I Was NOT Expecting Ocarina of Time to Look Like THIS

I really I don't even know. I don't even know. I don't know where to begin. I don't know what to say. First, today we got a big celebration of the 40 years of Zelda. We got a musical performance at the start that was really awesome. Actually, I'm going to rewatch it. They even are going on tour, which I'm going to go see if it comes to New York, which it probably will. And then they dived in to just all of the news and updates around the 40th. I mean, we have a brand new Zelda special edition Switch 2 console that looks gorgeous. It already leaked online, so we kind of knew about it. No, I don't have it. I wish I did. I There's also a controller, a carry case, new amiibo. They talked about the movie for a couple seconds and then didn't show us the movie again. They did actually imply though that the movie is going to be this conglomeration of just the idea of Zelda. It's not based on one movie in particular, but kind of just a celebration of all Zeldas in one big story. I guess we'll see. I don't know because they didn't show us any of the movie. What they did show us, and what this direct and event clearly was very much for, was the new Ocarina of Time remake. I have been so excited for this. On my stream, I did a whole spiel about growing up with Zelda and Ocarina of Time. I'm not going to get into all of it again. You just need to know that I love Zelda. I love Ocarina. It's my favorite game. It It's what made me a gamer. It's what opened my eyes as a kid. I have so much nostalgia for it, so much love for it. I honestly think video games and Ocarina saved my life. Like, I know that sounds really dramatic, but that's the attachment that I have. And if I was to put myself in any fandom, it would be Zelda. Like, I am definitely a Zelda fan through and through. People were making fun of me cuz I kept calling Sarah Sarah during the live stream. But that's I I can't I I I was a dumb kid that couldn't read and I just thought it was Sarah. And to this day, I I I think of her as Sarah. Shoot me. I don't know what to tell you. That's She's my Sarah. I talked about this on the stream. I always kind of wanted them to remake Ocarina of Time. The 64 is the one console that has aged the the worst. NES and Super Nintendo are pretty timeless both in its controls and its art style. Everything after 64 is still holding up, but 64 was just it was rough. Developers at the time were trying to figure out controls in 3D games and they were kind of strange. The visuals were all pointy and jagged and triangles and polygons and it just hasn't aged well. So, bringing this game up to a newer standard for old fans and new fans to enjoy always made sense to me. And when I heard they were doing a remake, I wanted them to just do a one for one, as exact as it could be, while just looking and controlling better. You can't mess with perfection. But I will say when we got that first trailer look at the game, whenever it was a few months ago, I started to change my tune a little bit. I when I saw this hyperrealistic art style, I started to really think to myself, well, it doesn't make a lot of sense to do this brand new hyper realistic version of the game, but then slap that coat of paint over the old N64 game. Cuz like that first time you step out into Hy Rollle, you're going to realize how small the game actually is, which is going to be a little bizarre for a game that looks this nice. So, I started to reframe. We saw it today and it is it is a one for one. It's as one for one as they could be. It's as faithful as they can be. They've definitely taken a lot of care into making it feel like the old game while improving the visuals and improving the control scheme, which is what I wanted to begin with. So, I'm happy and I'm excited and I think that is the best, well, not maybe not the best thing they could have done, but it's the safest thing they could have done. I mean, this will forever be the first shot we see of this game. It's how it opened up with the new gameplay, and it's phenomenal. It's phenomenal. It's awesome. I mean, it's it's just I don't I speechless. I mean, really just speechless. The amount of foliage and trees and lighting, the particle effects of the leaves blowing by, the textures. I mean, is this is a Nintendo game? This was made by Mr. Nintendo. the textures on the hat, on the shield, on his boots, on the ground, on the stones, on the dirt, on the on the leaves, on the characters, on the on the just the everything. It's they they have gone hyper realistic, which this is a a Nintendo version of hyper realistic, but even still, this is some of the nicest hyperrealistic looking visuals I've seen in gaming. Knocked it up a couple notches. We saw that Monolith Soft has helped with this. I don't know how much, but it it really does look incredible. And Nintendo are setting a new standard here for themselves, which is really cool. I, you know, I think Nintendo is