The Switch 2 remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time will feature full voice acting, and Nintendo has unintentionally brought back the original Japanese voice actor for Navi. Kaori Mizuhashi voiced the fairy in the Nintendo 64 game and has been confirmed in the remake’s credits, almost 28 years later.
Nintendo director HokWai Ng said the team wanted the remake’s cutscenes to be fully voiced while preserving how players remember the characters. Navi’s familiar “Listen!” was among the iconic sounds the developers did not want to change.
To find a cast that matched the original, Nintendo held blind auditions. Series director Eiji Aonuma said actors were chosen based on how closely their voices resembled those in the N64 game. The team did not realize that one successful audition came from an actor who had voiced the same character in the original.
The developers did not initially identify the character, but a leaked video of the remake’s credits confirmed that Mizuhashi is returning as Navi in the Japanese version.
Sources: Eurogamer.