Eiji Aonuma is series producer on the Nintendo Switch 2 version of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, due November 5. He and co-producer Hidemaro Fujibayashi have described the rebuild as a learning project for younger staff and a reconstruction that keeps the original's area-by-area map structure.
Eiji Aonuma's current work is the Nintendo Switch 2 version of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, due November 5. Nintendo opened an Ask the Developer interview on November 2 with Aonuma as series producer and Hidemaro Fujibayashi as co-producer. The first chapter looks back on the 1998 NINTENDO 64 original. The second chapter sets the rebuild policy: the look may change, the experience does not, with an area-by-area map instead of a seamless world.
In a later interview with GameSpot, Aonuma and Fujibayashi said the Switch 2 version was built partly as a learning project. Younger staff, including people who had never played the original, learned classic Zelda design on it. Before full development the team fixed what to change and what to keep. The changes covered controls, graphics, and 5.1-channel surround for all BGM, and the team added a jump button.
Across the two stories the picture is consistent: this is a reconstruction of Ocarina of Time on modern technology, not an open-world remake in the style of recent Zelda. The map structure and the original's feel stay. The controls, graphics, audio, and the jump button are where the team made changes. The staff story adds why: the project also trains people who did not grow up with the 1998 game.
Written with AI from the cited Yomimono stories below, each itself sourced.
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5h ago
Producers Eiji Aonuma and Hidemaro Fujibayashi spoke to GameSpot about how the Nintendo Switch 2 version of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was made, and Nintendo published a separate Ask the Developer interview with the team. The two said the remake was intended as a learning opportunity for younger staff and for themselves, and that the directors and staff on the project came from a younger generation at Nintendo. Before full development, Fujibayashi said the team decided what to change and what to keep. Changes included removing parts that feel stressful to play, which led to revised controls and graphics, with all background music supporting 5.1-channel surround. The team debated adding a jump button, since the original had none, and implemented it so play would be smoother. ReDeads were made less frightening after improved graphics made them too scary. Aonuma said the area structure of Hyrule Field was kept as it was.
Nov 2
Nintendo released the first two chapters of an Ask the Developer interview on November 2 for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on Nintendo Switch 2, due November 5. Series producer Eiji Aonuma and co-producer Hidemaro Fujibayashi look back on the 1998 NINTENDO 64 original in Chapter 1. Chapter 2 covers the rebuild policy: the look may change, the experience does not, with an area-by-area map instead of a seamless world.