The Legend of Zelda series is more than just a game to its massive fan base. The series is like family. I will often find myself coming back to Ocarina of Time or A Link to the Past and, upon dusting off and plugging in the cartridge, I get that same, fuzzy feeling you get when you come home for Christmas. It's that warm feeling that accompanies a sense of belonging. The series has become like family and playing and replaying each installment is truly a cathartic experience.
That being said, the Zelda series is far from perfect. Aside from the obvious pariahs in the series (I'm looking at you, Link: The Faces of Evil and Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon), Nintendo has left many other mistakes within even the most beloved installments in the series. From translation errors and typos all the way down to canon-destroying timeline inconsistencies, each title in this thirty-year-old series has at least a mistake or two.
Seeing as how massive the Zelda series has become over the last twenty years, we can all forgive Nintendo for a few mistakes. Hell, most of them you might not even notice. So that is where we come in.
This is our list of 15 crazy mistakes you never noticed in The Legend of Zelda series.
15 Did I Say 7?
Part of the way through The Adventure of Link, the second installment in the Zelda series, an Old Lady asks our adventurer if he has been able to acquire "the seven Magic Containers." Players can spend hours and hours looking for the aforementioned magical objects, but no matter how long one attempts to find all seven, only four can be found. This is due to the fact that the four bars of magic that players are given at the beginning of the game count towards the seven containers. If you find the four that are actually in the game before talking to the lady, you may go through the dialogue none the wiser. However, if you are not so lucky and start your search not realizing that your magic bars are included in the count, you could be in for a long and unfruitful search for something that doesn't actually exist.
14 Dark World Duck
The Duck in a A Link to the Past is a great way to jump around the Light World. Just blow that ocarina and watch him sail in. Just before the final boss while in the Dark World, Ganon flies away in an attempt to reach the Pyramid of Power. Link wishes to catch up with Ganon when he is on the recoil and calls the Duck to pick him up and aid in his pursuit of the villain. The only problem with this scenario is that Link is in the Dark World and the Duck can only be utilized in the Light World. Of course no one noticed at the time because we were all too invested in the story and defeating the last boss of this huge game. Also, maybe the Duck just made an exception since we are talking about defeating the greatest evil Hyrule has ever known. Well... defeating him for now, anyways.
13 Romani Ranch Errr... Kakariko Village?
Majora's Mask is one of the series' entries with more than its fair share of mistakes. It is common knowledge that this title used many of the same assets as Ocarina of Time. In fact, since Majora's Mask used so many of the same bits from the previous entry, some of the mistakes contained within this fine title are 100% due to the fact that they didn't pay attention when copying and pasting items from Ocarina of Time. For instance, when approaching Romani Ranch, the wooden sign above the entrance says "Welcome to Kakariko Village." Everyone will remember Kakariko Village as the starting zone in Ocarina of Time. If you don't stop to read the sign, it could go completely unnoticed and that's probably why it stayed in the game in the first place.
12 Timeline Inconsistencies
As anyone who has closely followed the series over the years will know, The Legend of Zelda's timeline is a difficult to follow web of universes that splits and is ultimately one of the more confusing aspects of the Zelda canon. This is so much so the case that even the developers have had problems keeping track of it all. Whether it is the contestable "Hero is Defeated" timeline (which appears in the official Hyrule Historia) that suggests that Link loses to Ganon at the end of Ocarina of Time or certain characters who should be dead showing up in later installments, there are plenty of problems for a Zelda nerd with way too much time on their hands to obsess over. This is something that anyone playing the games would probably never notice, but the fact that it is so complicated that even the developers get it wrong every now and again is nuts.
11 Link Doesn't Know How To Shoot A Bow
Far be it for me to criticize the hero of Hyrule. I mean, let's face it, he gets the job done. Not only does he instantly know how to swing a sword and destroy some of the most dangerous baddies on the planet (while still a child, mind you), but he is also able to utilize all manner of weaponry in his countless quests to destroy Ganon. But as any archery aficionado will tell you, Link has a problem with properly drawing back his bow in promotional images. I know, some may say that pictures of Link don't REALLY count, but as far as I am concerned, they do. For at least half of the Zelda games released in the past twenty years, Link is shown nocking his arrow on the wrong side of the bow. This is nit-picky, but a mistake nonetheless.
10 Translation Errors
The Zelda series is made by Nintendo, a Japanese company. English and East-Asian countries have a long history of pronouncing and translating each other's languages poorly, to say the least. The Zelda series is no exception and most of the series' titles have at lease a mistake or two when it comes to the English translation of the game. Whether it's spelling the name of the primary villain incorrectly (Ganon is referred to as Gannon at least once in the series) or by translating an item to sound more like an order from a fast-food restaurant (Triforce of Power is initially referred to as Triforce with Power in the first game), there are plenty of examples of bad translations and spelling mistakes within the series. Though considering my reliance on spell check, who am I to judge?
9 The Fire Rod Does Not Exist
Don't you just love it when a game gives you explicit directions on how to beat an enemy? Especially when there is only one way to defeat a specific enemy-type that requires a specific weapon to do so. And then don't you just love it when that one weapon was removed from the game during development, but they never updated the dialogue so you are desperately trying to find a particular weapon that does not exist? Yeah, me neither. That is exactly what happened in The Minish Cap. In the European version of the game Link is told that, in order to defeat the Ice Wizzrobes, he must hit them with the Fire Rod. Since the Fire Rod never made it into the game, the player is actually supposed to hit them with the Flame Lantern. Not the first time players have found themselves on a wild goose chase with this series.
