When Eiji Aonuma showed his gameplay for the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake in September, one of the features he highlighted was Link’s new ability to sprint, saying it was added explicitly after observing players spamming Link’s dodge ability to move faster in the original.
But unfortunately for Aonuma, the verdict is in: rolling is still faster, even than Link’s new sprint.
In the original game, Link ran at a single speed, with Epona used to speed him up in the later game. However, speedrunners and even regular players frequently spammed Link’s dodge ability to move faster before Epona was available, as constantly rolling was faster than simply walking.
This dodge spam has apparently been on Aonuma’s mind ever since, as while demonstrating sprinting in the gameplay demo, he said: “In the original game, I believe some players rolled to move faster. Now, if you hold the A button, you roll, then dash like this. Sprinting is recommended whenever you’re traveling longer distances.”
However, the remake’s speedrunners have already timed everything, and rolling is… even faster.
Aonuma didn’t explicitly say that the turnover bothered him, but it’s funny that he said it during the presentation. His citation of this specific player behavior suggests that he had this in mind for years as something he wanted to change, along with his statement that repairing the Water Temple was an “overdue duty”.
I think Aonuma probably managed his sprint regardless, because he didn’t. a lot slower than rolling – there’s definitely not the same gap between him and rolling as there once was between Link’s normal speed and rolling. Most normal players will probably adopt sprint this time around. Speedrunners, well, I expect them to do much stranger things than ride.
Oh wait, they already are. It turns out that doing a front hop and SO a roll is even faster. Sorry, Aonuma!
Gn tech
