The Legend Of Zelda Ocarina Of Time / Tropes M to Z

Main Index | A to L | M to Z

M - P

• MacGuffin Delivery Service: Ganondorf is seeking the three Spiritual Stones which unlock the way to the Triforce. Link obligingly collects them, opens up the door, and leaves it wide open for Ganondorf to swoop in and grab all the power he ever wanted. It's been joked that the easiest way to win the game is to get the first Spiritual Stone, save, turn off your console and never play again.
• Made of Incendium: The Keese are extremely flammable. In fact, they'll often deliberately light themselves on fire to do more damage to the player!
• Magic Fire: Blue Fire is a magical fire that can be used to melt Red Ice and also destroy bombable walls.
• Magic Missile Storm: Ganondorf does this as a Desperation Attack. It's basically the same attack as usual, just five at once in a wide spread and homing in on Link. As the missiles are the same as usual, you can just reflect all five back if you do it right. If you're feeling bold, charge up a Spin Attack and release it when he launches it. Otherwise, use this chance for a free Light Arrow shot.
• Magic Music: The two ocarinas, which allow Link to perform a variety of spells and effects. The titular Ocarina of Time in particular is one of the keys to open the Door of Time leading to the Master Sword.
• Make an Example of Them: Ganondorf, as a warning to those who would oppose him, tries to feed all the Gorons to a dragon in the Fire Temple.
• Malevolent Architecture
  • There is a trap that looks like a door and will fall down to damage Link if he either tries to open it or hits it with a weapon. You can use the latter effect to reveal these while keeping Link out of harm's way.
  • Because of how two elevators in Dodongo's Cavern work, you could mis-time your jump and wind up in a pit of lava that hurts Link as he stands on it. Newcomers will often die to this.
  • Jabu-Jabu has some strange red... nerve... things... that start wiggling about when Link approaches, and don't stop until he leaves. You need the Boomerang to stun them and make them platforms, but if you hit it with another weapon, or otherwise touch it yourself... well...
  • Also in Jabu-Jabu, there are the differently-colored "slimy things" connected to Barinade's Parasitic Tentacles that will zap Link silly if he touches them and even emit electricity if a ranged weapon hits them without zapping Link. They don't move or actively attack Link, but trying to push past them WILL hurt. A lot. So go hunt down those Parasitic Tentacles if you want to remove them.
• Manchild: Link is a sympathetic version that totally makes sense, since he is a child that enters in slumber for seven years and finds himself in a young adult body. Some of the text in the game reminds you that even though he looks grown and is battling some nightmarish monsters, Link is still a child.
• Man-Eating Plant: Deku Babas, which first appeared in this game and have since become the franchise's most common Man-Eating Plants. They have most of the features of cartoonish carnivorous botany — a mouthlike "bulb" with animal teeth and a clear tongue, minimal presence of actual leaves and a tendency to lunge and snap at people passing close.
• Marathon Level: The Water Temple is not only famous for its difficulty, it's also very long. It has many paths and passageways that branch from the central chamber, and each of them can only be accessed when the water is at a particular level.
• Mask of Power: The Mask of Truth, which grants the wearer the power to speak to Gossip Stones. The other masks, however, don't have any special powers except repel some minor enemies.
• Matte Shot: In the original N64 version, most small interior spaces, in addition to the streets of Castle Town, were pre-rendered CGI spaces which were converted into still images and given collision so 3D characters and items could convincingly interact with them. The 3DS remake turns all of these locations into proper 3D spaces.
• Meaningful Name:
  • In a Shout-Out to Shakespeare, there's Ingo. Ingo is jealous of Talon's success; Shakespeare's Iago coined the term "Green-Eyed Monster".
  • Rauru, the Sage of Light, has name similar to "aura". In fact, in Twilight Princess there is a character named Auru who bears a resemblance.
• Message in a Bottle: Link gains access to Jabu Jabu by presenting a Message in a Bottle written by Princess Ruto to the King, asking for rescue as she is trapped inside Jabu Jabu's belly. Interestingly, the message turns out to be several months old and Ruto has long since figured out how to leave Jabu Jabu — it turns out that her recent absence was for a completely different reason.
• Militaries Are Useless: The soldiers get completely wiped out by Ganon's forces when trying to defend the castle and town. Beforehand, Link was able to sneak past them, and even a random villager noted he was able to as well, until he got stuck in a small crawlspace.
• Mind Screw: The Dark Link fight in the Water Temple. Link has been through a dungeon that was in the bottom of a lake before finding himself in what appears to be a wide, empty, foggy area with shallow water and an island in the middle, surrounded by Invisible Walls. His reflection is visible in the water until reaching the island, where it disappears. After a short while, a shadowy clone of him appears on the island and fights him as a miniboss, and after beating him the room changes to resemble the rest of the temple (with the walls of the room being where the invisible walls of the "open" area were). Attacking Dark Link also makes him appear to fall through the floor. It's implied that there's some illusion magic at play here, likely from Ganondorf, but it's never explained why Link is suddenly fighting what's implied to be his reflection brought to life in an illusion room and Dark Link never shows up in that game after, although he is a recurring character in the Zelda series. Navi does not help explain the illusion since her only comment is "Conquer yourself!"
• Mini-Boss: All dungeons except the first one have one each (two in the case of the Forest Temple, namely Stalfos and Meg), and some of them (the Lizafos in Dodongo's Cavern, the Stalfos in the Forest Temple, who are first fought as a duo and then a sequential trio, the Flare Dancer in the Fire Temple) are fought twice (in the case of Iron Knuckles in the Spirit Temple, three times; Deadhand is fought in both the well and the Shadow Temple, and you have to contend with four Gerudo guards with double swords in the Thieves' Hideout, which, besides them and wandering guards that need to be avoided, are the only enemies in the building). Notably, the Water Temple has Dark Link (formerly the Final Boss of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link), and Ganon's Tower has three pairs of prior mini-bosses (the Dinafols, who you will be meeting for the first time if you didn't enter the Gerudo Training Grounds, the Stalfos, and the Iron Knuckles, who thankfully can be woken up one at a time) before reaching Ganondorf, and an additional mini-boss pair of Stalfos for your escape after defeating Ganondorf.
• Mini-Dungeon:
  • Ice Cavern is necessary as Link earns there the Iron Boots, which are required for tackling the Water Temple.
  • In the Bottom of the Well, the Lens of Truth lies within, and is necessary for navigating the Shadow Temple and reaching the Spirit Temple ^note (technically, you only need to explore about 5% of the well to proceed; all one has to do to reach Dead Hand, who has the Lens, is go to the back of the primary hallway in the dungeon and plays Zelda's Lullaby, them come back to a pit at the entrance; once one has the Lens, they can either stay and try to find three Gold Skulltulas (who are behind locked doors), or leave immediately).
  • To a lesser extent, there's the Thieves' Hideout, inside which the young hero has to rescue the four carpenters before he can proceed into the desert.
• Minigame Zone: The game has Hyrule Castle Town as young Link, hosting series classics like the Treasure Chest Game, the Target Shooting Gallery and the then-debuting Bombchu Bowling minigame.
• Mirror Match: The game subverted the intuitive Mirror Match expectations by equipping Dark Link with absolutely none of Link's tools and weapons, except for shady counterparts to the Hylian shield and the Master Sword. As if to make up for this, it gave Dark Link a few added abilities, such as the ability to vanish and reappear behind Link when struck, and the ability to paralyze Link by hopping up to balance atop the blade of his Master Sword. This ability is only applicable when Link thrusts straight on, so it can easily be avoided. But it's worth getting caught in at least once because it's just that badass. The fight gets harder if you spent time collecting extra heart containers because Dark Link's life is set to match your own maximum life.
• Mirror Monster: Dark Link is Link's reflection that was brought to life through an enchantment Ganondorf cast on a room in the Water Temple. Also an example of Mirror Boss, since its swordplay is based on Link's.
• Missing Reflection: At the Water Temple, Link traverses through a water-filled room with a tree in the center. As soon Link passes by the tree, his reflection immediately disappears, causing Dark Link to appear behind him.
