Eiji Aonuma says he is nervous about the Ocarina of Time remake
Speaking to AFP in Paris, the Zelda producer said he cannot stop thinking about how fans will react. The Switch 2 remake releases on November 5, 2026.
Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma has admitted he is anxious about how players will receive the Ocarina of Time remake, which releases on Switch 2 on November 5, 2026. "I'm all nervous about releasing the remake of 'Ocarina' because I don't know how it's going to turn out, I can't stop thinking about it," he told AFP at a press event in Paris.
Why this one is different
Aonuma has shipped Zelda games for decades, but almost all of them were new projects. This time his team is rebuilding a game that many players rank among the best ever made, and one with personal weight for him: according to AFP, the Nintendo 64 original was the first project Aonuma worked on alongside Shigeru Miyamoto. Changing anything about a game with that reputation invites scrutiny from people who know every room of the Water Temple.
He also told AFP that some members of the development team had never played the original, and he sees that as a strength rather than a gap. Fresh eyes are more likely to question old design habits instead of preserving them out of nostalgia. IGN's own hands-on time backs that up: its preview found the remake more different than veterans of the original might expect, and the outlet also had a first-time player try it.
Signs the nerves are misplaced
Interest is not the problem. IGN says its Ocarina of Time preview is its second-best-performing preview of 2026, behind only GTA 6, and on its YouTube channel the remake preview leads by a wide margin with more than 1.8 million views. Separately, Polygon reports that the Zelda-themed Switch 2 hardware has sold out repeatedly since pre-orders opened.
What comes next
Critics' verdicts are expected shortly before launch day, and those scores will be the first real test of whether Aonuma's team struck the right balance between faithful and fresh. For players in Southeast Asia, the remake is a Switch 2 release, so anyone still on the original Switch will need to upgrade to play it.
Source: IGN; AFP; Polygon.
