Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Remake Comparison Footage is Astounding

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time’s remake project has to be seen to be believed, and this comparison footage will allow you to do just that.

If you’re unfamiliar with the project, digital artist and developer CryZENx has been making Legend of Zelda projects in Unreal Engine 4 (and later UE5) for the past few years, with their Ocarina of Time remake being one of the most interesting ones we’ve seen to date.

The project, titled very simply as Zelda: Ocarina of Time Unreal Engine 5, aims to recreate the entirety of the original Nintendo 64 game in a modern game engine. While it’s not completely playable yet, there are whole sections that are available to play.

In case you wanted to see just how much progress the mod has made, this comparison video by YouTuber ElAnalistaDeBits from 2023 should do a good job of demonstrating that.

The video showcases some areas from the original The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time side-by-side with the remake by CryZENx. It shows all the changes made to ensure it looks like a modern game.

This includes new textures, models, and props populating the world and various levels, along with new effects for water, lighting and shadows which are only possible using a modern game engine.

Now, I wouldn’t go so far as to say this is an “improvement” to the original game. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is a masterpiece, and one that still looks gorgeous for its time even nearly 30 years later.

It’s not like this project intends to replace or fix the original. It’s more of a fun experiment to see how an older game like that looks and runs on a modern engine.

Judging from the video comparison, it definitely looks like how I remember Ocarina of Time looking when I was a kid. It’s funny how memory works. But it also goes to show just how timeless the original game is.

Looking at some of the original textures and models, it’s very clear that this is a game from 1998.

And yet, they’re also filled with so much character and personality, and it seems that the modern Unreal Engine 5 remake does nothing more than pay homage to that.

CryZENx has a few playable sections of the Ocarina of Time Unreal Engine 5 remake available for you to check out on their Patreon page.