Ahead of a rumored Nintendo Direct this month, a Norwegian retailer has identified Xenoblade developer Monolith Soft as the developer of the upcoming The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake.
Even as someone who has never gelled with the Xenoblade series over the years, it’s hard to argue that Monolith Soft is one of, if not the best, studio acquisitions Nintendo ever made. While the Xenoblade games have been some of the most beloved RPGs of recent times, Monolith also assisted in the development of some of Nintendo’s biggest hits in recent years, including the Splatoon series, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Mario Kart World, and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, Breath of the Wild, and Tears of the Kingdom. This has led to chatter about the studio potentially leading a Zelda game of its own from Zelda series lead Daiki Iwamoto, and it looks like it could be coming to pass in the near future.
As spotted by a user on the Gamingleaksandrumors subreddit, Norwegian retailer Elkjop has posted a store page for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on Nintendo Switch 2, listing Monolith Soft as the developer. This comes alongside rumors that there will be a Nintendo Direct next week (or at the very least, speculation given that Nintendo typically always holds a Direct in mid-September), so perhaps this is information set to be revealed in a week’s time.
However, given how often we’ve seen Nintendo keep its cards close to its chest about exactly who is developing its games in recent years, I’m not sure a retailer would have that info right now. However, if members of the Zelda team are keen for Monolith Soft to lead a Zelda game of its own, working on a remake first could be a good way to get there.
Grezzo led development of remakes of Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, and Link’s Awakening, and then worked on Echoes of Wisdom, a new original 2D Zelda title. And given the traditional 3D Zelda games – like Ocarina of Time – are seemingly no more, perhaps Monolith could lead development on a new 3D title while Nintendo works on the next open-world Zelda game.