still a cartoony company. You know, you had your Marios and your Yoshis, and those are always going to be in the world of cartoon of like Disney and Pixar animation. This is the first time I've truly seen Nintendo, maybe outside of Pikmin, go hyper realistic. I even love like the little spirits, these little like there's so many little details, but these little like snake spirits flying through the air. Insane. It it the game looks like it's 60 fps. I was talking about this on stream, but these YouTube streams always bit crush the hell. So, it's not going to give you the full effect of docking it on your TV and seeing it full native. But even still, you can see it looks incredible. There's like little tassels on his outfit. Link's hair moves and blows in the wind. It has individual strands. There's an uncanny level to this that my brain is still trying to accept and get used to because I love Ocarina and I've spent the last 10, 15 years watching fan videos online, people remaking the game in Unreal Engine and it's it's really bizarre to see Nintendo kind of echo and recreate a lot of those Unreal Engine interpretations of their games. I've seen this many times over the last 15 years, but this time it's official. And again, this is just an observation and this is just what my brain is thinking, trying to comprehend this new era of Nintendo. Not a bad thing. Don't twist my words like everybody tries to do. This is just what my brain is trying to comprehend. Nintendo have been making some really interesting character decision choices in these 64 remakes. I mean, Star Fox, obviously, those characters went super hyper realistic as well, and they decided to push for a real animal, like a realistic animal looking look. And here they've really taken the old models of the 64 characters with their big eyes and their exaggerated features and they've gone what will that look like in realism which is a little bizarre. I don't hate it. I think with Link it's a little young Link specifically it's a little eerie for the time Ocarina of Time 64. You could say that it was going for a realistic look but we know it it's cartoony. It looks very cartoony. So now you're going for hyper realism, but you're trying to keep that cartoony look. So the big eyes is the obviously the big one that is translating into hyper realism really weirdly. I'm not saying it's bad or it's good. It's a little creepy and unnerving. And I think for Young Link specifically, there's so much white under his eyes that all the other characters don't have that's making his eyes in particular look massive. It's a little unnerving. It's a little unreal and a little uncanny, but his outfit and the rest of his face and his hair and the little details and the little nuts and seeds and his headband and just the little tassels and everything moves and everything bends and everything like flows. It's so cool. It's so cool. And I want to stress that every time I pick something out where I'm like, "This looks a little strange," people say that I'm nitpicking or I'm being a hater. I'm not because for every one thing that I find a little strange, there's 10 things that I love. so chill and calm. This is very strange. This is very new and we're all getting used to it for the first time. They've even added in uh a dedicated jump button, so now it doesn't just auto jump when you approach a ledge. There's going to be things that I miss in this video, believe me. But they added dialogue to the characters, too. There's a lot of quality of life improvements and additions to the game, even full voice acting in the cutscenes, which is just awesome. He goes in the water and now he's wet. He's got this gloss to him now. And even after he gets out of the water, he keeps it for a while. He keeps this like drenched look to him. And you can see water falling off of him. That guy looks very strange. He looks like an old like an old animated cartoon character. Like I'm talking like old like phone golly. But cool. I mean it looks really cute. And then here when you walk out to the great deu tree, this is where you really start to get a sense of the scale of Oh yeah. It's a it's a one it's a one for one. It's a full one for one remake of the game. It's just all the nice quality of life and better animations and even like stepping on this spiderweb and how it bends and flows like a little trampoline. Like they even run on it intentionally to show you the animation of it and the the extra details in these plants like the gross disgusting plant tongue that it has. All of these details they've added in or details that you would have missed or not noticed with the low polygons before. But they showed a little bit of the tree and yeah, it's the same dungeon. You solve things the same way. You move about the same way. Even how this bridge breaks as you fall down and it shatters into pieces. It's like again so realistic for a Nintendo game. It's still a little cartoony. It's sort of like Uncharted