Rolling Still Beats Dashing for Young Link in Ocarina of Time Remake

Players diving into the Switch 2 remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time are discovering that old habits die hard. Despite the introduction of a dedicated dash ability for Young Link, speedrunners have confirmed that rolling across Hyrule is still the quicker way to travel on foot.

During the Zelda Direct, producer Eiji Aonuma explained that the dash was added because many players in the original game would constantly roll to move faster. However, testing by the Zelda speedrunning community shows that rolling remains slightly faster than dashing for Young Link in the remake.

Speedrunning channel Kethnaldo conducted time trials comparing movement techniques. The fastest method, dubbed "forward hop roll-cancelling," involves performing a forward hop and immediately rolling to cancel the landing animation. In one demonstration, this technique got a player from Kokiri Forest to Hyrule Castle roughly four seconds faster than other methods.

"After you front hop, you can roll immediately and get rid of that end lag," a Kethnaldo representative explained. The technique chains forward hops with immediate rolls to maintain momentum, though the player noted that mistakes are common. As the remake is not identical to the original, there is always a chance Nintendo could adjust game mechanics in future updates.