Although the Switch 2 hasn't brought us a new Legend of Zelda just yet, it has given us a modern way to play one of the best mainline games in the franchise: The Wind Waker. Before now, the only way to enjoy Link’s seafaring adventure on the GameCube – besides original hardware – was a remaster on the ill-fated WiiU.
Since we finally have an easy way to enjoy Wind Waker via the Switch 2 Expansion Pack's GameCube emulator, my nostalgia longs for the other half of the cel-shaded quest. After setting sail and defeating Ganon, European GameCube owners got to enjoy another challenge: Ocarina of Time Master Quest, a harder version of the N64 staple.
When I say harder, I mean it. Master Quest re-calibrates Ocarina of Time from top to bottom with tougher enemies, trickier dungeons, and generally demands sharper skills and more tactical thinking. It’s expressly designed to test experienced players who know Hyrule Castle like the back of their hand, right down to the orientation: even the world itself is flipped, placing Death Mountain off to the west as opposed to the east.
The missing Link
The differences start as early as The Great Deku Tree, where you need to figure out another order to get by the Deku Scrubs. but the alterations become more and more apparent. Dodongo’s Cavern is routed a whole other way to the original, forcing you to remap the entire multi-floor climb.
The problems only ramp up from there, as fresh puzzles test your patience and intellectual strength. I spent hours in both the Forest and Spirit temples on separate, equally confounding conundrums, the former involving time blocks, the latter extra jumps between young and adult Link.
Getting to and moving from these areas is another issue. An Iron Knuckle lays in wait in the Fire Temple, earlier than when you’d face one normally, while extra time-hopping throughout the game pushes the limits of your memory, just how well you can keep track of what era you’re in. Even the Skulltulas are more toilsome to gather, scattered in further obtuse nooks and crannies, a precursor to the laborious Korok seeds.
We were meant to be playing Master Quest much earlier than GameCube, as it was intended to be a disc-based add-on for the Nintendo 64. The hardware was ultimately scrapped, but the spirit of invention lives on in Master Quest, where you need to scrutinize your surroundings to a degree that seems expressly designed to aggravate and annoy. (Here’s a free tip: check every single fire for something in or by the flames.)
My favorite change is in Bottom of the Well, where using the wrong key at the wrong time can lead you to believing you’re stuck and need to restart. You’re not, but the belief is strong enough you may just restart your save, like my friends and I did way back when. We couldn’t find any further information on what happened, and simply settled on the belief Nintendo had constructed a dead end. It hadn’t, but creating scenarios where you think you're trapped is even smarter.
For your situation to look so hopeless that you reset and sit through Link being woken up by fairies again shows that nothing – nothing – is sacred here. No matter how much warm, fuzzy excitement Ocarina of Time’s opening may hold for you, knowing you’ve got to redo all of Master Quest’s added hurdles is a terrifying prospect. It’s a Soulslike in Zelda clothing, Nintendo’s attempt at building one of FromSoftware’s masochism machines.
As the company behind Super Mario becomes a bigger and bigger enterprise, now with theme parks and blockbuster movies among its ventures, Master Quest seems like a product of a bygone age. It’s got more in common with the esotericism of Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link and Link’s Awakening than the sublime playgrounds of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. There’s a dark revelry here and in Majora’s Mask we don’t see much from Nintendo any more, and as its properties become larger franchises, it feels unlikely we'll see more of this in the future.
With metroidvanias and roguelikes being all the rage, Ocarina of Time Master Quest would be a revelation. Hollow Knight, Dead Cells, The Binding of Isaac; numerous games have built on the exploratory framework of Zelda over the years, folding in different ideas of storytelling and difficulty scaling to examine what keeps us intrigued enough to continue playing.
Master Quest is Link’s very own Dark Souls, the epitome of a journey requiring power, courage and wisdom, couched in mythology just as obtuse and perfunctory. It turns a cornerstone piece of art on its head for those familiar, and gives newer players a whole other perspective on a series they may believe they already understand.
As is common for big Ninty, re-releases have been rare. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D on the 3DS came with Master Quest as an unlockable New Game Plus after you beat the regular game once. We’ve had nothing since, leaving the official mod stuck on a handheld no longer available for sale and as part of the increasingly rare original PAL version of Wind Waker. With the GameCube being emulated on the Switch 2, the stage is set for Nintendo to really test Zelda fans. The true Master Quest awaits.
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