Nintendo Reveals the Changes It Made to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time's Notoriously Difficult Water Temple for the Remake

Nintendo has discussed the changes it has made to the notoriously difficult Water Temple for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake. In an interview with Zelda boss Eiji Aonuma, Production Group No.3’s HokWai Ng, and other members of the development team published on the Nintendo website, changes made to dungeons were outlined. Crucially, Aonuma — who worked on the original Ocarina of Time back in the ‘90s — was able to finally get to what he called “overdue homework” on the Water Temple.

The original Water Temple in the 1998 N64 masterpiece is infamous for its complex puzzle solving, but also its lack of handholding. This made it a bewildering challenge for many players of the original game. Ng said that Nintendo’s approach with the remake was to retain the dungeon mechanisms from the original game, but improve “playability.” “For example, we placed objects in such a way that players intuitively figure out which direction to go,” he said. “So if you look closely, you may notice areas where the layout differs slightly from the original game.”

For Aonuma, the Water Temple was personal. “I wanted to do something about the Water Temple I created 28 years ago,” he said, laughing. “Since it became well known for its difficulty in the original game, I had the team make some adjustments in this version. When I designed the Water Temple all those years ago, I wanted to create an experience where simply being underwater was fun... However, with the dungeon’s complex structure and a lot of item toggling involved, you often had to open the menu screen repeatedly, making it hard to keep track of where you were and which way you were facing. We addressed those issues in this version.”

To that end, the remake makes item toggling “much easier,” and Nintendo has “changed some of the walls that made it easy to lose your sense of direction to lattice-style structures, making it possible to see the rooms beyond them and get a better sense of the overall space.” Essentially, rather than simply changing the structure to make things easier, Nintendo came up with various ideas to rework it so that players wouldn’t get lost. As IGN’s Logan Plant spotted while viewing Ocarina of Time remake gameplay, the 3DS version’s wall lights, which helped guide players to water-shifting spots, return for the Switch 2 remake. And, as teased by Nintendo today, Link can instantly take off his iron boots without having to pause and go to the equipment menu.

“More than anything, I personally would be happy if it became a conversation starter that encourages players of different generations to share memories with each other,” Ng said.