History is repeating itself as Zelda: Ocarina Of Time’s new graphics are proving polarising with fans, although they’ve not got the pitch forks out yet.
In case you missed it, Nintendo shared an in-depth first look at its remake of The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time on Tuesday afternoon, with the game’s release date announced as November 5.
Long story short, it looks to be a very authentic 1:1 recreation of the original Nintendo 64 game, albeit with some gameplay tweaks (like a jump button). However, the biggest change of all, of course, is the graphics.
There’s a clear effort to make Ocarina Of Time look more photorealistic, while style retaining something of the original character designs and, technically speaking, it looks very impressive. But it’s no surprise that fan opinion is rather mixed.
In some corners online, reactions are very positive. Based on a poll hosted on ResetEra, the majority of people like the new visuals, if not outright love them. One fan, Roy Koopa, generously compares it to the old Wii U tech demo, which depicted a more detailed and realistic art style for the series.
‘I just wanted a modern way with upgraded visuals to play my favourite Zelda of all time. This looks fantastic. … This is exactly what I need. I’ll be there day one,’ says GodzillatheGreat.
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Some are slightly more mixed on the graphics, stating that they think the environments look good but not so much the characters, with Link himself being singled out.
‘I like the environments, enemy models, and most of the characters but kid Link looks scuffed and adult Link is still a bit uncanny next to a lot of the other Hylian characters,’ says LinguisticGoblin.
‘The world looks good. The characters do not. But overall it’s technically impressive. I like it,’ says Jaymageck.
‘Environments look great. Characters are a mixed bag, with Link looking overly designed with too many materials. Overall neutral,’ says Olinad.
A quick search through X shows opinions aren’t quite as nuanced, with people divided on the remake looking fantastic or just plain awful.
‘So glad they didn’t make Hyrule Field into a giant ass open world simulator in the middle of Ocarina of Time. True 1:1 recreation in terms of layout, everything was in the exact same place and I appreciate the f*** out of that,’ says IntroSpektive.
MightyKeef is even more glowing in his praise, saying, ‘I’m at a loss for words bro. Ocarina Of Time remake looks f***ing magnificent. The realism look was jarring for like the first three mins, but the world started clicking, and I actually really like how it looks now.’
TheNCSmaster says the remake looks like ‘the same legendary game just with modern touch-ups and that’s all I needed,’ while KabiPlays hits back at haters, describing the visuals as ‘stylish realism and it’s beautiful.’
Speaking of the haters, Danny8bit bluntly slams the game as ‘f***ing ugly’, while Maruisalone outright says the remake has ‘destroyed’ Ocarina Of Time and not just visually: ‘One single item in a roulette, run button, jump freely, the scenarios are hideous, the designs are ugly oh god I hated this so much.’
Meanwhile, on Bluesky, csstrife pokes fun at how Link looks worse than all the non-playable characters because his character model is more detailed and CheeseGX makes a very unflattering comparison between Young Link and Malo, a baby-faced character from The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess.
Opinions are just as split on Reddit. A_Hideous_Beast makes a common observation by saying the remake looks like an Unreal Engine 5 game, which is itself an unflattering reference to the ‘Nintendo hire this man’ meme that mocked those who suggested Nintendo games look more realistic.
‘Thought maybe this game would be the one to entice me to finally buy a Switch 2. Maybe next year, then,’ states TriptychTriquetra.
‘I like how it looks. I think this type of remake is also the way to go with the best rated game of all time. You don’t want to change it too much,’ says hellschatt, but they admit they ‘wish it looked just a little less like Unreal Engine. It’s got that slight generic game engine feel.’
Meb2x admits they’re not used to the new graphics yet, but they are ‘still so excited to experience this game again and notice all the small changes that have been added. I will spend a lot of time exploring every little detail I can find.’
Fans arguing over the art style in Zelda games in not exactly a new phenomenon, so there was never going to be any real consensus.
The promise of a realistic Zelda, with the Wii U tech demo, meant people were disappointed with how Breath Of The Wild wound up looking, and yet it ended up being by far the most successful entry in the franchise.
More famously, the same thing happened with the GameCube, where a tech demo showed an updated look for Link and Ganondorf from Ocarina Of Time, only for The Wind Waker to come out and sport cartoony cel-shaded graphics. That split the entire fanbase and resulted in follow-up Twilight Princess having a much more generic art style.
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