The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Master Quest
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Master Quest, commonly known as Master Quest, is a reworked version and game mode of Ocarina of Time.[1] Master Quest contains largely the same content as the original Ocarina of Time, but with redesigned, more difficult Dungeons akin to a Second Quest.
Master Quest was first made available for the Nintendo GameCube on a special bonus disc that also contained the original Ocarina of Time. This disc was given out in limited quantities with pre-orders of The Wind Waker. Additionally, it was sold packaged with The Wind Waker in some regions. It is also available as a mode in Ocarina of Time 3D, unlocked after first completing the regular game.
Changes from Ocarina of Time
The most notable feature of Master Quest is that every Dungeon in the game has been modified to increase their difficulty. Though they feature similar layouts to the original game, the order of progression through the levels has been changed. Enemies are spread differently throughout the Dungeons, and tougher Enemies are encountered much earlier on. Many of the rooms and puzzles in Dungeons place a greater emphasis on time-limited Switches, manipulating Time Blocks, and collecting Silver Rupees. Some unusual changes exist, such as Cows stuck inside the walls lining Jabu-Jabu's Belly that double as Switches. In addition, some of the Gold Skulltulas inside Dungeons have been moved, and certain Items that are optional in the original version are now mandatory to complete the game.
Ocarina of Time 3D Version
Master Quest for Ocarina of Time 3D is not available from the start. To unlock it, the original quest has to be completed first.[2] Upon doing so, the player will have an option on the Title Screen to choose between the original quest or the Master Quest, with each version having its own set of Saved Games.
This version of the Master Quest features the modified Dungeons from the GameCube version, but has two significant changes. The entire game has been mirrored, similarly to Twilight Princess for the Wii, making Link right-handed as well as flipping the entire Hyrule map and the Dungeons.[3] In addition, all of the Enemies and Bosses will cause twice as much damage to Link, which also applies to the Master Quest's own Boss Challenge Mode.[4]
History
In the late 1990s, Nintendo developed an add-on peripheral for the Nintendo 64 called the Nintendo 64DD. The Nintendo 64DD used magnetic disks, with a larger memory capacity than the cartridges used for the Nintendo 64, allowing for additional content and improved models and textures. While Nintendo hoped that the Nintendo 64DD would attract third-party developers, they also began developing several first-party titles, one of which was Ocarina of Time. Struggling to attract interest to the platform, Nintendo moved development of Ocarina of Time to the Nintendo 64, and the game was ultimately released on a cartridge.[5] At the time of this change, the game featured more content than the cartridges could hold and so parts of the game had to be removed.[5][6]
Shigeru Miyamoto announced that an expansion would follow Ocarina of Time, tentatively known as Ura Zelda, with 裏 (Ura) meaning "flip-side" or "reverse". The expansion was purported to include rearranged Dungeon from the original game. The Nintendo 64DD became a commercial failure in Japan, and so most of Nintendo's planned titles for the 64DD, including Ura Zelda, were never released. Miyamoto insisted that the game would continue to be developed, and in August 2000 indicated that Ura Zelda had been completed for some time.[7] Despite this, Nintendo could not decide on how to release the game, and considered different methods such as a magazine tie-in.[8]
Remnants of Ura Zelda's 64DD origins can be found in Ocarina of Time. Several error messages exist in the game's data regarding wrong disks being inserted. By modifying certain RAM addresses, a "Disk" tag can be made to appear on the Title Screen,[9] and any save file can also be flagged as a "Disk" save, becoming permanently grayed out and inaccessible.[10] If the game is tricked further into thinking the expansion disk is inserted, attempting to open the file will crash the game, presumably from trying to load non-existent data.[11]
Listings
Glitches
Nomenclature
 Names in Other Regions  | ||
|---|---|---|
| Language | Names | Meanings |
 Japanese |
|
|
 Korean | 시간의 오카리나「another」버젼 (Sigan-ui Okarina「another」Beojyeon) (OoT) | Ocarina of Time "Another" Version |
| This table was generated using translation pages. To request an addition, please contact a staff member with a reference. | ||
Gallery
References
- ↑ The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D—Prima Official Game Guide, Prima Games, pg. 2
- ↑ "The Master Quest will not be available from the start of the game. You will need to play through and complete the main quest first. Once you’ve done so, the Master Quest will then be unlocked. At that point, once you start up your Nintendo 3DS, you will have an option to play the Main Quest or the Master Quest. Additionally, the Boss Replay Challenge (more about this in the next news post), has its own Master Quest version, allowing you to battle these bosses on the tougher difficulty settings." — [1] , Zelda Dungeon.net; retrieved May 12, 2011.
