Controversial New Glitch Destroys Ocarina of Time World Record!

helloyou absolute legends at the beginning of 2020 the world record for beating the legend of zelda ocarina of time was 16 minutes and 58 seconds held by the swedish speedrunner Torreya by the end of january the world record had been obliterated being lowered to 9 minutes and 59 seconds held by the american run outlaws it's the obvious question is how on earth can you beat ocarina of time in ten minutes that seems impossible the answer is somewhat controversial in a sparked debate about what beating a game even means does it mean to fighting a final boss is the only requirement for the end screen to show up people are divided on what should classify as a true completion the world record for beating ocarina of time was already ridiculously low at just under 17 minutes so obviously some trickery was involved you couldn't possibly expect someone to visit every dungeon and collect every item in 17 minutes the old strategy involved warping from the Deku Tree the very first dungeon in the game all the way to the very end just before the climactic fight with Ganon while players were skipping most of the game's content at least they actually killed the story's antagonist which seemingly resolves the plot albeit in a very creative way but the new strategy involves forcing the game's end screen to appear prematurely mimicking the end result without having to defeat the final boss and given the fact that the current record is so brief this can obviously be done very very early in the game the glitch that was discovered is nothing short of amazing and is so technical so strange that I have absolutely no idea what is going on this is even after I've watched explanations I think ocarina of time may be getting to the point where it is so broken that only the most educated speedrunners will understand what is happening on screen during these records time will tell if this ends up being a good or a bad thing for the game in this video we will take a look at the new strategy and at least try to wrap our brains around it once you have an idea about what goes on during the new record you can form your own opinion about how the run should be categorized should this new glitch be separated into its own category should this even be considered as beating the game let's take a look if the record for beating ocarina of time as quickly as possible has always been pretty broken very broken as it may be it was still a respected speedrunnin has facilitated some of the most iconic records of all time in order to get some context and contrast I will first briefly cover the old strategy I want to understand why a run like Narcisa rights 1810 is considered one of the greatest speedruns of all time while the new records are considered by some to be lifeless and boring despite being only a few minutes faster the thing that used to make Zelda speedruns so short was the wrong walk that enabled players to go from the Deku Tree straight to Ganon's tower right before the final boss fight the warp itself is pretty technical and even though I performed it myself I still don't know all of the nitty-gritty details about why it works what I do know is that in order to execute the glitch you need a bottle and something that can be stored inside of the bottle this could be a fish or a bugs but it needs to be something that can be released and recollected back in 2014 the fastest known way to collect a bottle was by heading to Kakariko village and returning all of the chickens to their pen leaving kokiri forest or the lost woods isn't normally possible this early in the game but several methods were already known to exist making the task relatively easy once the bottle was obtained there was conveniently a rock nearby that would spawn bugs when picked up with the bottle and bugs in our possession all that was left to do was to head to the Deku Tree to perform the wrong walk but the wrong warp requires a blue warp zone to work which appears after the Deku trees mini-boss the Gaia is defeated the bottle is now used to perform a glitch called Ocarina items which allows link to play his sword as an ocarina if done while jumping into the blue warp zone you can keep control of link when you should normally be walked away then after some specific movement that changes some inner values you can exit the room via the door and appear in Ganon's castle after heading to the base of the tower and watching it collapse the only thing left to do is to defeat Ganon in a final showdown to save Hyrule and complete the game yes the run was short but it had structure and a climax that gave it a satisfactory conclusion over the next couple of years new strategies were developed that enabled you to get a bottle inside of the Deku Tree with these discoveries in that you wouldn't even need to leave kukuri forest at all as the only point of this previously was to collect the bottle this in my opinion is where ocarina of time began to lose some of its magic while the runs length wasn't dramatically shortened with a new route being around a minute faster it lacked any of the sense of adventure the previous route offered even though it was only for a brief time the fact that we got to leave the forest head-down Zoras River and out onto Hyrule Field gave the run enough diversity to make it enticing to viewers collecting chickens might seem pretty mundane but at least it was a change of scenery that gave us a break from the green and brown tones we see in the forest and the towns music gave us a greatest sense of nostalgia without leaving the forest the grand nature of the game is minimized and forgotten but at least we still had a climax and Ganon still needed to be defeated though even this has now been stripped away on the 15th of January mr. cheese uploaded a YouTube video titled ocarina of time Kokiri Forest credits walk arti a viable n64 version arti a viable simply meaning that it would be able to be performed by a human in a regular speedrun the video is really bizarre to watch and nothing that is happening seems to make any sense but at the end of a very lengthy set up the game mysteriously fades out and the credits begin though it must be pointed out that the credits don't start from the beginning but rather at midway through in December I covered the new moon warp in Majora's Mask which made use of a technique called stale reference manipulation or SRM for short this centred around the way you can manipulate the game by getting link to carry an unloaded object this is used in the new strategy as well but they're set up to perform the warp is much much more complicated in order to execute the new warp we need two items an ocarina and the slingshot obtaining the ocarina is easy we get it automatically when we leave two kiri forests and meets our er on the bridge again this normally isn't possible to do without getting the medallion from the Deku Tree but there is a very simple way to get past the guard that blocks the exit once the new ocarina has been obtained we make our way into the Deku Tree to get the slingshot getting these two items now takes up the bulk of the speedrun as soon as we leave the coutry with the slingshot in our possession the setup for the credit war begins what follows is a two minute long sequence of seemingly random movements and glitches that eventually leads to the game fading out and the credits beginning the trick hinges around the way you can manipulate the game's code by getting link to hold an unloaded object but this isn't the easiest thing to do after some setup a crawlspace and sign are used to perform a glitch that locks the camera in place using the ocarina refocuses the camera but as soon as the ocarina is put away the camera returns to the same position the idea here is to pick up a particular rock but have it be unloaded by the retreating camera rocks automatically unload if the camera is a certain distance away so it shouldn't be possible to pick one up when the camera is where it is however we can use the ocarina to bring the camera up close load the rock then pick it up as the camera retreats back with this method the rock can be picked up but by the time it's above Link's head it has become unloaded we then walk link to the loading zone between the main section and the Deku Tree this returns the camera back to normal allowing the rest of the setup again there are seemingly random movements performed in order to set inner values including aiming the slingshot at a very specific location once everything has been set up we load a specific rock near the crawlspace we used earlier then press a combination of buttons on the first and third controllers yes this required a controller to be plugged in into the third controller port and buttons pressed on both controllers simultaneously this would cause the game to void out and the credits to begin furthermore this can only be performed on the Japanese version of the game as the filename needs to contain a very specific set of characters in the description I'll put a link to a video from