I love OoT but I hope they're not just going to bump up the graphics and call it a day like they usually do for their remakes. Those are always dull and feel like a waste of money. If they're doing an OoT remake, I want to see them get ambitious with it and actually make some larger changes because OoT still has some issues in the year 2025. It's still a good game, but it won't be $70 good on Switch 2. Specifically, the kinds of things I want to see improved are the amount of extra content/sidequests in the game and adding some extra content in the story in between Jabu-Jabu's Belly and the Forest Temple to make it feel less rushed.
As far as the extra content, they mainly need to give you more things to do in Hyrule Field. Hyrule Field definitely has a few things here and there, but it mainly feels empty with little to actually do. You've got random hidden underground caves that usually don't have anything of value (IIRC one or two of them have a Heart Piece or Gold Skulltula, but most of them just have rupees), the Poe sidequest, and the Running Man race which gives you nothing. That's basically nothing by modern standards. Hell, even the knock-offs people compare to Hyrule Field (and usually pretty unflatteringly) like the Wild Area in Pokemon Sword/Shield or Sol Valley in Metroid Prime 4 have more to do than in the actual Hyrule Field so it absolutely need new things to do. As for what, the easiest thing to do would be to fill it with enemy encampments and shrines like BotW. But any kind of new content, collectible, and/or quest would be an improvement here.
As for the middle of the story being rushed, it really feels like too much happens to quickly in that part of the game and the dungeon difficulty ramps up too steeply in between those two dungeons. This could be a consequence of the Light Dungeon being cut, but also the Child Timeline side of things isn't that great either. Some spoilers here in case anyone hasn't played the game and doesn't know the story.
The big thing I don't like is how unceremoniously they give you the titular Ocarina of Time. Zelda just randomly throws it into the castle moat as she's escaping from Ganondorf in hopes that you'd get it instead of Ganondorf. Even within the context of the panic of Ganondorf attempting to take over, this feels rushed and inappropriate for something so important to the game. Obtaining the titular Ocarina feels like it should be a grand occasion rather than something hastily tossed away and fished out of the water like a broken TV or something. So instead I would fix it as follows:
The scene proceeds like normal, but then when you fish up the "Ocarina" you find it's a fake along with a note directing you to return to the courtyard. There, you can use Zelda's Lullaby to open up a secret chamber in the castle which serves as a final dungeon in the Child Timeline which rewards you with the Ocarina of Time. Maybe if they really wanted to change things up, they could also add a Ganondorf fight in the Temple of Time (maybe creating a new boss in the Forest Temple that's ACTUALLY forest themed rather than Phantom Ganon) right before you obtain the Master Sword just to sell the illusion of this being a final boss before the Adult timeline plot twist. Then once you go to the future, rather than immediately awakening Rauru you have to do a new Light Temple dungeon to awaken him, perhaps obtaining the Hookshot there instead of from Dampe's grave. Adding those dungeons would be a better ramp up to the Adult dungeons than going straight from Jabu-Jabu's Belly, where the Child Dungeons are mainly linear and then suddenly the Forest Temple is a confusing maze.
But yeah, if they're not willing to go that far I fail to see a point in an OoT remake, especially when OoT already exists on NSO. I'd be just as happy playing the NSO version as I would for a graphics-only remake. If I'm spending $70, it'll be on a version of OoT that's not afraid to upgrade every facet of the experience, not one where they want to keep the nuts and bolts the same and do nothing more than throw a 4K coat of paint on top of what we already played in 1998.
I feel like Ocarina is the last Zelda that needs any big changes made to it. The one that needs more piled onto it is WindWaker- seeing half of the game was cut. Of course, the issue is that most of the cut content of that game is pretty much repurposed now.
"It is fate. Many have tried, yet none have ever managed to escape it's flow."
I personally don't see much point in remaking Zelda games outside graphical upgrades and a few QoL features. By that regard, I would welcome Oracles getting the LA treatment, and would be happy with Ocarina and Majora 3D being retooled for the Switch.
I think beyond this you're moving into reimagining territory and I think "new" Zelda titles have already been doing this to an extent. Twilight Princess is heavily influenced by OoT, which itself is largely influenced by LTTP. And the latter world was also revived in Link Between Worlds.
@Buizel For the most part, no, the newer entries don't quite do the job as reimaginings of older games. They're too different, they have completely different plot points, completely different gimmicks, completely different dungeons, and completely different characters. Just because a few settings and vague elements here and there doesn't make them reimaginings. TP is not OoT, it doesn't have the time travel, sage quest, several of the locations and characters are different, it's just way too different aside from reusing locales that have been reused frequently in Zelda games.
