5 Things Completely New to the Zelda: Ocarina of Time Remake

Nintendo gave players their first in-depth look at gameplay for the upcoming Ocarina of Time remake during today's Legend of Zelda 40th Anniversary Direct. While the game's new graphical style got a lot of attention (love it or hate it), the company also revealed a number of new features. Here are five of the most important additions to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake.

Link has more freedom of movement

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Link can jump whenever he wants now. This might not sound like a big deal, but Nintendo made a big show of Link's newfound freedom. In the original Ocarina of Time, Link automatically jumped when he ran close to an edge, but outside that context he was largely bound to the ground. No more! Jumping is now bound to the X button and is one of the many ways Nintendo is making the nearly three-decade-old game more inline with modern gaming expectations. Furthermore, he can dash by holding down the A button. This is an improvement over the original game's strategy of rolling to speed traversal along.

Item switching is easier

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Taking a page from Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, you can swap items with one button in the Ocarina of Time remake. The original game allowed some items to be assigned to buttons for easy access, but everything else had to be equipped by pausing the game. Now Link can cycle through all of his items with a simple button press. It might not be a glamorous new feature, but it sure does streamline the game and means you'll spend way less time in menus now.

There's a quest tracker

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In the game menu, players will have access to Threads of Time. This is a hub that tracks all the game's missions so you don't get lost. This means that every main and side mission in the game now has an official title and description, which we briefly saw during the direct. While this will give some guidance, it won't hold players' hands through everything or put any markers on the map showing where to go. That way, it retains some of the joy of discovery from the original. Completing missions will also fill out a tapestry with new scenes reflecting Link's progress.

Time normally passes, no matter where you are

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Whenever Link was in an open area like Hyrule Field in the original game, time would progress through a day/night cycle. Time would stop, however, whenever he entered a town, dungeon, or other interior space. That is no longer the case with the remake, with time passing regardless of where Link is. This will make the Sun's Song even more important for players, as it turns night to day whenever it is played.

Karaoke!

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On Nintendo Switch 2, you'll be able to interact with the titular ocarina in a fun new way. The console's microphone will let you hum songs that Link learns, causing him to play them, rather than inputting the traditional button sequence. In addition to voice, the game will respond to instruments. I'm sure players will be perfect at humming and playing the game's many songs, and that nobody will post funny clips of terrible renditions when the game is released.