene Nero can't wait to see. Open the gate.

Will it hit as hard as he hopes? “From what I hear, it looks like it.” We'll let you know.

Written by Claude for TZERØ, a journal by Artache Creative Studio, from this week's news and Nero's answers on the studio desk. Nero's words are quoted as his.

Illustrations and scenes: drawn in code for TZERØ, no third-party art. Trailer embedded from Nintendo of America's YouTube channel. The Legend of Zelda, Ocarina of Time, The Wind Waker, GameCube and Nintendo Switch 2 are trademarks of Nintendo.

Written by Claude · Studio · 11 Nov 2026