History GuideDangIt / TheLegendOfZelda

* ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaLinksAwakening Link's Awakening]]'' has doors that will only open if you throw a pot at them. Aside from not being very intuitive in the first place, this logic doesn't work in any other game in the series, so veteran players are even less likely to think of it and just assume they missed a switch or something. At least the DX version added hints to help.

* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheMinishCap'' you have to scoop up water with a bottle and pour it on a seed... except the game gave no indication that you could scoop up water with a bottle or that pouring water on the seed would immediately make it grow.

* The most massive of these is possibly the [[ThatOneSidequest Kafei and Anju sidequest]] in ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask Majora's Mask]],'' which requires a long string of specific actions performed at specific times, and which must be completed no less than twice in order to get every possible item from it. The trading sequence required to get the InfinityPlusOneSword (well, [[PenultimateWeapon one of them, anyway]]) is pretty bad too. In fact, much of ''Majora's Mask'' in general is brimming with Guide Dang It moments.
** One of the problems with the Kafei and Anju quest is that you have to let Sakon, the thief, get away with mugging the old woman from the bomb shop. And, although your meeting with Anju happens at about the same time as the mugging, it's quite possible to get from the Stock Pot Inn to North Clock Town with plenty of time to spare before the old lady shows up, at which point you can foil the thief and ruin your chances of finishing the side-quest.
*** Another problem is the reward for completing it: A mask that only has one purpose: Getting another reward (a piece of heart). Where to use this mask to get the reward is not obvious in the least.

* And how about the second quest of [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda the original]]? Items get moved around, and every level's entrance is now hidden, with the exception of Levels 1 and 5. It also throws fake walls at you. You'd be stuck in a dungeon, having bombed every wall and been unable to find a way out, until you realized that some walls let you just pass through if you walked up to them.

** There's also Thunderbird, the 2nd to last boss. The only way to remove its invincibility is to use a certain spell. Which one is it, though? Someone told you "If all else fails, use fire", how about that? WRONG! The mysterious "Spell" spell has to have some use besides turning enemies into Bots and revealing a hidden door. Again, wrong. No, it's the Thunder spell, which costs a majority of your magic bar and is almost completely useless because of it. Not many people suspect the "kill everything on screen for 80% of your magic bar" spell is the one that makes the boss vulnerable.
*** but then again, isn't the boss's name THUNDERbird?

* In ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Ocarina of Time]],'' there are 100 skulltullas for you to find. The manual mentions that skulltullas can sometimes be found in trees, and dislodged by rolling into said tree. If you hadn't read that, you're unlikely to try it, as the trees are small and barren and clearly could not be hiding a skulltulla.

*** Yes, but where did it say that? Oh yeah, in the MANUEL! Although, the mic was only included in the Japanese version of the controller, but they decided to keep that bit about the Pols Voice in the US version of the Manuel. Many players were confused by this, but that is a story for another time... -Pikafrogbro
* ''[[VideoGameè/TheLegendOfZeldaSpiritTracks Spirit Tracks]]''. New puzzles involve using your entire collection of songs or gadgets until/if you manage to stumble on the one that works. Every single person in Hyrule exists in a vacuum, unaware of the world around them and the people in it. This is a huge problem when you rely on them for critical information. Gameplay functions go unexplained even by the people that need you to use them. Actions that should logically yield a given outcome do nothing. Actions that logically should do nothing are required to progress.

*** Yes, but where did it say that? Oh yeah, in the MANUEL! Although, the mic was only included in the Japanese version of the controller, but they decided to keep that bit about the Pols Voice in the US version of the Manuel. Many players were confused by this, but is a story for another time... -Pikafrogbro

* ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSpiritTracks Spirit Tracks]]''. New puzzles involve using your entire collection of songs or gadgets until/if you manage to stumble on the one that works. Every single person in Hyrule exists in a vacuum, unaware of the world around them and the people in it. This is a huge problem when you rely on them for critical information. Gameplay functions go unexplained even by the people that need you to use them. Actions that should logically yield a given outcome do nothing. Actions that logically should do nothing are required to progress.

* The Zelda Spin-off, ''FreshlyPickedTinglesRosyRupeeland'' has the character paying money to people. If you don't offer them enough, they'll tell you to get lost. Offer them too much and you'll have wasted a bunch of money. It's even worse when you're selling items because trying to charge too much may make you lose the opportunity to sell that item at all!

