If you want to skip the introduction, or you already know what an iceberg chart is, there will be a timestamp in the description that lets you skip to the start of the actual video. If not, just keep watching. An iceberg image usually consists of trivia or information about a certain topic, with the most well-known information being at the top, and the deeper down you go, the more obscure things get. In the context of this particular iceberg, it contains rumors or secrets relating to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. I will Link the iceberg image at the top of the description, so you can use it to follow along with the video if you want. Being Nintendo’s first 3D Zelda game, Ocarina of Time was already packed full of secrets, which naturally led to many rumors and myths about things you could do, or find, in the game. In this video, I’ll also be joined by Panic 64, whose content you should definitely check out after you’re done with this video. Finally, there’ll be a health meter at the bottom left corresponding to how confident we are about the thing we’re talking about in the current moment. Full health means that the explanation has no holes in it and we’re 100% confident in it, and no health means that we have no idea what the text on the iceberg is referring to, and we’re just guessing at that point. The iceberg was made by Error0x404 on Discord, as well as ChrisCube. Just letting you know that this iceberg was not made by me, or Panic 64, so any unexplained things on there are not our doing. So with all of that out of the way, let’s explore the Zelda 64 iceberg. Timeline Split: As noted in the official Hyrule Historia book, the Legend of Zelda franchise has an canonical timeline, which splits into 3 separate branches due to the events of Ocarina of Time. Two of the timelines follow Link as an adult and as a child, in which he is successful in defeating Ganondorf. But the third timeline only exists in a future where Link fails to defeat Ganondorf, and Hyrule falls into decline. Blue Cucco: as part of the long trading fetch quest that lets you obtain the Big Goron’s Sword, you’re given a blue Cucco named Cojiro. While many variations of the Cucco have appeared in the Zelda series, Cojiro is the only one that’s blue. Song of Storms Paradox: When you first learn the Song of Storms as an adult, the man who teaches it to you complains about it being stuck in his head for 7 years after a child played it for him. When you meet him as a child and play the song for him, you realize that Link was the one who taught him the melody. And that’s the paradox. The Windmill Man taught Link the song as an adult, which Link in turn taught to the Windmill Man as a child. Dead Dampé: Dampé is the gravekeeper in Kakariko village, and you meet him when Link is a child. At this point, Dampé is alive, but visiting him as an adult reveals that he passed away during Link’s 7 year absence. Beating him in a race is how you acquire the hookshot. Composer Brothers: The Composer Brothers are two ghosts, named Flat and Sharp, and are also found in the Kakariko graveyard Entering the tomb that they guard is where you find the Sun's Song, which they both developed. Being that they’re two brothers, adorned in Red and Green clothing, and the fact that they both have mustaches have led people to believe that this is a reference to Mario and Luigi. Speaking of Mario references... Mario portraits in Zelda’s Room: After infiltrating Hyrule Castle, if you go into first-person mode and look into the castle’s windows, you can see portraits of Mario characters adorning the walls. This is mostly just an Easter egg, but it also serves as another tie between the Mario and Zelda series, of which there are many. Poe Collector is the Guard from the child timeline: The guardhouse right next to the Castle Town gate contains a single guard in the child timeline. In the adult timeline, this same building contains the Poe Collector. Since pretty much all the other NPCs from Castle Town are gone in the adult timeline, it would make more sense that this guard would have fled or died as well, but him and the Poe Collector inhabiting the same building makes the connection between the two seem obvious. Shark breaking the bars in the diving pool: In the lakeside lab, at the bottom of the pool you can see a shark through the grate. In the original game, this shark is just a texture, but in the 3DS remake it’s actually modelled. Despite lots of speculation, there’s sadly no way of breaking the bars to let it out. Faces in the flowers in Zelda’s room: If you look closely at these flowers in the courtyard where you meet Zelda, the flowers kind of look like faces. It might be hard to see, but they sort of look like squished baby heads. Beating the Running Man: Just outside of the Gerudo fortress, there’s a man who will challenge Link to a race across Hyrule. Naturally this would seem like a side quest