The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was the first game I played on the Nintendo 3DS, way back in 2011. As a generous gift from family, it came paired with a strategy guide and a ‘good luck’ I wouldn’t know I needed until I started playing.
When I hit the infamous Water Temple, it was all made clear – and I certainly got my money’s worth out of that multi-step guide. Ocarina of Time isn’t a game for the faint of heart, even though it’s positioned and designed for young and intrepid players.
Experiencing the Ocarina of Time remake for Nintendo Switch 2 as an older and (maybe not) wiser adult during a recent media preview, I was thrown right back into my childhood in all the best ways. This is a refresh of the classic game that keeps its core intact while refreshing all the action, streamlining gameplay and making the entire thing much more beautiful than it was originally.
For a new generation of players, this will be the lushly-rendered introduction they need to one of the best video games of all time. For returning players, the experience of revisiting familiar ground will be ripe with memories.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time preview – quick links
Taking your first steps into Kokiri Forest
The preview comprised two familiar dungeons: the early stage Deku Tree dungeon within Kokiri Forest, and the later Forest Temple.
What felt so refreshing was going in with distant memories, and then feeling little clues and hints arising around each bend. Within the explorable Kokiri Forest stage, I stumbled across an early maze, which I have fond memories of trying to brute-force before looking up the solution in my trusty guide. I still had some idea of how to obtain the starting sword, and used that to guide me across beautiful grassy terrain and beyond sweeping trees.
Heading into the Deku Tree dungeon, I was immediately thankful for my past experience with the game as Skulltula spiders began to rapidly descend from the ceiling and I remembered quickly where they typically land, and how to defeat them.
I made my way, hand on hand, up the mesh of vines that leads to the upper realm of the Deku Tree. Standing at the very top, looking down on a mesh of spider webs, I thought at first there was another next step to take. Then I remembered memories of diving into that web from above, and let myself free fall into the next stage of the dungeon – locked off from preview access, but satisfying to reach all the same.
This first segment made clear that The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for Nintendo Switch 2 is a changed game. The visual refresh is very impressive and elevates dungeons enough to make them feel fresh, even for returning players. In some parts, the game feels completely new, but with recognisable foundations to ground the action and ensure you’re never lost.
The cackling ghosts of the Forest Temple
The second major slice of the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake was the Forest Temple and its menagerie of cackling ghosts, given a visual refresh here. They actually have a lot in common with the ghosts of Luigi’s Mansion, with a neon glow that lights up the room.
Strangely, I had barely any memories of the Forest Temple. I know I played it, because I have such vivid experiences with the Water Temple. But for whatever reason, I felt I was going in completely fresh into the Forest Temple, which had the effect of underlining just how complex Ocarina of Time can be.
This particularly dungeon is very tricky, particularly in its later stages. You begin in a castle with zero sense of direction, with doors of all sorts surrounding you. Some are locked. Others are just waiting for you to stumble in and discover their secrets.
The Forest Temple is particularly clever because it starts so innocuously. It gives you the sense that you understand its logic before everything gets figuratively and literally turned on its head.
The opening room presents a block puzzle that’s simple to understand. You push these blocks around, create new ledges to jump up and then you discover new doors, new keys and a bow-and-arrow weapon that can be used to strike hidden eye switches.
So far, so good. Along the way, you take out a few ghosts, in fun little portrait-shooting mini-games that lead to strategic but simple battles.
Then, you hit the final wall of the Forest Temple and everything gets twisty.
At a certain point, you’ll discover a warped room that functions in two modes, both having their own pathways to travel through. Wrangling various keys, doors and ghosts, there’s a lot of back and forth here. So much that I found myself ruminating on the brain state of my younger self, and whether I’d lost brain cells in the meantime. How on earth did I ever complete this temple? Maybe that guide really did come in clutch, because I certainly needed some prodding in the right direction.
It took quite a bit of experimenting and retreading ground for me to wind up at the final boss – but at the very least, that effort was well-rewarded with one of my favourite parts of the entire game: the boss fight with Phantom Ganon.
Taking on Phantom Ganon in the Forest Temple
My gosh, what a cool fight this one is. It’s only short but very punchy, and has a solid internal logic that mixes puzzling with strategic attacks and defence.
In the first phase, you’re monitoring paintings around you, haunted by a ghostly figure of a rider on horseback. It’s best to monitor multiple paintings at once, as one of them will reveal the ‘real’ Phantom Ganon, and you must shoot him before he’s able to inflict damage on you.
What came in handy for this particular segment were the motion controls of the Nintendo Switch 2, which allow you to watch every corner of the arena and move on a dime when Ganon reveals himself.
In the next phase, you’ll be part of a tennis-style volley as you whack energy into Ganon and deflect it back until he skips a beat and lets it through. While a bit silly as a boss fight, it does require observation and good timing to succeed and it’s a nice, simple reprieve after the complications of exploration.
At the end of this boss fight, my preview of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for Nintendo Switch 2 concluded, leaving a trail of want in its wake. There’s so much to be excited for as this game heads to release, and so many warm memories yet to be dredged up.
For new players, it will almost certainly make clear why Ocarina of Time is regarded as one of the best video games ever made. For those returning, so far, it appears it will do plenty of justice to its source material.
