The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake has landed, and it’s already a critical and commercial success. It seems to have delivered on everything we all hoped, staying faithful to the legacy of the original, while adapting it with all the modern sensibilities and quality of life updates that make the experience of playing all the smoother. The 2026 Ocarina of Time has its own identity, certainly, but the love for the original can be felt in every inch. The new game also fleshes out the framework of Ocarina of Time, expanding dialogue options and bright, detailed art style. This likely marks a new era for the franchise. Folks are already wondering about Majora’s Mask, the N64’s other major The Legend of Zelda title.
There’s so much to talk about, from the graphical overhaul to its impressively stable 60FPS it consistently runs at. Right now though, let’s talk about VAs and sound design. In the most recent of Nintendo’s Ask the Developer interviews, Ocarina of Time music lead Masato Ohashi talked about recreating the soundscape of the first game while adding a new, orchestral depth to the tunes we all remember from childhood. He also spoke about the practical side of things, like how they used live recordings of someone playing an actual ocarina, to get the realistic breathiness we hear when Link plays it in the game.
And of course, one of the biggest changes from the original: voice acting. While there’s plenty of little sounds and noises (like Link shouting), there’s very little in the way of spoken words. Navi, however, Link’s fairy companion, gets a few little phrases—”Look!” and “Watch out!”, and of course, Navi’s legendary, “Hey, listen!” Here’s a one hour loop of it on YouTube, if you want that for some reason. While the American cast does not include anyone returning from the American dub of the original game, the Japanese version did score the most important reprise of all: Kaori Mizuhashi returns as Navi’s Japanese voice actor for the remake. The funniest part? The auditions were blind. The team didn’t even realize they’d done it.
“As fate would have it, one of the actors we selected had actually voiced the same character in the Nintendo 64 version. None of us saw that coming.” —Eiji Aonuma, The Legend of Zelda Producer
I’m happy for Japanese fans of the game and the sweet nostalgia they’re no doubt getting from this. On the American side of things, Lisa Reimold does an excellent job as Navi, but I’m glad that at least one voice actor from the first iteration of the game returned for the remake. It’s another beautiful way that this version of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time honors its origins.