The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake is modernizing several parts of the Nintendo 64 classic, but one dungeon could benefit from a change Nintendo has effectively tested before. Jabu-Jabu’s Belly turns Princess Ruto into a recurring escort mechanic in the original game, while Master Quest significantly reduces how often Link needs to carry her.
Nintendo hasn’t confirmed that the Switch 2 remake will use Master Quest’s version of Jabu-Jabu’s Belly, so any such change remains speculative. Still, Master Quest provides an existing blueprint for addressing one of the original dungeon’s most divisive mechanics.
The Water Temple Isn’t Ocarina of Time’s Only Frustrating Dungeon
The Water Temple has spent decades as Ocarina of Time’s most notorious dungeon.
Much of its reputation came from repeatedly switching the Iron Boots on and off in the Nintendo 64 version. Since the boots were managed through the equipment menu rather than assigned like a normal item, changing water levels often meant interrupting exploration with repeated trips into the menu.
The remake is already showing a more modern approach to item management, including quicker item access alongside its traditional equipment interface.
The old claim that players could permanently ruin their Water Temple save by using Small Keys in the wrong order is another part of the dungeon’s reputation, although that supposed softlock isn’t actually how the dungeon works.
Yet the Water Temple isn’t the only dungeon whose original design can feel cumbersome today.
Inside Jabu-Jabu’s Belly may have an even clearer candidate for modernization: Princess Ruto.
Why Princess Ruto Makes Jabu-Jabu’s Belly Frustrating
Jabu-Jabu’s Belly is Ocarina of Time’s third major dungeon and one of its strangest.
After finding Princess Ruto inside the enormous creature, Link spends a significant portion of the dungeon carrying her from room to room.
Ruto isn’t merely following Link. Picking her up, putting her down, throwing her across gaps, and positioning her on switches are all part of the dungeon’s puzzle design.
It’s a memorable concept, but it also creates an escort-style problem.
Leave Ruto somewhere and take the wrong route, fall into the wrong opening, or otherwise become separated from her, and you may need to retrace your steps before continuing.
That becomes more cumbersome because Jabu-Jabu’s organic interior deliberately uses similar-looking rooms and corridors. Add the dungeon’s electrical enemies before Link acquires the Boomerang, and navigating while keeping track of Ruto can become more tedious than the underlying puzzles suggest.
The remake doesn’t necessarily need to remove Ruto from the dungeon. In fact, doing so would eliminate one of Jabu-Jabu’s defining mechanics.
It could simply reduce how much of the dungeon depends on carrying her around.
Master Quest Already Changed the Ruto Mechanic
That’s where The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Master Quest becomes relevant.
Master Quest keeps Ocarina of Time’s overall story and overworld structure but substantially reworks its dungeons. Enemy placement, puzzles, progression routes, and other elements were changed to provide a different and generally more challenging experience.
Its version of Jabu-Jabu’s Belly also changes Ruto’s role.
Rather than making her a recurring requirement throughout much of the dungeon, Master Quest limits how extensively Link needs to carry Ruto for puzzle progression. She’s still part of the sequence, but the dungeon becomes far less dependent on constantly transporting her.
It’s a relatively small structural change that addresses much of the frustration without removing Ruto from the story.
Once she’s no longer functioning as a persistent object that Link needs to track, Jabu-Jabu’s Belly plays more like a conventional Zelda dungeon: explore rooms, solve puzzles, fight enemies, and work toward the dungeon item and boss.
The Remake Doesn’t Need All of Master Quest
None of this means the upcoming Ocarina of Time remake needs to replace the original dungeons with their Master Quest counterparts.
Master Quest isn’t simply a polished version of the original campaign. Its dungeons are deliberately remixed, sometimes with dramatically different puzzle solutions and unusual additions.
The remake footage shown so far instead points toward preserving the recognizable structure of the original game while modernizing how it plays. The Great Deku Tree, for example, remains immediately recognizable even with the remake’s updated presentation and mechanics.
That makes selective changes more plausible than wholesale replacement with Master Quest layouts.
Jabu-Jabu’s Belly would be an ideal place for that philosophy.
Nintendo could retain the dungeon’s original rooms, atmosphere, enemies, Boomerang progression, and relationship with Ruto while borrowing the basic idea behind Master Quest: don’t make players carry Ruto quite so much.
Modern Controls Could Help Jabu-Jabu’s Belly Too
The remake is already introducing mechanical changes that could make older dungeon designs easier to navigate.
Link now has a dedicated jump ability rather than relying exclusively on the original game’s automatic ledge jumping, while modern camera controls give players more direct control over their surroundings.
Those additions could naturally affect how Jabu-Jabu’s platforming and navigation feel.
They don’t solve the Ruto issue by themselves, though. Even with smoother movement and better camera control, repeatedly retrieving and repositioning an escort character could still interrupt the dungeon’s pacing.
That’s why Master Quest offers such a useful precedent.
The remake doesn’t need to reinvent Jabu-Jabu’s Belly. It already has an alternate version of Ocarina of Time demonstrating that Ruto can remain an important part of the dungeon without requiring Link to haul her through so much of it.
Whether Nintendo actually adopts that solution remains unknown ahead of the remake’s November 5, 2026 release on Nintendo Switch 2. But if Jabu-Jabu’s Belly does receive some selective modernization, Master Quest has already shown one way to preserve the dungeon’s identity while removing much of its escort-style frustration.
