Ocarina of Time's 25th Anniversary

This blog rarely acknowledges the anniversaries of the individual Zelda games, other than the first, but Ocarina of Time always has been an exception, since the game is one of the biggest milestones in the Zelda series. For its 10th and 20th anniversaries we've looked at the game's accomplishments and legacy, so this time let's talk about the future of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

There lately have been rumors floating around that we might get something for Zelda other than Tears of the Kingdom in the year 2023, which led to some speculation about a potential remake of Ocarina of Time, which could be shadow-dropped in the same way as Metroid Prime Remastered. However, this would likely not become a proper remake, but rather a remaster of the Nintendo 3DS version, which was released in 2011.

The timing is also questionable, because Ocarina of Time is always tied to its direct sequel, Majora's Mask. Whatever they are to do with Ocarina of Time now, you would expect Majora's Mask to receive the same treatment later on. But the Nintendo Switch won't be forever, where we will see a successor at some point in the next couple of years. And then it will be preferable to get remakes of both Nintendo 64 Zelda games for that system, with much prettier graphics.

In any case, both Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask will see new remakes eventually. With the release of Skyward Sword HD in 2021, they have remastered or remade each classic 3D Zelda game at least once, where now it can begin all over again. Whether this will happen anytime soon or not, remains to be seen. (If we were to get one more remake on the Nintendo Switch, I personally would prefer Oracle of Ages & Seasons to follow up on Link's Awakening.)

A remake of Ocarina of Time should include all the improvements of the Nintendo 3DS version, naturally, but also come with more detailed maps, similar to what they have done for Majora's Mask 3D. Generally, it probably wouldn't hurt to modernize the interface and other aspects of the game a bit, while staying true to the original, like it was done with the remake for Link's Awakening.

But one nitpick I always had about the game, which finally should be fixed with a remake, is how you need the Fairy Bow at one point inside the Water Temple to get a key, right at the end of the winding tunnel full of vortexes. If this weren't the case, then you would be able to play the Forest, Fire, and Water Temples in any order, highlighting how open and non-linear Ocarina of Time already was, long before Breath of the Wild...

One thing that Nintendo also could do now, in order to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the game, is to add Master Quest to the Nintendo Switch Online library. Outside of Ocarina of Time 3D, this has never been re-released, even though it's technically only a modified ROM, where they potentially could have put this on the Wii Virtual Console. Maybe this would have left a sour taste, because you would have needed to buy the game twice to experience both versions. But that's not an issue any longer with the new subscription model, where you have access to all Nintendo 64 games as long as you're subscribed to the NSO Expansion Pack. So, this would be great timing to get the classic Master Quest back.

Replaying Ocarina of Time 3D Master Quest

Sheikah Slate Required. Access Denied.

Mirror, Mirror on the wall, which is the evilest dungeon of them all...?!

In a twisted world, where everyone is left-handed but Link, my journey of re-experiencing various Zelda games for the 30th Anniversary continued. After replaying Majora's Mask 3D it kind of was weird to return to Ocarina of Time so shortly, because it feels like a downgrade. Majora's Mask simply has the richer game world and a much more interesting selection of items thanks to the masks. It's just more interesting to play this game, but what Majora's Mask doesn't have, is many dungeons, and this is where Master Quest came in with a total of 12 completely re-arranged dungeons. It's what kept me going and ultimately puts Ocarina of Time on par with its successor.

What makes the re-arranged dungeons so good is that they don't bother you too much with stuff that you already did in the original game. Like for example there are no rolling boulders inside the Fire Temple. And a majority of the dungeon is completely optional. Or the Eye of Truth sees little to no use inside the Bottom of the Well. Instead you often get a tougher selection of enemies and some crazier puzzles that require out-of-the-box thinking. It's all very refreshing and makes this "2nd Quest" worthwhile.

On the 3DS version you also get the mirrored game world and that really feels like a totally different game, which is weird. All you basically have to do is flip right and left in your head, but the world just looks very strange and unfamiliar, even though it's the same places. I still would have liked a similar game mode for Majora's Mask 3D, because this can offer a quite unique experience, even if it's confusing and keeps being confusing.

There's also the double damage, which is only really an issue early on and with some tougher enemies. In fact I tried to get some fairies for a bottle as early as possible, where it seems like holding a Deku Stick next to butterflies is the earliest chance of finding one. That trick takes some patience and I remember that in the past I even thought it was just a myth that this really works...

I was also taking my time and doing some silly things like showing the first four masks to Zelda, where some of her reactions weren't really what I expected...