that players would be able to complete for some kind of reward, but it actually is impossible to beat the Running Man. Of course, this never stopped players from speculating on ways to beat him, with countless theories and guides being developed over the years, with none of them being successful. “L is Real” in Dodongo’s Cavern: If you’ve played Super Mario 64, you probably recognize this star statue from the courtyard of Peach’s Castle. It’s an object that captured many players’ imaginations, and there are countless theories as to what it means, with one of the most popular ones claiming that it says “L is Real 2401”. Regardless of what it really says, the same texture is used in Dodongo’s Cavern on a sign that says: Finding the Triforce: In pre-release builds of Ocarina of Time, the Triforce was prominently shown. While the pieces of the Triforce still exist, and are intrinsically tied to Zelda, Ganondorf, and Link, the actual physical Triforce doesn’t make an appearance outside of cutscenes. 3 out of the 4 previous Zelda games before Ocarina of Time allowed you to collect the Triforce, so it wasn’t too unreasonable that players would expect to find it in Ocarina of Time. Like with many things on this iceberg, there were numerous rumors that circled around internet forums and schoolyards about where you could find the Triforce, all leading to nothing. Talking Skeleton inside the Well: Okay, there are a few talking skeletons, one in the Royal Family’s tomb, another at the Bottom of the Well. And if you interact with the skeleton in the well Navi Claims it’s saying “Look for the eye of truth”. Now I honestly don't know why this is interesting in any way, as it's pretty easy to find this skeleton. Islamic Censorship: In the first release of Ocarina of Time, there were a few references to Islam in various areas of the game which were removed in subsequent reprints. This crescent moon and star texture was used prominently in the game, which is associated with Islam. It was replaced with a more generic looking texture. More infamously, the music in the Fire Temple contained Islamic chanting. Koji Kondo [the composer] obtained the chanting sound effect from a sample library, and inserted it into the Fire Temple music without considering its origin. The track that Koji Kondo used was simply titled "Track 76" from Voice Spectral Vol 1 by Best Service Track 76 was used in other games, including Kakuto Chojin: Back Alley Brutal. The use of Track 76 in this game received a formal protest from the Kingdom of Saudia Arabia and they prompted Microsoft to withdraw and destroy all available copies of the game. You can find the original Fire Temple music quite easily on YouTube. I will link it in the description. Thankfully for Nintendo, they did not receive any sort of backlash for this, and the changes made in subsequent rereleases of Ocarina of Time were to avoid controversies like this, and the changes were not made in response to any sort of controversy. Bloody St. Andrew’s Cross: In the Shadow Temple, you can see two wooden beams with a pool of blood underneath, presumably used as a torture device, which is in-line with the whole theme of the Shadow Temple. This is actually known as Saint Andrew’s cross, since he requested himself to be crucified on an X-shaped crucifix, due to deeming himself unworthy to be crucified in the same fashion as Jesus. Fetuses in Lakeside Lab: In the laboratory on Lake Hylia, there’s a fish tank with these strange looking things inside of it. They’re probably meant to be developing fish eggs or something, but some people have interpreted them as fetuses. Missing Castletown Folk: When visiting the town outside Hyrule Castle as a child, it’s a bustling marketplace with multiple NPCs to talk to. In the adult timeline, most of these NPCs are gone or missing, and the marketplace is quite literally dead. Some players made the conclusion that the Redeads in the castle town were once townspeople themselves. Bowser Necklaces: Malon and Talon have necklaces that resemble Bowser’s face from Mario. Official artwork of them proves that this was an intentional nod, on top of Talon and Ingo resembling Mario and Luigi respectively. Upside Down Triforce in Temple of Time: In pre-release screenshots, there's an upside down Triforce above the Door of Time. I honestly have no idea what sort of significance this has, so I guess it was just something they were doing. Triforce Transition: There’s an unused warp transition that shows the Triforce flying onto the screen, which can be activated with a GameShark code. Manual Jump: Jumping in Ocarina of Time kind of works weirdly. Outside of combat, jumping happens automatically when running off of a ledge. When Z-targeting, you can jump to the side, or do a backflip, but you can’t jump forwards. You kind of can when you do a jumping slash, but it’s tied to using your sword, rather than the A button. In pre-release