Nintendo Dials Back ReDead Horror in Ocarina of Time Remake

Nintendo scaled back the horror of the ReDead enemies in The Legend: Ocarina of Time Remake because updated graphics and sound made the zombie-like creatures far too terrifying during early development.

Released on November 5, 2026, exclusively for the Nintendo Switch 2, the remake brings the classic Nintendo 64 adventure back. The developer team initially pushed the design, sound, and movement of the ReDeads to a frightening extreme.

Producer Hidemaro Fujibayashi said in an interview with GameSpot, as reported by Nintendo Life, that the staff originally wanted to build on the original game’s atmosphere.

With this remake, the graphics are a lot improved, and so the ReDead–the sound, the graphics, and the movement–ended up being very, very scary. And the staff wanted to make this in service of making a good gameplay experience. But from our perspective, taking a step back, we felt like, let’s remember the experience that we don’t want to change, and taking that into consideration, maybe we’ve gone a step too far, so let’s dial it back.

Hidemaro Fujibayashi, Producer

The team reined in the enemy design. Nintendo Everything reported that the creatures remain unsettling for people exploring the updated world.

In the original 1998 release, the low-fidelity sound processor and blocky polygon models left plenty of room for imagination when people encountered them in dark dungeons.

Fans encountering the updated ReDeads on social media have shared humorous reactions. IGN said that both Western and Japanese players displayed a common avoidance mindset upon meeting the creatures in active gameplay.

The title has proven to be a commercial success for Nintendo, selling over five million copies in just four days.

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