She also really likes that Spooky Mask, but at least that fits with the ending sequence, where she just calmly passes a Redead. As a kid she probably sneaks out to the graveyard at night just for fun.

Apropos fun on graveyards... of course this was a 100% run and of course with that you have to get through Random Dampé, who was giving me a hard time as so often. But I had an unusual experience here. After many unsuccessful tries I was running out of Rupees and leaving the graveyard, but that's where the bushes near the entrance would suddenly give me Red Rupees, so I could try again. And then I just got the Piece of Heart on my first try on the first soil. Weird. But maybe there's some mechanic here, where you just get the Heart Piece after a certain amount of failures.

Anyhow, here is my order of dungeons and important places after the Deku Tree and leaving the forest:

• Dodongo's Cavern (Bombs)
• Jabu Jabu's Belly
• Dodongo's Cavern (Boss)
• Lon Lon Ranch (Epona)
• Gerudo Fortress
• Ice Cavern
• Water Temple
• Forest Temple
• Bottom of the Well
• Fire Temple Entrance (Megaton Hammer)
• Spirit Temple
• Gerudo Training Grounds
• Fire Temple
• Shadow Temple

This looks very chaotic, but I did a similar run before, so it's not that extraordinary. When becoming an adult, I like to cover as much ground as possible and get as many things right away as possible. And here it's nice that you can get both the Hammer and the Longshot very early in their corresponding temples. It's quite reminiscent of the 2nd Quest in The Legend of Zelda, where in some of the dungeons you can also find the crucial item early on. Then you might just want to grab them and leave the rest of the dungeon for later, which is what I did with the Fire Temple. And it looks really nice to have the Mirror Shield in the rest of the Fire Temple later on:

In any case, what you want to do first as an adult is getting your horse and then right straight to Lake Hylia and get that Scarecrow's Song. It really annoys me that you have to talk to Bonooru again, before you can actually summon Pierre. Because it's useful in the Sacred Forest Meadow and even required for a Piece of Heart at the Gerudo Fortress, which is why you want to have the scarecrow ready, when you go to these places...

What else was there to talk about? Ah, yeah, the fishing is especially horrible after playing the same minigame in Majora's Mask 3D. I kept losing fish and after all these many years I still haven't fully figured out, when and why that fish breaks from the line. It's just annoying and doesn't happen as easily in Majora's Mask 3D.

Probably the toughest part was the Boss Gauntlet, because one hit here can potentially kill you, but it went rather well, where I finished the thing on my 2nd attempt. And it wasn't Bongo Bongo, who gave me trouble this time. First I died to Phantom Ganon's lightning strike, who came in from behind me, where I wasn't fast enough with shooting him. Usually the lightning bolts go into the corners, so you're safe in the middle of one of the cordons, but not this time. Also, Twinrova nearly killed me a the end, because Koume's fire beam wouldn't connect with my Mirror Shield and just fry me. Luckily I found two extra Heart Containers at beforehand or else my run would have ended at that point, probably leaving me quite frustrated.

You might also want to try killing all Redeads on Hyrule Market and then asking out loud "Anyone else want to complain?" - there's a good chance that Navi will "hey" you at that very moment. They really should have added an option to mute her in the remake...

The Most Disappointing Secret Grotto in Ocarina of Time

The one in Goron City:

You can see this magma path very early in the game and as new player you might even wonder, how you can get over there. It does take the Longshot and the Song of Time to cross this river of molten rocks unharmed and when you're finally at the other end, all you get is a hole full of Business Scrubs...

Pretty much anything else would have been better, because a lush green cave with Business Scrubs feels a little bit out of place and disappointing after all this trouble. There's a grotto with 200 Rupees in front of the entrance of Goron City that could have been swapped. But the best outcome probably would have been a third cave with special looks, where you fight some enemies for Rupees, e.g. Dodongos.

Now, this is just a minor complaint that always comes up, whenever I replay Ocarina of Time (currently in the Master Quest variant on the Nintendo 3DS, as indicated by the screenshot). And since this annoys me every time, I thought it was worth a small post.

It's not the only disappointing grotto that easily can be ignored, e.g. there are Secret Grottos below grey boulders, which require the Silver Gauntlets, but where you don't really get anything worthwhile in the end. However, the one in Goron City is certainly the worst.

Ocarina of Time 3D Master Quest Log 3

100%. I've also cleared the Master Quest Boss Gauntlet. Nothing left to do.

