{"id":137539,"date":"2026-06-10T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/#article-202423"},"modified":"2026-06-10T18:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T18:00:00","slug":"talking-point-what-do-you-think-of-links-new-ocarina-of-time-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2026\/06\/10\/talking-point-what-do-you-think-of-links-new-ocarina-of-time-design\/","title":{"rendered":"Talking Point: What Do You Think Of Link&#8217;s New Ocarina Of Time Design?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><a href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/004e7e43a5ab7\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/004e7e43a5ab7\/small.jpg\" class=\"media_thumbnail\"><\/a><\/div>\n<figure class=\"picture\" data-uuid=\"004e7e43a5ab7\"><a class=\"scanlines\" title=\"Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Link Design Compared\" href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/004e7e43a5ab7\/zelda-ocarina-of-time-link-design-compared.large.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/004e7e43a5ab7\/zelda-ocarina-of-time-link-design-compared.900x.jpg\" width=\"900\" height=\"507\" alt=\"Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Link Design Compared\"><\/a><figcaption class=\"caption\"><em class=\"credit\"><span class><\/span> Image: Nintendo Life<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>It might not have been the biggest surprise out there (thanks, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/news\/2026\/03\/rumour-nintendos-2026-plans-include-new-star-fox-and-zelda-remake-no-3d-mario\">leaks<\/a>), but yesterday&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/guides\/nintendo-direct-june-2026-every-announcement-game-reveal-and-trailer\">Direct<\/a> brought with it the news that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch-2\/legend-of-zelda-ocarina-of-time\">The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time<\/a> Switch 2 remake is real, and it&#8217;s launching at some point this year.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/news\/2026\/06\/zelda-ocarina-of-time-remake-is-real-and-its-launching-this-year\">1-minute 36-second reveal trailer<\/a> gave us very little to go on in terms of what the remake will bring to the table. The visuals on that tapestry certainly look detailed, there&#8217;s a voiced narration (a hint of full voice acting, maybe?), and Link&#8217;s design is&#8230; different.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"object object-gallery\">\n<figure class=\"picture\" data-uuid=\"41b4cd1eded0b\"><a class=\"scanlines\" title=\"Ocarina of Time - Switch 2\" href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/41b4cd1eded0b\/ocarina-of-time-switch-2.large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/41b4cd1eded0b\/ocarina-of-time-switch-2.900x.jpg\" width=\"900\" height=\"900\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Ocarina of Time - Switch 2\"><\/a><figcaption class=\"caption\">From that brief glimpse, Child Link looks more realistic than any design in the series so far. Look at those strands of hair! The tiny finger and toenails! The frills on his tunic and the leather armour over it! It sure is something, but is it what we really want? \u2014 <em class=\"credit\"><span class><\/span> Image: Nintendo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"picture\" data-uuid=\"a8b96e2d3e3d7\"><a class=\"scanlines\" title=\"Ocarina of Time - Switch 2\" href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/a8b96e2d3e3d7\/ocarina-of-time-switch-2.large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/a8b96e2d3e3d7\/ocarina-of-time-switch-2.900x.jpg\" width=\"900\" height=\"895\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Ocarina of Time - Switch 2\"><\/a><figcaption class=\"caption\">From that brief glimpse, Child Link looks more realistic than any design in the series so far. Look at those strands of hair! The tiny finger and toenails! The frills on his tunic and the leather armour over it! It sure is something, but is it what we really want? \u2014 <em class=\"credit\"><span class><\/span> Image: Nintendo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"picture\" data-uuid=\"15cfb3b688236\"><a class=\"scanlines\" title=\"Ocarina of Time - Switch 2\" href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/15cfb3b688236\/ocarina-of-time-switch-2.large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/15cfb3b688236\/ocarina-of-time-switch-2.900x.jpg\" width=\"900\" height=\"900\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Ocarina of Time - Switch 2\"><\/a><figcaption class=\"caption\">From that brief glimpse, Child Link looks more realistic than any design in the series so far. Look at those strands of hair! The tiny finger and toenails! The frills on his tunic and the leather armour over it! It sure is something, but