The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time/Developer Oversights

This is a sub-page of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

The developers overlooked a few interesting details in their rush to finish the game.

Kokiri Forest

Hidden Pot in Twins' House

The collision model for the Twins' House in Kokiri Forest actually contains two pots, despite the pre-rendered background depicting only one. Because of the way the background image is mapped to the collision, attempting to roll between the two pots will result in parts of Link disappearing behind the background where the pot would be. This is illustrated in the lefthand image below.

Appearance In-Game	Collision Model

Inside the Deku Tree

Unused Navi Information Spot

There should be three Navi information spots in the slingshot room of the Deku Tree. However, the actors for these information spots are loaded in the Deku Tree's main chamber, rather than the slingshot room where they're meant to appear. They would have used the same text as the information spot on the main chamber's second floor:

"Look at this wall! The vines growing on it give it a rough surface... Maybe you can climb it, Link!".

Hyrule Field

Misplaced Bushes

Several of Hyrule Field's scene setups contain two groups of small bushes whose coordinates put them underground near the entrance to Gerudo Valley. The bushes are spawned via actor 0x0151, variable 0x0201. Objects spawned by this actor attempt to attach to collision surfaces beneath them. However, because the two groups of bushes are not placed above any collision, they fail to spawn. When moved above ground, the actors will function properly.

It appears that the terrain for this area changed at some point in development. There's no higher cliff section with a fence where these bushes are located underground. It seems that the developers forgot about the existence of these bushes after making this change to the map.

This oversight was fixed in Ocarina of Time 3D, with the bushes brought up to the surface.

Back Alley

Misplaced Bed in Back Alley House

Examining the collision of the green-clad NPC's house in the Back Alley reveals that there is collision for a bed located outside the room's normal boundaries.

Kakariko Village

Mismatching Windmill Door

There is an oversight with the Kakariko Windmill door, making it use a different type of door indoors and outdoors. This is due to the interior using the wooden door in gameplay_keep while overworld uses the wooden door from gameplay_field_keep. It can be seen in pre-release screenshots from July 1998 that the wooden door for both the exterior and interior would've been consistent at one point.

Kakariko Graveyard

Fire Medallion on Pedestal

The pedestal at the Shadow Temple's entrance has the Fire Medallion symbol on it. While this could be construed as a hint to use Din's Fire, it should be noted that at one point in development that item didn't exist and fire magic was used directly through the Fire Medallion. It was removed altogether in Ocarina of Time 3D.

(Source: flyingomelette.com)

Missing Enemies

There are five roosting Keese and two Skulltulas unloaded in Kakariko Graveyard with Adult Link. They are not loaded because the objects are not referenced. All creatures are hanging on the fences, with the first Skulltula located near the Spot Beam and the second Skulltula being at the top-right on the edge of the fence.

Hyrule Castle

Missing Guard House Pots

There are two missing pots that are supposed to appear inside the guard house.

Dodongo's Cavern

Unused Hookshot Targets

There are two disabled Hookshot targets in the first room of Dodongo's Cavern. They are placed outside of the map and fit with room #3, the room with the stone staircase puzzle.

Ice Cavern

Inaccessible Navi Spot

There is an unused Navi information spot in the spinning blade room of the Ice Cavern. It uses actor 011B, which triggers a Navi message when walked upon. However, it is located underneath the steps that lead into the room, rendering it impossible to trigger. Its placement suggests that the steps were added to the room's geometry after the placement of the actor. The text generated would have been the following:

I can hear a voice from somewhere... It's saying: "Collect five silver Rupees..."

Lake Hylia

Missing Pots

There are two pots that are in Lake Hylia's (Child setup) actor list but not in the object list. If the pot is added to the scene's object list, the pots appear next to the Lakeside Laboratory entrance.

Water Temple

Missing Keese

There are two disabled Keese roosting in the first room of the Water Temple. They are placed outside of the room boundaries and fit with room #6, the room with the waterfall.

Missing Pots

There are three pots located outside of room #11 in the Water Temple, the room with the timed water geyser. They are not loaded because they are outside the collision area. The pots line up with the wall on the floor above, hinting that the room was redesigned at some point and the pots were simply forgotten about.

Missing Spike Collision

There is a corridor with spikes on the second floor to the right side of the map of the Water Temple. Outside this corridor is a forgotten piece of collision of a spike. If you touch this area, Link will take damage equal to the spikes of the corridor. The wall collision can be viewed using the Memory Editor in the Debug ROM or with a level editor. This oversight appears in all versions.

Removed Hookshot Target

In the twisty cave room with the river and whirlpools, there is a section where the player must use the Longshot to reach a treasure chest before the gate closes. While the wall behind it looks like an ordinary solid stone wall, the structure of the room's model reveals that a square patch, the same size as the Hookshot targets seen elsewhere in the temple, is located directly behind the treasure chest. The patch of stone is even defined separately from the rest of the stone around it, further indicating that this was once a Hookshot target panel.

In-Game	Edges

It was probably removed due to being redundant, as the Longshot can simply hook onto the treasure chest itself.

There is a similar odd patch in the tunnel room connected to the main room, with the stone block, but it is at the top of the wall and not tall enough to fit a target. Two more patches can be found in the room with the rolling boulders, this time on the ceiling above the ledges at each end of the room. Having targets here would have made it easier to avoid the flowing currents and boulders when crossing the room.

Bottom of the Well

Door Flag Issue

In the Bottom of the Well, there is a permanently barred door that is normally only used as a one-way path back up from the basement in case you fall into one of the many trap holes. While the door is permanently barred, it is also programmed to open by defeating all enemies in the main room of the Bottom of the Well. However, if you try to do this without emerging through this door from the basement, a cutscene will play where the door opens and then closes right away again because the "permanently barred" flag takes priority over the "open by defeating all enemies" flag. This is very likely an oversight. Leaving and re-entering the main room will still permanently remove the bars. Defeating all the enemies after entering the main room through this door from the basement will make the same cutscene play, and the door will remain open instead of closing immediately. Either way, the door will remain open permanently.

Thieves' Hideout

Misplaced Gerudo Guard

The actor for one of the patrolling Gerudo guards is placed too high, resulting in it floating down from the ceiling into its patrol after initially spawning. This, along with the fact that some of the log collision here is also out of place, suggests that these aspects may be remnants from an older layout that underwent a redesign.

Inside Ganon's Castle

Alternative Boss Door

The last three doors of Ganon's Castle before the fight with Ganondorf are defined as ones that requires a Boss Key to unlock. However, all three doors are set to the same value, so that when the first one is unlocked both subsequent ones are also unlocked. Curiously, there are two player spawns near those doors that are not used.

Forgotten Platform

During the first fight against Ganondorf, you can see a platform in the center of the base outside the map.

Forgotten Beam of Light Actor

A spawn for an unused beam of light actor (00B7) exists in the spawn data for Inside Ganon's Castle room 0, the dungeon entrance. The actor itself will fail to load due to the necessary object file dependency not being set in the room data. The block's coordinates place it within room 18 (the second half of the Spirit Trial), directly underneath a web blocking a beam of light from above, suggesting that it was initially a placeholder before the puzzle was made a little more complex.

Bazaar

Invisible Lamp Model

Restored model / no BG	Original	Restored / with BG
Removing the background and loading the lamp model.	Originally the shelf is above the lamp.	With the model loaded.

A lamp model, which is in the upper-left part of the room, is not loaded normally in the map. The models are addressed correctly but end up not being executed. The lack of this model causes a small problem: the shelf on the left side crosses the lamp, but if the model had been loaded this would not happen. This detail is almost not noticed because the HUD is on top.