Well, there isn't much to talk about. The only new graphical detail, which I've noticed, are skull shaped winds when you ride the boat in the Shadow Temple. I didn't notice that during the normal quest, where I probably was busy with the Stalfos. But I got really efficient at fighting them, so this time I had plenty of time to actually enjoy the boat trip and look around.

I got really stuck in Gerudo Training Grounds. Which is interesting, because I've cleared the same dungeon on the GameCube not long ago. Well, problem was, that I was missing a key and I couldn't find it. It was the key in the room with the two Torch Slugs and the black Iron Knuckle, inside a treasure chest protected by a ring of fire. But I didn't know how to let the chest appear. There's a hidden crystal switch behind the Gerudo symbol above the door. You can't see at all in this version. But naturally I tried to shoot the Hookshot at the symbol, like you would do in the Fire or Water Temple, but nothing happened. It turned out that you actually had to use your bow...

Boss Challenges went pretty smooth, except for Bongo Bongo. The most critical point of the fight is right at the beginning. If you fail to target the hands properly, you're dead. They can cause four hearts of damage in Master Quest. After the beginning it's all pretty easy, as long as you're quick. But while struggling with Bongo Bongo at first, I cleared the Boss Gauntlet on my first try. Only Phantom Ganon could cause a critical hit with two hearts damage. So, I was on the edge during the Volvagia and Morpha fights. But the big chest after Morpha gave me a red potion to heal myself.

The Boss Challenges itself became harder in Master Quest, you don't get any recovery items like Milk or Red Potions. As a kid you only have three hearts in all fights and as an adult only five. The Boss Gauntlet was exactly the same as in the normal quest though, the only difference was the double damage and that you start with three hearts. But you get the same items and everything. I don't even think that the content of the two treasure chests is random. Because I got exactly the same stuff this time. Here's a list:

• Gohma
  Small Chest: 10 Bombs
  Large Chest: ???
• King Dodongo
  Small Chest: Recovery Heart
  Large Chest: ???
• Barinade
  Small Chest: Heart Container
  Large Chest: ???
• Phantom Ganon
  Small Chest: Empty Bottle (you need this for potions)
  Large Chest: ???
• Volvagia
  Small Chest: Longshot
  Large Chest: ???
• Morpha
  Small Chest: Green Potion
  Large Chest: Red Potion
• Bongo Bongo
  Small Chest: Heart Container
  Large Chest: ???

As you can see, I mostly opened the small chest so far. The Heart Containers are important, so are bombs and the Longshot. I only opened the large chest in case of Morpha, because I knew that the Green Potion would be useless for me (you only need little magic during the Bongo Bongo fight). But I will keep playing and testing what items I'll get. From what I've seen on GameFAQs/Gamespot people were getting completely different stuff than me (like the Bigger Quiver) despite always opening the small chests... It was just weird, that I got exactly the same items as in the normal quest.

Well, I'm done here. Expect reviews of both the Four Swords Anniversary Edition and Ocarina of Time 3D soon here on my blog.

Little Update: If you've cleared everything in the normal quest, the Sheikah Stone turns red and doesn't move anymore. To clear the Final Battle I had to save right before giving Ganon the finisher. So, don't forget to save at this point if you want to clear everything.

Ocarina of Time 3D Master Quest Log 2

Well, let's start with some good news. All the puzzles, that require you to attack through bars in different manners to activate switches or light torches are still present in Master Quest and work the way they used to be. However, this raises the question, why did they change the puzzles in the normal quest in the first place? Did they think they were too difficult? But what did they add the Sheikah Stones for? If something appears to be too difficult for the average costumer, just add a stupid video that shows how to do it instead of removing the puzzle.

However, that the "spin through bars"-puzzles were still intact let me hope that in Master Quest I'm going to face the same old Dark Link, the one that's hard to beat with the sword. But no, he acts the same as in the normal quest... in fact, it's even easier now to fight him with the sword instead of using the Hammer. Since I had full weaponry this time I used all different techniques on him. And using the sword worked best.

I got quite good at fighting Stalfos again. I'm saying "again", because they didn't really give me any trouble back in the day. And they certainly wouldn't bring me down like they did in this new version of Master Quest. Well, the best way is just spam-attacking them. If you hit them before they hit you, they don't deal any damage. I just spam them with the Biggoron Sword and everything is fine.

The Forest Temple was pretty interesting. If you got the Longshot, you can actually skip two locked doors and save yourself a lot of backtracking. You can pull yourself to a treasure chest on the ledge surrounded by water in the second outdoor area. There you can built yourself a staircase using these Song of Time blocks. And from there you can enter the area with the falling ceiling without using the twisted path from above. I still got the two extra keys and opened the doors for the sake of a 100% completion, but for a speedrunner this might be interesting.

