Continuing its spree of working on critically acclaimed titles as a support studio, Monolith Soft has confirmed through a social media post that it helped with the development of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Remake. This announcement should come as no surprise, since the studio has worked on the Zelda franchise in the past, including on The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.
“The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, for which Monolith Soft handled partial contract development of the game design, programming, and graphics, has been released by Nintendo Co., Ltd,” announced the studio through a social media post (via machine translation).
Interestingly, The Legend of Zelda series general manager Daiki Iwamoto had spoken about Monolith Soft animator and director Yasuhiro Fujita last year about the studio creating its own take on the Zelda franchise. Discussing the work they have previously done on multiple projects, Iwamoto called Monolith Soft a “strong partner” and said that the two companies could “use the know-how we’ve developed by working together” to make a new unique title.
“Monolith Soft is a strong partner when it comes to developing Zelda games from scratch,” said Iwamoto. “And more and more I would like to see them taking on a central role in production. Going forward, let’s use the know-how we’ve developed by working together, and the strength of the whole Monolith Soft team, to create a unique title in the series together.”
Fujita also spoke about the role played by Monolith Soft in the development of Zelda games, which seemingly started with the team’s work on The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.
“Monolith Soft now has a larger number of developers, and the way we’re involved has changed,” said Fujita. “With Skyward Sword, the main relationship was that Monolith Soft would create the data in accordance with the game design and specifications laid out by Nintendo, but with Breath of the Wild, we’re more likely to ‘think and create together.’”
Zelda is also far from the only franchise that Monolith Soft has worked on. The team confirmed last year that it had provided open-world development support for Nintendo Switch 2 launch title Mario Kart World. This likely ties into the studio’s experience in developing open-world games, which is on full display with its Xenoblade Chronicles franchise. The team has also worked as a support studio on franchises like Animal Crossing, Splatoon, and Pikmin.
The partnership between Monolith Soft and Nintendo has been a strong one for several years, which ultimately led Nintendo to acquire 100 percent of the studio back in 2024. Before this, the console maker owned 96 percent of Monolith Soft, with the remainder of the shares staying with studio co-founders Hirohide Sugiura, Tetsuya Takahashi, and Yasuyuki Honne.
In the meantime, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Remake is out today on Nintendo Switch 2. For more details, take a look at what the development team has said about its art style, the infamous Water Temple, and the decisions that led to the inclusion of a jump button.