* Mention must also be made of the infamous Water Temple from ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Ocarina of Time]]''.
** Quoth [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NixJnq-y3iA&feature=related a fan on YouTube]]: "With all the other temples, you know where the keys are. You kill a bad guy, you search a room, you get a key. In the Water Temple? Oooooh nooo, there's always some hidden room with some hidden key that you forgot because you changed the water level ''too soon!'' So you gotta keep doing it over and over again, it drives you '''crazy!'''"

* ''Ocarina of Time'' is on the ''low'' end of these, but it's got the Gerudo Training Ground. To get all the keys, you'll need to climb to the part of the ''ceiling'' that is an invisible wall. You've got an item that lets you see them, but no reason whatsoever to look there. Granted, it is possible to get through this place without all the keys (if you don't need to get ''every'' item) but... well, you won't.

* The Zelda Spin-off, ''FreshlyPickedTinglesRosyRupeeland'' has the character paying money to people. If you don't offer them enough, they'll tell you to get lost. Offer them too much and you'll have wasted a bunch of money. It's even worse when you're selling items.

* The Zelda Spin-off, ''TinglesRosyRupeeland'' has the character paying money to people. If you don't offer them enough, they'll tell you to get lost. Offer them too much and you'll have wasted a bunch of money. It's even worse when you're selling items.

* ''Ocarina of Time'' is on the ''low'' end of these, but it's got the Gerudo Training Ground. To get all the keys, you'll need to climb to the part of the ''ceiling'' that is an invisible wall. You've got an item that lets you see them, but no reason whatsoever to look there. Granted, it is possible to get through this place without all the keys (if you don't need to get ''every'' item) but... well, you won't.

** Let's not forget about the bridge man for the town of Saria, which caused a lot of people grief when they became stuck after only one dungeon! All you are told is "Only townspeople may cross". So do you lure a townsperson over? Do you talk to people around there to be sworn in? Do you have to come back after finding a second dungeon? How about wander randomly in the forest to the north to find a man named Bagu, despite the fact he is never mentioned otherwise? Oh, and his house is hidden, so you have to comb all of those trees, even with the forced battle areas. To top this all off, you need to talk to Bagu, or else you can't get the hammer, which you need to reach the next dungeon! Averted somewhat by a monster in one house. He's asleep, but if you bother him enough times, he tells you to see his 'master' in the woods north of Saria.
* In a linked ''{{VideoGame/The Legend of Zelda Oracle|Games}} of Ages'' game is the heroes cave. In one room there's a puzzle to turn yellow floor tiles into red ones like in some other dungeons in the game. You can spend hours of trying to solve the puzzle with at least one tile being left. The solution? Using your Cane of Somaria to create a block on the tile counts as turning it red.

** Let's not forget about the bridge man for the town of Saria, which caused a lot of people grief when they became stuck after only the second dungeon(or FIRST if they had not gone north yet)! All you are told is "Only townspeople may cross". So do you lure a townsperson over? Do you talk to people around there to be sworn in? Do you have to come back after finding a third dungeon? How about wander randomly in the forest to the north to find a man named Bagu, despite the fact he is never mentioned otherwise? Oh, and his house is hidden, so you have to comb all of those trees, even with the forced battle areas. To top this all off, you need to talk to Bagu, or else you can't get the hammer, which you need to reach the third dungeon! Averted somewhat by a monster in one house. He's asleep, but if you bother him enough times, he tells you to see his 'master' in the woods north of Saria.

** Depending on how oblivious to the mechanics of the DS you are, it can take an hour of pointing at every pixel on the screen ten times before you figure it out. Seriously.

** Quoth [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NixJnq-y3iA&feature=related a fan on YouTube]]: "With all the other temples, you know where the keys are. You kill a bad guy, you search a room, you get a key. In the Water Temple? [[SarcasmMode Oooooh nooo]], there's always some hidden room with some hidden key that you forgot because you changed the water level ''too soon!'' So you gotta keep doing it over and over again, it drives you '''crazy!'''"

