Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of time "Beta" Mode. Tips and tricks

Hello, internet! And welcome. It's the blog where we don't care about how you got here. We're just glad to see you. Today, we'll be digging into something I very lightly touched on, or so I thought. But it turned out, today is tips 'n tricks day! The intended game was originally new super mario bros. Wii. But, from a tips and tricks perspective, this game doesn't have an incredible amount of secrets. Most of the things you can do or experience in the game are learned and seen throughout the main story, so you experience it in a normal playthrough. Nonetheless you will see new super mario. In the meantime, back to zelda!

The legend of zelda: ocarina of time was one of the most popular games of the n64, and one of the best games of it's time. It was loaded with content, and contained just as much controversy. It was originally intended to utilize the n64 disk drive, but this product never quite made it. So things were chopped up in the game, cut out, altered a bit for data's sake (or rather I assume it's for the sake of data. I could be wrong) and, in the end, we wound up with an amazing game. What we'll be digging into, however, are some of the interesting, and curious things found in ocarina of time. There's a special code to access what is commonly referred to as “beta mode” but what should be known is that this isn't actually a beta of the game, but you are actually within cutscenes. The codes not only lock you into the cutscenes most of the time(occasionally when you walk into a certain area, your HUD returns, and you're forced out of “beta”), and you will occasionally stumble on an item that causes the game to crash.

Before I actually get fully into this, I should mention that there would be A LOT to cover by going through the entire set of zelda secrets in ocarina. I would never be able to do it all in one blog. That being said, I do want to touch base on some of my favorite curiosities to come out of this game. And I will tell you how to find the secret before actually talking about it. You see, the “beta mode” is separated into quests based on the different codes that put you into it. Each code gives you different things to look at in different areas. You can tell you're in beta mode when the health, magic, and action buttons are gone from the screen. Also, there will be absolutely no music in hyrule field. This was probably not intended to be anything, but it can give the beta mode a creepy feel, especially the first few sets of code, where the field is incredibly dark. This probably isn't intended to be scary, but you really feel like something might pop out at you while you walk around. Also, some of the character designs look incredibly creepy. With that don't, let's get on to the actual frigging beta (oh crap. Spell check recognized “frigging” as a word! After this, I need to get a dictionary out).

First we're going to look at beta quest 1. hyrule field will be dark, and the bridge to hyrule itself will be broken, however, you can still get to hyrule field. This, however, will force you out of beta. We're aiming for zora's fountain. Head there, and you will be taken to lord jabu-jabu. His mouth will be closed, and there's nothing you can do to open it, so let's go exploring! Swim over to the nearest rock and you'll find...oh...it's younger princess Ruto! :D but older Link? Incredible! Not really what we're here to focus on, but it does show you that you have just entered the cutscene where ruto gives link the zora sapphire whilst considering him her future husband. This is confirmed by the nearby sapphire under the water, now, if you walk (swim) over to where the ice cavern would be, you'll find you can't get there by normal means. You've done all this gameshark codework, so I doubt you planned on stopping there. If you have a levitation code, use it to get up to the ice cavern. In the ice cavern, you'll see a red(or pink) crystalline pedestal. You can go through the door behind you, and walk down the hallway to an unfinished version of the block puzzle used in the ice cavern. When you head there, the room turns aquamarine, almost like light blue clouds block most of your view, making things really hard to see. What I find most interesting is the pedestal. It would be an interesting place to put the chest in which to find the iron boots, and changing the color to match the room wouldn't have been a problem, would it? It seems like the most likely reason would be that it takes up space in the room, and after some thought, wouldn't be completely necessary.

Another interesting item is the fabled pedestal of the ocarina! In beta quest 2, go back to zora's domain, you'll find yourself in the same place as when looking for the red pedestal, with jabu jabu in front of us, mouth not gaping. But “gasp” what is this thing in front of him!? It's like a pedestal...with an ocarina on it. This is the pedestal of the ocarina (totally original name!) and it's purpose before it's removal was...unfortunately unconfirmed on my part. It stands to reason you had to play a song in order to enter lord jabu jabu's mouth, mostly because of it's location. I do have another crackpot theory, though. I believe that this was originally a prototype for the warp pedestals, considering it has a few similarities to the pedestal. It's still possible that this idea was in someone's head. Use the tiny pedestal to warp places, save a few kilobytes of data, and come up with some other way to open big fishy mouth. Anyway, trying to walk on the pedestal, or anywhere past it toward lord jabu jabu, will result in the game freezing up on you.

Finally, we have an interesting item that's accessible outside of beta, as well as inside. Through the use of certain gameshark codes, it's possible to spawn an arwing from starfox 64 in zelda ocarina of time. The arwing is fairly small, but is completely functional with attacks and animations, and can even damage link upon its destruction if he's close enough. It can be destroyed with just about everything in your arsenal, but can sometimes be hard to target considering it's speed. But it's literally a one hit kill. One question that may be on your mind is “why would something from starfox be in a zelda game?” well, the arwing was actually used in the development process of the game, particularly when developing the boss of the fire temple, volvagia. Volvagia is designed to fly in a way similarly to the way enemy pilots chase arwings in starfox, so it would make sense to use an arwing. What i'm not so sure about is why they bothered to give it lasers, and a death animation? After all, if they just wanted to use it to mimic a pattern from a different game, then why did they go any further than that? I bet they had the idea to keep it in as an easter egg with the disc drive addition. Then again, I'm nuts.

Well, I think that's enough digging for today. The zelda franchise has TONS of secrets, more than I can cover without making my entire blog about zelda. But for the sake of fairness, we're going to do something else. Next time, we'll be reviewing a series that somehow has made itself immortal in the gaming world. It's a series that hasn't died out since its beginning. It's had it's weird games, it's spinoffs, and it's cameos, but it still stays alive today. Bet plenty of you have already guessed what it is! I fel like i've already mentioned it in this blog...oh, I have. In any case, if you liked it, spread the word. You can leave notes, comments, and suggestions in my ask box. See you guys soon from the tnt husky! ^^