- ↑ "For the 3DS remake, the Master Quest has two significant changes. First off, the entire game is now mirrored! That’s right, the entire game has received a complete reflection much like Twilight Princess did for the Nintendo Wii. This means that Link will now be right-handed, the entire overworld map will be flipped, along with all of the dungeons. So Kakariko Village will now be to the West of Hyrule Castle, Lake Hylia will be to the Southeast, and the Desert Colossus at the far northeast corner of the overworld." — [2] , Zelda Dungeon.net; retrieved May 12, 2011.
- ↑ "In addition to the game being mirrored, the Master Quest is now significantly harder as difficulty adjusters have been put in, causing all enemies to do double the amount of damage each time they hit Link. [...] Additionally, the Boss Replay Challenge (more about this in the next news post), has its own Master Quest version, allowing you to battle these bosses on the tougher difficulty settings." — Ocarina of Time 3D: Uber Master Quest; retrieved May 12, 2011 , Zelda Dungeon.net.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "N64.com's Japanese correspondent today confirmed that a complete and finished cartridge-based version of The Legend of Zelda (a working title) will arrive Nintendo 64 late this year, followed by a 64DD afterward. The long-awaited action-based RPG, which many people believed to be the sole killer-app for 64DD, is likely to have a bigger ROM size than Super Mario 64, and is believed to contain as much as 12 MBs." — Zelda officially goes to cart , IGN, published 1997-03-07, retrieved 2013-01-27.
- ↑ "There were several ideas that I could not incorporate [in the current game] because of the time shortage and other reasons. In the future, I want some new areas and new dungeons to be available for players who have already finished Ocarina of Time, where they will find new challenges." — Zelda DD: The Other Adventure , IGN, published 1998-11-17, retrieved 2013-01-27.
- ↑ "Speaking to the press in an open forum held yesterday in Tokyo, Japan, Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto casually commented that "Ura-Zelda" has been completed for some time now." — Ura Zelda Complete , IGN, published 2000-08-25, retrieved 2020-08-05.
- ↑ "Although we did develop Ura for the 64DD, it didn't use many of the special features. So it was very easy to port over to the GameCube without cutting any features. Why we did it, well that was because the 64DD was only released in Japan and it was only sold to subscribers of the RandNet system. For a long time we wanted to make it available for play and find a way to do that. It was expensive to make cartridges, so we had through about different ways. One thing we thought about was tie-ups with magazines. Once GameCube moved to disc media, though, it became much more feasible to make it available. In terms of how we've done it, we didn't want to make it limited edition. So we've tried to make it available to as many people as possible." — Miyamoto and Aonuma on Zelda , IGN, published 2002-12-04, retrieved 2013-01-27.
- ↑ "It is possible to trick the game into believing you have inserted an Ura Zelda disk. [...] This will cause the game to display a Disk tag on the title screen." — The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time , The Cutting Room Floor, retrieved June 4, 2023.
- ↑ "The tagged file is greyed out by default and cannot be opened unless a 64DD is attached to the system, and the game is tricked into thinking you have the correct disk inserted using the method detailed in the section above." — The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time , The Cutting Room Floor, retrieved June 4, 2023.
- ↑ "However, the game crashes if you try to load them, perhaps because it is trying to access non-existent files on the disk." — The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time , The Cutting Room Floor, retrieved June 4, 2023.
