It is honestly extremely difficult for me to claim that any of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time‘s NPCs are the “worst,” simply because they are a large part of what makes the game’s narrative and worldbuilding so memorable in the first place. This is especially true of the characters who turn out to be Sages, as that alone gives their arcs an emotional edge that the game’s standard NPCs just don’t have. But by and large, I actually enjoyed the encounters I had with the original game’s characters, and I never minded listening to them. One character, though, whom I would actually feel more comfortable calling Ocarina of Time‘s worst NPC, is one that I just couldn’t stand.
Now, some might argue that Navi is actually Ocarina of Time‘s worst NPC, but I’m not so sure I’d agree with that. Navi genuinely serves a greater purpose of helping players navigate Hyrule, even if her mechanics make her rather intrusive and maybe a bit bossy at times, but that doesn’t automatically qualify her as the game’s worst character. To me, in order to be rightly called Ocarina of Time‘s worst character, you’d need to not only be mechanically irritating, but also nearly useless—and one character fits that bill even more than Navi. Fortunately, it looks like the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake is actually redeeming him, not only bringing him to life with a voice, but potentially even removing one of the biggest headaches that came with encountering him in the original Nintendo 64 game.
Zelda: Ocarina of Time Remake Is Redeeming Kaepora Gaebora
The character I’m referring to is none other than the wise, old, interrupting owl, Kaepora Gaebora. Firstly, the reason I’m okay calling him Ocarina of Time‘s worst NPC is because he is, in fact, useless. Never mind who he might actually be—most believe he is actually Rauru, the ancient Sage of Light—if Navi is meant to be Link’s guide and adviser, then Kaepora Gaebora is effectively pointless. In the original game, he would show up occasionally to give Link a tip or fill in a bit of the game’s lore, but much of what he said was so useless that most of us would just skip his dialogue entirely. Call Navi interruptive if you want, but Kaepora Gaebora was far more so. It’s one thing to interrupt with genuinely helpful information and another thing to interrupt with information that can be skipped without consequence.
Put the consoles in the correct order.
Well, I say “without consequence,” but that’s precisely what my second point is about why he is actually Ocarina of Time‘s worst character. In the N64 classic, if you wanted to skip Kaepora Gaebora’s dialogue, you absolutely could, and quickly. However, if you weren’t careful, you would find yourself in an endless dialogue loop with him that would leave you wanting to throw your controller at your TV. This was because Kaepora Gaebora would ask Link whether he “got all that” at the end of said dialogue, but because the default option was “No,” if you were mashing the button too quickly to fast-forward the dialogue, then you would accidentally select “No,” and he would repeat what he just said all over again.
The reason I’m okay calling him Ocarina of Time‘s worst NPC is because he is, in fact, useless.
Of course, those of us who spent enough time with his apparent desire to aggravate us to no end grew familiar with his antics and were prepared for it after a few playthroughs, so we could avoid it. Nevertheless, our ability to avoid being trapped in an endless conversation with him never disqualified him from being the absolute worst. Well, now, the Ocarina of Time remake looks to be redeeming Kaepora Gaebora, and in more than one way. While I would personally love for the Switch 2 remake to confirm outright—and I do mean outright because it definitely hints at the idea—whether he is the Sage of Light, I’m happy that the game has at least found a way to make him a less pointless, less frustrating character.
The most obvious of these improvements is due to the Ocarina of Time remake’s voice acting. By giving Kaepora Gaebora a voice, there’s a better chance he’ll be someone we can genuinely bond with, as he’ll feel less like a glorified tutorial machine and more like an actual character. But the other thing worth considering is that what has been shown so far of these moments is that they seem to play out more like cutscenes than a simple dialogue exchange, and if that’s the case, then one can assume there won’t be an option at the end for players to hear it all again. And finally, early hands-on previews of the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake have confirmed that, at the very least, the first conversation with Kaepora Gaebora is much shorter than it was in the original game.
Zelda: Ocarina of Time Remake Is Giving Kaepora Gaebora a Much-Needed Second Chance
All of these changes might seem fairly insignificant compared to some of the bigger improvements coming to the Ocarina of Time remake, but I think they could make a considerable difference in how players feel about Kaepora Gaebora. After all, the problem with him in the original game wasn’t necessarily who he was as a character, but how the game handled our encounters with him. By making his conversations shorter, giving him a voice, and potentially removing the possibility of accidentally repeating his dialogue, the remake is addressing the very things that made him so frustrating to begin with.
Of course, I’ll need to play the remake for myself before I can say for certain just how much better Kaepora Gaebora is this time around, especially since we haven’t seen every encounter with him yet. Nevertheless, I think what we’ve seen so far is promising, and I’m glad Nintendo seems to have recognized that this was one part of the original game that could use some improvement. I still don’t think Kaepora Gaebora will ever be as useful as Navi, but if the remake can make his appearances less intrusive and his dialogue more enjoyable, then that’s already a significant improvement over the owl I remember from the Nintendo 64 version.
- 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
