Ocarina of Time Remake: Some Staff Never Played the Original — Producer Aonuma ‘Sees It as a Positive’

From our other sites

The story

Regarding the remake of “The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time,” director Aonuma revealed that some members of the development team had never played the original game even once — and said he sees that in a positive light. Since the original was released in 1998, making it a 28-year-old game, many commenters felt it was only natural for younger staff not to have played it. At the same time, 5ch users were divided over whether it’s acceptable for staff to be unfamiliar with the original, and over how the term “eapu” (slang for pretending to have played something) should properly be used.

Aonuma himself revealed that several members of the development team had never played the original game even once, and said he views this positively.

Source: jp.ign.com / Original article here

What people said

6AnonymousNov 2, 2026 18:50
The ones giving direction clearly understand it well enough, right?
So of course they're building it according to that direction.
7AnonymousNov 2, 2026 18:51
Well, if it's young staff, of course most of them haven't played it.
8AnonymousNov 2, 2026 18:51
That's fine though —
you need people asking 'wait, is this even necessary?'
9AnonymousNov 2, 2026 18:51
Huh?
The point is that people who haven't played it can give fresh impressions, that's the good part of it.

Also, they said they haven't played it, not that they faked it — so this isn't 'eapu' at all.
'Eapu' means claiming you've played something when you actually haven't.
39AnonymousNov 2, 2026 19:11
Re: #9
Well, the line between those two is pretty blurry anyway.
10AnonymousNov 2, 2026 18:51
Bragging on My Nintendo points is the only way these guys can one-up anybody, which is exactly the kind of mindset you'd expect from an unemployed guy living alone.
11AnonymousNov 2, 2026 18:53
They made sure to keep the loading times, though.
15AnonymousNov 2, 2026 18:54
Re: #11
There they go nitpicking again.
Same routine every time — don't they get bored of it?
83AnonymousNov 2, 2026 20:22
Re: #15
Is it really nitpicking though?
12AnonymousNov 2, 2026 18:53
Didn't Nintendo say they don't hire people who did nothing but play games all day?
13AnonymousNov 2, 2026 18:54
No, he said "had" — that's past tense.
Of course it's not strange for some people not to have played it yet back when the project was starting up and the team was being assembled.
Obviously they'd have had them play the original at least once after that.
This is exactly what you call nitpicking over semantics.
40AnonymousNov 2, 2026 19:12
Re: #13
>Obviously they'd have had them play the original at least once after that.

Got any proof of that?
16AnonymousNov 2, 2026 18:55
What's with 'nitpicking'?
Are you making fun of the developers?
32AnonymousNov 2, 2026 19:07
Re: #16
You're the one making fun of them.
17AnonymousNov 2, 2026 18:55
That's different from some other company.
This is a guy who, even when staff said 'this doesn't feel like [the series],' pushed it through anyway with 'just see it through and you'll get it, right?' — and that got turned into a feel-good story.
41AnonymousNov 2, 2026 19:12
Re: #17
Let's show them the power of Lugia. (an unrelated meme reply, seemingly off-topic)
18AnonymousNov 2, 2026 18:55
So that's why this happened…

Turns out it's an incomplete remake — you can no longer climb the drawbridge chain in Hyrule Castle Town.
https://krsw.5ch.io/test/read.cgi/ghard/1793597339/
19AnonymousNov 2, 2026 18:56
Yeah, 'eapu' is an insult for people who fake having played something, so this definitely isn't that lol
20AnonymousNov 2, 2026 18:57
Isn't it only people in the retail/distribution business who can't tell the difference between 'never played' and 'faked having played'?
22AnonymousNov 2, 2026 18:59
Fanboys ('pigs,' 5ch slang for diehard Nintendo defenders) are always upbeat when defending Nintendo but always running away, negative about their own lives — guess that's how they ended up as pigs.
24AnonymousNov 2, 2026 19:03
So they went out of their way to only change the graphics, huh.
Lame.
25AnonymousNov 2, 2026 19:03
Is this even a remake?
Isn't it just a retexture job?
26AnonymousNov 2, 2026 19:03
It's right there on Nintendo Classics — why not just play it?
31AnonymousNov 2, 2026 19:06
What's 'sad news' about this? It came out 28 years ago, so of course people who never played it would be involved now…
If anything, it'd be scarier if a ton of new hires had played through every single nearly-30-year-old game.
38AnonymousNov 2, 2026 19:11
Re: #32
Hm?
I just posted the esteemed developer's gracious words, that's all.
58AnonymousNov 2, 2026 19:38
Re: #38
You're not the developer though.
55AnonymousNov 2, 2026 19:34
Surely they'd at least play the original before working on the remake, right?
57AnonymousNov 2, 2026 19:37
Re: #55
Game development is their job, so sure, they might skip games that aren't to their taste — but I think the point is that even so, there are way too many of them in this case.
60AnonymousNov 2, 2026 19:41
That's like writing a live-action movie script without reading the source material, right??
Yikes, they really did it.
62AnonymousNov 2, 2026 19:47
Re: #60
You think the whole game is being made only by people who haven't played it?
61AnonymousNov 2, 2026 19:41
Re: #14
Isn't this about whether they've played it or not, not about the development process itself?
63AnonymousNov 2, 2026 19:49
Re: #61
It's been 20 years since the Wii version, so plenty of younger folks never played it.
That's just common sense, isn't it?
65AnonymousNov 2, 2026 19:54
Re: #62
I'd get it if it were a new entry in the series, sure.
But does a remake really need staff who haven't played the original?
66AnonymousNov 2, 2026 19:56
Re: #65
Once they're assigned to the department they'd play it…
Why are you this dense lol
70AnonymousNov 2, 2026 20:01
Re: #66
So do you welcome them not having played it, or do you just pretend they did?
Go hold a meeting with your fellow fanboys and get your story straight lol
76AnonymousNov 2, 2026 20:08
Re: #70
How can you be this bad at reading Japanese lol

Background and Key Points of This Discussion

Ocarina of Time was released for the Nintendo 64 in 1998, and the reason some of the current development staff hadn’t played it traces back to the 28 years that have passed since then. The thread split over whether to read Aonuma’s comment as “a plus, since it brings fresh perspectives” or as “grounds to doubt the remake’s quality.” A number of comments also conflated the slang term “eapu” — which really means “pretending to have played something” — with simply “never having played it.” It’s also worth noting that some reactions used the remark as ammunition in unrelated console-rivalry arguments that had nothing to do with the actual development process.

※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hardware/Industry “Gehan”) thread “[Sad News] Ocarina of Time Remake: Staff Turn Out to Be ‘Eapu’ Who Never Even Played the Original Once“

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *