Dataminer Finds Evidence That Zelda: Ocarina of Time Remake May Be Built on Tears of the Kingdom

A dataminer has found traces of Tears of the Kingdom code in the files of the Ocarina of Time remake, including references to the ancient Zonai civilization and Korok Forest.

According to research shared by OatmealDome on X, the project, internally codenamed Owl, runs on the ModuleSystem engine. Nintendo EPD used the engine to develop Tears of the Kingdom and other first-party games. The findings, however, suggest a closer connection between the two games than a shared engine alone.

The remake’s files contain modules related to the chemistry system that accounts for much of the gameplay in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. OatmealDome also found leftover references to the ancient Zonai civilization, which played an important role in the story of the latter game. Other findings include Korok Forest, familiar to fans of the more recent Zelda games.

OatmealDome acknowledges that ModuleSystem has become Nintendo EPD’s standard engine, but says other games the studio built with it do not contain references to Tears of the Kingdom code. He therefore believes the Ocarina of Time remake builds on work from the previous game.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Remake was released on November 5, 2026, exclusively for Nintendo Switch 2.