meets Ocarina of Time almost in its presentation in that way. Then they skip ahead to when you step out in a high roll. I kind of wish they had just ended the trailer before this. I get that they want to show more. I mean, now these days you got to show everything to get people invested, but this for me was one of the big the the big moment as a kid was stepping out into Hyrule for the first time and seeing like the game beyond the town. And we've seen it already in the trailer. This was kind of what I feared. This is the only part that I think is going to have a a difficult time translating into 2026 standard and where it's this is where it's going to feel like a 64 game with a fresh coat of paint. Because again when I started to to rethink my one for one rigidness and I was like well maybe we should open it up a large reason for that was because of Hyrule Field. It's very small. I remember it being bigger as a kid but in reality you could walk across it in like 30 seconds. But also like Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom have expanded what I believe Hyrule and the land of Hyrule should look like. I kind of wanted to see that reimagined at least. Even if all the towns were the same, all the locations were the same, even if they just made Hieroffield like five times bigger and added a a couple locations or mini games or like a like a traveling salesman or just like something out here to engage with or maybe collectibles, like I don't know, just something to do. But they've they've really tried to keep it as nostalgic as possible. So, we have the same Hyrule Field. They even say in the trailer it really just acts as a a way to get from place to place. It it kind of like Metroid Prime 4's desert, you know, like it's a big empty space that adds to world build to connect everything. So, it's not just a load screen behind like enclosed areas, which is a very dated thing, and it's going to feel dated even with this fresh coat of paint. The presentation is here. It just it it's going to feel small in scale with what we're used to. And even like as a kid remembering how this is, I think you're going to go, "Oh, this is smaller than I remember." They also added a I think this is a better way of tracking quests as well as a tapestry that fills out as you complete things. I like both of those as quality of life improvements. The other thing that they said was when you stepped out into Hierofrule or even when you go into the castle, it's still a load screen. And they said they kept the load screen to make it feel nostalgic or or or familiar to the experience. And at first I was like, well, that kind of sounds like cope. That kind of sounds like you needed a load screen, so you're saying, "Oh, we kept in the load screen so it felt nostalgic." I think everybody would have been okay if in this new one for one remake of Zelda if there were no load screens and everything was one big Hyrule map where the town actually is past the the castle and you don't have to load into it. You can just walk into the castle and you're in the town. Even if that meant you had to move and jerryrig a few things or or expand the actual map if it felt the same. You know, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, you know, I would have been down for that. and I would have accepted the change and still would have considered this a one for one remake, but they went for the whole separate area load screen thing. Probably easier to do it that way. So, I understand it is funny. You know, we have all this hyper realism, but you can see this like Mario 64 painting image of a town at the end of the tunnel here, which is how it was on the original. So, it is nostalgic, but it's not super realistic. Now, when you first load into this town, I immediately thought it was completely remade cuz I I do not remember this shot of the town and my brain was like trying to comprehend it. Like, what is this? This is new. It's not new. They explained it already and they explained it more. When you originally load into this town, if you remember in the original Ocarina, you the camera is fixed off to the side and it you see yourself run past this point and then you get to the main center of the town. So now you have full control over seeing everything. That room off to the right here is where you break all the pots. You can run straight down into that that courtyard area yourself and you can see everything that was previously hidden behind camera tricks and camera angles. I hope that that adds to some sort of mystery or or some extra like things to find, some characters to meet, things that weren't there before. Anything new I think is good and and adds to this remake. They also mentioned there's a day and night cycle that is active even when you're in the town, which again goes to add to realism. And then we have the ocarina. I think they've done a really great job with this. I love the way that it zooms in on Link and it like blurs