In the original Japanese version of the original game, the Hippo Model from the Animal Village had what appear to be breasts. This was changed during its international localization to remove the breasts and any suggestion of clothing to cover up its naked body. In the game's remake, the Hippo Model retains her hourglass figure, but is now fully clothed to maintain a satisfactory parity for all regional releases of the remake.

In the Japanese version of the original game, inputting your name as とたけけ (Totakeke) will change the file select screen's music to a remix of Totaka's song. This would be implemented in all versions of the game's remake.

According to Eiji Aonuma, the "tilt-shift" effect was inspired by the original Game Boy version's "vast but small" world on the console's 66 mm screen.

"When I played the original Game Boy version, it was a small screen, and it felt like a small world, but very vast. And so, it kind of had this tilt shift perspective; so that's why I thought this diorama-like art style would be perfect for this."