Zelda: Ocarina Of Time Remake Officially Fixes The Original’s Biggest Problem

Published Oct 18, 2026, 7:30 AM EDT

Austin King is the Senior Editor of Gaming at ScreenRant and has been with the site since 2020 with a focus on RPGs and tabletop games. He previously managed content for Geek to Geek Media, and has served as a writer for sites like Nintendad, Geek Fitness, and more.

In addition to his work at ScreenRant, he also hosts the Dragon Quest FM podcast and is the author of several books, including co-writing Nimbus (a #1 bestseller in 2013). His latest is the nonfiction The Dragon Quest Book, available now.

He's written about pop culture, video games, and genre studies over the course of his career. You can find him on BlueSky, X, and at Dragonquestaustin.com

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This year's version of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time has been confirmed to be a pretty faithful retelling, but it won't be a 1:1 remake. Slowly but surely, Nintendo is sharing information regarding the changes in the Ocarina of Time remake, although it's likely fans won't know the full extent of those alterations until the game comes out in November. Thanks to recent previews, Zelda fans are getting a much closer look at what to expect, and it sounds like the original's biggest problem has thankfully (and finally) been fixed.

Earlier in the week, previews went live for the Ocarina of Time remake, including ScreenRant's own hands-on preview, which our writer called "familiar, yet refreshingly new." From exploring Kokiri Forest to Hyrule's Castle Town as a kid, to running through the Forest Temple as Adult Link, the preview offered up the kind of quality-of-life updates and graphical improvements that you'd expect from a remake of this caliber.

And because of those previews, we've gotten news that the overworld has interactive fairies, which Navi can speak with to provide Link with helpful hints and clues. Although it's not 100% confirmed since the game isn't out yet, it seems that this will be a way for Navi to have a more passive role when it comes to helping Link out. To put in bluntly — she won't be as annoying this time around.

As anyone who's played the 1998 original (or the remake on 3DS from 2011) knows, Navi will provide Link with an almost endless supply of hints and crying out with the infamous, "Hey, listen!" It's a running joke at this point. Navi might be one of the most obnoxious sidekicks in any video game ever, let alone the entire Legend of Zelda series. Reportedly, even Shigeru Miyamoto hates her.

While subsequent Zelda companions have definitely surpassed Navi in terms of irritation (Fi, anyone?), Navi the Fairy was the beginning of Zelda's need to make absolutely certain you knew exactly what to do and where to go - a defining trait of the 3D games for a while.

Ostensibly, the Navi problem has been fixed in the Ocarina of Time remake. This new system allows players to get hints if they need them, while also seemingly reducing the amount of talking points Navi is given. It seems like Nintendo is well aware of fans' love/hate relationship with Navi, so this allows the character to remain an integral part of the story while limiting just how much she's getting on your nerves.

Navi has been a sticking point with Zelda fans for almost three decades, so it's nice to see Nintendo seems to be making the character a bit more tolerable when the remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time launches on Switch 2 this fall. Whether this means other contentious aspects of the original — like the infamous Water Temple — are also altered remains to be seen.