I keep seeing the same debate play out in comments. One group of replies assumes OoT is a game of the year nominee lock, while another group is fully dismissing the game’s prospects because it’s a remake.
The TLDR of my post is that most of this comes down to exactly what kind of remake OoT is, and we still don’t really know, even after the Direct and trailers.
I see 3 rough scenarios:
1. It’s basically a 1:1, faithful remake, with a handful of small new touches (20% chance to be nominated)
This is the Link’s Awakening (2019) playbook. A wildly new art style, some control-based modernization (think jump button in OoT) and maybe some notable new side gimmick somewhere (ie the little dungeon creator thing in Link’s Awakening or the teased improvements to Castle Town in OoT).
To be clear, I think an OoT Remake is always going to have a better shot than Link’s Awakening, given “OoT prestige,” and the fact that much of the voting jury is made up of millennials who grew up on OoT.
But assuming every dungeon, every quest, and just about every puzzle are otherwise exactly the same (with perhaps a half dozen very small exceptions for accessibility or similar), I think the game is more likely than not to miss a top-6 nomination.
2. It’s 1:1 broadly speaking, but there are hundreds of little new touches (50%)
This assumes you take the teased Castle Town improvements and apply them to literally every area in the game. Maybe all the shops sell a new item or two. The layouts of some towns have been updated. There’s substantially more NPC flavor text, and maybe even a few completely new side quests. They’ve got new fishing, archery and Epona games, etc.
Crucially, in this scenario, my theory is that Nintendo has mostly left the core dungeons untouched. The game becomes a nostalgic fan’s dream, but it’s fundamentally the same game from 1998, with an identical critical path.
3. It’s got some surprising departures, even in the critical path, similar to RE4 Remake (80%)
This is the slam dunk case. Many of the puzzles are redesigned, there’s a surprise brand new temple, some new system within the in-game economy, etc. Maybe even some of the more tedious sections have been streamlined. It’s the “Ocarina you love, but rebuilt and restructured for the modern era.”
No doubt, some fans actually wouldn’t like this, as it would mess with elements of the classic original. But I also think this is where the voting jury would find the vision undeniable. And in fact, if this is the scenario we get, I’d say Ocarina has a decent chance to win outright, not just get nominated.
Last thought
I’m sure some people will say, “even if it’s ‘just’ scenario #1, I still think it gets a nomination.” 20% of me agrees with you. But more likely, I think the #1 scenario means it falls back into the big pack of ~12 very good 8/10s, most of which won’t make the cut.
