The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake is out November 5 in the U.S. and already live for millions of Switch 2 owners in New Zealand and other parts of the world. The good news is that the early reviews have been absolutely glowing for Nintendo’s latest exclusive. The bad news is that they’ve also confirmed there’s no much-requested Master Quest mode.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Master Quest was a reworked version of the N64 game that made it much harder. It was released for the GameCube in 2003 in limited quantities around the launch of Wind Waker. Extremely rare but extremely rewarding for hardcore Ocarina of Time fans who knew the original game like the back of their hands, it functioned as a callback to the more difficult Second Quest for the first Zelda on NES. It was part of the Ocarina of Time remaster on 3DS, too.
As a result, many were hoping Nintendo would include some version of Master Quest mode in the Ocarina of Time remake on Switch 2. According to those who have already finished the game, however, there’s no such option here. “It honestly bums me out that the remake doesn’t include a sort of Hero Mode, or even better, the Master Quest variant for veteran Heroes of Time to make us sweat a little too,” Scott White and Alex Donaldson wrote for RPGSite.
Anna Koselke, in her review for Gamesradar, was similarly disappointed. “There’s no Master Quest version to play through,” she wrote. “So, for the time being, my journey with the Ocarina of Time remake ends. I’m sent back to the menu screen that still lives rent-free in my head, left wishing I could explore more of this take on Nintendo’s gem, or at least enjoy it once more without losing the mark of my previous progress.”
Nintendo hasn’t been shy about delivering free content updates for its Switch 2 games. Star Fox recently received new multiplayer content, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe even received an entire new 8-player split-screen mode on the newer hardware. It’s easy to imagine a Master Quest mode, or at least a new game+ option, being added to Ocarina of Time in the months ahead, even if it’s not clear what would stop that from being included in the base game from the jump.
While players can access the original version of Ocarina of Time on Switch Online, the Master Quest add-on remains absent there as well. Maybe it’ll be added to the GameCube’s growing library on Switch 2 at some point.