out the background. It's just you and this gorgeous ocarina. You can obviously play it as you would back in the day just by pressing buttons and playing notes. Playing the sun song and having it change to day instantly in real time. Looks awesome. That looked awesome. It looks like a crazy mod in Breath of the Wild or something, which is it's still a It's what I mean. It's so uncanny. It's like I've seen this stuff before, but not from Nintendo. But also, you can use the microphone to just hum a song. Kind of cheating, but it's also really cool. You can also buy a actual ocarina and play the actual ocarina to your Switch. That's just awesome. That's just getting creative in such a fun Nintendo way. And I can't be mad about it. Aona also looks gorgeous. And this whole scene here of the the ranch with the light coming through. Just just wonderful, I would say. Just gorgeous. Then they talk about the Zelda Notes app, which I'm not going to go into too much because I probably won't use it all that much, but they added some bonus features behind the app that you can play around with. They also uh showed you all the games that are available on Switch right now, which is still missing Twilight Princess. And then a full trailer, a brand new trailer look at this game. I feel a bit like a broken record, but I can't believe how good this game looks. The wind blowing through all the trees and the grass, the scenes, the water. This shot is always in my mind when I think of Ocarina. This opening title sequence they've recreated here. This is also the first time in this event and the trailer that we're getting to see adult Link. And adult Link definitely grew into his eyes more. They don't look as crazy on his head. This again, I don't know why I said Uncharted earlier, but I don't know why I just it just looks so real and so like uncharted. You almost like lose Link in the scene here cuz there's so much foliage and texture. He's almost camouflaged in. This is one of my favorite shots. I don't know. I love sundown shots and it just the way the reflections are and everything looks great. You remember uh that old like Wii Wii Wii U era time? It was like a hyperrealistic looking Zelda game. We never actually got it and everyone always wanted it. That game is very close to this. And this shot here is where I really saw that for the first time. Just this one shot of of this guy swinging at Link with this blurred background and these hyperrealistic characters and this hyperrealistic environment. This to me was, "Oh, we finally have that Zelda." It just looks so good and so real. I really really really really excited for this. This is just showing you like different abilities and animations and the sounds and and so much. We have a little bit of the water temple here which I hope they've improved. This shot here goes by so quickly. If you if you get a chance, I mean, you're looking at it now. Go and look at this shot. There's so much personality here. There's so much whimsy here. The relationship between Aoner and Link. His eyes aren't actually looking that creepy in this shot. They look fine. And then we have uh M Maria. I'm gonna pronounce I'm gonna get every right. Mani. I'm not good with names, people. I barely remember names of people in my life. I love fishing in video games, and I blame Ocarina a time for it. This is where my love for fishing in games came from. This little pond area, I spent so much time in here. This is a 10 out of 10 remake. This is a masterpiece. This is This is everything that it needs to be and more. I was really curious what Nintendo were going to do with the great fairies because they're very hot and they're very big and they're very voluumptuous and they're very naked and I think they nailed it. She looks like Chapel Ron and I'm here for it. She's hot to go. I want to know what the inside of Jabujaboo looks like because I don't know if you remember it's supposed to be flesh and they went for hyper realism. So, is it hyperrealistic flesh? This baffles me a little bit. >> Who's there? Oh, I'm so sorry. I'm trying to not be disturbed. I don't like that. I spent a minute on stream comparing it to the original 64 model, and I think what chat and I determined are the eyes are too far apart. That's the biggest thing is the eyes are too far apart. They made her nose bigger, but I don't think I would have noticed that if it wasn't for the eyes. It's weird because when you compare it to the 64 version, it's not that different. They changed her eye color and they moved her eyes apart and they made her nose bigger, but it's not that different. But for some reason, it's just not how I remember her looking. And it's very weird to go from I'm going to call her Sarah. You can leave me alone. Sarah, who I think looks really cute and fantastic and she has the same like elf look and she looks like a little Pixar Disney character. And then her. People get mad at me when I nitpick anything. I've just spent literally 