We're dancing with Poes, both in the darkest depths of the forest and in the open widths of Hyrule Field. After a change of heart, I decided to go with the traditional route of playing the Forest Temple first, which still led to an exciting discovery about the potential order of the temples in this remake. Afterwards I put my new Fairy Bow to good use by hunting down all the Big Poes.
Another day, another datamine. This comes from John Austin Plays, who has posted a lengthy video where he is looking at everything that's already in the remake for the upcoming amiibo. (Be careful, there is a spoiler in this video about a previously unannounced feature, which I'm also discussing in the latest entry of my blog series.)
Unsurprisingly, you can already spoof NFC chips to obtain the "Fairy-Kid Mask" and the "Princess Mask". It's also nice to see them action, where they create a third headgear slot in the equipment menu. So, with amiibo you will be able to carry two masks at the same time: one borrowed from the Happy Mask Shop and one obtained by scanning your amiibo.
However, there are already lines of text in the game for a third masked unlocked by amiibo. It doesn't seem like you can summon it already, so it may need another update to the game to function. But based on the messages you can make an educated guess what this mask is all about: it's likely Majora's Mask itself.
And this would mean that we're getting a Skull Kid amiibo at some point in the future. It doesn't have to be in 2027, because Nintendo plans these things a long time in advance. For example, there were skins for the Metroid amiibo found in Metroid Prime: Federation Force, one year ahead of its release alongside Metroid: Samus Returns. Likewise, the Mineru's Construct amiibo, which came ou two months ago, was already supported in Tears of the Kingdom since June of last year.
Still, I wouldn't jump to conclusions here and expect a Majora's Mask remake to be already so deep in development that it will get released within the next two years. It's a possibility, but I wouldn't hold my breath. It's also possible that they may announce a couple more amiibo for the 40th Anniversary, which just so happens to include Skull Kid, alongside other characters, like Fi, or Zelda & Tri.
But if they were remaking Majora's Mask as we speak, then you would think that they'd save a Skull Kid amiibo for that game. After all, that is a wish that Aonuma already had with Majora's Mask 3D (source), where for some reason they didn't get the obvious idea of using amiibo to obtain additional masks back then.
It was time to grow up, but not before one last tour through the still peaceful Hyrule. There I had some fun with masks and gossip, which tied into new features of the remake, as well as some functionality of the Zelda Notes app. Seven years later, I got a Hookshot, a horse, and some scarecrow friends.
After that lengthier episode with Death Mountain, there was one more Spiritual Stone left, which is the Zora Sapphire by default. This entry covers the Zora River, Domain and Fountain, as well as Lord Jabu-Jabu's Belly. And as it turns out, there is a new weapon of mass destruction in the game.
This is already the third post I'm making about the topic of Master Quest in the Ocarina of Time remake, but now it's not just pure speculation any longer. Since the Nintendo Switch 2 got hacked recently, data-miners can now investigate the game files. And it turns out that the remake has indeed "MQ" versions of many of its dungeon contents already, where they have been modified, e.g. with cows inside Jabu-Jabu's Belly. That does sound familiar.
Further investigations revealed that this is tied to owning DLC, so this will most likely be a paid add-on, and that the game world will be mirrored, just like in Ocarina of Time 3D's Master Quest mode. It's also likely that this will feature the usual Hero Mode parameters, like double damage and no hearts, since this has been absent so far.
I said this before, but it's not a coincidence that we haven't gotten a release date for the two amiibo and the Ocarina accessory yet. This might all come out on the same day, round 2 for the Ocarina of Time remake so to say, where I'm expecting an announcement for this Master Quest add-on later this year.
Source: OatmealDome / MrCheeze
Finally made some progress. I went to the Goron City and back to the forest, cleared the new and improved "Dodongo Cavern", visited the first two Great Fairies, and almost got burned to death inside the Death Mountain Crater. Plus, there was some fun to be had with Bombchus.
Yesterday was weird, because I've spent like eight hours writing about the remake and maybe 90 minutes of playing... But it's a good sign that I have so much to say, and I wouldn't want to miss doing this. Anyway, in the little time I had left, I went to Kakariko Village and have done some good old grave-digging in the night. It was also the grand opening of the Happy Mask Shop.
