A single animator poured an unknown number of hours into hand-drawing, coloring and sound-editing just under three minutes of Ocarina of Time, and what came out looks better than plenty of projects that actually make it past a greenlight.
There was no AI involved and no studio behind it. Just one person named Hugo, a YouTube upload, and that sword-pull moment you’ve been replaying in your head since 1998.
Zelda fans could not have asked for better timing
An official remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is expected to arrive on the Nintendo Switch 2 before the year is out, which on its own would be plenty to keep the faithful occupied. Then this showed up.
The animation reframes the 1998 title as the sort of thing you’d expect out of a full anime production, and it’s difficult to watch without immediately wanting an entire series of it.
Why this game in particular carries that kind of weight
Released almost 30 years ago on the Nintendo 64, Ocarina of Time doesn’t merely sit somewhere among the greatest video games ever made. There are plenty of people who will tell you it is the best Zelda game, full stop, and they will fight you about it.
You play as Link on yet another return to Hyrule, where the goal is to stop the evil king Ganondorf by traveling through time itself. His trusty ocarina rides along for all of it, and playing the instrument is what lets him move forward.
This wouldn’t be the game’s first remake, either. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D arrived on the Nintendo 3DS back in 2011. Another modern remake is coming later this year.
The animator handled every single piece of it himself
“This is a fan-animation of the video game ‘The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time’, entirely hand-drawn, animated and digitally painted by me,” the video description reads. “As a professional traditional 2D animator, doing this project from A to Z, including the digital painting, coloring process and the sound editing was a challenge.”
Challenge or not, the work paid off. And a big part of why the reaction has been what it has is that no AI touched a frame of it. This is what people are capable of when they decide to put the effort in.
The comments section came undone
“Please clone yourself many times so you can make an entire movie with all your clones,” the top comment reads. “You are absolutely incredibly talented, and I’m blown away.”
A different viewer focused on the source material instead. “What really makes this is the callback to the original artwork. Seeing it in motion is incredible. Well done.”
One fan picked out a very specific flourish. “I loved the Ghibli hair effect when pulling the sword,” they said. “The transition in referencing the concept art blew me away! Absolutely beautiful. Ocarina of Time is an everlasting story. Thank you for your hard work!”
And then there’s the one that requires no further explanation: “Literally the best Zelda animation I’ve ever seen. PERIOD.”
Where it goes from here rests with two parties
No plans to continue the project have been confirmed by Hugo. That’s the frustrating bit, since an audience for it now exists and it’s hungry.
Should he decide not to revisit it, Nintendo is left with an obvious play: hire the man and finally deliver the animated Ocarina of Time that people have spent years asking for.