• Missing Secret: It became a running prank that one could "collect the triforce" due to an embossed portion of the inventory screen that looked like a place to put such an item, and which otherwise used up quite a bit of screen real estate.
• Mobile Shrubbery: The forest areas (including the Deku Tree dungeon), as well as many secret caves, have Deku Scrubs who disguise themselves under bunches of grass or leaves. While many of them are kind enough to do business with you after you deflect their attacks onto them, the Mad Scrubs will attempt to flee and you'll have to kill them so they stop being a problem.
• A Molten Date with Death:
  • Lava pits are numerous in places like the Dodongo's Cavern and Fire Temple, quickly killing Link if he stays in them for too long. Wearing the Goron Tunic helps to reduce the amount of damage taken from this, but does not give complete invulnerability to it. In areas where lava pits cannot be escaped from should one fall, such as those of Death Mountain Crater and the entrance area to Ganon's Tower, they act as Non-Lethal Bottomless Pits instead, having Link scream as he falls onto it before the screen fades to black to put him back to the area's entrance with one depleted heart.
  • The boss of Dodongo's Cavern, King Dodongo, does this to himself out of disorientation, rolling into the lava pit in the middle of the room with it hardening around his partially submerged body.
• Mood Whiplash: Full of it:
  • Walking through the cheery castle town and either (a) finding the poor dying guard left to tell you what was going on or (b) going to the future where it's been razed to the ground by Ganondorf's evil.
  • Learning a rather unpleasant fact about your previously-harmless home village during the Biggoron's Sword quest. Specifically, that every non-Kokiri who gets lost in the woods becomes a Stalfos. You know, those things you've been killing without a second thought? And, oh, hey, Link isn't a Kokiri either! Which does seem to imply that fairies are what protect people. So what would happen if a Kokiri and their fairy were separated? It's implied that they become Skull Kids, just like the human kids who wander into the forest without their parents or a fairy.
  • Go strolling through the completely happy and normal Kakariko Village and into the graveyard, which is fairly harmless as well (it even has a cute child playing in it in the daytime). Then fall down a tomb when you visit at night and meet your first ReDead(s).
  • When you first go out into the sunny, wide-open, and peaceful-looking Hyrule Field, you find that when the sun sets, creatures come out of the ground and start attacking you. And they are simply the more famous example. The "daytime" enemies, the Peahats are only slightly better in that they likely won't be seen if you just run straight for the major residential areas. Encounter one and the music becomes more frantic as it chases you to the ends of the field or till sundown.
  • In addition, when you first leave Kokiri Forest and are awestruck by the wide open world, the first thing you are likely to investigate is the pretty giant flower immediately outside the forest. Soon after you spend about a minute running and screaming from whirling blades of death.
  • The triumphant obtainment of the Master Sword...followed by dire consequences.
• Money for Nothing: Rupees are easily and rapidly obtained from the surrounding environment, whether from breaking pots, killing enemies, or occasionally even finding them in treasure chests. The same goes for every form of ammunition except the seldom-used Bombchus. Combine this with the fact that nearly every piece of equipment in the game can be obtained for free, and money becomes very nearly useless. Even if you're going for 100% Completion, the only other places where you need to spend money are a handful of minigames. Shops are the only place to obtain potions in a game where health and magic aren’t hard to come by) and the only renewable source of Bombchus (which are only useful in a handful of spots) but that’s about if. This gets even worse if you kill all 100 Gold Skulltulas since your reward is infinite money… which is almost entirely useless by the time you can finish the sidequest.
• Monument of Humiliation and Defeat: Ganon's Castle is built up on top of Hyrule Castle.
• Mook Bouncer: The Wallmasters are back in spades, and this time, they're at their scariest yet. Their grounded cousins, the Floormasters, avert this (but only once. In future games, they pull this trope off as well).
• Mook-Themed Level: The Dodongo's Cavern, featuring Baby Dodongos, regular Dodongos and the King Dodongo.
• Mordor: Ganondorf, using the Triforce of Power, manages to turn the area around Hyrule Castle Town into a forsaken land, full of decaying architecture, Redeads and ugly clouds. His tower (sitting where Hyrule Castle once stood) is surrounded by a lake of lava and sealed off from the rest of the land. However once you leave the castle town, things still aren't that great (Death Mountain is haunted by the same ugly clouds, Lake Hylia is mostly dry, and Zora's Domain is perpetually frozen) but the sun is still shining on Hyrule Field and the rest of the land hasn't been completely ravaged.
• Motion Capture: Some of Link's moves were mo-capped from live actors performing his stunts.
• Moveset Clone: ReDeads and Gibdos, the latter of which is essentially the former wrapped up as a mummy (though it debuted as early in the series as the NES original). To a lesser extent, Lizalfos and Dinolfos share the same patterns and attacks.
• Ms. Fanservice: The Great Fairies. All of them wear no clothes and instead have vines covering their bodies.
• Multi-Stage Battle: Ganondorf is fought in two different places during the final battle: In the highest floor of his tower, and in the crumbled remains of the whole building after it collapses.
• Mundane Made Awesome: "Saria's Song" is an upbeat little tune. Darunia, the Goron leader, reacts to it like someone just dropped a rock concert on his head.
  Darunia: What a hot beat!
• Murder Water: The boss of the Water Temple.
• Musical Nod:
  • While the original Zelda theme is largely absent from the Nintendo 64 version of the game (but reinstated for the credits of the 3DS port) the Hyrule Field theme includes seven notes from the iconic song.
  • Kakariko Village reuses the same theme for it from A Link To The Past. Ganondorf's theme is also a remix of Agahnim's theme from the same game.
  • Ganondorf's battle theme is reminiscent of Ganon's battle theme from A Link to the Past.
  • When the Triforce appears in the creation myth cutscene, the title screen fanfare from A Link to the Past plays.
• My Master, Right or Wrong: The Gerudo only follow Ganondorf because he is a male Gerudo, which is only born once every century, and by their law, he was crowned their king.
• Nature Spirit: The Deku Tree is both a sapient tree and the guardian of the forest. His blessing gives the Kokiri their immortality and eternal youth, while keeping monsters out. It counts as Five-Second Foreshadowing that the Deku Babas near him are USUALLY the first enemies Link faces. You can fight Mad Scrubs and a Wolfos in the Sacred Forest Meadow if you know the route, though why would you go there so early in the game?
• "Near and Dear" Baby Naming: Link ends up becoming Sworn Brothers with the Goron chief Darunia when he clears out the monsters in Dodongo's Cavern. Upon returning to Death Mountain after the Time Skip, it's revealed that Darunia had a son in the intervening seven years and named him Link (or whatever the player happens to be named in that particular playthrough).
• Never Accepted in His Hometown: Even after you save most of the world and return to your adopted home village post timeskip, no one recognizes you except as a scary intruder, and you're remembered from before then as a strange loner who likely died once he left the forest. Justified since Kokiri never grow up, the now-adult Link wouldn't be recognized by the still childish Kokiri (except for Saria, but she's a Sage).
• Never Grew Up: Saria and the rest of the Kokiri look exactly the same after seven years.
• Never Land: The Kokiri Forest area. The Kokiri who live there never age past their childhood.
• New Game Plus: The 3DS remake implements the Master Quest version (originally separated in physical form from the original game, despite both being bundled together), as an unlockable mode. In addition to having the dungeons altered, the entire overworld is flipped as in the Wii version of Twilight Princess, and enemies do twice as much damage as before.
• New World Tease:
  • You can reach Gerudo Valley as soon as you finish the first dungeon... but due to Broken Bridge in the form of a guard not letting the player enter as a child, you can't enter it for real until much later as an adult, after which there's a literal Broken Bridge that can be easily crossed after getting a horse to jump over the gap (which can be done before setting foot in the first adult dungeon).
  • Goron City may first be discovered via a side path in The Lost Woods, which is blocked by a boulder barricade that you need Bombs to clear.
  • The game also inverts this with Dodongo's Cavern, which is the only child dungeon that can be entered as an adult without requiring a glitch or hacking, and as an adult the only new thing to do is collect some Gold Skulltula Tokens that, for some reason, only appear there when Link is an adult.
