Ocarina of Time Remake and the Zelda Notes Controversy
During Tuesday’s Legend of Zelda 40th Anniversary Direct, Nintendo finally revealed its Ocarina of Time remake. While many fans are excited, others are uneasy about its realistic art style, lack of changes, and the very idea of another remake.
What I haven’t seen enough people complaining about is the real tragedy: the remake’s incorporation of Zelda Notes. Zelda Notes was added to the Nintendo Switch App in 2025 to accompany the Switch 2 editions of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. The app lets you use your phone as a Hyrule map, offers voice‑acted logs, gameplay stats, and the ability to share items with friends. Until now it felt like an unnecessary afterthought that didn’t affect gameplay.
With Ocarina of Time, Nintendo is going all‑in on Zelda Notes. The OoT edition will include a virtual ocarina, a trivia minigame, and a stats page — mostly negligible gimmicks. The bigger issue is the new Gossip Quest, a GeoGuessr‑style series of quests that task players with locating spots based on images to earn ocarina sheet music. Those location hints are only available through the Zelda Notes app, meaning you’ll need to keep your phone out while wandering Hyrule to claim rewards.
As a longtime fan of the fan‑made HyruleGuessr, I’d love to play the official version of GeoGuessr in Ocarina of Time, but I don’t want to pull out my phone to do it, and I’m sure many other fans feel the same.
In 2026 most people don’t want to be on their phones, and the cultural mood is shifting toward ditching screens for hobbies. YouTube videos titled “
