Ocarina of Time on Switch 2's biggest fix is ​​officially revealed

I've spent a lot of time thinking about what Nintendo could improve The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time with its remake on Switch 2, especially since this is a game that means so much to me personally. Better visuals are a given and something I'm really looking forward to witnessing, of course the water temple could always use another pass, and I wouldn't complain about some extra content either. But the more I think about actually replaying Ocarina of time on modern hardware today, the more obvious its biggest fix becomes.

Specifically, Nintendo needs to completely rethink how Ocarina of time manages Link's inventory. I know that might not sound as exciting as a rebuilt dungeon or some massive new area, but the original game constantly forced players to pause, rearrange items, and then repeat the entire process moments later. Ocarina of Time 3D already greatly improved the problem, but the Switch 2 version has a chance to make using Link's tools feel as natural as they should have all along.

Ocarina of Time's inventory never bothered me as a kid – but it's still bad

The funny thing is that I don't remember having a problem with Ocarina of times inventory when I played it as a kid. I would pause the game, move Link's Hookshot or lean on one of the N64 controller's C buttons, return to the action and never think twice about it. As far as I knew, that was simply how video games worked.

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Of course, I was also ignorant, and I mean that in the nicest way to my younger self. I didn't have modern radial menus, customizable shortcuts, or decades of quality-of-life improvements to compare it to. I was just happy that Link had a sword, a bow, some bombs, and an Ocarina that could somehow control the weather and move him through time.

Going back now would almost certainly be a different story. I've played enough modern action-adventure games to know how quickly these constant pauses would start to annoy me, especially when Link's collection starts to fill up. What felt completely normal in 1998 would probably feel like a headache after an hour today.

The Nintendo 64 controller was the real culprit

The original setup was limited by the Nintendo 64 controller, so I understand why Nintendo handled it the way it did. Link's sword was assigned to B, A handled whatever contextual action he needed at the time, and three C buttons were available for almost every useful item in the game. Three slots sounds reasonable until the inventory starts filling up with bombs, bottles, arrows, magic spells, Hookshot, Lens of Truth and anything else Link finds.

Link's Ocarina almost always occupied one of these buttons for me, as I'm sure it did for others as well. I used it so often that it felt pointless to remove it, basically leaving two spaces for every other tool Link carried. From there, the game became a constant exercise in determining which item I was least likely to need in the next few minutes.

Ocarina of times dungeons made the problem even more noticeable. One room might need the bow, the next might require bombs, and the one after that might involve Hookshot or Lens of Truth. I can already imagine pausing the game, moving everything around, solving a small part of a puzzle, and then opening the menu again almost immediately.

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The Iron Boots were easily the worst example, and arguably made infamous by Ocarina of times water temple. Because they were treated as equipment rather than a regular item, players had to pause, move to the equipment screen, put them on, return to the game, sink underwater, and then repeat the entire process when they wanted to float again. The Water Temple asks Link to change height so often that it practically became its real puzzle to put on and take off the boots.

Honestly, I never hated the water temple as much as everyone else seemed to. I remember getting lost, obviously, but I also had enough patience and free time then to wander around until I finally found whatever key or doorway I'd missed. But I'm much less convinced that as an adult, I would enjoy stopping to change boots every time I needed to move a few feet uphill.

Hover Boots had a similar problem, although they weren't used as often. Ocarina of times tunics and shields also resided on the equipment screen, meaning the items Link carried were separated from the tools he carried. It all made sense at the time, but a remake has no reason to keep the extra steps just because the original game required them.

Ocarina of Time 3D has already begun to address the issue

Then came Ocarina of Time 3Dwhich seems to understand how much smoother the game could feel with easier access to Link's inventory. The Nintendo 3DS touchscreen gave players extra room for items, allowed them to control the map without stopping, and made switching between tools much less annoying. It was one of those changes that sounded small until I realized how much time it saved.

More importantly, the 3DS version of Ocarina of time allow players to assign Iron Boots to a touchscreen button. Suddenly, sinking and floating in the water temple required a tap rather than a full trip through the equipment menu. With that fix, Nintendo didn't have to redesign the entire dungeon because changing the way an item worked already made it significantly better.

Ocarina of Time on Switch 2 could take these improvements even further

The Switch 2 remake obviously can't replicate that setting exactly. There's no second touchscreen below the TV, and Nintendo needs an inventory system that works whether someone's playing handheld or with a standard controller. Thankfully, modern games have already solved this problem in a hundred different ways.

The D-pad on the Nintendo Switch 2 Joy-Cons seems like the easiest place to start. Nintendo could let players assign four items there, keep another two or three on the face buttons, and instantly give Link more options than the Nintendo 64 controller ever could. Ocarina might even have its own permanent shortcut, because I don't think anyone needs to prove their commitment to the title by sacrificing an item slot for it.

A radial menu would solve almost everything else. Holding a shoulder button can bring up Link's entire collection, allowing players to select an item without completely exiting the game. It would still require a conscious choice, but it wouldn't cancel every puzzle in it Ocarina of time redo with a full pause screen.

Nintendo could also let players save a couple of simple item layouts. One could be built around exploration with bombs, Hookshot and bow ready to go, while another could focus on bottles, magic and combat items. Of course I don't ask for Ocarina of time to become a huge RPG with a dozen complicated loadouts, but two or three presets would save a lot of unnecessary mixing.

Boots and tunics should probably still be manual choices, as deciding when to use them is part of several puzzles. Even so, there's no reason they need to be buried on a completely different screen. Put the iron boots, hover boots, and tunics in the same context menu as everything else, and let players switch between them without losing their place.

Finally, the actual inventory screen may still resemble the original as seeing empty spaces slowly fill in is part of the appeal. Nintendo is able to keep the familiar icons, bottles, quest items, gear, and songs without keeping every awkward button press that surrounds them. A remake of Ocarina of time should remind me of the game I loved as a kid, not force me to learn about every inconvenience I was too young to notice.

I still don't remember Ocarina of timeThe inventory bothered me at the time, but that doesn't mean it was ever very good. If anything, it just means I had more patience, fewer expectations, and absolutely no idea how much simpler games would end up doing this. Nintendo already proven with Ocarina of Time 3D that the adventure is better when Link can reach his tools faster, so if the Switch 2 remake still makes me pause every time I need to put on a pair of boots, something has gone very wrong. But that's why a fix like this is pretty much confirmed, because Nintendo would have to be crazy not to implement it.

System

Released

2026

Developer

Nintendo

Publisher

Nintendo

Number of players

Single player