• Nice Day, Deadly Night: Being caught outside of Hyrule Town at night as young Link will cause the drawbridge to be raised (preventing you from entering) and cause "Stalchildren" to rise from the ground and attack if you step off the path. They aren't particularly strong (and have Super Drowning Skills), but they constantly keep coming until dawn (and every 12th one will be progressively larger).
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • After you unseal the Temple of Time and grab the Master Sword, Ganondorf shows up to claim the Triforce ahead of you, thanking you for doing all the heavy lifting for him. Oops. Zelda laments this as well: She didn't expect the Master Sword to suddenly spirit Link away seven years into the future while Ganondorf conquers all of Hyrule in the meantime. In fact, you opening the door was literally the only way Ganondorf could have ever gotten his hands on the Triforce, though Zelda did not know that at the time.
  • And then does it again by sending Link back to his childhood. Though this leads into the Child Timeline, it causes there to not be a Hero to oppose Ganondorf when he does break out as promised, leading to the backstory of The Wind Waker.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: As painful as it is to say it, but thanks for being a prick and not letting us see the Great Deku Tree without a sword and shield, Mido! While Mido was doing it just to be a pest to Link and bar his way like a schoolyard bully, the sword and shield do turn out to be necessary both to kill the Deku Babas on the way to the Great Deku Tree, as well as the plethora of enemies inside it.
• Night of the Living Mooks:
  • Stalchildren are smaller versions of Stalfos that only take two sword hits to be defeated. They overrun Hyrule Field during night (only in the past era).
  • The ReDeads are zombies resembling naked humans that roam the underground areas of tombs as well as Big Boo's Haunt locations like Bottom of the Well, Shadow Temple and the future version of the Market. They can paralyze Link with their screams and grab him to absorb his life force until he dies (these abilities are shared with Gibdos). Link can paralyze them in turn by playing the Sun's Song so he can escape without having to fight them; however, in some areas he has to defeat them in order to unlock something.
• Nintendo Hard:
  • The 3DS remake adds the Boss Rush mode. The Master Quest version does away with recovery items between bosses. Made even worse when you're only given three hearts to fight all bosses who can potentially kill you with one hit due to double damage.
  • Master Quest in general, which redesigns the dungeons to produce trickier puzzles and more confusing layouts (with the major exception of the Water Temple, which was made easier).
• Nocturnal Mooks: The Stalchildren of Hyrule Field only pop up during night, and only during the past era (during day in the past era, the main threat is the Peahats instead, as they sleep during night; in the future, the field is largely empty). Skeletons from the ground, able to appear no matter where you run. Kill them, more pop up. Kill more... and a GIANT one pops up.
• No Fair Cheating:
  • Using a teleport song while delivering a time-sensitive item as part of the Biggoron Sword quest will reduce the timer to 1 second upon arriving at your destination, causing it to immediately spoil. Likewise, if you use a teleport song during the Running Man contest, the timer will skip ahead to several seconds before the time you're supposed to beat.
  • For Dampé's game and the Fire Arrows, you have to manually wait for the time of day to change.
• No Flow in CGI: The designers at least have Zelda's dresses warp a little to show some animation. Ganondorf's cape also animates quite well during the fight against him. When he's beaten, though, it moves straight through his body as he collapses. Played Straight with Link's hat, which is stuck in the same downward arc no matter how he positions his head, which is noticeable as all games following Majora's Mask made sure to have it very fluidly animated (issues with clipping into his shield not withstanding).
• No Item Use for You:
  • There are items that cannot be used in all places. The most common example of this is not being allowed to use weapons when you're in someone's house.
  • The Final Boss has a downplayed version. Ganon knocks Link's Master Sword out of his hand, effectively making him unarmed. Link can still use other items like the bow, hammer, bombs and even his other sword if you managed to get it.
• Non-Indicative Name: The Forest Temple is actually a ruined old mansion and the Shadow Temple is actually a series of torture chambers. No reference is made to either being used for worship.
• Non-Lethal K.O.: The guards at Gerudo fortress can be slashed with a sword, bludgeoned with a giant hammer, or even take a sharp arrow directly to the temple, with the only effect being a faceplant and some twinkling sparks above their heads. Likewise, an elite guard can perform a whirling One-Hit Kill on Link with her twin scimitars, which merely knocks him out so he can be tossed back into their Cardboard Prison.
• Non-Mammal Mammaries: Even though she's a fish humanoid, Princess Ruto obviously has breasts, which was Bowdlerized in the 3DS version by giving her an Organic Bra.
• Noob Cave: The game has the Kokiri training grounds where you get your first sword. Helpful signs show you how to pick up rocks, climb through small holes, control the camera, and avoid rolling boulders.
• No OSHA Compliance: It's no wonder the Sheikahs aren't around anymore if their idea of a good place to build a settlement is the base of an active volcano and then keep it there on top of a reasonable facsimile of hell.
• No Peripheral Vision:
  • The first boss, Queen Gohma, is hiding on the ceiling and only attacks after the player looks up. Although that boss isn't as good at hiding.
  • The guards in the castle's courtyard stop to turn every so often, but otherwise can only see straight ahead. The ones outside the castle also seem to have a rather low line of sight.
• No Place for Me There: This is implied to have been the ultimate fate of the Hero of Time after the events of this game. After Ganondorf was defeated in the future, Zelda sent Link back to his original timeline in an attempt at giving him back the childhood that had been taken from him. Link used his knowledge of the future to stop Ganondorf from ever conquering Hyrule, but in the process, erased his own heroic deeds and radically changed his relationships with many of his future friends and allies. As a result, despite Hyrule enjoying several decades or centuries of peace, Link felt he never truly fit in the world he had created. He eventually left Hyrule, and Twilight Princess implies he died forgotten and full of regret despite a lifetime of heroism.
• Not Allowed to Grow Old: After the seven-year skip, only the kids are shown to have changed to adults. The only adult characters who change are Ganondorf, the Fishing Pond owner (who is now balding), and to a small extent Ingo, who receives a new costume.
• Nothing Is Scarier:
  • Rather than a dark crypt like the Shadow Temple or an extension of the Lost Woods like one might imagine a scary temple being, the Forest Temple largely resembles a large mansion that hasn't been lived in for centuries. The rooms are humongous, dimly lit, and often...completely devoid of life. The temple has incredibly creepy background music that plays as you slowly make your way through one dim, empty space after another, almost wishing for an enemy to come out and break up the silence and stillness. There are places it plays much like a normal temple, but when you first begin to explore, it is one of the most unnerving experiences the game has thrown your way thus far. And then you get introduced to the Wallmasters. And the Forest Temple's haunted - the minibosses are four ghosts that vanish from portraits and cackle at you.
  • The first time you encounter the Redeads. They're underneath a tomb, way in the back of Kakariko Village Graveyard, in a big, open room full of thin walkways and channels of water. And they're just... standing there. Every other monster in the game moves at least a little bit, even the ones that are fixed in one place, but the Redeads are absolutely still. So you carefully start sneaking across the room, heart in your mouth because of these freaky things and music that sounds straight out of Silent Hill, and then you get halfway across the room and they scream. You turn around, and... none of them have moved.
• Novelization: The strategy guide was sort of written as one of these. There was also a more straight-up novelization.
• Now, Where Was I Going Again?: There are three main methods for determining where you're supposed to go next in the game:
  • First, Navi the Exposition Fairy shouts 'Hey! Listen!' about every ten minutes to remind the player where they should head for the next step of the main quest. Even if you're trying to perform unrelated sidequests at the time. Even if you just got sidetracked for a moment and really are on your way back to the main quest. She tends to get on a less goal-oriented player's nerves.
  • Second, once you learn Saria's Song, you can talk to her any time you want. This is particularly weird when Saria is a prisoner within the cursed Forest Temple, and after she has Ascended To A Higher Plane Of Existence.
  • Third, just pause the game and look at the map subscreen. The locations you should probably be going to next appear as blinking dots. This game may be Nintendo Hard in the dungeons, but you can't claim to not know where you're going.
