Ocarina of Time remake dev cancels Unreal Engine-based project

A fan-made remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time that has been in development for a decade is ending. The decision comes after the announcement from Nintendo that an official remake of the beloved Nintendo 64 title is coming to Switch 2 later this year.

Developer CryZENx announced the project would no longer be going forward in a Patreon post earlier this month (as spotted by IGN). “I would like to tell you that [the] Ocarina of Time Project is officially stopped,” the developer writes. CryZENx has been working on an Unreal Engine remake of Ocarina of Time since 2016, with updates on the project being posted on YouTube.

Prior to the announcement of its cancellation, development seemed slow but steady. Just this May, CryZENx made a new playable demo accessible to the public.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is largely considered to be one of the best entries in the series. Since its release for the Nintendo 64 in 1998, fans have continued to measure each new entry against its greatness. That has also meant the appetite for a remake has been present almost as long as the game itself. Fans got something close in 2011 when Nintendo released The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D for the Nintendo 3DS. This version brought the game to modern hardware with updated graphics and some quality of life changes. It did not, however, serve as a ground-up remake of the game for home consoles. The continued absence of a modern remake of Ocarina of Time helped CryZENx’s project gain attention from fans. It looked exactly like what people had been asking Nintendo for.

With the official announcement that Nintendo is releasing an Ocarina of Time remake later this year for Switch 2, CryZENx believes the project no longer has a purpose. In response to one commenter, CryZENx writes, “I’m actually very confident that their remake looks 200% better than mine, I’m very impressed for their realistic artstyle I think we the community won!!!”

Though the developer jokes about Nintendo’s reputation for being litigious in response to another commenter, saying, “it’s better to just stop the project for now or I would [have] been [disappeared] because of Nintendo ninjas.” The decade-long Ocarina of Time project is not a loss for CryZENx and fans, though, as it’s end signals the arrival of a modern remake. Just not the one people expected.

As for what CryZENx has planned next, the developer is leaving that up to fans. The post announcing the Ocarina of Time project’s end also includes a poll on what game CryZENx should attempt to remake next. The list includes other Zelda titles such as Twilight Princess and The Minish Cap. CryZENx notes a Majora’s Mask project is unlikely as the developer believes the title is the most likely to get an official remake from Nintendo following Ocarina of Time. We could be so lucky.

Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake does not have a release date yet.