Age of Imprisonment – Datamine Insights

The remake of Ocarina of Time isn't the only game under X-rays since the Switch 2 floodgates got bombed wide open, where a few people also looked into the last installment of the Hyrule Warriors series, Age of Imprisonment.

It started with TM02 on October 26th, but nothing much came out of it, except for some artwork renders we didn't have access to yet. But yesterday a video by Gaming Reinvented came up, where they had a deeper look and found some interesting discoveries. Here is their summary from reddit:

• Every character has dialogue for switching to Ganondorf, Sonia and the Forbidden Construct
• DLC is explicitly mentioned
• Icons exist for all Gleeok types, Like Like types and Battle Taluses
• Text references exist to all Wizzrobe types as well as Training Constructs and the above enemies
• Unused items exist as Gleeok and Like Like drops
• There's unused text indicating there were meant to be optional sky battles, including with the unused Gleeok types
• Colgera has a model in game for some reason
• Other models include the Spring of Courage, mummy Ganondorf, the Room of Awakening and the Shrine of Resurrection (many are leftovers)
• Construct Heads were meant to be Zonai parts

Well, the flight missions were a lot of fun, so it would have been nice to have more of them and even all of the different Gleeok types, with the King Gleeok as the final flight boss. That's a loss.

But the most interesting part here are the name calls, which indicate that Sonia, Ganondorf and even the Forbidden Construct were planned to playable at some point. The same was also true for Astor in Age of Calamity, where a similar voice clip for him got discovered as well, but this here is much more extensive and complete.

Storywise, none of these additions make much sense, but they could have been planned as bonus characters that you get to unlock in the post-game, similar to how Age of Calamity did it. I personally was hoping that they might add Sonia as part of the free updates last year, and that Ganondorf may receive his own, separate DLC campaign, but neither were to happen... 

And that's a shame. The game felt certainly rushed with how its free updates filled some rather obvious gaps. And maybe it underperformed in either Koei Tecmo's and Nintendo's eyes, which is why they decided against further updates and DLC. But it had passed one million copies and it was also released in a tough spot, being the first Zelda-related exclusive on the Nintendo Switch 2. The majority of Zelda fans have probably waited for Ocarina of Time and may give the game a chance now...

Ocarina of Time Notes, Entry 8: Forest Temple

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.

Ocarina of Time Remake: 3rd amiibo Mask?

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.

Ocarina of Time Notes, Entry 7: Temple of Time

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.

Ocarina of Time Notes, Entry 6: Zora River

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.

Ocarina of Time Remake: Master Quest DLC Coming

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

Ocarina of Time Notes, Entry 5: Death Mountain

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.