• NPC Roadblock:
  • The kid who blocks the exit to Kokiri Forest at the beginning of the game. The passage he's blocking is pretty big, so he sidesteps back and forth, always standing exactly in front of you. Mido does the same at various points: first to stop you from going to meet the Great Deku Tree unless you have a sword and shield on you (even though the Deku Tree himself summoned Link, but then again, the Tree is infested with monsters), then after you finish the Deku Tree dungeon for some reason (you just need to talk to him to make him move, though), and finally when you venture into the Lost Woods to get to the Forest Temple as an adult (again, he will move if you talk to him).
  • The ridiculously fat King Zora who blocks the entrance to Zora's Fountain, and takes an extremely long time to move out of the way once you free him. Other characters in the game pull off the same living Broken Bridge stunt, but none with quite the elan of King Zora. Fortunately, most can be bypassed by various glitches.
  • The first time you become Adult Link, Sheik will stand in front of the Master Sword's pedestal, preventing you from returning to Young Link's timeline. Only by completing the Forest Temple will Sheik move from her spot.
• Numerological Motif: For the latter half of the game, Link awakens after seven years and is tasked with rescuing the Seven Sages.
• Oblivious Adoption: Link isn't a Kokiri. He's the son of a Hylian woman who gave Link to the Deku Tree so he watched over him until the time for his heroic adventures came. It takes half the game for him (and the player) to find out.
• Obviously Evil: Ganondorf, and Ingo after the Time Skip, are quite evil-looking, and they do turn out to be bad. Ganondorf starts out as a member of the Gerudo who pledges to serve the King. Zelda is the only one before Link shows up who realizes that Ganondorf is evil and tries to tell her father, who doesn't believe her. Subverted in Ingo's case, as he goes back to good after Link escapes from the ranch with Epona, likely having regretted his actions.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • The Spirit Temple. You are about to enter the boss room, but... wait a minute. You are fighting yet another Iron Knuckle before proceeding and... it was Nabooru trapped inside all along. Now, you may proceed to the real boss.
  • The moments right before the final boss battle. You watch Ganondorf die, you escape the tower and watch it collapse on him. As Link and Zelda are celebrating, they hear a noise, and Link goes to check it out. Suddenly, the pile of rubble explodes, and Ganondorf flies out of it. He flashes his Triforce, and then transforms. Then he knocks the Master Sword, the only weapon that can kill him, out of Link's hands and outside a wall of fire. Of course, it helps that this is one of the few times over the course of the game that Link's facial expression changes.
• Ominous Clouds: While returning to Hyrule Castle after obtaining all the Spiritual Stones, the skies above Hyrule Field suddenly turn bleak to emit a rainstorm just as Link arrives to see Zelda and Impa fleeing from Ganondorf.
• Ominous Floating Castle: Ganon's Castle, hovering above a pit of lava where Hyrule Castle used to be. Some Foreshadowing that Ganondorf's not dead yet? The Flying Island the castle is on is still afloat.
• Ominous Latin Chanting:
  • The Fire Temple has Ominous Arabic Chanting^note sampled from Best Service's Voice Spectral Vol. 1 - Track 76 which was removed with the game's first European release, and shortly afterwards all subsequent versions, because it was actually part of an Islamic prayer. The Shadow Temple also has an Ominous Chant of "aaaah — uuuuuh — ooooh"
  • The Song of Time is chanted this way in the Temple of Time. No lyrics, just "Eeyaaah-eee-ee-yaaaah."
• Ominous Pipe Organ: When you confront Ganondorf in his chamber, he's playing one.
• One-Gender Race: The non-Hylian races all seem to be this.
  • All the Gerudos are female with only one male being born every century.
  • All the Zoras seem to have male physiques with Princess Ruto appearing to be the only female.
• One of These Doors Is Not Like the Other: Your first time through the Lost Woods in has all of the "correct" doors play the background music more loudly when you approach them. After you learn Saria's Song, this clue no longer plays, so you must memorize the route (or take advantage of the fact that the doors that lead to different parts of the Woods and the ones that lead out are rendered differently.)
• One-Time Dungeon: It is impossible to reenter the courtyard of Hyrule Castle after recovering all three Spiritual Stones and Zelda flees from the castle, as guards will be blocking the passageway indefinitely from that point on.
• One-Winged Angel: Ganondorf's transformation to Ganon for the final battle, as well as Koume and Kotake's transformation into Twinrova in the second half of their boss battle.
• Only the Chosen May Ride: Epona is described by Ingo as being a "wild horse". The only ones she seems to be friendly with are Malon, who raised her; and Link, the only other to know her song, having learned it from Malon, who learned it from her mother, who composed it.
• Only Good People May Pass: The entrance to the Sacred Realm (also known as the Golden Land) where the Triforce dwells is hidden and requires four sacred objects (the Kokiri Emerald, Goron Ruby, Zora Sapphire and Ocarina of Time) that are each protected by the various nations that populate Hyrule. Only possessing all four and then playing the Song of Time in the Temple of Time will reveal the hidden entrance, but this is technically possible if the items are stolen through nefarious means. The final test, however, is pulling out the Master Sword, which can't be touched by someone evil. Unfortunately, there's nothing stopping someone evil from waiting for a good person to do all that, and then step inside and enter the Sacred Realm themselves.
• Only the Pure of Heart: This game reveals that the Triforce is bound by such rules. The Triforce will grant a wish to anyone whose heart is balanced with power, wisdom, and courage. If someone is lacking in that balance, then the Triforce will break apart into its component triangles—the person who touched it will get the piece that corresponds most to themselves, while the other two go and find someone else who shows a great affinity for that component. Hence Ganondorf gets Power, Zelda gets the Triforce of Wisdom, and Link the Triforce of Courage. The Triforce can be recompiled after this and the wish can be carried out once it is.
• Only the Worthy May Pass: The Ocarina of Time, the Song of Time, and three gems belonging to three different races are needed to get to the Master Sword, and the Master Sword itself poses as a barrier to any not worthy of the Triforce, requiring them to not ONLY be fundamentally good, but (according to some people) also physically fit.
• Opening the Sandbox: After you leave Kokiri Forest (which can only be done after completing the first dungeon), all of Hyrule Field is open to you. When you get the Master Sword, you then gain full access to most of the areas you visited previously, even if you're still missing some key pieces of gear.
• Optional Stealth: Gerudo Fortress, where you can either spend a good amount of time memorizing the guards' patrol routes and sneaking by them to avoid capture, or —since they don't have the sense to confiscate your gear when they capture you— you can use arrows to KO their asses and simply explore the compound at your leisure.
• Organic Bra: Princess Ruto in the 3DS version, even in her youth.
• Origins Episode: The game shows the Start of Darkness for Ganon, the series Big Bad. The game also goes into greater detail about how the land of Hyrule was formed.
• Out-of-Genre Experience: Happens when you infiltrate the Gerudo Fortress, having to avoid guards and stunning them with your bow/hookshot and freeing prisoners covertly. And a simplified preview of this genre shift earlier in the same game, when young Link has to sneak past Hyrule Castle guards to meet up with Princess Zelda.
• Out of the Inferno: Link goes to the top of Ganon's eight story flying castle, defeats Ganondorf, and escapes with Zelda as the castle collapses. After Navi gives a sigh of relief, Ganondorf blasts out of the rubble, shows off his Triforce of Power and transforms into Ganon, a Giant Pig with two giant swords.
• The Outsider Befriends the Best: Link, the neglected black sheep of the Kokiri tribe, is called to a quest that leads him to aid Zelda the princess of Hyrule and assemble the leaders of the various races of the land to oppose the Gerudo King Ganondorf.
• Overly Long Gag: King Zora moving aside. "Wib." <shuffle> "Wib." <shuffle> "Wib."
• Overnight Age-Up: After grabbing the Master Sword, Link goes to sleep for seven years, aging gradually, but it's instantaneous to him and the player.
• The Overworld: Hyrule, in both periods (past and future). Several locations from previous games are present here (now in 3D), alongside new ones like Kokiri Forest and Lon Lon Ranch. However, while most of them remain unchanged between both eras, some like Zora's Domain, Lake Hylia and Market suffer drastic changes in the future due to Ganondorf's meddling.
