Producer Hidemaro Fujibayashi explained why the development team behind the Ocarina of Time Remake toned down the ReDeads to make them less scary.
If you grew up playing the original Ocarina of Time on the Nintendo 64, you were probably traumatized by some of the game’s famously frightening enemies like the Gibdos, ReDeads, and Dead Hands. These last two were particularly terrifying for young players at the time — partially because we were still kids, and partially due to the N64’s graphical limitations that forced our minds to fill in the visual gaps in the monsters’ designs.
These enemies were a particular talking point when the Remake was first announced. Some players were doubtful that this new game could truly capture the terror of the original monsters, since a) it’s a game that’s also supposed to appeal to children and b) the updated graphics of modern Nintendo consoles don’t necessarily allow for the ‘fear of the unknown’ phenomena afforded to low-fidelity titles like 1999’s Silent Hill. (There’s an entire genre of indie horror games that pursue this aesthetic for a reason, after all.)
Speaking with Gamespot, producer Hidemaro Fujibayashi explained that the Remake’s updated graphics actually made the ReDeads extremely scary at first. And while the development team was supposedly enthusiastic about this aspect of the project, he and fellow producer Eiji Aonuma felt that this detail wasn’t necessarily true to the original experience of the first game.
“With this remake, the graphics are a lot improved, and so the ReDead – the sound, the graphics, and the movement – ended up being very, very scary,” Fujibayashi said. “And the staff wanted to make this in service of making a good gameplay experience. But from our perspective, taking a step back, we felt like, ‘Let’s remember the experience that we don’t want to change, and taking that into consideration, maybe we’ve gone a step too far, so let’s dial it back.’”
That being said, plenty of players feel that the Remake’s ReDeads are still sufficiently terrifying. Social media is rife with hilarious reactions from fans’ first encounters with the enemies, with both Western and Japanese players having a “nope, f**k this,” mentality after first coming across them in the game.
これが令和のリーデッド
オリジナルのポリゴンデザインよりグロテスクになっててチビる
#時のオカリナ https://t.co/9k1XpH3NZs
— 凌ちゃん (@ryochan_642) November 5, 2026
The ReDeads have eyes this time https://t.co/UBBqZf41SW
— Boundary Break (@BoundaryBreak) November 7, 2026
THEY RUN AT YOU NOW???? https://t.co/fqkgDWaoU8
— Torino (@Torinotortolini) November 5, 2026
Others are hopeful that, should other Zelda remakes get produced, Nintendo makes its other enemies equally scary — especially since these new ReDeads are far more mobile than their predecessors.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Remake has, perhaps unsurprisingly, proven to be a smash hit for Nintendo; the game sold over five million copies in just four days and released to rave reviews from both fans and critics. IGN’s Logan Plant scored the title a glowing 9 out of 10, praising it for “skillfully melding the world and dungeon design of classic Zeldas with the movement and presentation of its more recent games, creating both a beautiful retelling of a legend and a rich adventure that stands on its own.”
Image Credit: BoundaryBreak, Twitter/X
Virginia (she/her) is IGN’s News Editor. With ten years of experience reporting on games and entertainment, she’s got a storied background in the fighting game community, influencer news, and viral online trends. Find her on Twitter at @TheeMissGlaze.