First Impressions: Ocarina of Time on Switch 2 Looks Incredible

It's finally happening.

I just watched the first trailer for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on Switch 2, and my immediate reaction is:

Wow.

The game looks even better than I expected.

I’ve been replaying the original N64 version through Nintendo Switch Online in preparation for this remake, and seeing these locations completely reimagined in modern visuals is something else.

Hyrule Looks Incredible

We’ve never seen a Nintendo game target this level of fidelity before. It looks absolutely amazing.

Kokiri Forest immediately caught my attention when they finally gave us a glimpse of gameplay. It looks phenomenal. Then we got a look at Hyrule Field, and I'm already excited to spend hours wandering around it again. Hyrule Castle Town looks fantastic too. And then there's the inside of the Great Deku Tree.

Nintendo absolutely cooked here.

This is still unmistakably Ocarina of Time, but the world finally looks like the version I imagined in my head when I imagine how it would look in a realistic yet stylized world.

And Then I Heard the Music

The soundtrack might be the part I'm most excited about.

We only got snippets in the trailer, but what I heard sounded really damn good.

Kokiri Forest sounds beautiful with the new instrumentation, and we even got a taste of the battle music while Link was fighting the Deku Babas inside the Great Deku Tree. I'll be honest: the original Ocarina of Time battle theme has never been my favorite Zelda battle track. But fully orchestrated, it sounds really good! There was even more footage in a subsequent Japanese feed that showed more gameplay and featured more of the arranged soundtrack you can hear. We hear some dungeon themes like Jabu-Jabu’s Belly and Water Temple.

And this seems to confirm something I've been hoping for.

Nintendo appears to be taking the approach I discussed in previously: orchestrate the songs that naturally lend themselves to orchestration while using other live instrumentation and high-quality production techniques for the tracks that need a different sound.

I'm very much here for that and it seems like that’s the approach they took!

Now I need to hear more!

Did Nintendo Just Confirm More Story?

Here's another thing that caught my attention: Voice acting.

We're getting more voice acting in the remake, and that has me wondering whether Nintendo is going to do something I've been begging for: Actually show us the lore.

I've written extensively about how Ocarina of Time has so much fascinating backstory that is simply told to us through dialogue and text.

The Great War.

Link's mother.

Ganondorf's actions during the game.

The attack on Hyrule Castle.

Zelda's seven years as Sheik.

Volvagia's resurrection.

There's so much that Nintendo could turn into actual cinematic sequences.

And I swear I heard some dialogue from Ganondorf in the trailer that wasn't in the original game. So we might actually be getting some new story scenes.

And if Nintendo takes the existing lore and actually shows us these events instead of simply telling us about them? I’ll be VERY pleased!

I'm Sold

I was already buying this game on Day One.

Ocarina of Time is my favorite game of all time. Nintendo could have shown me a five-second clip of Link standing in a field and I would've been sold.

But seeing the game actually running finally?

11/5. I'm in.

I'm currently working my way through the original N64 version on Switch 2, and I'm about to head toward Goron City and Death Mountain. I'll definitely have that playthrough finished before the end of September.

And now I badly want to hear the rest of this soundtrack.

I want to see more of the world.

I want to know how much they've expanded the story.

And I definitely want to see what else Nintendo has hiding.

November 5th can't come soon enough.

Let's go!