Our latest look at The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Timeremake has come and gone, and Link has never looked more moist. The latest footage from Nintendo's upcoming nostalgia trip has set tongues wagging about the game's art style — is it adorable or creepy? Does the look evoke the cozy covers of Terry Pratchett books or a Thomas Kinkade mall kiosk? While no one seems to dispute that the new Ocarina's riff on familiar locations like The Great Deku Tree and Hyrule Castle Town looks terrific, the character models for child Link and Zelda have already proven to be a bit more divisive.
When Zelda first appeared in the latest footage of the Ocarina of Time remake, my initial reaction was confusion. Was that her in the familiar pink, blue, and white gown and wimple? Perhaps it was a homely handmaiden, also clad in the same outfit, and there's some sort of Queen Amidala dynamic at play here? (I have not played the original Nintendo 64 version of Ocarina, so the finer plot details are lost on me.) Then she appeared again, and I realized it was definitely her. Woof, I thought. Those devs did her dirty.
Zelda's look in the Ocarina of Time Remake is all off
For what it's worth, the character does look a lot better in this render posted by the official Japanese-language Zelda account on X.
I had to rewatch the trailer to figure out what stood out to me. Her features here are quite a bit sharper than they are in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, and the prominent shading on the bridge of her nose makes it stand out a lot more than in other games. I understand that it's intended to evoke the low-poly style of the original model, but she looks more gnome-like than elfin here, not quite herself. There's an oddness to both child Link and Zelda in the footage that my colleague Julia Lee summed up perfectly during the Sept. 8 broadcast: "Given that all the adults in this game look mostly fine, I think that they just don't know how to 3D model a child. Like a renaissance painter failing to paint a baby." If you've ever noticed how medieval paintings often render infants and young kids as very small adults, you'll see what I'm driving at here.
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Apparently, I'm in the minority in not loving the new design. Just minutes after the first of two Nintendo Directs this week concluded, plenty of fans were rapturously glazing the character design on social media.
As the proud owner of a big pointy nose myself, I'm always delighted to find them represented in my favorite games. Teeny-tiny button noses are all too common among maidens fair in video games. But I was a little surprised it took me so long to figure out who Zelda was in the latest footage. Nintendo's no stranger to taking artistic risks when it comes to this series, and by the time the Ocarina remake launches on Nov. 5, I'll probably have learned to love this new version of a beloved character.
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Image: Nintendo
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