


The prelude to Jabu-Jabu’s Belly sends Link scrambling up a stream to discover Zora’s Domain, discovering a letter from the missing Princess Ruto at Lake Hylia, and using a fish to entice Jabu-Jabu to open his mouth so Link can search for Princess Ruto inside.

In this entry, I will be examining Ocarina of Time’s third dungeon, Inside Jabu-Jabu’s Belly. And since the 2011 3DS remaster makes a wide variety of changes to the original but remains equally masterful, I will be looking at that version alongside the 1998 Nintendo 64 release. This continuing series will take a look back at the entry that established the 3D dungeon template, in turn altering dungeon design in ways that would dominate and define the series for nearly twenty years. Although Breath of the Wild is utterly superb, its reimagining of the Zelda formula is noticeably lacking classic dungeon design. In commemoration of Goomba Stomp’s second anniversary staff list champion, our Level-by-Level feature will be diving into The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, dungeon-by-dungeon.
