[Ganondorf laughing] Many years ago, when I was a wee lad, I used
to let title screens sit on repeat. Often times it was because I was in a weird
limbo where I wanted to play the game, but I also knew that I had already cleared it
100%, so firing it up wasn’t going to offer many new adventures. This was something I briefly highlighted in
my video about trying to touch the moon in Ocarina of Time. At this point, I basically had two options. Press start, select my file, and find something
to do, or flick the power switch on my Nintendo 64 off and wish I had more to do. But… What if neither choice had to be made? Because what’s super interesting about title
screens in general, especially this one, is that what we see is actually taking place
in the game’s engine. It isn’t a movie, it’s actually Link as
a character riding along on a set path with Epona. Now that may sound super obvious because that’s
what we’re observing, but what I’m getting at is this: The Link we see here is our character
in the game, but he’s not bound to any of our save files… The world we’re viewing doesn’t quite
line up with our typical timeline in Ocarina of Time. It’s a paradox of the events that take place
in the game… And Link is caught in the middle of this universe,
suspended on his horse for all of time… Unless we intervene, that is. And that’s exactly what we’re going do. This is the Title Screen Paradox of The Legend
of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. So a while back I was messing around with
debug menus and other tools for Ocarina of Time when I found myself warping to the title
screen. This was of course super interesting to me,
but given how the title screen functions, I found myself not being able to do much. However, that’s when I got an idea to actually
reverse the order of my actions. To be on the title screen and warp out of
it, thus transporting this Link to another place prior to loading any save files at all. And low and behold, it worked. Link spawned in Hyrule Field without his horse
and the world around me seemed normal. That was until I paused the game and took
a look at my inventory… And that’s when I got a bit perplexed. Link seemed to have nearly every item in the
game but all of his equipment wasn’t upgraded at all. I had the Giant’s Knife prior to it snapping
in two, the Goron Bracelet, Silver scale, chicken and the egg, But the weirdest part
was that Link was an adult, yet he lacked the Ocarina of Time. And beyond that, he also lacked the Spiritual
Stones needed to open the door of time in the first place. Now this situation I found myself in isn’t
something new at all. For those who have followed the speed running
community over the years, traveling back to the title screen in Zelda is something that
has been done in various games. From Wind Waker, to Twilight Princess, to
Skyward Sword, etc. Initiating these warps can have interesting
side effects too, as usually they are done in an attempt to overwrite the save file with
a Link that is more well-equipped. In Ocarina of Time’s example, if this was
done, and the game were able to be saved, it’d rewrite the data in the first slot
with a file called LINK, written in all capital letters. This is the name of the file that is loaded
up on the title screen - the one that has all the weird equipment. Essentially, you could skip the all the aspects
of acquiring the needed medallions in the game and plant yourself in an end-of-game
state. But this is where I want to take a step away
from this concept from a game perspective, and more so put ourselves into the shoes of
Link from a story perspective. The story of The Hero of Time - who splits
the game into multiple timelines depending on his actions, but in this particular situation,
finds himself in a timeline that doesn’t add up at all. He obviously has a list of accomplishments
as outlined by his inventory. He finds himself on horseback bearing the
rewards from a long and tiring adventure, but there’s a major problem with this adventure
he’s currently on. He’s in the middle of an adventure that
never had a beginning. The land Link finds himself in is still a
completely untouched world. Our map is blank, and we’ve never actually
done any of the things we appear to have done. We start as night turns to day and immediately
a chicken hatches in our inventory. When Navi tries to bug us, she says The Great
Deku tree wanted us to go visit the princess at Hyrule Castle… Which is obviously dialogue from the child
timeline. But we’re an adult now, and Princess Zelda
surely isn’t waiting for us in the same capacity she was when Link was supposed to
be a kid. But in this world, this is basically the only
sense of direction we have. So we make our way to Hyrule Castle town and
into the Temple of Time. If Link technically changes back to a child,
it’s possible we could rekindle the events needed to realign time again. But we run into an interesting roadblock. Upon entering the Temple of Time, we realize
that something is out of place. The general thought process was that since
we were an adult we could go through the door of time and transform back into the child
we never actually were. Despite not having the three spiritual stones,
we do find them on the alter. But the door itself is closed off and it isn’t
opened. So we pull out our trusty ocarina, give it
a few timely doots, and we wait in anticipation. Although our Ocarina appears to be blue in
our hands, it’s actually not the Ocarina of Time. We don’t have the Ocarina of Time because
Zelda never threw it to us - because we were never a kid who actually gathered the three
spiritual stones. We don’t have a past, really. Despite this, the door begins to crack open…