8 Interrupting Fi
In Skyward Sword Link's mission is clear. He must overcome the Faron Woods Silent Realm trial before he can continue on his quest. Before the trial begins, Fi explains to Link that she cannot be with him during the trial and that he will be going it alone from this point on. Feeling confident, Link proceeds. However, midway through the trial who shows up? You guessed it, Fi! Contradictory to her earlier words, she pops in about half-way through the whole ordeal to warn Link about the Waking Water and totally just ignores the fact that she should not really be there. Honestly, when a mistake is helpful, who cares?
7 Swimming On Land
Everyone knows that running on land is a high impact sport. Lucky for Link's knees, in The Ocarina of Time, our hero can utilize a glitch that enables him to swim on land! If the iron boots are equipped and then unequipped at just the right moment while swimming backwards and holding the target button, Link can swim right out of the lake, stream or any body of water and waltz... or sidestroke all around Hyrule. There is really no reason to do this except for the hilarity of seeing the Hero of Time levitate around Lon Lon Ranch, but don't worry, simply using the hookshot or arrows will plant Link's feet firmly back on the ground.
6 Fierce Diety... Any Time... Any Place
Anyone who has played Majora's Mask 3D will know just how sweet the Fierce Diety mask is. I mean, who doesn't want to shoot giant laser frisbees out of one's sword? The only problem is that the mask can only be used during boss battles. That is, unless, you take advantage of a little code-error buried in the game. If players have already collected all of the masks in the game and have an item that may be used anywhere set to the "X" slot and the Fierce Diety Mask equipped in the "Y" slot, a little menu swapping will allow the player to use the Fierce Diety Mask and all of its powers anywhere in the game. Beware, however, this little mistake will make the game a cakewalk.
5 Upstairs Or Downstairs?
Believe it or not, when you enter a door or climb some stairs in a game and there is a brief black screen while you move to the next area, your avatar isn't actually moving between areas. A new area is just loading. Yeah... mind blown, right? Didn't think so. This little tid-bit of game-design is usually something we don't even think about unless something goes wrong and the hidden seam is revealed. That is exactly what happened in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. On the eastern side of Death Mountain (in the Light World), there is a cave. Go into the lower entrance and you are transported to the upper level. Conversely, if you enter from a higher level, you will find yourself entering the lower level of the cave. While SNES games aren't known for their immersion, this one certainly does reveal the "man behind the curtain."
4 Turn Any Item Into A Bottle
Simply put, bottles are dope in Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. Put a fairy in one of those bad boys and you can instantly feel that sense of security having a fairy ready to revive you if you fall in battle. It's a shame there are so very, very few bottles in the game. Lucky for us, Nintendo left in a glitch that allows players to turn any usable item into a bottle. All you have to do is find a creature that can be caught in a bottle and attempt to catch it. In mid-swing, pause the game. It you select a different item and equip it in the same slot as the bottle you are currently catching the creature with, it will be transformed into a bottle. Be careful when choosing what to transform, though. It would be a shame if your beloved hook shot was permanently transformed into a bottle.
3 That Water Temple Wasn't Supposed To Be So Hard
Everyone's least favorite dungeon in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is obviously the water temple. Not only does it take ages to complete (even with a player's guide that I am not ashamed to say I use every single time I play that temple), but it is a convoluted mess of raising and lowering water levels in the correct order and finding VERY difficult to find keys. Top this all off with the fact that it is a very generic looking dungeon and is really easy to get lost in the dull, "everything-looks-the-same" stage. But it was never meant to be that hard. In fact Miyamoto himself admitted that, during the production of the game, the QA testers became so adept at completing the dungeons that no one really realized how truly difficult the water temple had become. Nintendo even added a few features to make the temple easier for the 3DS release of Ocarina of Time. I just always thought Nintendo were sadists.
2 The Ghost Of Misery Mire
Just as the title would lead you to believe, hidden within the Misery Mire in A Link to the Past, resides a ghost. Most players would pass by this invisible creature without ever even knowing it was there. In fact, it was discovered because a player was frustrated with the game and was slashing his sword randomly for no reason. If you are able to defeat the elusive phantom (which is not that hard considering it never hits back), it will actually drop some bombs to add to your inventory. No one really knows what the ghost really is (not even the Game Counselors that were on Nintendo's payroll way back in 1993), but suffice it to say that the mystery is what makes this mistaken addition so cool!
1 Zelda On CD-I
So this might sound political in some way or another, but Nintendo's decision to make a CD-i title (or two) is easily one of the biggest mistakes in the series. Way back in the early 90s Nintendo was working with Sony to develop a CD-based game system to be their new flagship console. After severing ties with Sony (you can thank Nintendo for the Sony Playstation), they instead began working with Philips on development of the CD-i. There were three Zelda games made for the system and they are both considered the worst in the series. They are so bad that Nintendo has even refused that these games be included in official Zelda canon. It is also worth noting that these were the only titles in the Zelda franchise to be developed by a third party company and this was clearly one of the biggest mistakes Nintendo has ever made. It's no wonder they have done their best to hide these games over the years.