Why you’re missing out if you don’t try Zelda Notes with Ocarina of Time
Posted on November 15, 2026 by Ethan in Features, Switch 2
Maybe it’s just me, but when the Zelda Notes app was first created for Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom in 2025, I pretty much forgot about it right away. I had already 100 percent completed both games, and while the voice memories were neat, I wasn’t about to retread that ground. Similarly, when Zelda Notes were revealed to be part of the Ocarina of Time remake, it wasn’t on my radar at all – after all, I had ignored them once before.
However, once you actually try out Zelda Notes alongside Ocarina of Time, it becomes an indispensable experience. I was really, really surprised with how thorough this app is. So today, we’re briefly going over what makes Zelda Notes such a great companion for the game.
To start, there are some in-game features that let you transfer rupees from Ocarina of Time to Zelda Notes, and within the app, you can use those rupees to retake daily quizzes if you happen to get an answer wrong. Even now, I’m not a huge fan of the daily quizzes – they do feel a bit like filler to me.
Where the app really shines, however, is the map. It includes a built-in 100 percent completion counter, and it shows you the location of every collectible you haven’t got. It even tells you what items are required to earn that collectible, and different versions of the map are included depending on the era you’re playing in (child or adult). This means that if you’re trying to 100 percent complete the game as quickly as possible, you can simply open up this handy app and you can very quickly find out where that missing Piece of Heart is. That means you don’t have to check them all manually – that’s huge!
The Zelda Notes map also works within dungeons, where you can easily spot treasure chests and Gold Skulltulas. On that topic, the map includes grottos, Gold Skulltulas, treasure chests, Scarecrow Spots, and much more – so it’s very easy to see what the game considers to be 100 percent completion.
As mentioned earlier, I do still feel like the other features are sort of middling, but the map is so helpful I think it deserves some extra recognition. I’ve talked to more than a few Ocarina of Time players who had no idea what the app actually did (or that it existed at all), so I figured it couldn’t hurt to spread the word a little bit. Plus, who doesn’t love 100 percent completing games?
Have you been using the Zelda Notes app to track down missing collectibles, or do you prefer to figure all of that out for yourself? Let us know in the comments down below.
More: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
