Earlier today, people found that Elkjøp (a Norwegian retailer specialising in consumer electronics), had added Monolith Soft as the developer for the upcoming Ocarina of Time remake. This caused a lot of speculation online, and got people wondering whether the Xenoblade devs were the main developers for the game.
It’s an interesting prospect for sure, and one which we’d definitely be happy to see…
But we’re personally rather sceptical about the idea. Since well, retailer listings haven’t always been the most accurate thing in the world.
Seriously, online retailers made all manner of screw ups here. They’ve listed games for a console that didn’t turn out to be real, due to nothing more than a hunch. They’ve guessed release dates that have turned out to be blatantly off. And heck, in far too many cases, they’ve fallen for fan made box art designs that don’t even remotely resemble the real thing.
I mean, I’ve seen multiple retailers using the above fan art by Fawfulthegreat64 as the official cover art for Mario Kart 8 on Wii U. Despite you know, having Fawful from the Mario & Luigi series on the front.
So, while it’s possible these guys have heard something we haven’t, it’s also possible they added the developer’s name based on rumours or hearsay. Especially since Monolith Soft themselves have been a support studio for numerous major Nintendo titles already.
Seriously, look at the list of games they’ve helped develop.
They’ve been involved in the four biggest Zelda games since 2011 (Skyward Sword, A Link Between Worlds, Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom). They’ve helped with the Animal Crossing and Splatoon series since the days of the 3DS and Wii U. Heck, they were even involved in titles like Super Smash Bros Brawl and Mario Kart World!
So, if this Ocarina of Time remake is in fact being treated like the next big Zelda title, and has the huge team/development budget to match, it’s almost a certainty that Monolith Soft will be involved in some form or another. That they’ll play a support role like they have in the last few major Zelda games.
But that’s still a far cry from them being the main or sole developers behind the game. Just like you wouldn’t list Next Level Games as the developers of Metroid Prime 4 or Monolith Soft as the developers of Tears of the Kingdom, you wouldn’t list the latter as the developers for this game either.
Regardless, that’s the rumour, and why we’re sceptical of its accuracy so far. Monolith Soft being the main team behind a Zelda game is certainly an enticing prospect, and we wouldn’t be against this being true, but retailers have simply not been accurate enough in the past to prove it one way or the other.
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