• Oxygen Meter: Diving while swimming normally only lasts for 3 seconds before Link resurfaces (the Silver Scale raises the timer to 6, and the Golden Scale does for 8). Equipping the Iron Boots in the former game lets Link stay underwater longer, in which case a timer based on how much health you have appears (unless you also equip the Zora Tunic, which lets you breathe underwater). These two items are important in the Water Temple.
• Painting the Medium: Zelda's Lullaby is the song of Hyrule's Royal Family, and must be played at Triforce symbols around the game to solve puzzles. The notes of the song form a Triforce on the musical staff, and the buttons to play it on the 3DS version are also in a triangle.
• Parasites Are Evil: In a gambit to obtain the Spiritual Stones, Ganondorf creates monsters to parasitize two of its guardians. Gohma's disease kills the Great Deku Tree, though Link manages to save Lord Jabu-Jabu from Barinade's infection.
• Parental Abandonment: Link is an orphan raised as a Kokiri.
• Pause Abuse: You can use a variant of this when racing the ghost of Dampé. Since his tomb is one of the few locations that warp songs won't work in, you can abuse the error message playing one generates. You are free to move during the textbox, and it won't deduct time from the countdown.
• People of Hair Color: The Gerudo people are recognizable through their red hair and dark skin, including Ganondorf prior to his becoming Ganon.
• Permanently Missable Content:
  • If you do not obtain the Deku Nut upgrade from the Forest Stage before getting the Poacher's Saw in the Nintendo 64 version, due to a glitch, you will not be able to obtain it later, preventing 100% completion. This is fixed in the Nintendo 3DS version.
  • At Dampé's Heart-Pounding Gravedigging Tour, if he digs up the Piece of Heart but you leave the map without picking it up, he will never dig up the Piece of Heart again and it will be impossible to obtain it. This was fixed in the 3DS version, but this created a new exploit in that the Heart Piece is now never removed from the list of things he can find, so it is possible with a lot of patience to get 20 hearts this way.
• Perpetual Molt: Cuccos constantly molt while you hold them (as parodied in this Awkward Zombie strip).
• Personal Space Invader:
  • The Fllormasters and Wallmasters from the 2D games return. This time, Link is clearly seen struggling rather graphically as Wallmaster slowly drags him by the head up into the darkness above (the Floormaster merely tries to punch him, but the babies it splits into aim to choke him instead before growing into adults).
  • The ReDeads, zombies that first appear in this game, attack by paralyzing Link with a shriek, latching onto him, and gnawing at him to remove health.
  • Dead Hand, in the Bottom of the Well and the Shadow Temple, is basically a set of six skeletal arms reaching out of the earth trying to grab your head. And if one did, you then had to deal with a burrowing, long-necked, bloodstained, jaw-unhinging zombie that would slowly slither up to you and try to take a chomp out of your face.
• Peter Pan Parody: Previous games showed, and the intent was later confirmed by Shigeru Miyamoto, that Link's iconic green tunic and elf ears are a send-up to Peter Pan. This is especially true in this specific game, as he lives among green-clad children who never grow up (though Link himself ages like normal humans) and has a Tinkerbell-like Fairy Companion.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Drop a tiny beetle on a patch of soil, and it will forcibly evict the Skulltula that was previously there.
• Pivotal Boss: Ganondorf is smaller than almost every other boss in the game and could very easily move around the arena. Instead, he chooses to stay in the center and fling energy balls at you for you to knock back at him.
• Pivotal Wake-up: With one exception, the Gibdos in the Bottom Of The Well are sleeping in coffins when Link comes in. None of them need to be defeated, though, as the key can be acquired without waking one up.
• Pixel Hunt: Many puzzles in Master Quest consist of locating torches and switches embedded in walls, boxes, cows, or which are otherwise very well concealed or Hidden in Plain Sight.
• Planet of Copyhats: Ganondorf had been established as a thief in A Link to the Past. This time around, he is revealed to have been part of the Gerudo tribe, who are all thieves.
• Platform-Activated Ability: Zelda's Lullaby, by itself, doesn't do anything when it's played. However, if it's being played while Link stands on a floor marked with the Triforce, a magical effect will be triggered (sometimes it's a path that opens up, combining this trope with Songs in the Key of Lock).
• Platform Battle: Many of them, including with Ganondorf.
• Player Death Is Dramatic: When Link dies, the lighting is brought to a minimum, leaving just him & Navi visible, while all other moving entities freeze completely. If Link dies from drowning, he'll choke before his body goes limp and floats to the surface of the water (if he's wearing the Iron Boots underwater and drowns, he uses the standard collapsing death animation instead). Every other 3D Zelda game does this as well. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass and The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks changes it up by having the camera pull out after Link collapses and then it fades to black.
• Plot Coupon: Three Spiritual Stones followed by the Six Medallions. The Spiritual Stones grant access to the chamber of the Master Sword in the Temple of Time, while the Medallions symbolize the freed power of the Sages (who help Link enter Ganon's Tower in the end). In a more literal (yet minor) example of this trope, Zelda also gives you a letter that allows you to pass by a certain guard.
• Plot-Relevant Age-Up: Deconstructed. The Master Sword decides Link needs to be seven years older for him to take on Ganondorf. The caveat is that it actually grants this - by sealing Link away in the Sacred Realm for that length of time. While Ganondorf (painfully) demonstrated moments before that the sword wasn't wrong about Link not measuring up, this sealing ends up allowing Ganondorf to waltz right into the Sacred Realm and obtain the Triforce, letting him torment all of Hyrule completely unopposed for those seven years.
• Plot-Triggering Death: Ganondorf killing the King of Hyrule is the true plot starter in the game, as it sends young Princess Zelda into hiding and young Link into his seven-year coma.
• Plot Tunnel: When you first draw the Master Sword and become an adult, you have no way of becoming a child again even if the player already knows how, since Sheik is blocking the pedestal that the sword needs to be returned to. Only after finishing the Forest Temple does Sheik explain the process and then move aside, allowing you to travel back to Link's childhood as you wish.
• Plucky Comic Relief: The Gorons are, on average, probably the most cheerful, friendly race in the game. Which only makes it even more disturbing to see them begging for mercy in the Fire Temple, where they're about to be fed to a dragon, as a "warning" to those who might oppose Ganondorf.
• Point of Divergence: This entire game serves as the main point of divergence for the Legend of Zelda series. According to the official chronology, Majora's Mask, Twilight Princess, and Four Swords Adventures take place in the world Link returns to at the end of the game, the cel-shaded trilogy takes place in the world he leaves behind, and the NES-style games take place in a timeline where The Bad Guy Wins.
• Point of No Return: The Ganondorf battle. If you save here, there's no going back, as it immediately restarts at the cutscene when you reload. Later releases of the game, from version 1.2 onwards,^note which includes later Nintendo 64 cartridge versions, Master Quest, Collector's Edition, all Virtual Console and online releases, and the Video Game Remake for 3DS prevented that problem by restarting at the entrance of Ganon's Tower regardless of where and when you save.
• Poison Mushroom:
  • In some of the later dungeons in the game, there are treasure chests that, upon Link opening them, will either freeze him like a Freezard does with an ice wind or make a Floormaster fall from the ceiling towards him.
  • Poes have a random effect when consumed. You may either have all your hearts refilled, only one heart refilled, one heart depleted, or your whole life meter depleted save for the last heart quarter.
• Power Floats: After ascending from an Evil Sorcerer to a God-Emperor, Ganondorf gains the ability to levitate, most notably in his Final Boss fight with Link.
• Power-Up Food: Lon Lon Milk, which can be acquired by beating a simple minigame at Lon Lon Ranch. It instantly refills 5 hearts on drinking it, and you can get free refills of it any time you return, and you can take two drinks of it per bottle, even back to back, for a total of 10 hearts per bottle.
• Power Up Letdown:
  • The final reward for the Golden Skulltula token collection quest. It requires the player to collect every single token in the game, and the prize for getting them all is an endless supply of huge golden rupees, worth 200 apiece. Not only does the quest require the player to have already completed the majority of the game beforehand, but Rupees aren't that useful to begin with, since most of the items that Rupees can buy can be gotten more easily through other means. At least it's not the only prize you get, as certain milestones grant you other items.
