Why Is the Zelda: Ocarina of Time Not a Pure 1-to-1 Recreation?

The trailer and preview footage show a remake that keeps the original's spirit while reimagining its dungeons, towns, and Hyrule Field in surprising ways.

The Zelda: Ocarina of Time Remake has a lot of new information to track. Alongside an overview trailer, several gaming enthusiasts flew to New York to play a preview build and bring back fresh footage. It shows the Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake is not the one-to-one copy some people expected. It stays close to the original in the ways you hoped for, but it also has many more changes than you might think.

The overview trailer for the Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake opens with a new scene of Link swimming in Lake Hylia, using his signature swim kick. It's one of the first times you see him in a large body of water, and the lake looks the same. Zora's River looks different.

It now has large archways, columns, pillars, and a metal gate near the bean salesman. One guess is that you can unlock it from the other side with the Cucco, which would speed up travel through Zora's River and maybe even let Epona come along.

Talon still wears his Bowser necklace and looks a bit like Mario, while the Phonogram Man is as creepy as ever, cranking his music player to play the Song of Storms. Ingo returns looking far less unsettling. That is the future version, after he takes over Lon Lon Ranch, and you see him later in the past.

Link also seems faster underwater in the Iron Boots; his fingers move correctly. At the same time, he plays the ocarina, and a new bridge crosses the waterfall, splitting it open and giving you a real path into Zora's Domain.
The trailer also shows a new Hall of Fallen Foes, similar to the 3DS boss rematches but with every enemy you have beaten and trophies you can inspect.

From right to left, you can spot a Green Bubble, Guays, a Stinger, Bari, Biri, Shabom, a Tektite, a Tailpasarn, Barinade, and Big Octo.

The Armos has a scarier design with red horns, beady eyes, and more teeth. A Dodongo hides behind the owl statue, and a Baby Dodongo, Red Tektite, goofy Lizalfos, Torch Slug, and King Dodongo are nearby. You also see the four Poe sisters, a Wallmaster, Wolfos, Stalfos, Deku Scrubs, Gohma Larvae, Queen Gohma, two Deku Babas, two Stalchildren, a Business Scrub, two Moblins, a Skulltula, a Peahat, and Phantom Ganon at the very top.

Every trophy in the Hall of Fallen Foes lists where to find that enemy and its weakness. King Dodongo's entry names bombs, and bosses have a rematch option. In the rematch clip, Link runs from the boulder and throws bombs into the mouth, exposing a weak point that now shows its tongue.

A new clip shows Link's first adult visit to the Sacred Realm, with Water and Spirit Medallion symbols on the floor and a Goddess crest on each Triforce piece. New cutscenes appear to introduce Volvagia and Phantom Ganon, who reveals himself as a phantom instead of the real Ganondorf and uses a new attack where he lunges forward and nearly shatters the space behind him.

Link also wakes up in bed and stares too close to the camera, and you get a look at his treehouse from outside.
The preview build of the Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake showed far more. In Kokiri Forest, where you get the Kokiri Sword, the area has changed. It used to teach you to aim with the Z button, but with free camera control gone, the challenge now uses the new manual jump: you climb to a high ledge and jump to the chest.

Backflips off your treehouse still work, and the fairy markings remain on the trunk.

A new soft soil patch sits in that area too, which might be for bugs or tied to the Business Scrub seed that summons a Business Scrub, possibly offering real rewards instead of weak deals. The special actions menu has two slots marked with question marks, so those are still unknown. Pressing ZL targets enemies and raises your shield at once, like in Twilight Princess.

Over in Kokiri Forest, the Great Deku Tree has changed too. It used to be one circular hollow with several platforms pointing you toward the web below, but now a large spiral winds up toward the canopy, and the Great Deku Tree has a single diving platform at the top, which helps newcomers.

Kaepora Gaebora no longer asks whether you want to hear his dialogue again, so you cannot accidentally pick No when asked if you understood. Hyrule Field looks mostly the same in the Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake, but it now has aged ruins and loose bricks that resemble Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, and you can no longer climb the drawbridge chains for the hidden Rupees.

New fairy runes are etched around the map, and Navi translates them into tips. One says you can touch a butterfly with a Deku Stick to turn it into a fairy. Runes are scattered across the world, and some reportedly sit inside the Forest Temple.

The pot room near the castle gates looks smaller and darker, lit by a single wall torch.

The guard inside already seems exhausted and depressed. Many NPCs have new dialogue: one says Link looks like broccoli, and a bearded man claims to have beard radar. Shiro from Majora's Mask appears and has plenty to say about the Sheikah, exiles from Hyrule, and the royal family's darker history, which the Bottom of the Well and Shadow Temple explore later.

The market bazaar in the Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake begins with the shopkeeper panicking over a bug infestation; helping him earns you your first empty bottle, a fifth beyond the original four. The old man outside hints at more side quests and mentions an Ultimate Potion that wasn't in the original. Cuccos still swarm you if you keep hitting them. In the shooting gallery, missing every target makes the shopkeeper ignore you.

Still, now you can talk to him and apologize, probably because seamless interiors keep you from re-entering to reset the minigame. The targets are real archery targets instead of floating Rupees. Inside the Forest Temple of the Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake, the manor's two wings now have color themes: red on one side and blue on the other, shown in the carpets, stained-glass lighting, and even the courtyard sky.

Some routes changed: the courtyard ivy you used to climb for an early small key chest is overgrown, so you drop through the flooded drainage instead, and new mechanical lifts raise you to ledges. Skulltulas spin continuously, so time a belly slash; most enemies take combos, up to three hits on a Stalfos. Link can also jump straight onto vines.

The Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake also gives Lon Lon Ranch a new look, and it sits off Hyrule Field. 

The right stable has no closed door so that you can walk straight in, and the grounds stay close to the original layout, down to the run-down shed in the upper corner. Ingo appears before the time skip, looking less unsettling than his Nintendo 64 model while still resembling Luigi.

Back in the Forest Temple, a shot at a haunted portrait now makes Poe struggle to flee after an arrow hits, then dart out of the frame as you approach. The frozen eye switch puzzle is now a straight corridor where you shoot through the brazier, and the Stalfos arena has acid in the middle pit. A spotlight follows Link and turns from purple to red before a Wallmaster drops.

From Kokiri Forest and the Great Deku Tree to Hyrule Field, Zora's River and Lon Lon Ranch, the Zelda:  Ocarina of Time remake keeps these places recognizable while changing what you do in them. The Forest Temple and the Hall of Fallen Foes follow the same approach, and it still has more to show.