One nice thing to notice is, that they "unmirrored" the frogs in the frog minigame. Their positions still correspond to the button layout, so the outer left frog is triggered by the L-button. I previously feared that the controls might be mirrored in this minigame, which would have been confusing.

After the Forest Temple I cleared the Bottom of the Well. Then I hunted Big Poes, got the Biggoron Sword and cleared the Gerudo Fortress to make my way into the desert. I basically cleared all possible sidequests before entering another temple. Maximum heart containers and stuff. And now I'm going for the default order of the dungeons... I did the Fire Temple first without any surprises. Then I went for the Water Temple and Shadow Temple will come next. I was thinking about some other crazy order, but I already experimented with the dungeon order in Master Quest just recently and I also played the dungeons out of order in the normal quest, so playing them in their intended order is actually quite refreshing.

Their was an interesting change in the Master Quest Water Temple. In the original Master Quest their was a spare key right in the room, where you would find the Boss Key in the normal quest. Now, in Ocarina of Time 3D there's actually a second locked door now, right next to the room with the spare key. So, the spare key isn't a spare key anymore.

Ocarina of Time 3D Master Quest Log

Have you ever taken a picture of your home and flip it horizontally on your computer? Or look at your home through a mirror just to see how it looks like? It looks strange, yet familiar. Sometimes it even looks more comfy. It is this kind of feeling, that you get while playing the Master Quest mode of Ocarina of Time 3D. All graphics have been flipped horizontally to add to your confusion. What used to be on the left, is now on the right. The Lost Woods are now in the West and the Gerudo Desert lies in the East. Everyone, who has played both the GameCube and the Wii version of Twilight Princess, knows what I'm talking about. And it can be confusing. It's like you know where everything should be, but you lost your sense of orientation. It's not always as easy as "I would need to go left, so I go right", because certain places may look like completely new places alltogether. Or you just mix it up. It has been 12 years since the last time I got lost in the Lost Woods, but now I constantly run into the wrong direction. However, there are also places, where I really enjoy the mirrored version. Mostly Zora's River, I like this area somehow more, can't really explain it. And all places with a fixed camera, like Hyrule Castle Town, can be quite interesting.

But while it can be confusing, I think the mirroring is still a good thing, because it really adds to the replay value. Otherwise it would be very boring to play Master Quest right after the normal quest. All of the overworld and all the sidequests would be identical. There aren't many enemies on the overworld, so the double damage doesn't really bother you outside of dungeons. And the rest of the game used to be the same, so you basically spent half of the time doing things, which you've just done before. And that would be really, really boring. But thanks to the mirroring it all feels like a different experience. You might be doing the same things, but you're too busy getting used to the mirror world that you would care.

The double damage itself can be troublesome. It might not sound so bad at first, but it can easily kill you, if you're careless. The most thrilling part might be the Deku Tree dungeon, because you only got three hearts and you don't have any bottles yet with fairies inside to revive you. Making two mistakes in a row kills you here. A Gold Skulltula already does two hearts of damage. And there are giant Deku Babas and Gohma Larvas all over the place. The key to winning is abusing the hell out of the Slingshot. You can destroy the Gohma Eggs by shooting them, so that the larvas won't hatch. You can even kill the giant Deku Babas from safe distance. With these easy but helpful techniques I made it through the dungeon without dying once.

Naturally one of the first sidequests I did outside of the forest would be getting the first two bottles. But I wouldn't really need them until my first encounter with a Stalfos inside the Ice Cavern. Their Jump Strikes are hard to dodge, can't be blocked and deal four hearts of damage. The only more dangerous thing in this game would be Iron Knuckles. But I have yet to face one.

My course through the game so far is pretty basic. Right now I'm at the Forest Temple. I did all possible sidequests as a child, not only because I always tend to do sidequests as early as possible during a replay, but because every single Piece of Heart counts. As an adult I would get the Horse and the Hookshot first, then I got myself a Goron Tunic (less damage from fire) before heading to the Ice Cavern. And before the Forest Temple I made a detour to the Water Temple to get the Longshot. I just don't like the Hookshot, it's too short. A nice thing of Master Quest is that in three out of five temples you get the dungeon's main item early in one of the first rooms. So, if you want the item, but don't want to play the rest of the dungeon, you can just make a little detour. Which is what I did in the Water Temple, you basically get the Map, the Compass and the Longshot all right after meeting with Ruto in the same area. Well, I had to fight three Stalfos and got my ass kicked again, but it was worth it. The Longshot is very useful in this game. With it I can get Nayru's Love right after the Forest Temple (or even earlier, but I'll doubt I could make it through the mirrored desert without the Eye of Truth), which will help me a lot with the nastier fights.