If there's any game that you can say is a legitimate reimagining, it's ALBW. ALBW blatantly reuses a lot from ALttP and wears that on its sleeve to the point where even the name is a reference to how it's heavily inspired by ALttP even though they're technically different games. Unlike a game like TP, ALBW is an almost 1:1 recreation of ALttP with a few differences and twists here and there and there's so much of the game that you could point to and say that was clearly retained from ALttP. If they did more games like ALBW I would accept that over graphical improvements. But graphical updates for older games are becoming largely pointless in an era where you can easily replay an emulation (whether legally through NSO or through less than legitimate means) and graphical upgrades are becoming near imperceptible to the point where comparing the two versions itself becomes a game of "spot the difference". I do not get people that pay $60-$70 for this, it doesn't seem like a very sound purchasing decision.
@Bolt_Strike I guess I don't really believe these game-specific elements to be strong enough to warrant a from-the-ground-up remake. I don't find, for example, OoT's story compelling enough to have a retelling - although it isn't the same beat-for-beat story as other Zelda games, the main themes are consistent with other games. It's not like, say, Final Fantasy VII which has a distinct world, characters, and story that are uniquely within that game.
Meh, if they were to remake OoT with some additional content I'm sure I'd find some value in it. I just feel their efforts are best spent elsewhere.
As for the point on graphics - this isn't true at all. Sure you can relatively easily increase resolution and maybe frame rate on emulators...maybe mod the game with some updated textures...but that's a far cry from a graphical overhaul a la the 3DS remakes and Link's Awakening.
@Bolt_Strike I guess I don't really believe these game-specific elements to be strong enough to warrant a from-the-ground-up remake. I don't find, for example, OoT's story compelling enough to have a retelling - although it isn't the same beat-for-beat story as other Zelda games, the main themes are consistent with other games. It's not like, say, Final Fantasy VII which has a distinct world, characters, and story that are uniquely within that game.
Sounds more like a you problem. Plenty of people have bonded with those specific characters and those specific elements. They wouldn't be remaking the games in the first place if that wasn't the case, then just playing whatever the most recent game was would be enough.
As for the point on graphics - this isn't true at all. Sure you can relatively easily increase resolution and maybe frame rate on emulators...maybe mod the game with some updated textures...but that's a far cry from a graphical overhaul a la the 3DS remakes and Link's Awakening.
OoT doesn't really need a new artstyle like those games, the only thing that really sticks out like a sore thumb is the low-poly models on the N64, everything else about the game's graphics largely holds up. And they already have a version that fixes that, it's called OoT 3D. At best they just need to port that version and eventually put 3DS on NSO and then there's no need for further versions of OoT that do nothing more than graphics. Just giving OoT HD or 4K graphics is not really enough to make it a noticeably better experience, no need for that kind of re-release.
For me, if I had to pick a Zelda game that could possibly get a full remake- it would be Twilight Princess. That game aged a bit poorly in terms of character animations and models due to the more realistic art style. Not only this, but the OST was written for proper Orchestration- and yet they used Midi for it.
"It is fate. Many have tried, yet none have ever managed to escape it's flow."
If we see something Zelda released next year, do y'all think it'll be tied in with the 40th anniversary, or will they just kinda ignore it? Personally, I could see either scenario.
The Mario series desperately needs to go in a new direction. Something along the lines of Super Mario Bros. 2 or Super Mario Land games that takes place in a new world, new enemies and characters. I wouldn’t mind if they go back to Sub Con again with the enemies and bosses from Super Mario 2 in a new game instead of another one with Goombas, Koopas, Bowser Jr. and Bowser. The formula is getting really tiresome.
@Don I mean, Super Mario Bros. Wonder is a lot of the way there. It's a new world, and there are a ton of new enemies. Having the old enemies and characters there too is both good and bad for me. I guess I agree that it would be cool to have a Mario game with almost no old stuff, but Nintendo really wants to push their brand nostalgia these days.
In the next Direct, I think I mostly just want to see at least one new IP that interests me, plus some cool new games from the ones I like. I guess I'm just not feeling very picky right now. I've got so many great games from 2025 that I haven't beaten yet.
You know what I'd really be excited about? A new pixel Mario game. Like, a new game made in the Super Mario Bros. 3 engine, or something. Sort of like now Capcom went back to the NES style for Mega Man 9 and 10. I want to be able to play it with an NES controller. (I've gotten so much use out of those NES controllers with UFO 50.)
Speaking of Capcom: what I really want is a new Ace Attorney game. It could be Ace Attorney 7 or a new spinoff. I'll take anything at this point.
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