footage you can see Link jumping forward while in combat, while activating the sword strike independently from it. This function is still in the released version of the game, but can only be activated with a cheat code. Disk Icon: When plugged into the Nintendo 64 Disk Drive, Ocarina of Time would have had the word “Disk” next to the main logo on the title screen. This never came to be, since the planned expansion for Ocarina of Time was cancelled, but the Disk icon can still be found within the ROM, and you can activate it in the 1.0 release with a GameShark code. Ura is Master Quest: Ura Zelda was meant to be an expansion for Ocarina of Time, which would have included more difficult dungeons, but the same overworld, story, and characters. Ura Zelda itself was never released due to the failure of the N64DD in Japan, but was repurposed to become The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Master Quest. Master Quest was first released as a preorder bonus for Wind Waker, on the GameCube, but Master Quest mode was unlockable in the 3DS remake of Ocarina of Time. All Darknuts are Gerudos: At the end of the Spirit Temple, Link fights an Iron Knuckle which, upon defeat, is revealed to be Nabooru. You can actually see her face underneath the helmet, but more interestingly, all other Iron Knuckles have a gerudo texture underneath, but with chainmail surrounding their heads. Malon is an Alcoholic: This is actually a Majora’s Mask reference. So in the final hours of Majora’s Mask you see Cremia give Romani a Chateau Romani, which is an implied alcoholic beverage. Quote: “According to Cremia and Romani, the properties of Chateau Romani are so potent that children are not allowed to drink it under normal circumstances. " I can only assume that since Romani and Cremia use Malon's model in Majora's Mask, the person making the iceberg might have got confused between the two. Forbidden Heart Container in Gerudo Fortress: In Ocarina of Time, there are 36 heart pieces that you can obtain during normal gameplay. There is a 37th piece of heart in the Gerudo Fortress, and it’s located above the room where you’re imprisoned if you were to be caught by the guards. However, this heart piece is only here during the Child timeline. You’re not normally supposed to even access the Gerudo Fortress as a child, but even if you do, getting to this room requires either cheats, or some very specific glitches. Aria uses Mario 64 model format: This unused NPC is known as “Aria” but her model is labelled as just “object_human” within the game’s files. According to the small bit of text on The Cutting Room Floor, her model format is closer to Mario 64’s model format as opposed to Ocarina of Time’s. It’s long been known that Ocarina of Time started development using Mario 64’s engine, but as time went on, so many modifications were made to the engine that it was considered its own thing. Shigeru Miyamoto, the producer and supervisor of Ocarina of Time, said in an 1998 interview with Nintendo Power: Basically, all this is to say that Aria was created before the drastic changes to the Mario 64 engine were made, and she was left unused without her model format being updated. Hallway of Time: Ocarina of Time has a lot of rooms that use pre-rendered backgrounds, meaning that they’re static images that Link, NPCs, items, and collision data are placed on top of. There are a few pre-rendered backgrounds that didn’t make it into the final game, including this hallway that was found in the Nintendo giga-leak of 2020. It was likely an earlier version of the Temple of Time, and the columns on the sides bear resemblance to an even earlier pre-rendered background, that had the nickname “the Hall of Time.” Talking Door: There’s a string of unused text that says “Hi! I'm a talking door!” There’s no way of activating this during normal gameplay, although it does exist in one of the Master Quest test maps. Red Object in early Tower area: There are a number of beta screenshots of Link in Ganon’s tower, but it’s unclear what red object is being referred to. The closest thing we found was this object near the wall, that is apparently meant to be a tongue. Ganon’s Castle hub world: In an Iwata Asks interview, Shigeru Miyamoto revealed that at one point in development, Ocarina of Time would have had a similar format to that of Mario 64, as in, you’d have Ganon’s castle as the hub world, and Link would access different parts of the world through it. Quoting directly from Miyamoto: You can still sort of see the remnants of this in the final game, where Ganon’s Castle has 6 different rooms, all with different themes built around the Sages, that all stem from a central hub. Also, this interview once again shows how much shared history Ocarina of Time has with Mario 64. Early Dodongo’s Cavern head: It’s possible to clip into the mouth of the giant Dodongo head before it’s open, although this trick is only viable in