  • One of those prizes is the Stone of Agony, which causes your controller to rumble if a Secret Grotto is nearby. However, in the original Nintendo 64 version of the game, rumble requires a Rumble Pak accessory, sold separately, meaning that the item does nothing if the player doesn't own one. The Stone is even worse on the Wii/Wii U Virtual Console release — the Virtual Console doesn't include rumble, so the item will never do anything. The revamped item for the 3DS remake instead plays a sound while making an icon appear on top of the screen, making it a lot more useful.
  • The Golden Gauntlets are the final item you get in the game, and they're literally only used for 2 stone pillars that must be chucked out of your path. They have only one use anywhere outside the final dungeon, and they don't even improve on the Silver Gauntlets' power to lift and hurl smaller boulders. Contrast that to their Titan's Mitt counterpart in A Link to the Past, where they bust the sandbox wide open.
• Prequel: Set before A Link to the Past's Imprisoning War...so to speak. See Alternate Timeline above.
• Pretty Boy: Adult Link is said to look pretty dang good. The Poe Collector says he could run a different sort of business (what he means is not clarified) if he had Link's looks, while Nabooru regrets getting captured and failing to keep her promise in the Past once she sees what Link grows into. And this gets a bit creepy when you save Jiro the carpenter, who calls Link a cute kid.
• Primordial Chaos: "Three golden goddesses descended upon the chaos that was Hyrule...".
• Prison Episode: The first time you get to Gerudo Fortress as an adult, the Gerudos arrest you and a prison break stage begins. You have to rescue a bunch of carpenters that were also locked in — but to do so, first you must defeat the same number of Gerudo fighters. It's worth noting that you keep all your inventory in this stage, and that as soon as a Gerudo sees you, you'll be locked in again.
• Prized Possession Giveaway: Princess Ruto does this twice. After Link helps her retrieve the Spiritual Stone of Water (Zora's Sapphire) and defeats the parasitic monster that was making Lord Jabu-Jabu suffer, Ruto agrees to reward Link with the very Plot Coupon they were looking for. The Sapphire is Ruto's most valued possession, as she received it from her late mother and is only meant to be given to whom Ruto would marry in her adult life. Due to certain factors that occur in the future, they ultimately don't marry, but Ruto is okay with it and still hands him another valued object, the Water Medallion, after he saves her life again in the Water Temple.^note The other Sages give Link their Sage Medallions as well, but each of them does it in a different context.
• Product Delivery Ordeal: The trading sequence to get the Biggoron Sword is unique for having some of the items in need of being traded under a time limit. The Odd Mushroom (third item) and Eyeball Frog (eighth item) lack preservatives and thus will spoil and rot if not delivered in time, but the path is relatively easy to undertake as long as Link has Epona to travel quickly across Hyrule Field. However, the hardest part (and where this trope kicks in) is delivering the ninth item (Eye Drops, whose healing effects have an expiry limit of only four minutes), because not only will Link need to travel fast across the aforementioned Hyrule Field (making the ordeal impossible without Epona from the get-go), but also running across Kakariko Village and then all the way from the foot of Death Mountain (including climbing a tall wall and potentially dodging eruptive rocks if the Fire Temple wasn't cleared yet) to the summit to give the Drops to Biggoron so he can heal his eyes and repair his namesake's sword. It's also strongly advised to have planted a Magic Bean next to Dodongo's Cavern in the past era to create a helpful shortcut in the future. Last, but far from least, using a warp song to attempt a shortcut via Death Mountain Crater will deplete the time limit instantly.
• Prolonged Prologue: You can't explore the overworld in until the tutorial (obtain sword/shield) and first dungeon (Deku Tree) are finished.
• Proportionately Ponderous Parasites: The giant fish Jabu-Jabu serves as the third main dungeon, and contains many monsters including a giant Electric Jellyfish.
• Puppy Love: This is partly what has earned Link his reputation as a Kirk-level ladies' man. Saria (though since Kokiri look like children all their lives, there's no telling how old she actually is) and Princess Ruto both had crushes on him (though how much he reciprocated those crushes varied, as he seems more afraid of Ruto than anything). There is also the fact that one of the Gossip Stones talks about how Malon is waiting for a "Knight in Shining Armor" to come sweep her off her feet. Link carries a shield and sword and is possibly related to the Knights of Hyrule. Her father offers to let Link marry her when he's young as a joke, with the player given the option to say yes or no (with the same result either way).
• Purple Prose: Sheik's dialog.
• Puzzle Boss: Bongo Bongo. This guy has you shoot his hands to make his eye vulnerable, while the latter remains invisible and will ram you. Combining the Lens of Truth to see him when invisible and the Hover Boots to combat the constant bouncing is the key to taking him down. Though, experienced players don't even NEED the Lens Of Truth to know where his eye is.
• Puzzle Reset: While the trope is usually played straight, it's interesting to note that, in this game, you cannot Puzzle Reset the Gerudo Training Grounds if you start using keys on the wrong side of the final room. However, there are enough keys to open every door, it's just that some of them are only available after you get the Silver Gauntlets, which you don't have when the Training Grounds are first accessible.

Q - T

• Quicksand Sucks: The Haunted Wasteland has a river of no-escape quicksand that you cross by either using the Longshot or the Hover Boots. Once across, you are still in danger of sinking if you stray off the path.
• Racing Minigame: The game has the on-foot race against the Marathon Man (Unwinnable Joke Game), the horse race against Ingo, and an on-foot one with (not against, as the objective is simply reaching to the goal quickly enough) Dampe's ghost.
• Railroading: Played with. Although the narration railroads you to complete the temples in a certain order, the gameplay itself is more open. So long as you grab the dungeon item in each temple, there is nothing stopping you from just leaving and completing the Fire Temple and/or Water Temple before completing the Forest Temple, and the Spirit Temple before the Shadow Temple or Fire Temple. But first-time players would have no way of knowing this. Also, thanks to a programming quirk, the game only checks to see if you've actually beaten the Shadow and Spirit Temple and merely assumes you beat the rest if you did; though to be fair, the only way to pull this off is to glitch the game anyway.
• Rasputinian Death: Ganondorf. First Link fights him, pelts him with Light Arrows, throws his Energy Blasts back into his face and delivers enough sword-strikes that Ganondorf coughs up blood and collapses. Then his entire tower collapses with him on the roof, leaving nothing but bits of stone debris. He survives that due to the Triforce of Power, and transforms into Ganon. Link fights him, slashes him in the tail many times, and finishes it off by cutting up his face and stabbing deeply into it. And he still doesn't die, instead having to be sealed away in what was once the Sacred Realm.
• Reality Warping: The titular Ocarina of Time lets you manipulate time and weather, teleport, etc.
• Red Sky, Take Warning:
  • In the Ganondorf-dominated future, Death Mountain is perpetually surrounded by a red ring of fire instead of clouds. Once the boss of Fire Temple is defeated, the fire goes away and is replaced by the standard cloud ring.
  • In the future, Castle Market Town and Ganondorf's tower are perpetually covered in brimstoney clouds and dark backgrounds.
• Reduced-Downtime Features: One of the main reasons the Water Temple rose to infamy (to the point where the game's designer personally apologized for it) was because the Iron Boots, a key item to completing the dungeon, weren't assigned to an equippable button; instead, players had to pause the game, go to the Equipment screen, highlight the Boots, switch them, and then unpause. Since Link has to quickly change between the Iron and Kokiri Boots throughout the temple—sometimes multiple times in the same room—this slowed progress throughout the already-labyrinthine dungeon to a crawl. Updated versions of the game, such as the Master Quest redesign and 3DS remake, made the Boots an item players could assign to a C-Button instead (as Wind Waker had done), saving players a good deal of time and boosting the Water Temple's popularity.
• Remixed Level: Master Quest is exactly identical to the original version, with the exception of changed dungeons. While the dungeon's geography remains identical, the puzzles in each room are changed, as well as the location of the dungeon's various key items (Dungeon Map, Compass, and New Item). More often than not, the changes presented by the remixed environments mean that the rooms must be visited in a different order. In addition, the Golden Skulltulas are also changed, many in the Child sections of the game requiring different items (all requiring the Song of Time to fully complete, while the Dodongo Cavern no longer needs the Scarecrow's Song). Various Sequence Breaking tricks are no longer viable in this environment, due to the game's different (and often more thorough) demands.
