One of the most important moments in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time has been changed in the remake with considerable censorship. The move may come as a surprise to those who played either the original Nintendo 64 version of Ocarina of Time or the 3DS remaster.
WARNING: Major endgame spoilers for Ocarina of Time follow.
Nintendo appears to have largely done a classic justice with the Ocarina of Time remake. Critic reviews and fan reviews have both been quite positive, with most of the complaints being about fairly minor details. However, seeing one of the final moments of the game censored this way may not sit well with all Ocarina of Time fans.
Zelda: Ocarina of Time Remake Censors Ganondorf Battle
Players who have reached the end of the Ocarina of Time remake have discovered that the cutscene following the penultimate fight against Ganondorf has seen a significant change that censors the moment. In the original version, after Link has successfully defeated Ganondorf, he struggles to catch his breath and wonders aloud how he could have been defeated by a child, before coughing up blood. However, in the remake, Ganondorf falls to one knee and says essentially the same thing in a fully voiced cutscene, but doesn’t cough at all. Aside from changing the scene, it arguably takes away a touch of its impact, as the moment where Ganondorf reels in shock after his cough indicates how badly injured he is completely gone. Later, in the final blow against Ganon, the multiple slashes Link delivered in the classic version have also been removed, as well as the blood they drew.
Drag weapons to fill the grid
While Nintendo hasn’t offered an explanation for the change, it’s highly likely that the choice was made to censor this brief moment by removing it. However, the surprising thing is that it goes a step further than what Nintendo had already done to censor the scene. All the Nintendo 64 versions had Ganondorf cough up blood, but later releases of the cartridge saw the scene changed slightly so that the blood was green, presumably to make it less gory, or to even imply that it was vomit instead of blood. The 2011 release of Ocarina of Time 3D on the Nintendo 3DS kept this change. It’s not clear why Nintendo felt the need to censor it further with the release of the remake.
This change to Ocarina of Time may surprise some fans, but it’s far from the first instance of a game being censored on Nintendo systems. Dispatch saw controversy earlier in 2026 when the players discovered the Nintendo Switch version was censored. While a censorship option was available on the PC version, players had a choice to turn it on or off, but no such option was present on the Switch version. A later update restored some of the original content, but not all of it.
Recent censorship on Switch hasn’t been limited to third-party games. There have been several instances over the years where Nintendo has altered games, like removing a gesture that could be considered obscene in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, or the Nintendo-published Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore censoring revealing outfits and dialogue in the western release, which was then carried over to the Switch port in Japan. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate also saw changes to existing character designs and removed blood that was originally present with characters like Bayonetta or Persona 5‘s Joker. Given this new alteration to Ocarina of Time, it’s likely that Nintendo will continue in this direction for the foreseeable future.
- 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
