I’ll be the first to admit that I wasn’t totally convinced when I watched the footage from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time’s remake — in fact, I almost instinctively wanted to reject it. Upon a first glance, it has a similar vibe to what people have been memeing about for years: it sort of resembles the Unreal Engine fan remakes that permeated the internet over the last decade. There’s a new emphasis on hyper detail, with almost every facet of Kokiri Forest having some graphical flourish that wasn’t present in the original game. Sure, a lot of that was because of graphical limitations in 1998, but without full context, the remake can come off as placing props everywhere to give the illusion of detail.
Upon further reflection, I believe there’s an overall point to this new style. Link might be over designed with so many new flourishes on his tunic that it sometimes distracts from the overall image, but it also ties in with one of the key themes of the original game. As a kid, I didn’t pick up on any of the subtleties of Ocarina of Time’s general plot. The game puts players into the role of a destined child who’s initially ostracized from the village he finds himself in just as he learns his goal is to save Hyrule from certain destruction. Upon taking up the mantle and proving himself in a trial, he exits his hometown to explore a foreign region that then doesn’t embrace him in return. Link is stuck between two worlds, emphasized further by how the game is split between a Past and Future dichotomy with its narrative time jump.
One of the most common complaints I’ve seen for Link’s new graphical facelift is that he looks as if he came out of a different game. I’ve even repeated that same complaint, because it sort of rings true. When you look at stills from Hyrule Castle Town, Link sticks out like a sore thumb against the occupants who feature comparatively simpler designs. Whatever you want to say about Link’s overhaul, I feel this is an intentional distinction made on the part of Nintendo’s artists. Link was never meant to fit in anywhere, and now graphical technology has advanced to the point where Nintendo can fully realize that idea.
In the N64 original, Link’s modest design was determined not just by hardware limitations, but by fantasy stories like Peter Pan and Japanese kabuki theater. Link’s simple green tunic and lack of pants visually explain his childlike innocence, but then his sudden transformation into Adult Link wearing basically the same clothes (though, thankfully, with undergarments) reflects how Peter Pan refuses to grow up. Link is more thrust into adulthood against his will, but he’s still a child in a man’s body. He hasn’t done any of the maturing that other characters in the story did during his seven-year absence. The kabuki theater part relates more to combat, the evolution of which was Chanbara films, but then it also features actors in extravagant costumes playing exaggerated parts to an audience that might be hundreds or thousands of feet away. The designs needed to be bold so that everyone could see them.
In most of the Legend of Zelda titles, Link’s clothing fits right in with the citizens around him. In Ocarina of Time, however, he’s always been an outlier wherever he goes. His garb is right at home in Kokiri Forest, but then his physical features and facial structure cause him to be ridiculed. When he travels into Hyrule, his body more closely matches the citizens, but then his clothing prevents him from fitting in. With Ocarina being one of the earlier games in the timeline (if you believe one even exists), it then goes on to inform other games where tradition takes hold and younger Link’s wear the outfit more out of obligation. Link, seemingly, is always meant to be an outcast.
There is certainly a claim to be made that the remake’s art style removes a lot of the subtext. Child me didn’t think much of Link’s costume, but as I grew up, I realized his clothes foreshadow the core struggle Ocarina’s iteration of Link faces. In the remake, there is so much extra detail and unique patterning on Link’s tunic that there isn’t even a question that he isn’t meant to fit in. He 100% is an outsider now almost as if a spotlight is continually shining on him everywhere he travels.
Some explanations for why Link, in particular, gets hit the hardest have been made online. One content creator called TBSkyen Shorts offers a short history lesson on maximalist trends, likening the new design to Rococo paintings. Interestingly, he explains how Rococo’s work inspired early depictions of Lord of the Rings, which is a cited influence by Miyamoto for the entire series. Former Nintendo artist Takaya Imamura also suggested that Miyamoto’s love of Japanese puppetry might explain the new style. While that isn’t a new tidbit, fans have noted that Ocarina of Time’s remake resembles more modern Japanese puppet shows, including NHK’s The New Three Musketeers from 2009 and even a 2014 adaptation of Sherlock Holmes. The N64 couldn’t have rendered anything close to this, but it seems Miyamoto may have changed the artistic direction more dramatically because now the Switch 2 can.
Whatever the case, I can’t get it out of my head that Link’s tremendous transformation was made to better relate to players a central theme in Ocarina of Time’s story. Nintendo has always been a gameplay-first company, but that doesn’t mean its games have no storytelling in them. Video game fans tend to miss the forest for the trees when it comes to discussing the thematic quality that games have. Most Zelda games are about deeper themes than the simplistic “Good Vs. Evil” plot, but Ocarina of Time specifically deals with coming of age in a world that doesn’t accept you. Link is meant to be ostracized because of the way he looks from both his home and his country. Switch 2 Link embellishes that to the extreme, but it’s certainly not an arbitrary change.
Check out more Zelda content
EB Games Canada is offering a holographic slipcover for Zelda: Ocarina of Time pre-orders
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time – Switch 2 pre-order guide
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake hits Switch 2 on November 5, 2026
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Written by Peter Glagowski
Peter has been a freelance gaming and film critic for over seven years. His passion for Nintendo is only matched by the size of his collection.