In Master Quest the Sheikah Stones are gone. Leaving them would have been stupid anyway, the Sheikah Stones are meant for beginners and Master Quest is meant for people, who are looking for some extra challenge. But all other guides are still in the game. They could have improved Master Quest by muting Navi. I already played through the entire game, I don't need her guidance! So, why is she still telling me, where I should go next? Like I don't know that! I guess they wanted to preserve the feeling of the original Master Quest, but that train left the station when they mirrored the entire game.

And I still love the Master Quest dungeons. They are really fun and most of them got a completely different flow from the original. For example it's nice that you don't have to carry Ruto around inside Jabu Jabu's Belly. She basically stays in one room all the time. In the normal quest she could be a pain in the ass. Things that used to be important in the normal quest are gone now and the focus is clearly on other ideas. And I like that.

I also noticed two more general differences between the original Ocarina of Time and the new 3D version. A very cool adition is that Adult Link now twirls his sword while L-targeting an enemy like he does in Twilight Princess. For some reason I haven't noticed this until now, but it definitely wasn't in the N64 version and it's really cool. However, there's also a poor change. Originally when you entered the Lost Woods with Cojiro he would crow. It doesn't do that anymore, no crowing. That's completely missing from the game for no reason.

Master Questing

So, I was playing Master Quest the other day... you know, the "original" version for Gamecube, the one which isn't mirrored and doesn't deal double damage. I don't have a Nintendo 3DS yet to play the new version, so that's fine. And I didn't finish the game, nor did I start it. I just picked up some older savegame to re-experience some of the Master Quest dungeons and to get a final impression of how Ocarina of Time used to look like, before I get my hands on the fancy new 3DS version. That way I will appreciate the graphics even more, after all the updated graphics seem to be the most important feature of the remake.

So, why am I telling you all this? Well, I was experimenting with the game's flow al little bit to see what level of freedom you have in the Master Quest version, which is different from Ocarina of Time, but still offers some interesting choices. Non-linearity and freedom make replaying a game always much more interesting. You try beating dungeons out of order, which is fun. And only a few people notice this, but Ocarina of Time is actually the most non-linear Zelda game right after Zelda I. The child part is pretty straight forward and after that most players tend to follow Navi's guidance, so they never noticed, that the adult part of the game is very non-linear. Okay, most people notice, that you can switch between Shadow and Spirit Temple. There's no Zelda board out there, which doesn't feature a "which comes first? - Spirit or Shadow Temple?"-thread, because Nintendo decided to put the Shadow Medaillon next to the Light Medaillon, probably just because it looks more meaningful. But this led to much discussion, whether the Spirit Temple comes before the Shadow Temple or not, even though the Shadow Temple comes first in all official and ingame guides...

But this is not the end of the flagpole. In both version you can play the Ice Cavern at the beginning, so you get the Iron Boots and Zora Armor early. In both version you can play the Bottom of the Well at any point after the Forst Temple until you really need the Lens of Truth. In the original game you can play the Fire Temple before the Forest Temple or the Water Temple before the Fire Temple (but I believe you need the Bow in the Water Temple). This is not the case in Master Quest, because you need the Bow in the Fire Temple. But you don't need it in the Water Temple, so this time you can play this one at the beginning.

And this is what I did. I played Ice Cavern, then I've beaten the Water Temple, then I played the Forest Temple, so I could return to the past and enter the Bottom of the Well, because I wanted to go to the Spirit Temple next. Okay, very experienced players are able to cross the desert without the Lens of Truth, but I'm not good at that. Then I've got both the Silver Gauntlets and the Mirror Shield from the Spirit Temple, but I couldn't finish it, because you need the Megaton Hammer for two rusty switches. Luckily you the the Hammer right at the beginning of the Fire Temple and entering the Fire Temple with the Mirror Shield equipped looks really cool.

