Monolith Soft May Be Behind Ocarina of Time Switch 2 Remake

Norwegian retailer Elkjøp just threw a Switch 2-shaped grenade into the Zelda rumor mill by naming Monolith Soft as the developer of the Ocarina of Time remake. If accurate, Nintendo isn’t outsourcing a nostalgia port; it’s putting one of its most technically accomplished studios behind a handheld Hyrule.

Retail listings leak, and Nintendo is famously cagey about developer credits. But Monolith Soft isn’t a name being pulled from a hat. The studio assisted on Skyward Sword, Breath of the Wild, and Tears of the Kingdom, and Zelda leads have reportedly wanted the Xenoblade creator to “play a central role” in the franchise moving forward. That exact logic turns a store page slip into a real talking point for anyone planning to play this one on the move.

Monolith Soft Has Already Co-Built Hyrule

This wouldn’t be Monolith Soft’s first trip through the Lost Woods. It lent development support to Skyward Sword and then became an essential part of the team behind Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, two games whose entire appeal depends on making huge, vertically layered spaces feel intuitive. That’s the exact competency a 1998 classic needs on Switch 2: not just sharper textures, but reconstructed spatial rhythm — every tunnel, ledge, and temple corridor rendered in a way that makes sense in both docked and handheld modes.

There’s overlap with Xenoblade Chronicles, too. Monolith Soft has spent years managing draw distances, enemy density, and traversal on a scale Nintendo’s other studios rarely attempt. Remaking Ocarina of Time doesn’t demand that same open-world scale, but it does ask for the discipline to stage linear progression around memorable landmarks. That’s where a support heavyweight earns its shot at center stage.

Grezzo’s Path Suggests a Remake Is an Audition

Nintendo has run this exact playbook before. Grezzo led remakes of Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, and Link’s Awakening and then exercised those muscles on an original adventure, Echoes of Wisdom. If Monolith Soft takes on Ocarina of Time now, it would follow a similar pipeline — except on the other side of the series’ identity. The open-air era has swallowed the old linear 3D template, but that doesn’t mean it can’t return. A Monolith-led remake could be a controlled environment to test whether the studio can pace dungeon hooks and story beats before it ever gets near a brand-new traditional 3D Zelda.

For Switch 2 owners, the takeaway is not to view this as a stopgap. Remakes, in Nintendo’s world, are often auditions. If the retail listing is right, the studio that defined modern scale in Zelda may be qualifying to bring back a version of Hyrule that fits in the palm of your hand — no 3DS required.

Don’t Trust the Listing — Watch the Direct Footage

A store page can be wrong, and until Nintendo says otherwise, “Monolith Soft” is a rumor, not a credit. But the timing is right for a confirmation: a Direct is reportedly imminent, and Ocarina of Time is already headed to Switch 2 this year. What we need from that Direct is specificity: frame rate targets, file size, and handheld mode screenshots — not just cinematic shots that could hide rough performance.

Treat a Monolith Soft reveal as a bullish signal, not a reason to pre-order blind. The studio has earned its reputation in spaces that are hard to fake, like consistent world geometry and long-haul play. If Nintendo pairs the remake with Switch 2’s suspend-and-resume features and a clean portable presentation, Ocarina of Time will finally get the mobile landmark treatment the series has deserved since the 3DS remake first shrunk the Temple of Time down to a tiny screen.