Nintendo published the latest Ask the Developer interview series with this run focusing on the remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. There are plenty of tidbits, but my favorite some of the reasoning behind remaking the game. Here is series producer Eiji Aonuma:

"Many of the team members who work alongside me on Legend of Zelda games today have only experienced developing the more recent titles. That led me to wonder, 'Do they truly understand just how significant The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was to the series as a whole?' Of course, there are team members who vaguely know the game, and those who played it in their childhood days. But I started to wonder how they'd interpret The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time as they go about developing future Legend of Zelda games. By learning the game structure and development style behind the original The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and by actually rebuilding it as a full remake, it may trigger new insights that they can carry forward into future development. If we could achieve that, I thought it would be incredibly valuable. That’s what led us to the conclusion that now is the right time to revisit The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time once again."

I hadn't considered the developers at Nintendo not working on or never playing Ocarina of Time. Since we always see the veterans in the Nintendo Direct presentations, I forget that young bucks are hired and building the games under the supervision of the original team.

Volume 2 of the interview features the dev team leadership and only the director of them played the game in their youth. All four of them began working on the Zelda series within the last decade with Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom. Here is the art director Aya Shida:

"I played the Nintendo 64 version for the first time after joining this project, and I was amazed that a game this polished had been created 28 years ago."

When it comes to traditional Zelda game design, these developers have...none. All they have worked on are "open air" designed titles. Which, to be clear, are some of the best in the series. This is not a slight at the team, but a revelation to me. Here is the game director HokWai Ng:

"I was really surprised to be given the opportunity. At the same time, though, I was incredibly excited. I played the original Nintendo 64 version of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time when I was in high school, and I was blown away by it. I thought to myself, 'This is unlike any game the world has ever seen before.' As Aonuma-san said, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time occupies an especially important place in the Legend of Zelda series. But I think many players experienced the series for the first time with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. With that in mind, I wanted to offer players across generations a fresh opportunity to experience the appeal of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time."

I wrote about how the remake is primed for a new audience after Nintendo revealed the gameplay and graphics of the remake after a lackluster reveal in the summer.

"Not everything is for you or me—that includes every entry in one of the most beloved gaming series ever conceived. They can be! Or they can be for the kid who first played the remake on 3DS. Or the kid going to the movie theater with his parents, who played the game series when they were a kids. Or the kid that opens a new Nintendo console on Christmas morning."

I failed to include the players that started with the open world games on the Switch and have "never" had a proper 3D Zelda title to sink their teeth into. Back to Aonuma:

"We wanted players who had grown accustomed to Legend of Zelda games like Breath of the Wild, where they can freely choose their own path from the start, to experience that kind of gameplay as well."

I would love to read reviews from folks playing Ocarina of Time from this perspective.

Even though the developers behind the game may not have the warm fuzzy nostalgia for the classic, they clearly revere the highest rated game of all time.

"At the beginning of development, I remember thinking, “They could be making more changes.” But as the project went on, it really came across just how deeply this development team cared about the original game, far more than we had imagined."

I am amped for Thursday and can't wait to get my hands on this interpretation.