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The ‘Ocarina of Time’ Remake Is Finally Here, but Why Does Link Look so Yassified?
After 28 years, the gamer’s game is getting a big remake.
A fully redone version of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time arrives Thursday exclusively on the Switch 2. Nintendo has been releasing trailers and screenshots in the run-up to the launch, and the imagery, while whetting appetites, has also left fans with an overwhelming question: Why does Link look like that?
Specifically, child Link. Ocarina of Time allows players to time-hop and explore levels as child and adult versions of the game’s main protagonist. Gameplay starts as child Link in the Kokiri Forest, which looks more lush and verdant than ever in the remake. But aesthetic upgrades have also been applied to child Link, resulting in a curled-eyelash, laminated-eyebrow, douyin-lipstick yassified elf boy.
Fans have been quick to compare the design to the human-vampire hybrid Renesmee from Twilight and the Gerber Baby. “He looks so microwaveable,” one Reddit user wrote.
The changes feel all the more stark when juxtaposed with the remake’s background nonplayer characters, who remain noticeably simpler and more reminiscent of the original game’s character designs.
The original Ocarina was limited to minimal polygonal shapes and textures because of the small storage capacity in N64 cartridges, and these technical limitations produced what became a recognizable and beloved visual style. Thanks to the Switch 2’s larger storage capacity and higher memory bus speed, designers have been able to add details to Link and the other main characters that wouldn’t have been possible in the original.
Beyond better technology, though, people have different expectations of video games from major publishers. Interconnecting level designs, intricate storylines, and highly realistic environment and character model details are table stakes for contemporary AAA games. Video games are also more mainstream, and once-regional media like anime and manga have become global phenomena over the past three decades, influencing taste in the larger culture.
Clayton Lundgren, a former quality assurance tester for the game developer Naughty Dog who currently streams Ocarina of Time along with other games on Twitch, sees nothing accidental about Link’s new look. “For a decision as important as the key art for the main character, this is the kind of thing that is gonna go past a lot of quality inspection higher up than the person that drew it,” he says. “This is 20-plus years of merchandising that you’re committing to.”
Since The Legend of Zelda launched the franchise in 1986, Link has existed in many forms. Though his long hat, pointy ears, blond hair, green tunic, and Master Sword are staples of his design, none of these characteristics have been stable across his 40 years. He’s had pink hair, his tunic has been blue and red. He’s even been a tree.
The remake takes the evolution a step further, though. Lundgren, who has at least 1,000 hours in Ocarina across speed runs, challenge runs, and community competitions, immediately realized that this week’s release is a ground-up remake when he watched the game’s new trailer. For many fans, the rich detail of the underbrush and sunbeams in Kokiri Forest visible in the teaser video were proof this isn’t the same Ocarina. But Lundgren saw something else: The undulation in the ground was different.