The Legend of Zelda is one of the most popular gaming franchises of all time. It proved that video games can equal books and movies in terms of telling a compelling story. The games follow the adventures of a young hero named Link, his frequent meetings with Princess Zelda, and the magical adventures their meetings result in.
Every game in the series finds Link getting sucked into yet another mission to stop the forces of evil from taking over the lands. With each new game, Link has traveled through dimensions, time, and even ventured into his own mind to bring order out of chaos.
In Ocarina of Time, the legend of Link can be said to have truly begun. We find Link in the beginning of the game a young boy unaware of his destiny as the hero of time. A call from the magical Deku tree brings Link into contact with his unknown past, as well as a purpose for his future.
Now Link must travel all over the land of Hyrule with his guardian fairy Na'vi, encountering danger, powerful weapons, and some unexpected alliances as he races against time to stop the evil sorcerer Ganondorf from obtaining the Triforce of power.
The Ocarina of Time is a long and sprawling game, with innumerable threads running parallel and crisscrossing with each other. With such a complex narrative, it is only natural that the story and gameplay do not make perfect sense all the time. Here are 25 mistakes that the game makes which casual players might not have noticed:
25 Lose Random Bottles Of Stuff
One of the favorite pastimes of Ocarina of Time players is to wander around Hyrule catching bugs and things to put in their bottles. Because what person, when equipped with a sword and shield and tasked with fighting a demon king doesn't want to take up entomology instead?
Anyway, if you catch a bug or a fish in a bottle, and then put another item in the bottle's place, you can turn it into another empty bottle. The previous item will get permanently erased, while the new bottle will behave exactly like the old one.
24 Link Randomly Teleports
A great deal of effort went into making Ocarina of Time feel like a cinematic experience. The cut scenes were carefully thought out as a means not just to move the story forward but also to be interestingly shot and directed to resemble a movie scene.
One time this leads to an amusing continuity error.
When Link first leaves Kokiri Forest, he runs across the bridge. An overhead shot shows him get almost to the other end of the bridge. Then when Saria appears, the scene changes and Link is shown to still be only halfway across.
23 A Big Pot Of Nothing
This shows up in both the Nintendo 64 and the 3DS version of the game. When inside the thieves hideout in Gerudo Valley, you can spot a pot of boiling water. Go up to the pot and stand next to it. As is her habit, Navi pops out and turns green.
This usually means the object next to you can be interacted with. But not this time. You can play any song on your ocarina, but nothing will change about the pot. It will continue boiling, and you'll become the weird guy who serenades pots with music.
22 The Unmagical Mask
One reason why players like to go around feverishly destroying plants and public property objects all over Hyrule is that this often yields items that you can use to make the game more interesting. But one time the opposite happens.
There is a guy running around Hyrule field. On his head is a strange contraption known as the Rabbit Hood mask. As stupid as the thing looks, it becomes instantly cooler when you realize it gives the guy wearing it super speed. Unfortunately, even if you go to the trouble of acquiring the mask, you will find it does not make you faster.
21 This Cow Is Super Low-Maintenance
Once you have put in the work completing a few tasks at Lon Lon Ranch, you get a dairy cow of your own! It's not going to be of much use in your battle against the forces of the demon Ganondorf, but still... free cow!
When next you see the cow, it has somehow been teleported back to your house in Kokiri Village.
Even though the cow will have had to get up to the house via a ladder. And the doorway is like, super tiny. Anyway, the cow now hangs out inside your house, without apparently needing food or drinks to survive while you're out adventuring.
20 The Possibly Rude Merchant
A significant difference in intent can be created simply by adding a space between two words. Like 'Welcome' and 'Well come'. The first one is a sign of hospitality. The second one makes you sound pretty rude, as in 'Well, come on, I don't got all day!'
This is the confusion brought about by a piece of dialogue by the carpet merchant when he greets Link for the first time, saying 'Well come!'. Was the merchant being welcoming or rude? The confusion was cleared up in the Gamecube version of the game, where the merchant declares, 'Welcome!'
19 Not A Good Archer
When Link draws his bow in the game, he is shown to be holding the shaft of the arrow on the underside of the bow. This is a rookie archery mistake since everyone knows that the arrow should be held on the top of the bow. Everyone who still uses this 18th-century weapon, that is.
It's actually sad when you think about it. Link is so inexperienced, he didn't even have time to learn how to hold a bow properly before he was sent off to fight the most powerful and evil warlock in all of Hyrule.
18 The Sword Mirage
The final battle between Ganon and Link is a long and intense affair. Ganon tries every trick in the book to gain the upper hand, and Link has to rely on his speed and agility to hold his own.
One of the biggest losses for Link occurs early on in the fight when Ganon manages to knock the master sword out of his hands and away from the fighting area.
But apparently, no one told the animators about this part of the story, because the master sword can still be seen strapped to the back of Link.
17 Two Swords At Once
A variation of the previous point occurs during a different part of the gameplay. As powerful as the Master Sword is, it's still no match for the Biggoron sword you can manage to unlock after completing a series of tasks for the Goron tribe. It's a gigantic weapon, especially in the hands of a little guy like Link.
