To change the camera in the Ocarina of Time remake, press the + Button to open the menu, move to the System tab and choose Options, where you can invert the camera’s vertical and horizontal controls separately and change the camera rotation speed. The camera itself turns with the right stick, which is new for Ocarina of Time: the Nintendo 64 controller had only one stick, so the 1998 game never let you steer it freely.
Below we cover where each setting sits, which ones are worth changing, and how the free camera fits with Z-targeting and aiming, the two moments where the game takes the camera back from you.
Where the Camera Settings Are
- Press + during play to open the menu.
- Press L or R until the System tab is highlighted, then select Options. It sits under Save and Load.
- Find the camera settings: Invert Vertical Camera, Invert Horizontal Camera and Camera-Rotation Speed, each with a short description on the right when you highlight it.
- Change what you need, then back out of the menu with B.
Not every option is there from the first minute. Nintendo’s Japanese support page notes that the ocarina’s microphone setting only becomes available in Options once you are far enough into the game, so if a setting you have read about is missing, it is most likely tied to something you have not reached yet.
What Each Camera Option Does
| Setting | What it changes | Change it if… |
|---|---|---|
| Invert vertical | Pushing the right stick up looks down, and down looks up | You play flight games or older third-person games with inverted look |
| Invert horizontal | Pushing right swings the view left, and left swings it right | The camera keeps turning the opposite way from what your thumb expects |
| Camera rotation speed | How fast the view turns while you hold the right stick | The camera feels sluggish in Hyrule Field or overshoots in tight dungeon rooms |
The two invert settings are separate, so you can flip one axis and leave the other alone. If you are not sure which you want, walk into an open space such as Kokiri Forest’s paths and spin the camera for a few seconds after each change. Rotation speed is the setting worth experimenting with: a faster camera helps when you are scanning Hyrule Field for a landmark, while a slower one is easier to control in handheld mode on the smaller screen.
How the Free Camera Works
The right stick turns the camera around Link almost everywhere. Nintendo’s own description of the remake promises “improved camera control with the Right Stick,” and the change reaches places that used to be locked. Hyrule Castle Town’s market, a fixed-angle square on the Nintendo 64, is now a 3D space you can look around in, as our open world guide explains.
The developers knew a free camera brings its own problem. In Nintendo’s Ask the Developer interview, program director Hiroki Taguchi says the team worried that players “might lose their sense of direction,” for example after a door opens in a dungeon room you were locked in. Their answer was to place objects so the way forward reads at a glance, and, in the Water Temple, to turn some walls into lattice so you can see the rooms beyond. When you finish a fight in a sealed room, a quick sweep of the camera before you move is the fastest way to spot which door just opened.
On the Nintendo 64, the only way to look around freely was to stop and press C-Up for the first-person view. In the remake, the right stick does that job while Link keeps moving, so checking a ledge above you or the room behind you no longer means standing still.
The Camera and Z-Targeting
Targeting is on ZL: a “Target” prompt with the ZL icon appears when an enemy is in range, as Nintendo’s gameplay demonstration shows. Lock on and the game takes over the camera, keeping the enemy in view while Link moves around it. That is the system the 1998 game introduced to solve a one-stick camera, and producer Hidemaro Fujibayashi says in the same interview series that Z-targeting has “stood the test of time.” The remake keeps it, now on ZL. In a fight you rarely need the right stick at all.
The Options menu also has a targeting type setting with two choices:
- Hold: Link stays locked on only while you hold ZL. Let go and the camera is yours again.
- Toggle: one press of ZL locks on and a second press releases it.
Toggle is kinder to your hand in long fights and in handheld play. Hold is quicker to drop when a second enemy appears behind you and you want the free camera back.
Aiming Uses the Camera Too
In Nintendo’s gameplay demonstration, the Fairy Slingshot aims over Link’s shoulder with an on-screen reticle and fires with ZR, so the view stays third-person rather than dropping into the old first-person scope. Nintendo’s store page says ranged weapons “like the Fairy Bow and the Hookshot” can be aimed “through button controls or through motion controls,” and that you choose which in the same Options menu as the camera settings. Press the targeting button while aiming and the reticle snaps onto the target, a trick Eiji Aonuma shows in that same demonstration.
Other Settings in the Same Menu
While you are in Options, the same menu holds the motion-control aiming switch, the targeting type above, an option to swap the jump controls, subtitles and speaker names on or off, the voice language, controller vibration, and the display modes that trim the on-screen interface. Our what’s changed guide covers the rest of the new controls, and our Switch 2 features guide covers the hardware side. Every Ocarina of Time guide we have, old and new, is on our Zelda hub.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you invert the camera in the Ocarina of Time remake?
Yes. Options has separate settings to invert the vertical and horizontal camera controls.
Can you change the camera sensitivity?
Yes. The camera rotation speed setting in Options controls how fast the view turns with the right stick.
Does the Ocarina of Time remake have a free camera?
Yes. The right stick turns the camera, including in Hyrule Castle Town, which had a fixed camera on the Nintendo 64.
Is Z-targeting still in the remake?
Yes, on ZL. Options lets you choose Hold, where you keep ZL held, or Toggle, where one press locks on and another lets go.
Do the camera settings change between handheld and docked play?
No. The settings belong to the game, not the play mode, so the same choices apply on the TV and in handheld mode.