Hey, listen! Shigeru Miyamoto didn't like Navi from Ocarina of Time either

Link plays the Ocarina of Time — (Image credit: Nintendo)

Nintendo icon Shigeru Miyamoto once called Navi "a weak point of Ocarina of Time" according to a recently translated book on the game.

As spotted by Eurogamer, and translated by Shmuplations, the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time strategy guide from 1999 features a developer interview with Miyamoto - who worked as a designer, producer, and supervisor on the game - where he gives his thoughts on Navi, perhaps better known as the "Hey, Listen!" fairy from the Legend of Zelda series.

Talking about the puzzles in the game, the Nintendo developer reveals: "I think the way we give hints is still a little too unfriendly. Speaking plainly, I can now confess to you: I think the whole system with Navi giving you advice is the biggest weak point of Ocarina of Time."

Miyamoto continues, "If you read Navi's text, she says the same things over and over. I know it makes it sound bad, but we purposely left her at a kind of "stupid" level."

Reflecting on Navi’s hints some more, Miyamoto says: "The truth is I wanted to remove the entire system, but that would have been even more unfriendly to players. You can think of Navi as being there for players who stop playing for a month or so, who then pick the game back up and want to remember what they were supposed to do."

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After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at GamesRadar+ before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training. My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'm also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.