Tool Assisted Speedruns. Early Zelda 64 music wiped from existence: I can only assume that this is referring to the Fire Temple music that was changed in later releases of the game. Navi’s early functionality: Before the idea for Navi existed, Z-targeting was done with a simple triangle. The developers wanted to add a, quote, “cute fairy girl” to give it some more flair, but that ended up not being possible on the Nintendo 64. So they made the fairy into a simple ball of light, originally called the “Fairy Navigational System”, which was just shortened to “Navi” later on. Religion Wars: The Legend of Zelda has always had Christian references, like Stone Tower Temple—Based on the Tower of Babel. The Temple of Time—A Catholic Church. And official artwork of Link straight up praying to Jesus on the cross. But as you would expect this would have a negative response from the media and parents around the world. Nintendo didn’t help the situation because they put the Crescent, a Muslim religious symbol, on all the things that related to the enemy. It should be pointed out that Nintendo has a policy for not putting religious stuff in their games, so most of, if not all Muslim imagery was not put in the game on purpose. Early Sky Tower is Adult Link’s Purgatory: There’s a beta image of Link on a tower surrounded by nothingness. This background looks very similar to the file select screen, so this could possibly have been a placeholder for the file select background, but I'm not entirely sure. Unicorn fountain’s true use: The Unicorn Fountain is a beta element that was seen before Ocarina of Time’s release, and was allegedly where Link would have obtained sword beams. This was actually the first Zelda game where Link didn’t have sword beams in any capacity, so it wasn't too unreasonable that players would have expected to find them somewhere in the game. Hidden Wind Temple: Each of the temples that Adult Link traverses correspond to a specific Sage, except for Rauru. This led to rumors about an extra temple that was either hidden in the game, or suspected to have been cut from the game entirely. Triforce item use: In the Quest Status screen, there is a Triforce in the middle of Medallion area, which led to rumors that you could not only find the triforce, but use it somehow. Leftover Ura functionality: “Ura Zelda” was a planned expansion for Ocarina of Time, that would have used the Nintendo 64 disk drive. The commercial failure of the N64DD led to Ura Zelda never being released. To make a comparison here, Sonic 3 being expanded with Sonic & Knuckles is what I think of first when it comes to old physical games getting expansions. Sonic 3 contains a lot of content that would later appear in Sonic and Knuckles, so it wouldn’t be too out of the question to expect that Ocarina of Time would contain some remnants of Ura Zelda. However, no such remnants are known to exist in Ocarina of Time’s base game. Reed item: This unused reed whistle would have been used to call Epona, instead of playing Epona’s song on the Ocarina. A 1998 screenshot shows Link using it. Mirinda Item in Kakariko Village: The Mirinda item was shown in a pre-release ad, wherein Link could obtain it in Kakariko village. In the final game there isn’t anything of note under this tree, but as you can clearly see in this footage, players have ravenously been trying to obtain the Mirinda soda for years. The child shown in this footage would later be permanently admitted to a psychiatric ward after prolonged distress due to not getting that gosh dang soda. N-coins: within some of the game’s debug text, Skulltula tokens are referred to as “N-coins” and there exist 4 unused models for the aforementioned coins. They match up with the colors of the 4 main types of Rupees, so they were most likely some alternate form of currency. Missing townsfolk in early Castle Town: Castle Town went through a lot of changes as development went on. In super early screenshots, the town looked a lot different, seemingly being more open rather than having fixed camera angles like in the final game. As for missing townsfolk, as the town went through changes, NPCs inhabiting the town would have also changed. However, the iceberg may be referring to this build, which looks much closer to the final version. In this version of Castle Town, the townspeople would actually greet Link as he walked by, saying "hello" in Japanese. This feature was removed entirely in the final game, as well as this unknown NPC. Early low-poly NPCs: a bunch of NPC models exist in Ocarina of Time, that are either earlier versions of existing NPCs, or ones that were cut altogether. This model of a Zora exemplifies how rudimentary these early models were, as it completely lacks textures. Running Man in Mario Sunshine: Il Piantissimo is an NPC in Super Mario Sunshine who will race the player in various different levels, and beating him will win you a Shine Sprite, of