That means Link must relinquish his master sword if he wants space on his person to carry the Biggoron sword. But once again, the Master sword can still be still strapped to Link's back even while wielding the Biggoron one.
16 The Disappearing Racer
In order to come into possession of the Rabbit Hood mask, you first must beat the current owner in a race that takes you all over Hyrule. The race track is a long and twisting thing, but you can beat the course since you're taking the help of Epona, your trusty steed.
Once the race starts, your competitor is only seen once you get to the bridge. Doesn't matter whether you win or lose. But if you win the race, you should logically have passed the guy at some point on the race course. Or was he using a shortcut? That sneaky rat!
15 Sloppy Guards
There is a part of the game at the beginning where Link must find a way to sneak into the castle to talk to Princess Zelda. But first, he must avoid a parade of guards. If the guards notice him, they stop him immediately and throw him out of the moat.
But why stop there? Why not throw him out of the castle grounds entirely?
Also, after the fourth or fifth time Link gets caught, shouldn't he be hauled in for questioning by the guards to figure out why he is so desperate to penetrate the castle's defenses?
14 Going Invisible
Link learns a lot of special abilities as the game progresses. The one power he does not have is the ability to turn invisible. But thanks to a glitch in the original game, this too can be achieved.
For this to work, you need to ride Epona into one of the larger tents in Gerudo Valley. Then go to the loading dock and play the serenade of water to warp to Lake Hylia. When next you see Link, he will no longer be visible, so... you won't technically see him at all. But he is still there, just invisible.
13 Time Travel Mess
Most writers try to avoid time travel storylines because of how convoluted the plot can become once you start going back and forth in time. Sure enough, Ocarina of Time also succumbs to the flaws in logic brought about by the parallel storylines lines of Link as a kid and as an adult.
For instance, After defeating Ganon, Link is sent back to his original timeline as a young boy. Which means his adventure technically never happened. And yet, the Master Sword that he removed from the temple of time is still gone. So who removed the sword in this restored timeline?
12 Every Speedrunner's Dream
Ocarina of Time is a massive, sprawling role-playing game that takes you to each corner of Hyrule in your quest to end Ganondorf's reign of terror. But turns out that there is a glitch that allows you to cut through all that extra stuff and go directly into the final boss battle.
While inside the Deku tree, combine a menu shift with Link side jumping into a door.
You will fall through the door and land inside Ganon's castle for the final battle. Speedrunners have long used this glitch to crush the game in record time.
11 Game-Crashing Cheat
Players are always looking for that next great cheat that would give them an advantage while playing a game. For the original Ocarina of Time available in a gaming cartridge for the N64 system, this glitch took the form of Link being able to run through solid objects if you lift the left side of the cartridge while Link is running.
Unfortunately, using this cheat too many times glitches the system and crashes the game. Players learned this the hard way after they found that their saved files had been deleted following a system crash from lifting the cartridge in the middle of a game.
10 Fado Is A Bully
It's always the ones you least suspect, man. Fado is a friend of child Link who can be found standing in the Kokiri forest. She even warns Link about the danger posed to anyone who dares venture into the lost woods.
But despite this friendly piece of advice, if you stand too close to the edge of the platform while speaking to her, Fado will knock you off the platform. She will continue to talk normally as if nothing had happened. Which makes us think she might be a psychopath. Or she has a very strange, bullying sense of humor.
9 Biggoron Doesn't Want To Help
Biggoron is, like his name suggests, a gigantic Goron creature that sits atop a mountain that is the only place large enough to hold his immense size. But Biggoron isn't just a big, dumb guy. He is a kind-hearted, well-spoken dude who is an expert swordsmith.
The sword he makes for Link is an even more effective weapon against enemies than the Master Sword itself!
So why didn't Biggoron just use his own sword to march up to Ganon's castle and end him? His immense size and the power of the weapons he can manufacture would have made the whole thing a piece of cake.
8 Coming Out Of A Coma
So the details of Link's time travel abilities in the game are kept deliberately vague to avoid too many pesky questions about the logic of it all. But we do have to wonder about the magical coma/deep sleep/ stasis that child Link's body was apparently put under before he woke up as adult Link.
Such a deep sleep of several years would definitely have to take a toll on Link's body. He should have trouble moving his atrophied arms and legs, let alone doing all those sick backflips and jumps that he is immediately capable of.
7 The Telepathic Carpenters
Never send an NPC to do an actual story character's job. For instance, consider the four carpenters that Link has to rescue from the Gerudo stronghold. Every time Link frees a fresh carpenter, he is informed that three more remains to be freed, then two more remain to be freed, and finally one more remains to be freed.
But Link never actually tells them that he has been freeing their brothers. So how did each carpenter know that a certain number of carpenters have already been freed by Link? Do they all possess secret carpenter telepathy powers?
6 Fully Grown Baby Birds
Ocarina of Time put in a lot of time and effort to create a living, breathing land for the player to complete the quest in. That is why we love going back to the game after so many years.
But time constraints in a game are a very different thing than in books, which is why sometimes leaps of logic had to be taken in-game.
For instance, the cuckoo egg that Link gets hatches to reveal a fully grown cuckoo inside, instead of a baby chick. Or can the baby chicks also travel through time like Link?