Nintendo has confirmed that its internal EPD Production Group No. 3, the studio behind The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, developed the upcoming remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the Nintendo Switch 2. The disclosure came through the initial chapters of an “Ask the Developer” interview released ahead of the game’s launch.
The project marks the directorial debut of HokWai Ng, who previously contributed to game design on Tears of the Kingdom after joining the company in 2006. Longtime franchise lead Eiji Aonuma serves as producer alongside Hidemaro Fujibayashi, who directed both Breath of the Wild and its sequel. Aya Shida oversaw art direction following work on Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Pikmin 3, while Hiroki Taguchi served as program director and Masato Ohashi headed music production.
According to Aonuma, the decision to handle the remake in-house was driven by a desire to train internal talent alongside celebrating the franchise’s 40th anniversary. Because many current staff members had worked solely on open-air entries, rebuilding the 1998 Nintendo 64 title from scratch offered them direct experience with its tightly structured design philosophy to influence upcoming projects. Despite receiving permission to modernize core mechanics, the team ultimately preserved most of the original pacing and progression.
The announcement puts an end to speculation that external partners had taken the reins. Prior retailer listings had pointed toward Xenoblade Chronicles developer Monolith Soft, while other observers had anticipated an assignment for Grezzo, the studio responsible for the 2011 Nintendo 3DS version of Ocarina of Time and the recent Echoes of Wisdom.
Source: Notebookcheck