glitches and stuff that explains the glitch in greater detail obviously I've barely scratched the surface of this trick and honestly it would take too long in this video to explain everything to definitely check that video out if you want to know more I have no idea how people learn this so quickly but it didn't take long for the record to be lowered after mr. cheese released his video less than 24 hours later the speedrun Atlas suits used the new technique to finish the game in 13 minutes and 48 seconds but this was only the beginning over the next two weeks lu zeus would repeatedly lower his own record down to 11 minutes and 51 seconds set on the 29th of January this latest record used a slightly more optimized setup that's more resembles a classic wrong warp instead of the credits appearing after the rock was loaded in the correct buttons pressed it occurs after entering one of the huts this also didn't need the third controller to be plugged in either making it much less annoying and more accessible for those with only one controller on the 31st of January the game was broken even further when the run of blini posted a video demonstrating a way to pick up the rock without needing the ocarina to zoom in the camera in order to do this a separate glitch known as return a is activated by pressing a specific button combination while being hit by a Deku buhbuh this locks the camera into position and forces it to follow link at all times now the previously mentioned glitch is performed again in the crawl space but this time the camera continues to follow link down to the rock we need to pick up the glitch that is forcing the camera to follow link can be canceled by striking the rock with links sword at which time the camera begins to zoom back to the crawl space but luckily there is enough time after the sword slash to pick up the rock before the camera retreats too far with the rock collected everything else is the same as it was in the previous version of the strategy skipping the ocarina saved a huge amount of time and the record was immediately lowered the runner safe state managed to complete a run of 11 minutes in 18 seconds but it wasn't long before Lizotte returned and smashed the record again taking it down to 10 minutes in 16 seconds just a few hours later he would continue to grind as the ten-minute barrier was seen as an exciting goal to reach for it really didn't take long to get there though with lizards finishing a run in just 9 minutes and 59 seconds on the first of February from here it didn't seem like there was a whole lot lower the record could go as the run was already so short and seemed pretty optimized but alas again the game was broken further on the 2nd of February mr. cheese uploaded another video titled ocarina of time anypercent slingshot skip tests only most of that title is self-explanatory but the TAS only part is interesting this implies that it is not feasible for a human to execute in a I've run and will be only possible in theory if you were to use tools that allow you to manually input the perfect controls frame by frame this theoretical strategy used a different setup that would again use a third controller which along with a couple of other button inputs requires a very very very specific value to be input by the joystick this joystick value is precise down to the unit which is essentially the smallest and most precise measurement the joystick can output the thing that makes it more difficult is that it's not just the direction that needs to be correct but also the intensity in theory one could do a hundred runs and try to flick the value which I'm sure someone would have done but the runner safe state had a different idea he used a tool that would allow him to see the joystick input values and then used sticky tape and cardboard to create his own custom notch this notch would allow you to place the joystick in the correct position eliminating the guesswork with the notch in place the input viewer could then be discarded as the notch would always give to correct value on the third of February savestate used his makeshift controller modification to successfully pull off the credits warp without the slingshot or ocarina and achieved a time of nine minutes and 39 seconds this is where things begin to get a bit controversial the question that arises is should the use of an input viewer to get the correct value of the control stick before the run affect the legality of the record should the work done before the run begins be considered as part of the speedrun itself whether or not the custom not should be allowed is also up for debate speedruns that use in game preparation aren't inherently wrong or bad but they are usually classified as new game+ standard speedruns are generally considered to be runs that start from a completely clean slate but with this new strategy players have begun to use input viewers to set the value of the control stick beforehand since savestates initial record the time has been taken drastically lower now sitting at 8 minutes and 30 seconds achieved by denny b again this uses preparation and the use of an input viewer to set up the third control lock before the run begins the ocarina of time speedrunning community' will need to vote on what to do with these new runs and if there are any new rules or restrictions that need to be implemented in the meantime the official record on speedrun com remains at nine minutes and 56 seconds baila zoots however this will obviously change if the new runs are accepted I really can't stress enough how intricate and genius the strategy is the way the code of the game is manipulated to get these results is incredible but in saying that it isn't particularly interesting to watch aside from the fact that the speedrun is now fully contained inside of kokiri forest the credits warp strategy itself doesn't have much to offer in the way of visuals from a technical standpoint the discovery is unbelievable and the expertise required to pull it off is astonishing but as far as speedrunning is concerned people are unsure about how to treat it the concern is that the new strategy is not as entertaining to watch or run as the previous strategy and therefore the game might become less popular as a result generally the way to mitigate these types of problems has been to either ban certain techniques or create new categories if no new categories were created to compete in the old strategy of warping from the Deku Tree to Ganon's tower and fighting with Ganon to finish the game would have no relevant place to exist this would probably be a huge loss and after weeks of deliberation the community did make a decision regarding this and created a new category called no ace a standing for arbitrary code execution which is the type of glitch used to walk to the credits all of the previous runs were shifted over to this new category with the fastest time still being 1658 by Torreya credit warps like this have already been seen in other games one of the most famous examples is Super Mario World this credits warp is extremely brief allowing you to end the game in only 41 seconds if you watch those runs it also looks like a jumbled mess of random actions until the credits begin rolling however these types of runs are nowhere near as popular as the regular speedruns this can be easily shown by the amount of runs submitted to speedrun calm these zero exit category which allows the credits warp has 21 speedruns submitted and the warp has been known about for many years at least since 2014 on the other hand the 11 exit category which is the fastest way to complete the game without the credits warp has 961 submission ultimately speedrunning as well as any other hobby is done for pleasure or fun competition it really doesn't matter what is faster as long as it's enjoyable to do this is why you have many people competing in glitchless' categories even though they are always way slower when I made my video about look down in Goldeneye and how some players quit because of it I had so many comments from people claiming that speedrunners should just shut up and do whatever strategy is fastest regardless of whether or not it's fun and if you decide not to use a particular strategy you are a salty baby who can't handle the fact that your time got beaten by a new technique this reasoning is insane at the end of the day people do things for pleasure when a new strategy has been found that makes a game not fun to play it can and has destroyed the popularity of a game to speedrun so communities have to be very careful with how they manage these situations debates about what it means to truly be to game has also been sparked does this new strategy really count if Ganon isn't defeated I'm sure everyone will have a strong opinion about this one so it will be interesting to see what unfolds as time goes on please let everyone know what you think in the comments and if you haven't already make sure to subscribe thank you so much for watching you legends I hope you are having a fantastic day and I will see you in the next video you