is it what we really want? \u2014 <em class=\"credit\"><span class><\/span> Image: Nintendo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"picture\" data-uuid=\"28b4cd023ac00\"><a class=\"scanlines\" title=\"Ocarina of Time - Switch 2\" href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/28b4cd023ac00\/ocarina-of-time-switch-2.large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/28b4cd023ac00\/ocarina-of-time-switch-2.900x.jpg\" width=\"900\" height=\"900\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Ocarina of Time - Switch 2\"><\/a><figcaption class=\"caption\">From that brief glimpse, Child Link looks more realistic than any design in the series so far. Look at those strands of hair! The tiny finger and toenails! The frills on his tunic and the leather armour over it! It sure is something, but is it what we really want? \u2014 <em class=\"credit\"><span class><\/span> Image: Nintendo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"picture\" data-uuid=\"6f6603111dc77\"><a class=\"scanlines\" title=\"Ocarina of Time - Switch 2\" href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/6f6603111dc77\/ocarina-of-time-switch-2.large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/6f6603111dc77\/ocarina-of-time-switch-2.900x.jpg\" width=\"900\" height=\"900\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Ocarina of Time - Switch 2\"><\/a><figcaption class=\"caption\">From that brief glimpse, Child Link looks more realistic than any design in the series so far. Look at those strands of hair! The tiny finger and toenails! The frills on his tunic and the leather armour over it! It sure is something, but is it what we really want? \u2014 <em class=\"credit\"><span class><\/span> Image: Nintendo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/aside>\n<p>It sure is something, but is it what we really want? Naturally, the Hero of Hyrule&#8217;s big reveal has been a divisive one.<\/p>\n<p>Most of us here at Nintendo Life Towers seem to sit in a vague middle ground. &#8220;A bit shiny \u2014 pink and elf-y \u2014 but fine from what we&#8217;ve seen,&#8221; says Gavin. &#8220;I think it&#8217;s noteworthy that Nintendo has once again adopted the dark, realistic style that (some) fans have been constantly wishing for since Space World 2000,&#8221; says Ollie. &#8220;It&#8217;s way to early to judge, but I do like the idea of Nintendo trying a realistic art style across its N64 remakes,&#8221; Matt chimed in, &#8220;I&#8217;m super keen to see how the rest of the game comes across as a result&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>But things were a little more negative elsewhere. On the one hand, we&#8217;re excited for the added level of detail. On the other, it looks a <em>little<\/em> &#8216;I remade Ocarina of Time in Unreal Engine 5&#8217;, doesn&#8217;t it &#8211; something that was on my mind recently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/previews\/hands-on-rayman-legends-retold-somehow-legends-returned-but-why\">when I went hands-on with Ubisoft&#8217;s upcoming <strong>Rayman Legends<\/strong> remake<\/a>. Former editor of The Verge Nick Statt thought the same of this Link:<\/p>\n<aside class=\"object object-bsky-post\"><!-- cache: oembed\/https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/nickstatt.bsky.social\/post\/3mnv36xgprc2r @ 2026-06-10T16:34:16+01:00 --><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"bluesky-embed\" data-bluesky-uri=\"at:\/\/did:plc:x6kdznebww2o3tfqgwengetw\/app.bsky.feed.post\/3mnv36xgprc2r\" data-bluesky-cid=\"bafyreiazbnso3hmdyzt3jpd45swdgeocdgryazipg4rv3wyqzvwwp5nqse\">\n<p lang=\"en\">The biggest topic of discussion among my gaming friend group was why what little imagery Nintendo did give us of the Ocarina of Time remake made it look like it was made using stock assets in Unreal Engine. www.theverge.com\/entertainmen&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/did:plc:x6kdznebww2o3tfqgwengetw?ref_src=embed\">Nick Statt (@nickstatt.bsky.social)<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/did:plc:x6kdznebww2o3tfqgwengetw\/post\/3mnv36xgprc2r?ref_src=embed\">2026-06-09T20:51:14.368Z<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/aside>\n<p>&#8220;Those few seconds of footage show a clean, polished, realistic, and utterly dull version of Link that doesn\u2019t seem to convey any of the visual identity the series is known for,&#8221; wrote NL contributor Nathan Ellingsworth for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamespot.com\/articles\/legend-of-zelda-ocarina-of-time-remake-sands-down-series-edges\/\">GameSpot<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>What we really need is a good side-by-side comparison, so below, we&#8217;ve done just that. Assuming that the Link from the remake reveal trailer is the one found in the game&#8217;s opening cutscene \u2014 we&#8217;ve seen and know so little at this stage \u2014 we&#8217;ve taken the same moment from both the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/n64\/legend_of_zelda_ocarina_of_time\">N64 original<\/a> and its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/3ds\/legend_of_zelda_ocarina_of_time_3d\">3DS counterpart<\/a>, for the fairest point of comparison.