What is an ocarina?
An ocarina is a vessel flute: a hollow body, a mouthpiece, and finger holes. The game’s blue instrument is a prop. A real 12-hole ocarina is a different object, and Nintendo has sold a playable Zelda one with Hori.
The instrument, then the product
Wikipedia’s ocarina article is the instrument source: it is an ancient vessel flute, and modern ones come in 4-hole, 6-hole, and 12-hole layouts. A 12-hole instrument is the one people mean when they ask how to play a Zelda song on a real flute. I am not printing a fingering chart. Hole numbers without a tuned diagram would be a fake tab. The game buttons are on the song chart, and they are controller buttons, not fingers.
Nintendo Life’s headline says a playable Ocarina of Time ocarina is on the Nintendo Store, made with Hori. The page itself returned a block when it was fetched, so I am using the headline only: it is a real product, it is sold by Nintendo, and I do not have the price, the hole count, or the tuning. Those cells stay empty. The 40th anniversary is the campaign around that product and the Zelda Switch 2 console, which is on the editions page and does not include the game.
The remake lets you hum or use a real instrument so Link plays. It does not say the console microphone is required. If you buy a clay ocarina, you are not buying a save file.
Questions
How many holes does the Hori ocarina have?
The sources I could read do not say. I am not guessing 12 just because that is a common layout.
Can I play Zelda’s Lullaby on it?
The game buttons are not a fingering chart. I do not have a sourced tab for a 12-hole instrument.
Related
Sources
- Wikipedia — Ocarina — checked 2026-11-05
- Nintendo Life — playable ocarina (headline) — checked 2026-11-05
Last checked 2026-11-05.