• Replay Mode: The remake adds Boss Challenge, an option to rechallenge previous bosses, with only the number of hearts gained from the previous bosses and minimal items, with the ability to save your best time to beat each boss. Defeating all bosses in this mode unlocks Boss Gauntlet, a Boss Rush mode.
• Rescue Romance: Link ends the third dungeon by saving Princess Ruto from the dungeon's boss. Ruto, who had initially been standoffish towards Link, changes her tune and becomes quite taken with him. She gives him the Zora's Sapphire, but mentions that her mother told her to only give to her future husband...which means she and Link are now engaged! When Link meets Ruto in the adult era, she calls him out on making her wait but admits that saving Hyrule is more important than getting married.
• Resting Recovery: The 3DS remake adds in the ability to sleep in Link's bed to refill his health and magic power, along with reliving past boss battles in his dreams.
• Retcon: Prior to Ocarina of Time, it was firmly established in the backstory of A Link to the Past that although the people of Hyrule looked for a hero to wield the Master Sword to fight Ganon during the Imprisoning War, no such figure ever emerged. Ocarina of Time is based on that backstory but introduces a predecessor Link who did wield the Master Sword and fought Ganon. Consequently, future retellings of the Imprisoning War staring with Hyrule Historia mention that the Master Sword was wielded by the Hero of Time in a duel against Ganondorf (it's just that the hero lost the battle).
• Reviving Enemy: A pair of Stalfos serve as the Mini-Boss in the Forest Temple while retrieving the Fairy Bow, as well as Ganon's Castle during the escape portion, and they must be defeated in relatively close interval to each other, or else they will simply revive. After the first one is eliminated, the player must defeat the second one as quick as possible, otherwise the first one will revive, prolonging the battle.
• Rewarding Vandalism:
  • In Hyrule, money literally grows on trees. And under bushes. And, um, inside pottery and rocks. They have yet to perfect a method of getting into any of these without destroying them in the process. According to The Minish Cap, the Minish put them there.
  • A room off the drawbridge to Castle Town contains nothing but several dozen jars and boxes... and a bored guard who is happy to let you smash them to let off some steam. It only appears when you're a kid, though.
  • During the final battle (and during the Iron Knuckle fights in the Spirit Temple), you can trick the boss into smashing some rubble for powerups.
• Ribcage Ridge: The game has an absolutely ginormous dodongo skull near the entrance to the boss chamber in the Dodongo Cavern. Kinda' makes you wonder what would've happened if Ganondorf had resurrected THAT instead of the dragon in the Fire Temple. Furthermore, in Dodongo's Cavern that entire room where the skull is located is inside a massive ribcage. Oddly, this means the ginormous skull is facing the wrong way...
• Ring of Fire: Link's final showdown with Ganon takes place in a ring of fire. He knocks Link's sword outside of the ring first. And during the escape part preceding it, a ring of fire surrounds Zelda, forcing Link to battle two Stalfos to get rid of it.
• Roar Before Beating: The newly-transformed Ganon as he swings his twin blades around. He even lets one out after Navi says she's not gonna be held back again.
• Rocket Jump: There's a glitch involving quickly switching to the Hoverboots immediately after taking damage from a bomb. It's been used in speedruns occasionally.
• Royal Blood: Princess Zelda, the Seventh Sage.
• Rule of Three: Three Spiritual Stones are required to open the door leading to the Master Sword and the Sacred Realm in the Temple of Time. The iconic Triforce is also revealed to operate according to up to three virtues within the person who wished to earn it: Power, Courage and Wisdom.
• Rule of Seven:
  • Link's spirit was sealed away for seven years.
  • There are seven sages who are destined to seal away Ganondorf.
• Rule of Symbolism: When Link confronts Ganondorf at the top of his tower, one side-angle shot shows Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf's positions forming a triangle, just as Ganondorf is talking about the three pieces of the Triforce coming together.
• The Sacred Darkness: The Sheikah tribe have this as their main cultural motif. Nicknamed the "Shadow Folk" and associated with darkness and stealth, they're nonetheless a Tribe of Priests dedicated since the early days of creation to following the will of Hylia and protecting the Royal Family of Hyrule from harm. This is most apparent with Impa, who is Zelda's bodyguard and nurse dedicated to protecting the princess and eventually awakening as the Sage of Shadow to help Link.
• Sailor Fuku: Malon's dress has a similar cut, but obviously isn't a school uniform.
• Same Content, Different Rating: The original N64 version was rated E for Everyone, and so were the ports directly based on this version (GCN and Wii). The 3DS remake is rated E10+, but most of the content is intact (and some is even softened, such as the removal of blood in some parts and Princess Ruto having an Organic Bra).
• Same Plot Sequel: The game reuses and fleshes out a lot of plot elements that were introduced in A Link To the Past. After a great war, the Triforce was lost to another realm. Lately, an evil priest/foreign king has gained the favor of the King of Hyrule and is using his position to manipulate events in order to steal the Triforce. After witnessing the tragic death of his father figure, Link goes on an adventure to acquire three Plot Coupons so he can retrieve the Master Sword, which ends up locking him in another dimension. After mastering the different dimensions Link rescues and awakens the Wise Men/Sages and their power combined forces the evil manipulator to reveal himself as Ganon. In the final battle Link defeats Ganon. Several sidequest characters even have appropriate counterparts.
• Samus Is a Girl: The official 1998 Player's Guide talks about Sheik as a male, and having Sheik turn out to be Zelda was a HUGE plot reveal at the time.
• Sand Is Water: There's a giant river of sand flowing through the desert. Using the Hookshot to latch onto a wooden post at the other side is necessary to avoid falling onto it. Later on, Link reaches the Desert Colossus, where he finds Leevers that can swim beneath the sandy floor easily.
• Save-Game Limits: Oddly enough, the game brought back the limitation of the player having to start from the same point (your house as a child; the Temple of Time as an adult) whenever you resume a game, the exceptions being dungeons and mini-dungeons (if you last saved inside either of them, you go back to the entrance). Unlike the portable remakes of A Link to the Past and Majora's Mask, Ocarina of Time 3D keeps this limitation.
• Scaling the Summit: After King Dodongo is defeated in Dodongo's Cavern, Darunia rewards Link with the second Spiritual Stone and tells him that there is a Great Fairy living in the summit of Death Mountain, and encourages him to meet her and enhance his skills. The way to the summit has boulders that have to be blown up with bombs (as they're obstructions), a rocky road where debris from the active volcano fall from the sky, and a long wall that has to be climbed while avoiding Tektites and Skullwalltulas. The Great Fairy grants Link the ability to use magic-based spells and attacks, so it's a worthy trip (and getting there also provides an early access to the volcanic crater). During the Adult Link era's Chain of Deals, doing this journey again will be necessary in order to bring eye drops to Biggoron (as using the warp songs will automatically deplete all the time limit) and repair the Biggoron Sword.
• Scenery Gorn: The Bottom of the Well, Shadow Temple, and Castle Town post-Time Skip. Not only are they in a ruinous state, but the former two areas also have some bloodstains.
• Scenery Porn: The entire game has lovely scenery, and the game emphasizes this with introduction cutscenes when you reach new areas (especially Zora's Domain and Lake Hylia). Taken up a few levels in the remake.
• Sealed Evil in Another World: Ganondorf's ultimate fate. Also, Bongo Bongo until Link clears the Water Temple.
• Sealed Good in a Can: What happened when young Link pulled the Master Sword out of its pedestal: He is The Chosen One, but because he was too young to wield the sword properly, his spirit was sealed up until he was old enough, which took seven years. To the player, this is nothing more than a Time Skip (and Time Travel), but for the rest of the world it isn't.
• Second Hour Superpower: The game only gives you the titular ocarina and lets you play as adult Link after the first three dungeons. Going back to child Link is only available after clearing the Forest Temple.
• See the Invisible: The Lens of Truth in allows Link to see invisible things, as well as see through illusionary things like fake walls or floors.
• Segmented Serpent: Tailpasaran, enemies found in Jabu-Jabu's Belly, resemble serpents made out of several balls of energy.
