It’s true that The Legend of Zelda has never been about its combat. More than anything else, it has been about making the adventure worth taking, even if the battles fought along the way are somewhat simplistic and straightforward. That doesn’t mean they’ve all been easy, mind you, as I can personally attest to having struggled with some of the fights in the original Ocarina of Time. I even got stuck on Phantom Ganon in the Forest Temple when I was a kid, and the only way I eventually got past him was by having a dream about how to beat him. Nevertheless, combat has never been the centerpiece in The Legend of Zelda, and that’s more than okay. Even so, the upcoming Ocarina of Time remake, with all its quality-of-life improvements, some of which positively impact its combat, I can’t help but feel like one area could use a good tune-up: its boss fights.
There really aren’t too many bosses in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time—there are 10 main bosses, and somewhere around 7–10 mini-bosses depending on what you include. However, they remain the pinnacle of the game’s dungeons (a staple of The Legend of Zelda and a highlight of Ocarina of Time itself), and ultimately, the main roadblocks in the way of the next major story beat. As such, defeating them is already rewarding in its own right. But at this point in my life, not only have I played and replayed Ocarina of Time more times than I can count, I’ve also grown as a gamer, and I know that as soon as Queen Gohma starts staring at me with her one, massive eye, muscle memory is going to kick in, and I’m going to have her down before she even has a chance to lay one of her legs on me. That is, unless the Ocarina of Time remake decides to beef up his boss fights—in which case, I would be thrilled.
Zelda: Ocarina of Time’s Bosses Were Always More Puzzle Than Fight
Here’s the deal—anyone who was there when the original Ocarina of Time launched on the Nintendo 64 probably knows its boss fights like the back of their hand at this point. For many of us at the time, it was the best game we had ever played, and that also meant we replayed it so many times that we were able to uncover all its secrets, including how to defeat certain bosses without even giving them a chance to fight back. They weren’t necessarily easy from the get-go, but looking back, I can tell you they certainly weren’t all that challenging either.
A lot of that comes down to traditional Legend of Zelda design. Essentially, once you’ve fought a few of its bosses, you get the general idea of how their mechanics work, and you can basically dominate from there. That’s largely because the bulk of them boil down to utilizing a major item you acquired during your dungeon run, so it’s almost always immediately apparent what you’re supposed to do.
Anyone who was there when the original Ocarina of Time launched on the Nintendo 64 probably knows its boss fights like the back of their hand at this point.
But that also means that any challenge they do pose mostly revolves around solving the “puzzle” of their mechanics, much like you did the standard puzzles throughout the dungeon on the way to the boss. One boss might require you to hit its eye with the new Fairy Slingshot you just obtained and then attack it with your sword once it’s stunned, while another might be immune to your attacks altogether, forcing you to redirect its own attacks against it. It’s certainly not the same type of difficulty that bosses in many other games are known for. By and large, The Legend of Zelda‘s bosses don’t have massive health pools or require Link to dodge 20 times before he can even get one attack in.
Zelda: Ocarina of Time Remake’s Bosses Need to Keep Up With Link’s New Combat
As a longtime Zelda fan, though, I’m starting to feel like I wouldn’t mind its bosses being just a tad more difficult, and that especially goes for Ocarina of Time‘s boss fights. However, I’m not necessarily asking for their skill sets to suddenly be comparable to something like Black Myth: Wukong‘s highly caffeinated boss fights or for their attacks to just hit harder. In reality, I’m just craving something a bit more complex. Keep the traditional puzzle-like design of those boss encounters, and maybe even retain the requirements for downing them. But a surprise here and there definitely wouldn’t hurt.
Guess the games from the emojis.
Guess the games from the emojis.
Easy (120s)Medium (90s)Hard (60s)
Thankfully, the Ocarina of Time remake’s new combat already seems like it could make room for some of that. Link is clearly more mobile than he was before, combat looks a lot smoother, I can move the camera around freely, and some of the other limitations that naturally came with playing the original on the Nintendo 64 are no longer there. So, if Link is getting all of these improvements that make fighting enemies easier and more comfortable, I would hope the bosses have been given a little extra attention too. Again, I don’t need these fights to suddenly become unrecognizable, but I wouldn’t mind having to relearn a few things.
And I know new players will still have to figure out how to defeat these bosses, and they may even struggle with them at first. After all, I remember reading some stuff online from people who played the Switch 2 Star Fox remake for the first time and were finding its bosses difficult. I, on the other hand, breezed through each one of them because they were almost identical to how I remember them. I think Ocarina of Time has more room for evolution than Star Fox 64 did, though, especially with how much stronger the combat looks like it’s going to feel. All of that said, I suppose that even if these fights are still pretty much the same, I’m still going to love revisiting one of the greatest games ever made on modern hardware.
- Released
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November 5, 2026
- ESRB
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Everyone 10+ / Animated Blood, Fantasy Violence
- Developer(s)
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Nintendo
- Publisher(s)
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Nintendo