even though it shouldn’t. So let’s talk about that. First, stepping away from the story for a
moment and talking strictly about the game side of things, technically it could be possible
to clip through the door and turn into a child even if the door didn’t open. Speed runners do this often as Child Link,
but doing it as Adult Link is a bit more rare to see. If Link were to make it to the other side
of this door, he’d see the cutscene for becoming an adult immediately as soon as he
crossed it. Sheik would then block the pedestal from him
and tell him to go to Kakariko village, despite us having both the hookshot and forest medallion. And as soon as that cutscene finishes… Our child cutscene starts. With Shiek still standing at the pedestal
from the adult timeline, we gaze upon Shiek’s legs as if they are the master sword and admire
it from afar. Once this cutscene is over, we realize we
can’t do anything in this room because Shiek is still there. And to make matters worse, we’re actually
trapped in here. The door of time behind us blocks our path,
so we’d have to save and reload, clear the forest temple boss, and return. But that’s taking us far from where we actually
are story-wise. So let’s get back to the second point. From the story perspective, Link can’t become
a child. He can’t open the door of time and he can’t
glitch through walls. The Ocarina of Time was never given to him,
and the only reason his Ocarina looks blue is because the game can’t have adult Link
holding the fairy ocarina since it’s normally replaced before he ever becomes an adult. In this timeline, Link learned the Song of
Time without grabbing the Ocarina of Time. So he’s missing a part of the key. That is why his childhood is sealed off from
a story-perspective. It’s unknown if he’d actually know what
to do at this point too. Does this Link have the knowledge of all his
previous accomplishments? Or is he a blank slate? Does he even know Zelda is imprisoned? Regardless, Navi still presses us to head
towards the castle, where the Sages rebuild the bridge. If Link were to wander anywhere else in the
world, fragments of a broken timeline would sprinkle in and start to repair his reality
- but he’d still be forever banned from returning to his childhood during the events
of the game. So his only real option is to head into Ganondorf’s
castle and end his reign of evil. Ganondorf’s castle is relatively the same
since Link has all the equipment needed to solve the various rooms. However, there was one section I had my doubts
about initially. In the forest section of the castle, Link
typically plays the song of time to restore a block so he can grab a silver rupee. When remembering this section I thought it
was going to cause a problem - as technically Link shouldn’t be able to summon these blocks
without the Ocarina of Time. But it turns out, you honestly don’t need
this block at all and can just use your hover boots to glide through the area and grab the
rupee. Given that this is the only roadblock, Link
can now defeat Ganondorf and complete the cycle. But even so, the timeline is still completely
out of whack due to the sequence breaking the game went through. Zelda wouldn’t have to request Link to give
the Ocarina back in the game’s final cutscene because he never received it, but with its
power she can certainly send Link back through time. But what a bizarre state of events this puts
us in. Now throughout this whole ordeal, it’s important
to suspend disbelief and just humor the idea for the fun of it. But we still come back to that paradox situation. If Link has all these items and knowledge,
yet lacks the key tools to implement them, did his childhood actually exist? Because if we head to Kokiri Forest, the Deku
Tree is still alive even though we are an adult. His leaves are green, and his coloring hasn’t
been sapped from his bark. That means in this current timeline, the Kokiri’s
Emerald was given to someone else. We don’t have it, but it was placed within
the Temple of Time. Again, this is a result of the game’s sequence
being broken - but we’re applying these broken characteristics directly to the game’s
story. Instead of being from the past, it’s almost
as if this Link was from a different dimension. If he were to return to the past with all
the things he collected on his journey, despite a lot of them being obtained during that era,
he’d find himself being able to obtain them again. Which takes us back to that ultimate question:
Does this Link have recollections of the past? If not, the world he is going back to is going
to be strange. At some point he had to have existed in Kokiri
Forest, but given the circumstances, he disappeared before ever making it to the Deku Tree. Perhaps that’s when the switch happened. Maybe he does have recollections of the past,
but not from this timeline. Maybe he did collect the items elsewhere before
being spit back into this one. Overall, it’s quite a lot to think about. Sure it’s a bit of a silly concept and obviously
the developers just filled Link’s standard inventory - but the fact that this Link is
equipped the way he is just gets my mind racing with fun possibilities. This Link was never supposed to be accessible
but many skilled players have found a way through wrong warping in the game. By triggering a game over, they are given
the option to save their game, and now this Link finds himself copied to the first save
file. There’s something really neat about that,
and it’s definitely fun to ponder about. But I’ve been rambling on for a bit now. What are your thoughts about this Link from
a story perspective? Got any fun takes yourself? Let me know in the comments below! And with that… Thanks for tuning in guys and gals, and until
my next video - cheers!