Channel: Karl Jobst

Views: 966,953

Keywords: zelda, ocarina of time, n64, nintendo 64, the legend of zelda, zelda speedrun, zelda glitch, ocarina of time glitch, gamebreaking glitches, glitch, speedrun glitch, speedrun, speedrunning, karl jobst, nintendo speedrun, world record progression, speedrun documentary, gaming documentary, glitch explanation, video game glitch

Id: Y5fnNIGvMAg

Length: 16min 58sec (1018 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 10 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/MrCheeze]

I would not recommend getting your info from someone giving a baity title about controversy or drama. The current situation is simply this:

• It is possible to save a lot of time in any% if your controller is setup at an exact unit position before the run starts.

• This can be done using a large variety of methods, including those that only use the vanilla game alone (thanks to the crash screen), and methods that don't use the game at all and rely on e.g. marker on the controller. There are many more such methods. All involve a certain sense of "setup", but many people feel this isn't setup in the normal sense.

• The legality of all these methods on the speedrun.com leaderboards is currently under discussion by runners and community in the OoT speedrun discord. (If I could take a guess, my impression is that things are leaning a little bit towards legality. But runs aren't going to appear on the leaderboard until things are properly discussed and voted on.)

• Runs using these methods are neither "cheated", nor are they "the one true WR". Nor would it be right to say they are not the WR. Things are simply under discussion right now, that's all. It's best to refer to them in ways that will be true regardless of which way the leaderboard ends up.

(Also ACE in any% is not controversial in any sense and if this is your impression you are badly misinformed. The odds are overwhelmingly high it will be banned in all other main board categories. There is also a new category, "no ACE", because there is still high demand among runners for it.)

[u/Jinno]

16:58 run length for the video. Nice touch. 👌🏻

[u/Tompala]

Been a lot of talk about not being allowed to warp directly into credits as well:
Warping into the credits like this is far from new in OoT. It's been a thing since 2012, when any% runs warped into the credits from Dodongo's Cavern. It was allowed then, it is allowed now. Nothing has changed, nothing new has really happened in that regard.

[u/GlowingShutter]

Was a very helpful video for me as I was just confused by the sudden time drop of OoT records.