Ocarina of Time Remake Brings Back a Navi Voice From 1998
Nintendo cast an actor who had already voiced Navi in the original game for the Switch 2 remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Series director Eiji Aonuma said the outcome was not something the development team had planned, according to Eurogamer.
Navi is the small fairy who guides Link, the hero, through the game. Nintendo describes her as Link's companion and guiding fairy. The Nintendo 64 original came out in 1998, and its voice work was limited to grunts and murmurs. The remake is different. Its cutscenes, the story scenes that play out without player control, are fully voiced.
Nintendo held blind auditions to choose the cast. In a blind audition, the choice rests on the voice alone, with no look at the performer's past work. The casting judged voices on how closely they matched the Nintendo 64 recordings. One of the actors selected had voiced the same character in that original version, so the same performer now delivers Navi's lines again.
Kaori Mizuhashi reprises her role as Navi in the Japanese-language version. She first played the part almost three decades ago.
Director HokWai Ng said the cutscenes needed full voice acting to suit the much improved graphics. Nintendo did not want to change the game's best-known sounds, though. Navi's "Listen!" stays as it was, and so does her "Hey!" The result is that the familiar lines from 1998 sit alongside newly recorded scenes.
Nintendo has been building up to the remake in public. It published a new overview trailer on 14 October 2026. On 2 November 2026 it began an interview series called Ask the Developer, Vol. 24, dedicated to the game, and a fourth part followed on 3 November. Nintendo also keeps an official store listing for the Switch 2 version.
For players who grew up with the original, the news is that the most familiar voice in the game is still there. For newer players, the remake offers the same guiding fairy with a fuller soundtrack of spoken scenes. Nintendo has not announced a new release date, so the Switch 2 store listing and the trailer remain the main guides to what comes next.
