Nintendo: Ocarina of Time Switch 2 remake tied to Zelda's 40th anniversary

Nintendo has said what led it to remake The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for Nintendo Switch 2. In the first part of its Ask the Developer Q&A series, franchise producer Eiji Aonuma said this year is the 40th anniversary of the first Legend of Zelda game, and he was thinking about what to make as the series' producer.

Aonuma said many of the people who work on Zelda games today have only developed recent titles. That made him question whether they fully grasp how significant Ocarina of Time was to the series. He said some team members know the game only vaguely, and others played it as children.

He said that learning the structure and development style of the original, then rebuilding it as a full remake, may trigger new insights the team can carry into future development. That reasoning led the team to decide the time was right to revisit the game.

The Q&A also shows that Nintendo's Entertainment Planning & Development (EPD) Production Group No. 3 is leading development, as spotted by IGN. Aonuma and series director Hidemaro Fujibayashi appear in the Q&A, along with HokWai Ng, Aya Shida, Hiroki Taguchi and Masato Ohashi from the group. 80 Level notes the core team is the same group that has worked on most Zelda projects over the past 30 years.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for Nintendo Switch 2 was announced in June and will be released on November 5. Gameplay footage has also appeared, showing snippets from the start of Link's adventure.