** Even getting past the Deku Scrub "prologue" of the game can prove challenging to new players, leaving them baffled for the three in-game days until the moon falls. Seriously, who - on their first attempt - guessed that they needed to [[FetchQuest find the fairies to get the magic meter to pop the balloon to find the kids to get the code to go to the observatory to get the Moon's Tear to give to the unmemorable Deku Scrub to use his flower to get to the tower... AND THEN wait until the very end of the last day... AND THEN climb the tower and shoot the Ocarina out of Skull Kid's hands]]? It doesn't help that you're timed, and once your time's up, it's Game Over and you're forced to start again with no clue as to what you did wrong. This is probably the reason the game has more of a cult following compared to [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaofTime its predecessor]], since all this must be completed before you actually get your sword - swordfighting being what people expect of Zelda!

** Going to the final dungeon only to find out, halfway through it, you don't have an upgrade (the Fire Arrow) the game never ever mentioned and also doesn't tell how you get it? Delicious. (And to be fair, if you decide to check a random tablet somewhere in Hyrule, the game does hint you about a procedure for... something, but no mention of what you'll get, so without a guide it's pretty much luck if you happen to get an upgrade you'll actually need later)
** And then there's going to the Shadow Temple and finding out that to enter you must have Din's Fire. Never mind that to get it you have to go back to the Hyrule Castle area, follow the road until it splits, get to a completely forgettable dead end and throw a bomb on a boulder you might have easily ignored up to that point. And of course, you also need to realize you can only find it there, and that it is the only thing that allows you to light all the torches.
*** It is actually possible to enter using arrows (you still need Fire Arrows to light at least one torch first, however).

* One of the heart pieces in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaLinksAwakening'' could only be found by going far out of your way to dive underwater in a corner of the Kanalet Castle moat.
** In the second dungeon, Bottle Grotto, one of the keys could only be obtained by defeating the enemies of one specific room in a specific order. There is an in-game hint for this portion, but unless you know the names of the enemies from some outside source (because neither the game nor the US game manual tells you their names), then the admonition to "First defeat the imprisoned Pols Voice; last, Stalfos," just sounds like so much gibberish, although the Pols Voice is visibly imprisoned by jars.
** In the main quest of ''Link's Awakening'', the way to navigate the inside of the Wind Fish's Egg is only revealed to you after reading a book in Koholint Library. With a Magnifying Lens. Which you get after completing the secondary TradingSequence.
* In ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Ocarina of Time]]'', when you come back as an adult to find the place deserted, you have to bomb the one rolling Goron to unlock the rest of the city and the next dungeon. Not only is this only very vaguely hinted at from an optional source that also gives you useless information, it is difficult to do.
* ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSpiritTracks Spirit Tracks]]''. You will use a guide. New puzzles involve using your entire collection of songs or gadgets until/if you manage to stumble on the one that works. Every single person in Hyrule exists in a vacuum, unaware of the world around them and the people in it. This is a huge problem when you rely on them for critical information. Gameplay functions go unexplained even by the people that need you to use them. Actions that should logically yield a given outcome do nothing. Actions that logically should do nothing are required to progress.

** How about the very first town? A random kid tells you to go west to get to Parapa Palace. Going west takes you to the second town, Ruto. Going east (through a cave) takes you to Parapa Palace. Even worse if you learned Sheild magic and noticed the old man recommended its use in Parapa Desert (deducing that the palace is named for the desert it's found in), as there is another desert (the Tantari) to the west before you get to Ruto.

* In ''VIdeoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaPhantomHourglass'', the secret to getting that mark in the Temple of the Ocean King onto your sea chart definitely qualifies, but it can become FridgeBrilliance if you manage to work it out or a CrowningMomentofFunny if you accidentally stumble on it.

* In ''VIdeoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaPhantomHourglass'', the secret to getting that mark in the Temple of the Ocean King onto your sea chart definitely qualifies, but it can become FridgeBrilliance if you manage to work it out or a CrowningMoment ofFunny if you accidentally stumble on it.

* In ''VIdeoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaPhantomHourglass'', the secret to getting that mark in the Temple of the Ocean King onto your sea chart definitely qualifies, but it can become FridgeBrilliance if you manage to work it out or a CrowningMomentofFunny if you accidentally stumble on it.

*** It is actually possible to enter using arrows (you still need Fire Arrows to light at least one arrow first, however).