Experimenting with the order of the dungeons and items like that is not only fun, but it also might be a huge help in the new version of Master Quest on the 3DS, where you have to face double damage. Especially receiving eight hearts damage from the Iron Knuckles must be a pain. So, try to get certain items earlier to receive an advantage. For example the Longshot makes playing the Forest Temple much more comfortable. You don't have to go far into the Water Temple, because you get the Longshot right at the start. So, you don't have to face Dark Link without the Hammer, which can be a little bit more difficult (or wastes tons of magic), if you don't want to. And if you go to the Desert Colossus early, you get Nayru's Love early, which might be a huge help for fighting Iron Knuckles, if you're not good at fighting them. You can get Nayru's Love even before facing the first Iron Knuckle in the Fire Temple. So, if you're stuck in Master Quest 3D, try going to different places and get useful stuff in advance.

Odd Scene in Master Quest 3D Promo

Some months ago the inclusion of Master Quest in Ocarina of Time 3D seemed just to be a small extra, but by now Nintendo promotes it as a big deal. And it certainly is one, I guess the majority of buyers will play Master Quest for their first time. Also, the mirroring and double damage gives new challenge to experienced Ocarina of Time players. So, here is a little promotional video from the Japanese website that introduces the differences.

However... at 1:05 in the video there's an odd scene that shows Young Link inside the Forest Temple. It appears to be the small room in the northern area of 1F, where you fight to Wolfos to get a key in Master Quest. Zelda Informer also acknowledges that this is odd and luckily made a screenshot, which saves me some time:



There are multiple explanations for this. It could be that this was just Grezzo experimenting and not a scene from the actual game. However, releasing material of something, that won't be in the final game, so close to the release would be a strange move. And the promoting probably won't be done by Grezzo, but by some Nintendo marketing party.

Another explanation would be, that they changed the Forest Temple in Master Quest so, so that you can enter it as Young Link. However, this doesn't make much sense and they stated, that the dungeons will be the same as in Master Quest on GameCube. They are already crazy enough, there's no need to make them even crazier. And I doubt this would work so easily without completely changing the entire dungeon. Young Link has to get past the Hookshot parts without a Hookshot. And for what reason would they do that? The Forest Temple is supposed to be the first adult dungeon, there's no place for Young Link here. You can't even return to childhood without beating the temple (or one of the other temples, not sure right now) first.

The last explanation and my favorite one is that this actually isn't a shot from the Forest Temple. As in NEW CONTENT. Yeah, I said it. And I'm a broken record all over this. But this game needs a bonus dungeon. They got everything right so far, there is Master Quest and they even made it harder with the mirroring and the double damage. There is the Boss Challenge as some sort of new sidequest. Now just let there be an extra dungeon and they got every point on my checklist for a perfect remake. And I'm not demanding much, I'm just using the other remastered Zelda games as a basis, like Link's Awakening DX or A Link to the Past on the GameBoy Advance. LADX got updated visuals, a new sidequest (the photo quest) and a bonus dungeon. A Link to the Past also got a new sidequest (the Riddle Quest) and a bonus dungeon (the Palace of the Four Sword), but also improved gameplay mechanics and fucking Four Swords as an extra multiplayer game. Ocarina of Time 3D got the updated visuals, the improved gameplay mechanics, the Boss Challenge mode, Master Quest as a 2nd Quest, so the only thing missing would be a bonus dungeon.

It doesn't even have to be something special. We already got the tricky extra dungeon with the Gerudo Training Grounds. But another Savage Labyrinth / Cave of Ordeals clone would be easily made. Five sets of ten rooms based on the five temples, where you fight all the common enemies and minibosses from that area. There's a way to challenge all the bosses again, so it makes sense to include something for all normal enemies and minibosses as well. That way you could fight Dark Link again, if you want. And you can chose if you want to challenge it as adult or young Link just by visiting the dungeon at the corresponding time. I would hide such a dungeon in the Desert Colossus area or some other area which can't be visited until later in the game.

Ocarina of Time 3D Boss Challenge, Super Guide, Mirrored Master Quest and even more Screenshots

Man, it's hard to keep up with all those Ocarina of Time 3D news lately. Well, let's start with some interesting screenshots of Hyrule Castle and Castle Town:

Looking good. Well, I'm disappointed that the camera is still fixed - who wouldn't like to freely explore Hyrule Castle Town? If there's one thing they should have changed from the original, it would have been this. But they did a nice job with the remodelling of certain buildings, like the mask shop. Find more screenshots at Zelda Informer.

Those screen shots come from a press release by Nintendo of Europe. It also gave away some more information. There will be a Boss Challenge mode, where you can replay certain bosses or chose to fight them in circles. Fans always wanted something like this, so I guess either GREZZO or Nintendo were listening.

And there's Super Guide. Yes, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D will be the first Zelda game implementing the Super Guide. The game will show videos of how to solve certain puzzles. Lame, but I don't care.

