The Water Temple has had plenty of time to make enemies. Now the person who designed it has had the rather satisfying experience of hearing that players might have an easier time getting through it.
In a new interview with The Verge, Eiji Aonuma was told that Ocarina of Time’s Switch 2 remake made the dungeon feel easier. His reaction was relief: “As soon as you said that I thought, ‘We did it.’”
The interviewer, Andrew Webster, points to the freer camera and less awkward item use as changes that make navigating the dungeon less arduous. Fellow producer Hidemaro Fujibayashi remembers finding the original version difficult, too.
Nintendo’s 3 November developer interview had already outlined those changes. Aonuma described revisiting the dungeon he designed 28 years ago as overdue homework.
The original ambition was more inviting than its reputation suggests. Aonuma enjoys freediving and wanted players to experience the strange pleasure of being underwater: the different sounds, the sensation of entering another space, and the novelty of exploring it in 3D.
Then the practicalities got in the way. Its complicated layout and constant trips into the menu to swap items made it easy to forget where you were, or which way you were facing.
The remake tackles both problems. Item toggling is easier, while some walls have been replaced with lattice-style structures so players can see into neighbouring rooms. That gives them a better view of how the spaces fit together, rather than asking them to keep the entire dungeon in their heads.
The team says it largely retained the original dungeon mechanisms, with changes to object placement helping players work out where to go.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is out now on Switch 2. The aim was to make its dungeon easier to read. Aonuma sounds pleased.
