The upcoming remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was partly conceived as a learning opportunity for the current Zelda development team, producer Eiji Aonuma has explained. In Nintendo's internal “Ask the Developer” series, Aonuma said rebuilding the classic could help junior staff gain insights to apply to future games.
Aonuma, who worked on the original Ocarina of Time as its dungeon designer and game planner, said many developers currently working on the series have experience primarily with more recent entries. Although some team members know the 1998 game or played it when they were younger, he questioned whether they fully understood its importance to the Zelda series.
According to Aonuma, recreating the game as a full remake gives the team a chance to study its structure and development approach directly. He said the process could generate new ideas and help developers carry lessons from the original into future projects.
The remake also revisits a style of Zelda design that differs from the “open-air” approach used in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. Ocarina of Time follows a carefully paced adventure, with players progressing through a structured story and gradually developing their abilities and understanding of the narrative.
Aonuma said the team wanted players accustomed to choosing their own path from the beginning in recent Zelda games to experience this more guided form of progression as well. Several developers working on the Switch 2 remake reportedly played the original only in recent years, reinforcing the project's role in introducing newer staff to the classic's design principles.
Sources: Game Developer.