History UnwinnableByMistake / TheLegendOfZelda

<!-- It is not possible to softlock yourself in the Water Palace. Just look around and check your Compass. You probably just missed the one at the bottom of the middle tower. -->

* A common myth is that it is possible to use your keys in the wrong order in the Water Temple, thus locking yourself out of completing the dungeon... and the game. Barely averted in that this is not actually a complete game-stopper, but finding the replacement key is incredibly convoluted.

[[AC: VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask]]
* Though not a permanent game stopper as you can reset time, it's easy to kill all the Sea Snakes at Pinnacle Rock and leave without getting all the Zora Eggs if you don't have enough empty bottles. If you do this, the seahorse won't guide you to Pinnacle Rock anymore making getting the remaining eggs impossible. As you need a photo of a pirate to get the seahorse in the first place, this often happens to first-time players who have already completed the Pirate's Fortress, forcing them to take it on in it's entirety again ''and'' fight all the Sea Snakes a second time after resetting time.

* Due to all kinds of glitchy stuff in the game it's possible to glitch Link into the floor at the start of a palace, glitch the floor so Link keeps falling through it, get Link stuck in the middle of an ocean and all kinds of other stuff where the player's only option is to reset or use the "quick end" code (which isn't even possible when stuck in the ocean). In Nintendo's defence, some of this requires stuff that wasn't even possible on the original console, like pressing up and down at the same time, and other glitches require the player to do things that most normal players wouldn't think of doing, like talking to the same character several times in succession and then entering a door on the right frame.

* In the original game, if you pick up a Clock in a room with Wallmasters, they will get stuck in the wall. If it happens to be a room where the doors are locked until all enemies are defeated, your only option is to reset or use the "quick end" code.

* Jabu Jabu's Belly had switches to raise and drain the water level, allowing you to move up and down through special holes in the floor. However, if you forgot to collect a certain key before raising the water level to maximum, you will be unable to reach the boss because there's a row of locked rooms between you and it. Unfortunately, you would have to move blocks to get to the draining switch, but said blocks are underwater and you can't push blocks when you're swimming.
* -Not true, thankfully. Where the second blue water switch is, you can push a block to get to the red switch, which drains the water. Just thought I'd correct that before someone restarts their entire game.

* The Song of the Hero quest is impossible and the save could be corrupted should the player speak to Golo the Goron a second time in Lanayru Mine, after getting the Thunder Dragon's song, but before going to the forest or volcano regions. If you save instead of loading an earlier save, prepare to restart the whole thing. Luckily, [[http://kotaku.com/5865426/ it's easy enough to avoid]], and Nintendo has posted a free downloadable channel that corrects the save corruption.

** There's a room in the mountains that can be entered through a hole in the ceiling into some water. Normally, it's impossible to get to this hole before being able to swim, but the screen jumping glitch allows you to get to it earlier. If you fall through the hole and hit the water without the swimming ability, the game will respawn you (without taking away any health) at the room entrance. Since you entered the room by falling from above, you respawn in mid-air and fall into the water again. You end up caught in an infinite loop of respawning and falling back in the water.

* Due to the nature of keys in this game, it was possible to carry keys to other dungeons to unlock their doors. This can wind you up in a bind if you run out of keys (although it's possible to buy more). Future games corrected this by restricting key use to the dungeon they're acquired in.

* If you get the Hourglass, save right away, turn your game off, and start right again, then the hourglass is ''gone''. LostForever. As you can probably imagine, you cannot complete ''Phantom Hourglass'' without the Phantom Hourglass.

[[AC: VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOracleOfAges]]

* Thanks to a [[GameBreakingBug glitch]] in the game, players can turn any item in their inventory into a bottle. This is generally regarded as very helpful when used for useless things like the receipt for the Biggoron Sword. If it's used on something you actually ''need'', you are SOL.

* It's possible to use your keys in the wrong order in the Water Temple, thus locking yourself out of completing the dungeon... and the game. Presumably fixed for Ocarina 3D.
** A common myth. There is no way to get stuck in the water temple [[labelnote:proof]]There are 6 keys/doors. The doors are intended to be unlocked in pairs of 2s in this sequence: two unlock the ability to freely cycle through water levels, two more unlock Dark Link/Longshot, the last 2 unlock the boss key. The keys are accessible in a 2,2(=4),2 pattern: two can only be obtained with the water at F1, two more with the water at F2 (=4 accessible keys when you can freely cycle the water level), and the last two can only be obtained with the longshot. The boss key path has no small keys, and can't be accessed without the Longshot. The Dark Link/Longshot path is only accessible when the water level is on F3, but none of the intended first 4 keys can be obtained with the water level that high, thus the player always unlocks the doors in the same order[[/labelnote]]
** This wasn't a complete game-stopper, but finding the replacement key was incredibly convoluted. This possibility still exists in the [=3DS=] version, but the temple's adjustments make it less prevalent.

[[AC: VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda]]

* Due to the nature of keys in this game, it was possible to carry keys to other dungeons to unlock their doors. This can wind you up in a bind if you run out of keys. Future games corrected this by restricting key use to the dungeon they're acquired in.