40 minutes of this recording gushing over this thing, so give me some slack here. Maybe I'll get used to it. She just creeps me out. She's not the worst one, though. >> That's great stuff. Good on you. I'm real impressed. >> What the hell? I mean, his body looks great. His the environment in Link looks great. His face is terrifying. His eyes are evil. He looks evil. He looks like he's going to eat Link. It looks like if someone took the original model of him, threw it in a Chad GBT and asked them and asked it to make him look hyper realistic for like a remake. And this is like the crazy creepy face it would give him that would give you nightmares. And you go chat GBT, what the hell is wrong with you? I wasted precious resources on earth for this. And then on the flip side, she looks great. And then on the flippy dippy side, th even more so, this one's going to throw you through a loop. Ganon has sausage fingers. Ganon looks awesome. But Ganon doesn't look like anyone else in this game because Ganon doesn't look hyper realistic human to me. He still looks like a 64 character with his like sharp edges and pointy edges and like small beady normal eyes. He looks like the video game version done in 2026 without hyper realism. That tree looks incredible with all that all those leaves falling. Oh man. Okay, so here we have Ganon and I I think you can see what I mean, right? Like he looks like his Smash Bros. character. He looks sharp and pointed and rigid and and and these dark like dark outlines and and cartoony like exaggerated features and like everything about him doesn't look hyper realistic like all the other characters. I actually think he looks incredible, but to me, he doesn't look like he fits into the world of all the other characters. I kind of love that he's still a little cartoony, a little still 64y. So, in contrast, he pops from the realistic background. It feels Nintendoy in that way. I might be reading into this too much and seeing something that you guys aren't seeing. But I I I think Ganon has the art style as a character that I kind of wish they went with for everybody cuz the contrast between the two would pop so well and still feel very Nintendo and feel like a very good remake. A sharp nose, tiny eye. Well, actually the eyes are probably more realistic than everyone else's eyes, but they don't look like everyone else's hyper realistic eyes. Like literally, you can Zach, don't even edit that. It immediately goes into what I was talking about. Immediately, you get Chic, who has that hyper realism look with her giant eyes, but again, looks fantastic. I'm really breaking down this whole trailer at this point. The more I watch this trailer and the more that I dive into it, the more excited I am and the more I love what they've created here. I think when you go hyperrealistic with something that was cartoony in my mind before, there's going to be some strange things that pop out. I think when you put a hyperrealistic coat of paint on what is a traditional unchanged, for the most part N64 game, there's going to be some N64 issues that pop out. But I think for the most part, for the 99% part, it works. I love this box art. Apparently, it's a textured foil cover art, which I love that they did something special. I would have loved a yellow or gold box or I would have loved a gold cartridge, which to be fair, we haven't seen the cartridge yet, but just the fact they did something special with the packaging means a lot to me. And that releases uh November 5th, which is two full weeks before GTA 6. What an awesome look at the game. What a fantastic celebration of 40 years of Zelda with the musical performance, the fun uh things that they're doing, and they they said there's more that's going to come. so good. And I can't wait for tomorrow now that now that Zelda is out of the way, which is a crazy thing to say, but it just highlights that if they if they didn't need to show Zelda tomorrow, then they have so much other stuff to show. I'm expecting some big things tomorrow. So, if you enjoyed this and you want to watch me stream and react to the direct tomorrow, let me know. I will be playing Let me know. Watch it. I'll be live. You don't have to let me know. Let me know below. Screw it. Like and subscribe. I will be playing this game on this channel when it comes out. The day that it comes out, I'll be live and I'll play through this game with all of you guys. I'm so so excited for that. Thank you for watching this video and this reaction. I've been recording for 50 minutes. I had a lot to say, so I'm I'm going to go and I'll see you tomorrow. Let me know about any of my observations that I think when I was like picking things out that I thought looked a little weird. Let me know what you think of those things. But please, and add in any of your own, but please, please don't twist my words. I think this looks incredible. I think this looks insane for Nintendo, and I can't wait to play it. Okay. Bye.