Miyamoto said – In a 1999 interview, Shigeru Miyamoto described why he pushed Ocarina of Time toward fewer, different-style dungeons—arguing that classic linear mazes demanded too much time and didn’t feel “really that much fun” for players. The remake’s promise of revisiting
When Nintendo is preparing an Ocarina of Time remake, it makes sense to ask what made the original so magnetic in the first place. For many players, it was the dungeons—those unforgettable spaces with themes, atmosphere, and puzzles that stayed in memory long after the console powered down.
But the shape of that dungeon-heavy classic formula wasn’t guaranteed. During the production of Ocarina of Time, Shigeru Miyamoto reached a conclusion that still echoes through the series. In a 1999 interview. translated some years later by Shmuplations. he said that in every Zelda development. “the dungeons take a huge amount of time to make.” He described how often teams end up having to “be remade and revised. ” with the team “on the verge of tears.”.
Miyamoto pointed to the early days of the series, saying that “in the original Legend of Zelda, at the beginning of the development it was just dungeons,” with “no overworld map,” calling that a testament to a “Dungeon Supremacy” philosophy Nintendo had followed.
That approach shifted as the series evolved. Miyamoto said that with the games immediately following Ocarina of Time—Majora’s Mask and The Wind Waker—the structure would feature “fewer dungeons. ” with “a much bigger focus on overworld exploration.” He also described Twilight Princess as serving as a return to that “dungeon supremacy” era “in some respects. ” before acknowledging that modern entries had “very much broken from that structure.”.
Ocarina of Time, he said, marked a break of its own. “With Ocarina of Time, for the first time we didn’t spend as much time on the dungeons,” Miyamoto explained, describing the decision as a “very ‘un-Zelda’ thing to do.”
A key reason, he said, was that the developers had “something of a fresh canvas,” no longer iterating on ideas from A Link to the Past. Miyamoto added that “to the extent that we weren’t constrained by earlier notions, it went fairly quickly.”
Then came the line that frames the whole argument: Miyamoto asked whether “those mazes. where everything is always linked in a linear fashion” are “actually still interesting to players.” He followed it with a direct question about the experience itself—“Is it still fun to spend all that time plotting your way through them?”—and offered the conclusion his team reached: “And the conclusion we came to is no. it’s not really that much fun.”.
Instead, he argued that the more important direction was emotion, pressure, and discovery. “Instead of mapping your way through a maze. ” he said. “I think what’s more important is a sense of dread. a sense of pressure. ” along with “an opportunity for finding secrets and solving puzzles.” The goal. in his words. was “emotional immediacy. ” “the sense that you are really there.”.
Even in that tougher stance, Miyamoto allowed for exceptions. He said, “There are still traditional mazes, like Gerudo’s Fortress and the Forest Temple,” but added, “overall I don’t think those are very appropriate to a 3D game.”
The pressure of that viewpoint lands harder when placed next to where the series went afterwards. Breath of the Wild effectively did away with the old-school Zelda dungeon approach. and Tears of the Kingdom brought the idea back. but without the traditional puzzle-box design of the classic games. In other words. the remake’s promise—exploring the challenges of classic dungeons with modern graphics and visual flair—arrives in the shadow of Miyamoto’s earlier doubt about whether linear dungeon “mazes” were worth the time.
There’s a specific tension in those facts: Miyamoto described the time and pain of building dungeons in Zelda as a cycle that can force remakes and revisions. while also insisting that the kind of “linear” maze design he helped move away from wasn’t delivering the kind of fun he believed players should feel. And yet. the dungeons he named—Gerudo’s Fortress and the Forest Temple—are exactly the kinds of spaces that helped define Ocarina’s enduring reputation.
For players like the one imagining the remake’s appeal, the memory isn’t abstract. Ocarina of Time’s dungeons are described as the most memorable in the series. with Gerudo’s Fortress and the Forest Temple standing out as locations people want to see again. The excitement. in that mindset. isn’t just nostalgia—it’s the chance to look at old-school dungeon design from a new perspective. with the “modern bells and whistles” the remake is set to bring.
At the heart of the current conversation is a clash of instincts that started early: Miyamoto’s insistence that classic linear dungeon mazes weren’t “really that much fun. ” and the lasting pull of the same dungeon legacy for players who still want those designs back. The remake doesn’t erase that debate—it reopens it. with each dungeon and each puzzle inviting players to decide which side of that argument they believe in.
Shigeru Miyamoto Ocarina of Time remake The Legend of Zelda dungeons dungeon supremacy Gerudo's Fortress Forest Temple Breath of the Wild Tears of the Kingdom Majora's Mask The Wind Waker Twilight Princess