Nintendo’s developers have shared more about the making of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Remake, confirming that the game was recreated from scratch. Program director Hiroki Taguchi said the team chose that approach because 28 years had passed since the original release, instead of using the original code and data as a foundation for updates.
Taguchi said the team implemented features, compared them with the original, and repeated the process to keep the remake from becoming something entirely different. Director HokWai Ng said the fundamentals of Link’s actions were preserved, with particular attention paid to how responsive they feel. The developers also made adjustments for players familiar with more recent Zelda games.
One notable change is the removal of auto-jump. In the original, Link jumped automatically when players moved the Control Stick forward in specific locations. Ng said the team instead adopted controls from newer entries in the series, allowing players to jump with a button press.
Producer Eiji Aonuma said that change made exploration more exciting but required the team to account for more possible player actions and adjust the environment accordingly. Art director Aya Shida added that balancing terrain was especially challenging because Adult Link and Young Link can jump different distances.
Sources: Nintendo Everything.