Ocarina of Time Water Temple: what's changed on Switch 2
Eiji Aonuma calls the Water Temple his overdue homework, and the Ocarina of Time Switch 2 remake makes the Iron Boots and camera far less painful.
07th Nov 2026 18:15
Image via Nintendo
Ocarina of Time Water Temple: what's changed on Switch 2
Eiji Aonuma calls the Water Temple his overdue homework, and the Ocarina of Time Switch 2 remake makes the Iron Boots and camera far less painful.
07th Nov 2026 18:15
Image via Nintendo
Eiji Aonuma has finally made peace with the Water Temple, as the Zelda producer says the version in the new Ocarina of Time remake on Switch 2 is the best take yet on the dungeon that's been tormenting players since 1998.
Speaking in Nintendo's own Ask the Developer interview for the remake, Aonuma, who designed the original dungeon, said "I had some overdue homework: I wanted to do something about the Water Temple I created 28 years ago," and explained that because it became so well known for its difficulty, he had the team make some adjustments this time around.
What's changed in the Water Temple on Switch 2
The big one is the Iron Boots, as the N64 original made you dive into the menu every time you wanted to pull them on or take them off, and the Water Temple asks you to do that what feels like every 30 seconds. Director HokWai Ng says the remake makes item toggling much easier, with Nintendo Life reporting that the boots now sit on the D-pad, while Aonuma told Game Informer that players get a single-button shortcut right on the gameplay screen.
Some of the temple's solid walls have also been swapped for lattice-style structures so you can see into the rooms next door, which should help you keep your bearings, and Ng says objects have been placed so it's more intuitive to work out which way to go. The core mechanisms that make it a puzzle are still intact, so you'll still need to use your head, just with far fewer trips to the pause menu.
You can now move the camera too, which Aonuma pointed out to Game Informer wasn't possible in the original, and that should make getting your bearings underwater a lot less disorientating.
Third time's the charm
This isn't the first time Aonuma has tried to tame it, either, as he told Nintendo's Iwata Asks back in 2011 that he had to fix the Water Temple for the 3DS version, which turned the Iron Boots into an item you could assign to a button and, as Nintendo Life notes, added guide lines pointing to the spots where you change the water level.
Asked by Game Informer whether he's content with it now, Aonuma said "certainly", adding "I think this, for me, is the best version of the Water Temple." After 28 years and three attempts, we'll let him have that one.
Ocarina of Time on Switch 2 launched on November 5, and its reviews make it the highest-rated game of 2026 so far. If you'd rather tackle Hyrule with a real instrument in hand, Nintendo has also shared official sheet music for all 12 of Link's songs.
Well, if you still get lost down there, at least you can't blame the boots any more.
About The Author
Jake Bannister
Jake is GGRecon's Co-Founder and Operations Director. You'll find him covering our word game brain teasers, as well as sports games such as Football Manager and EA FC. He's also that teammate on your Rocket League team spamming "Wow!".
