Zelda: Ocarina Of Time developer confirmed and it has a first time director

Eiji Aonuma directed the original Ocarina Of Time but he’s let someone else take the reins for the remake (Nintendo) A new interview published to Nintendo’s website has provided some insight into the development of The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time, including how the younger generation of creators is leading it. One question that has swirled around Nintendo’s remake of The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time, even back when it was only rumoured, is who exactly would be making it. Nintendo tends to farm remakes out to external studios and developer Grezzo has a history of Zelda remakes, including the 3DS version of Ocarina Of Time and Link’s Awakening. The well-received Star Fox remake was also made by an outside and relatively untested studio. The involvement of Xenoblade developer Monolith Soft has also been suggested as a possibility, as they’re an important support studio for Nintendo and the Zelda series, and there’s been talk of them helming their own Zelda game someday. Nintendo has been typically tight-lipped about exactly who’s responsible for the remake’s development but, thanks to a newly published interview, it’s been confirmed that the project has in fact been handled internally, although mostly by a younger generation of developers. Series producer Eiji Aonuma oversaw the remake, having directed the original Ocarina Of Time, and he was joined by Hidemaro Fujibayashi, who has directed multiple Zelda games since 2001, including Tears Of the Kingdom. Want GTA 6 news? Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for the latest GTA 6 news, reviews of new games you should play and exclusive analysis of the biggest stories of the week. However, according to an Ask the Developer interview on Nintendo’s website, they purposefully took a step back and allowed the younger developers to take the initiative. ‘If the producers say, ‘This is how it should be’, the team would naturally feel obligated to do it that way,’ explained Aonuma. ‘So I basically let the developers make whatever changes they genuinely felt were necessary. I wanted the team to make The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time their own, and to follow through on their own ideas about what the game should be.’ In fact, Aonuma initially suggested the developers added warp points so players could more quickly travel throughout the world, only to realise ‘we were missing out on the moments of discovery that came from stopping along the way’ and opted to not include them. Although Nintendo itself doesn’t mention the name of the developer, it does appear to be the usual Zelda team within Nintendo EPD, the company’s primary development division as evidenced by the following staff members who were also interviewed: Director HokWai Ng, who has been with Nintendo since 2009 and was a designer on Tears Of The Kingdom Art director Aya Shida, who provided artwork for Breath Of The Wild and Tears Of The Kingdom Program director Hiroki Taguchi, who joined Nintendo as a programmer on Breath Of The Wild Music lead and sound director Masato Ohashi, who contributed music to Tears Of The Kingdom and Echoes of Wisdom All currently work at EPD and for Ng specifically, the Ocarina Of Time remake marks his directorial debut. So he must’ve earned a great degree of trust to be put in charge of remaking one of the most beloved video games of all time. This is further proof that Nintendo is raising a new generation of developers to take over the company’s biggest franchises as its old guard reaches retirement age. We saw it happen with Bowser’s Fury and Donkey Kong Bananza, and it wouldn’t be shocking if the next 3D Mario is spearheaded by a newbie too. It’s still unclear if Monolith Soft or Grezzo have had a hand in the Ocarina Of Time remake’s development, although Nintendo has almost certainly received outside assistance. Nowadays, it’s common for larger games to be worked on by multiple studios in support roles. Monolith Soft has been a key support studio for Nintendo and has contributed to not just the Zelda games, but Splatoon, Animal Crossing, and Mario Kart World, so it’s bound to have assisted to some degree with the remake. Grezzo’s involvement isn’t as certain, but even if it isn’t helping with the remake, that might be because Nintendo has it working on something else. The studio’s next project hasn’t been announced yet, and it’s been a couple of years since Echoes Of Wisdom. So maybe it’s been tasked with another top-down Zelda game to follow on from that. You won’t have to wait much longer for more concrete answers, as the Ocarina Of Time remake comes out this week and Nintendo’s holding a midnight launch event in London. Hyrule Field is far smaller than Breath Of The Wild’s open world (Nintendo) Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. Arrow MORE: Days Gone dev planning new game in 2027 after eight years of silence says report Arrow MORE: Gears Of War: E-Day really did cost half a billion dollars to make says source Arrow MORE: Games Inbox: Is a Nintendo Switch 2 worth getting for Christmas? 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