Nintendo Cut Fast-Travel from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Remake

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, a remake of the original 1998 game, comes out in just a couple of days. It has sparked a lot of interest among Nintendo fans, and longtime fans especially want to see what the remake is like. Asked how it compares with Nintendo’s recent games, the developers revealed they removed one feature that could have made the game easier.

That feature is fast travel, like the one in Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which would have let players cross Hyrule more quickly. In a recent Q&A session, Nintendo producer Eiji Aonuma claimed the studio decided against it because it might stop many players from finding interesting details while exploring the world on foot. You can check out more of his comments below:

“I thought we needed to address this in this new version. So I asked the team to add warp points that didn’t exist in the original game, giving players access to shortcuts. But when we actually tried playing the game with those warp points, we realized that we were missing out on the moments of discovery that came from stopping along the way and wondering, “Wait, what’s this?” Through this development process, we were reminded once again just how important those moments are to the very structure of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. So even though I was the one who proposed adding warp points, they just weren't working for me in the end, so I got the team to take them all back out again.”

In the same session, Aonuma repeated that many young developers worked on the remake. In an earlier interview, he claimed some of them had never played the 1998 original, but he thinks that only helps the game. He also admitted he is nervous about the remake’s launch, since the original was his first major project at the company, and he hopes players will warmly welcome the enhanced version.

Meanwhile, some players got early access to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time before its official release, with early screenshots and gameplay videos leaked. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time launches on November 5, exclusively on Nintendo Switch 2.