<\/p>\n<p>(And yes, we know that we&#8217;ve only had the briefest of glimpses at the Switch 2 design so far. A proper look at this 2026 game will be coming soon enough, but what can we say? We&#8217;re excited!)<\/p>\n<figure class=\"picture\" data-uuid=\"64424bd068b78\"><a class=\"scanlines\" title=\"Zelda: Ocarina of Time N64\" href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/64424bd068b78\/zelda-ocarina-of-time-n64.large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/64424bd068b78\/zelda-ocarina-of-time-n64.900x.jpg\" width=\"900\" height=\"491\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Zelda: Ocarina of Time N64\"><\/a><figcaption class=\"caption\">N64 \u2014 <em class=\"credit\"><span class><\/span> Image: Nintendo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"picture\" data-uuid=\"d749fe914bd6e\"><a class=\"scanlines\" title=\"Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3DS\" href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/d749fe914bd6e\/zelda-ocarina-of-time-3ds.large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/d749fe914bd6e\/zelda-ocarina-of-time-3ds.900x.jpg\" width=\"900\" height=\"538\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3DS\"><\/a><figcaption class=\"caption\">3DS \u2014 <em class=\"credit\"><span class><\/span> Image: Nintendo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"picture\" data-uuid=\"14c7cc0cd7b5d\"><a class=\"scanlines\" title=\"Zelda: Ocarina of Time Switch 2\" href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/14c7cc0cd7b5d\/zelda-ocarina-of-time-switch-2.large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/14c7cc0cd7b5d\/zelda-ocarina-of-time-switch-2.900x.jpg\" width=\"900\" height=\"506\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Zelda: Ocarina of Time Switch 2\"><\/a><figcaption class=\"caption\">Switch 2 \u2014 <em class=\"credit\"><span class><\/span> Image: Nintendo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<hr>\n<p><em>Three rather different looks, no? Which is your favourite? You can let us know in the following poll.<\/em><\/p>\n<section id=\"poll-11962\" data-block-type=\"poll\" class=\"poll\" data-uri=\"polls\/which_ocarina_of_time_link_design_is_your_favourite\" data-id=\"11962\" data-question=\"Which Ocarina of Time Link design is your favourite?\">\n<div class=\"results hidden\">\n<h3 data-toc=\"skip\">Which Ocarina of Time Link design is your favourite? (485 votes)<\/h3>\n<ol class=\"poll-results many-results\">\n<li class=\"result with-image first\">\n<div class=\"image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/b07c5899cefab\/100x60.jpg\" width=\"100\" height=\"60\" alt=\"N64\"><\/div>\n<p><strong class=\"answer\">N64<\/strong><span class=\"votes\"><span title=\"85 votes (17.5%)\"><span class=\"bar accent-bg has-votes\" data-value=\"18\"><span class=\"val\">18<\/span>%<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"result with-image\">\n<div class=\"image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/e04d5f6c6e47f\/100x60.jpg\" width=\"100\" height=\"60\" alt=\"3DS\"><\/div>\n<p><strong class=\"answer\">3DS<\/strong><span class=\"votes\"><span title=\"176 votes (36.3%)\"><span class=\"bar accent-bg has-votes\" data-value=\"36\"><span class=\"val\">36<\/span>%<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"result with-image last\">\n<div class=\"image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/b744a01031559\/100x60.jpg\" width=\"100\" height=\"60\" alt=\"Switch 2\"><\/div>\n<p><strong class=\"answer\">Switch 2<\/strong><span class=\"votes\"><span title=\"224 votes (46.2%)\"><span class=\"bar accent-bg has-votes\" data-value=\"46\"><span class=\"val\">46<\/span>%<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p><!-- cache: html:nintendolife.com\/ssl\/nintendo-switch-2\/related-articles:202373 @ 1781118011 --><\/p>\n<aside class=\"block object-related\"> <\/aside>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image: Nintendo Life It might not have been the biggest surprise out there (thanks, leaks), but yesterday&#8217;s Direct brought with it the news that The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Switch 2 remake is real, and it&#8217;s launching at some point this year. The 1-minute 36-second reveal trailer gave us very little to go [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-137539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nintendo-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137539\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}