However, there's one strange addition. In Master Quest the game will be mirrored. Like the Wii version of Twilight Princess. Seriously...? Okay, to be honest, actually I saw something like that coming. While complaining about the mirrored Wii version of Twilight Princess in earlier blog articles, I noticed how Nintendo was actually proud of that idea (from an Iwata Ask interview) and I feared that a Mirror Mode will become a normal addition to later 3D Zelda games. A Mirror Mode is a very, very simple addition to a game, that can change your gameplay experience entirely. May it be in Mario Kart, Donkey Kong Country Returns or now in Zelda. Just flip the graphics and you'll get a new game mode. It's just interesting that they are fucking Master Quest up with this idea. The original Master Quest wasn't mirrored, it was just crazy. So, what if I want to play Master Quest in the way it was supposed to be? It would have been better, if the Mirror Mode was a separate option. So, you could play either the normal game or Master Quest and then select whether you want to play in Mirror Mode or not. That would be four different play styles. But I understand why they wanted to mirror Master Quest. Mainly because it only changes the dungeons, not the overworld. Half of the game was the same thing. So, now there literally would be a twist to the overworld as well, a new experience all the time. And it fits the idea of Master Quest quite well. The dungeons in Master Quest and their puzzles were designed in a way, that they screw you if you try to solve them in a similar way to the original game. You could say, the better you know Ocarina of Time, the trickier Master Quest can get. And the mirroring just adds to this concept, the better you know Ocarina of Time's Hyrule, the more confusing the mirrorred world might be. I guess, it could be interesting and definitely challenging for me. The more I think about it, the more I like the idea. And I call it now, that Skyward Sword will have a Mirror Mode (for the lefties) as well.

Like always no news about any actual new content, like a bonus dungeon. I'm a broken record when it comes to this, this game needs something NEW. Mirrored Master Quest, Boss Challenge, Super Guide, updated graphics - all of them are nice additions, but no real new content. Link's Awakening DX did have new content (bonus dungeon, photo quest), A Link to the Past: Four Swords did have new content (bonus dungeon, riddle quest, an entire freaking multiplayer game) and Ocarina 3D is next in the line of remastered Zelda games. Why not follow the past trends and add for example a bonus dungeon to the game? But by now it really looks unlikely, unless they saved the big surprise for E3 2011.

Source: Zelda Informer again

Ocarina of Time 3D Ocarina Use, 2nd Quest and Stone of Agony

Check out this hands-on report from GameXplain. At first the talk only about the updated graphics, blah blah blah, but then they drop some interesting details.

At first there's the Ocarina, which isn't a normal item, which has to be assigned to a button, anymore. Instead it always uses the touchscreen button in the lower left corner (seen that on screenshots). The nice addition is, while playing the Ocarina the touchscreen displays your song list. That's handy. When I haven't played Ocarina of Time (or Majora's Mask) for a while I usually have the problem, that I don't remember how the songs went. Then I have to stop playing, open the menu, look up the song, try to remember it, return ingame and then finally play it or look it up again. But not anymoooore, yay. Well, I guess that's just one of the many benefits of having two screens. Like the boot swapping and so on.

The Stone of Agony is still in the game. But instead of using rumble, it tells you the location of hidden secrets with sounds. I'm actually quite interested in this, because I never used the Stone of Agony before. I didn't have the Rumble Pack for the Nintendo 64 (it was huuuuge), I turned off the Rumble in the GameCube version (because it created some lack and back then I didn't like rumble effects) and the Virtual Console didn't support it. So, I don't really know, when the Stony of Agony tells you anything. But I guess it's good for the secret grottos (especially the ones that are opened with the Song of Storms - how can you tell?) ...

Last but not least, Master Quest is unlocked by beating the game once, like the 2nd Quest in Zelda I. That's cool, I wonder if you can also start a Master Quest by using ZELDA as your name. That would be a nice touch. However, how GameXplain can call this a "minor addition" beats me, Master Quest rocks.

Besides all the known updates everything in the game itself, sounds and music are identical to the original. So, GameXplain calls this actually a "remastered version" and not a remake. Thank you! But again no infos about any new content.

Source: GameXplain (via Zelda Informer)

Master Quest Confirmed for Ocarina of Time 3D

Check out this video: CNM

"This also comes not only with The Legend of Zelda [Ocarina of Time], but also with the Master Quest. That's like two games in one."
- David Young, NoA



This is great news! Well, I've already talked about this possibility a couple of times on my blog and I'm happy to see it come true. It's like I said, they have the content and judging from the estimated approach how they made this remake it shouldn't have been too difficult to reuse the content. So, it would be a pity, if they would have "forgotten" to include Master Quest. I'm really happy about this and I'm looking forward to play the Master Quest version in 3D as well. Now, if they also added some new content like a small bonus dungeon, the remake would be "perfect".