course. Him being one of the only humans on all of Isle Delfino is strange enough, but what’s more interesting is that removing his mask will reveal that he bears a striking resemblance to the Running Man from Ocarina of Time. Fitting, considering what they both do. The Aria Apparition: So, to interject a bit of my own opinion here, which I’ve tried to limit in this video, I prefer to talk about things that are mostly factual, in the sense that Ocarina of Time has enough mysteries and rumors surrounding it that you don’t really need to make up new ones just for the sake of it. I know, trust me, I know how stupid it sounds to prefer one type of rumor to another, but in the case of “The Aria Apparition”, it was a piece of lore written specifically for this iceberg image. I will read the article that comes from the Zelda 64 conspiracy wiki, and I will let you be the judge of whether it’s a genuinely cool rumor, or just a creepypasta. (the text is on-screen, I'm not subtitling this whole section lmao) You guys still with me? At this point I would like to also quickly go over some of the stuff at the very bottom of the iceberg. “Zelda 64” was Ocarina of Time’s working title earlier on in development, but obviously this was changed before the final release. "Zelda 64 on N64DD" does have some credence to it. As we mentioned earlier, the planned expansion called “URA Zelda” was meant to be used with the N64 Disk Drive, although the iceberg may be referring toZelda 64 in a literal sense, implying that this early build was somehow planned for the N64DD. "N64DD was cancelled to keep Zelda 64 from the public" seems to corroborate this. I don’t know if whoever wrote this was misinformed, but the N64DD did release in Japan, although because it flopped pretty hard, it never got a worldwide release. Finally, "N64DD personalizes games" is just another take on the “every copy of Mario 64 is personalized” meme that was highly circulated when the Super Mario 64 iceberg was at the peak of its popularity. While the N64DD actually could both read and write data onto the disks it used, I don’t think I need to explain to you that this add on doesn’t affect Ocarina of Time in any way, since Ocarina of Time isn’t compatible with the Disk Drive, nor is it able to be personalized. I know I'm being a complete buzzkill here, and honestly, if you don't like this section of the video, I won't hold it against you. It's just that, I feel like my only other two options for talking about this stuff was either to embellish it as though it were real, or ignore it completely. So this is how I'm choosing to tackle it. At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter that much. This is a video about a 20+ year old Zelda game. On with the rest of the video. Dual-wielding bronze hammer upgrade: Little is known about this item, but from what I was able to find out, you would find these hammers in a grotto under a rock in the Lost Woods, and they would replace your Megaton Hammer. Link would then dual wield these epic things and swing them to deal devastating amounts of damage. But once again, not much is known, and honestly we can’t be too sure. Ganon only truly dies in V1.0: The removal of blood and other sensitive imagery in later versions of Ocarina of Time result in Ganondorf throwing up when you beat him instead of coughing up blood. Delivering the final blow to Ganon also results in green blood rather than red blood, leading to the idea that he only truly dies in these uncensored copies of the game. The ending still shows Ganondorf being sealed in the Sacred Realm either way, but the fact of the matter still remains: he only bleeds in in the original version. Finally, we're at the end of the video. This was another big undertaking to make, but I couldn’t have done it without my co-host for today, Panic 64. As well as HsuHru, who helped write a lot of stuff for the script, and was kind enough to provide me with some of their notes. Please subscribe to both of them, as they absolutely deserve all the love and support you guys have given me on this channel. Of course, ChrisCube, Error0x404, and all the members of the discord server who helped in creating the iceberg need to be thanked, as this video couldn’t exist without them. Sites like The Cutting Room Floor, Zelda Dungeon, and a lot of miscellaneous beta footage uploads on YouTube also made this video possible. If you’ve stuck around through this whole video, including this outro, I can’t thank you enough for watching. Liking, commenting, subscribing, and sharing all help immensely, and if you decide to do any of those things, it genuinely means a lot. Thank you again, and goodbye.
Made by the pioneer himself! Mish koz (some people wanted him to make sole content about icebergs due to his popularity and efficiency, but big guy Mish said hes only doing it for nostalgic/ topics he had a keen eye/ stepped his hands into the mix with. Respect.)