Ocarina of Time on Switch 2 lets players jump with one button
Nintendo details the free camera, two midair attacks, a reworked Water Temple and Threads of Time, a new feature in the remake.
Ocarina of Time on Switch 2 lets players jump from anywhere with the press of a button, as in recent Zelda games. Nintendo laid out the change in part three of its "Ask the Developer" interview, published Tuesday.
The 1998 original used automatic jumping: Link leapt on his own when the stick pushed him toward certain ledges. Dropping it meant reworking the environments, producer Eiji Aonuma said, because designers now have to anticipate more player behavior. Art director Aya Shida added a wrinkle: child Link and adult Link do not jump quite the same, which made the gaps harder to lay out.
Midair attacks work two ways. One is the two-step system from Breath of the Wild: jump, then strike. The other is the one-button strike from the original. Aonuma did not warm to the first, so the team kept both. Repeated rolling to cross Hyrule Field is still there, and holding the button down makes Link run.
The camera is free, with tweaks so players do not lose their bearings. Producer Hidemaro Fujibayashi said the challenge was updating the controls: the 1998 console had one stick and a camera that locked in place at some spots, while players now expect two sticks and a free view. For programmer Hiroki Taguchi, the goal was to make the game "feel new again without changing its essence."
The Water Temple, notorious for leaving players lost, got changes. Swapping items takes less effort, and several walls are now lattices that show the rooms next door. Aonuma calls it "unfinished business," so the redesign answers a complaint that is decades old. In the Gohma fight, the boss's two arms cover its weak spot while it is invulnerable, which makes clear when to strike.
The new feature is Threads of Time, which presents the story as an illustrated book. As players progress, illustrations and passages of text appear and build into a tapestry. Nintendo has not said what it takes to unlock them.
Part one of the interview explained why fast-travel warp points were cut. The game launches Thursday, Nov. 5, on Switch 2 only.