Source: ZU Forums

Master Quest and the Virtual Console

By now we already have five Zelda titles available for Nintendo Wii's Virtual Console:

• The Legend of Zelda (NES)
• Zelda II - The Adventure of Link (NES)
• A Link to the Past (SNES)
• Ocarina of Time (N64)
• Majora's Mask (N64)

You might say, that with Majora's Mask we finally got all Zeldas for the Virtual Console systems. But that's not entirely the truth, one is still missing (not counting any possible remakes of the BS Zeldas). I'm speaking about Ocarina of Time Master Quest, which was only released on a bonus disc for the Nintendo GameCube. Some say, "Master Quest won't make it to the Virtual Console, because it was a GameCube game", which isn't correct. Master Quest was emulated the same way Ocarina of Time was, since it is a Nintendo 64 game.

Originally Nintento developed two Zelda games for their Nintendo 64DD AddOn, both of them being expansions of Ocarina of Time. The first one, called Ura Zelda ("Reversed Zelda" or "Another Zelda"), was supposed to be a 2nd Quest for Ocarina of Time using harder dungeons and new enemies. The second one, Zelda Gaiden ("Zelda Side Story"), should offer a new overworld and new quests. However, Nintendo early stopped supporting the Nintendo 64DD in the believe, that it would be a commercial failure, and most games developed for it were either scrapped or ported to the Nintendo 64. Zelda Gaiden evolved then into Majora's Mask, but the Ura Zelda project was cancelled.

However, fans demanded, that Nintendo should release Ura Zelda as well, and believe it or not, from time to time Nintendo listens to their fans. It was then bundled as "Master Quest" together with the original Ocarina of Time on a bonus disc for the GameCube, that came with the Limited Edition of The Wind Waker. The bonus disc is now only available as a premium of Club Nintendo and on ebay of course. But since the Ura Zelda project never really was finished, Master Quest only featured the 12 modified, more challenging dungeons, no extra content.



I personally love Master Quest. It adds huge replay value to Ocarina of Time and comes with some really smart puzzles, that try to screw with you, if you know Ocarina of Time too well. And consider, Nintendo did make this for the Zelda fans and Zelda fans only. This one is for the fans and that alone is reason enough for every Zelda fan to love Master Quest, even if it doesn't feature any new items or enemies.

Back to topic, Master Quest is a Nintendo 64 game and was emulated like one. The bonus disc only contained a Nintendo 64 ROM of the game and an emulator shipped with it, much like Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask on the Collector's Edition. And unlike Majora's Mask, the emulation of Master Quest was already perfectly stable at that time. Also, every Virtual Console game gets its own emulator, so there shouldn't be any problems in case it uses slightly more RAM than other Nintendo 64 games do. So, there's no technical reason, why Master Quest shouldn't appear on the Virtual Console. And on the other hand there are some good reasons why the game should appear on it:

• It's a rare Zelda title. People tend to have a huge curiosity when it comes to Zelda and probably check it out. The Zelda games are the most popular games on the Virtual Console after Super Mario.
• It's a special version of Ocarina of Time. Everyone loves Ocarina of Time. It was called the best game of all times often enough.
• They already successfully emulated it on GameCube, so they should't have any work with it.
• It was never a retail game and it's "hard" to get nowadays, which makes it as special as for example The Lost Levels.

So, the real question is not, whether Master Quest will appear on the Virtual Console, but when. I don't think, it will be released in the near future. My best guess would be, that they're going to save it for the time, when Zelda Wii comes out, to celebrate on the Virtual Console the release of the newest Zelda game. They did the same with Metroid and Super Metroid, when Metroid Prime 3: Corruption came out. And Master Quest doesn't have any priority right now, there are still many demanded games left and we already have the original Ocarina of Time, so they can save this for later.



For me personally this would be more or less just for my Virtual Console collection, since I already have the bonus disc. But I tend to replay the VC games more, because I don't have to swap the disc to play them. Which is why I like VC games. Still I'd say, a lot of Zelda fans would pass on this download, because of various reasons including the typical whining, that Nintendo just wants money from rip offs and that Master Quest only offers modified dungeons with different puzzles. However, for new Zelda fans, who never experienced Master Quest before, this download would be an absolute must.