• Self-Deprecation: In Desert Colossus, close to the Spirit Temple's entrance, a Gossip Stone alludes to the Ice Arrows and how they aren't a worthy reward for beating the Bonus Dungeon they're found in, since they don't actually serve much practical use.
  Gossip Stone: They say that the treasure you can earn in the Gerudo's Training Ground is not as great as you would expect, given its difficulty.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Zelda has a vision that Ganondorf will take the Triforce from its hiding place sealed within the Golden Realm, sends Link to preemptively collect the MacGuffins sealing the Golden Realm that Ganondorf has been attempting to obtain, and of course Ganondorf follows Link into the Golden Realm and takes the Triforce when Link unseals it. This sort of thing happens a lot in the series. Specifically, Link himself was sealed away because, as a Hylian child, he was considered too young to be the Hero of Time. Of course, the Hero would have been unnecessary if he hadn't been sealed away for seven years, letting Ganondorf take over. If Link had in fact been a Kokiri, or else a little bit older, he would have succeeded in stopping Ganondorf because he would have gotten the power first.
• Self-Inflicted Hell: You can go the whole game without figuring this out, but talk to one Goron in particular about the starvation threat the Gorons face early in the game. According to what he says, the Gorons can eat other rocks and meet their dietary needs, they're just so used to the ones inside Dodongo's Cavern that they won't. Considering the fact that the Gorons live in a cave carved into rock, on a mountain, this is akin to "starving" to death in a pantry because you're used to fine dining.
• Sequence Breaking: To the point that you could finish the game without going to any dungeon or temple if skilled enough... in less than 25 minutes.
  • "Normal" sequence breaking includes finishing (not going to) Lord Jabu-Jabu before Dodongo's Cavern, doing the Fire Temple before the Forest Temple, doing the Water Temple before the Fire Temple, doing the Spirit Temple before the Shadow Temple, and completely skipping the Bottom of the Well. It's also possible to save all four carpenters and get the Gerudo Token before even setting foot inside any of the temples.
  • There are so many possibilities for sequence breaking in this game that speedrunners master different "categories", such as complete (all 3 stones) Young Link runs, Any% runs where only getting to the ending matters, 100% runs where a player must complete everything, the list goes on. There's even bingo card generators with a series of objectives competing runners must complete.
  • To give an idea of the possibilities that people keep finding about, a speedrunner without any assistance beat the time of an early TAS of the game. By several hours.
  • There are, of course, more modest examples that don't involve speed runs or even severe glitches:
    • The N64 games allowed Link to jump over low fences or obstacles in a realistic fashion using backflips and side jumps, leading to some potentially unexpected situations. Starting with the Nintendo GameCube games, this isn't possible anymore- even low fences have invisible walls preventing Link from vaulting over them.
    • The first time that Link visits Kakariko Village, he can climb up the tower, line up a side jump, and just land on the roof with the man looking up at the sky. This man gives Link a Piece of Heart. What makes this sequence breaking is the fact that the man says "Nice to see you again..." without having seen Link before.
    • Once Link gains the ability to throw Bomb Flowers, he can go up to the area overlooking Dodongo's Cavern with his back to a corner of the low fence. If he picks up/throws the bomb and quickly backflips before the flower reappears, he will land on top of the cave entrance (admittedly with some Falling Damage), which has another Piece of Heart. You're supposed to get there by planting a Magic Bean, then returning as an adult and riding it to the top of the cavern.
    • There's another Piece of Heart on a ledge in the Kakariko Village windmill that's meant to reached as an adult by going through Dampé's Grave. Child Link can get it with a very precise boomerang throw.
• Sequential Boss:
  • Barinade has three phases, all of which require the Boomerang or you will be fried.
    • The first phase has you severing Barinade from Jabu-Jabu's body with the Boomerang. Simple enough, just keep on the move or those satellite dish emitters will zap you.
    • The second phase has you destroying the special Bari circling Barinade, which can also be done by whaling on Barinade himself. Either way, you first have to stun Barinade with the Boomerang or you might as well be hitting an electrified fence with a key.
    • The third phase has Barinade moving around, but you can still stun him, and yet after 3 hits, Barinade will retreat into the ground, still zapping at you, and stay there a few seconds.
  • Phantom Ganon. In the first phase, he's riding a horse and attacks you with a powerful electric attack that splits upon contact with the floor. After giving him three hits with the arrows or the Hookshot, he'll dismount from the horse and change his pattern, floating in the air and throwing electric spheres that can be deflected back and forth in a Tennis Boss sequence.
  • Then, Twinrova. When you start the battle, they fight separately and attack with long streams of ice/fire magic that does a boatload of damage. Link needs to reflect the magic at the opposite twin with the Mirror Shield. After doing enough damage, a cutscene plays that has them combine into Twinrova, and now you need to absorb the attacks with the shield; get three of the same element in a row and then rush forward to blow it back. Then you can start slashing.
  • Iron Knuckles are a mini-boss example in that each one Turns Red and starts running at Link once at half HP.
• Seven Heavenly Virtues: Each of the Seven Sages represents one specific virtue:
  • Patience: Rauru waits seven years for Link to grow up and mature into a proper hero, looking after him all the while.
  • Charity: Saria gives Link an ocarina as a token of friendship, and is willing to sacrifice her carefree life for the sake of Hyrule.
  • Temperance: Despite his wild demeanor, Darunia is dedicated to the protection of his people and is open to making new allies. He becomes a Sworn Brother to Link after the latter defeats King Dodongo.
  • Chastity: Despite wanting to marry Link, Ruto chooses to suspend her vow so that she may serve as a Sage.
  • Diligence: Impa devoted her life to protecting Princess Zelda and to defending Kakariko Village.
  • Kindness: Nabooru is appalled by the actions of her king Ganondorf, and put a young Link's safety above hers when attacked by Twinrova.
  • Humility: Princess Zelda gave up her royal status and life, taking on the identity of Sheik and working alongside Link to defeat Ganondorf.
• Shall I Repeat That?: The owl Kaepora Gaebora gives Link advice throughout the game, giving Link the option to have him repeat himself afterwards. That's all well and good, though — wait, what do you mean that the default is "Yes, I do want to hear that again" and "No, I don't understand"? It is very easy to rush through his text and make him repeat himself over and over and over again, especially when you consider how slow the text scrolls unless you mash the A button (Or skip it with the B button).
  Kaepora Gaebora: Did you get all that?
  No ←
  Yes
  Kaepora Gaebora: Do you want to hear what I said again?
  Yes ←
  No
• She Is All Grown Up :
  • Link goes from Adorably Precocious Child to hot Bishōnen over the course of seven years, much to Nabooru's delight.
  • Malon, Zelda, and Ruto also grow from precious children into gorgeous adults after the seven years.
• Shell Game: During the first phase of his battle, Phantom Ganon will hide in one of the paintings surrounding his arena. Link must try to spot which painting Phantom Ganon will emerge from and shoot him with arrows, or else he gets hit by a powerful lightning attack and Phantom Ganon just retreats into another painting to start the game again.
• Shielded Core Boss: Barinade is a bio-electric tumor that wants to kill you, but killing it first requires ridding it of the protective jellyfish that've attached themselves to it. It's the boss of Jabu-Jabu's Belly, the third and final Spiritual Stone dungeon.
• Shifting Sand Land: The Haunted Wasteland, and the Desert Colossus after it. The former has a sandstorm that makes the environment more difficult to look at, as well as quicksand. The latter is more stable terrain-wise, but also overrun by Leevers. Traversing these areas is essential to reach the Spirit Temple.
• Shock and Awe: The boss of Jabu-Jabu's Belly is Barinade, a parasitic monster that unleashes powerful bolts like there's no tomorrow, and is the King Mook of the electric-based Biri and Bari. The game also has the boss of the Forest Temple, Phantom Ganon, and Ganondorf himself; the two throw electric balls at Link, who in turn has to throw them back in Tennis Boss form, but in Phantom Ganon's case, before he and Link play their game of Dead Man's Volley, the first phase involves him jumping into paintings of a spooky road and Link has to determine which one the real one will pop out of, while a fake one will keep him distracted long enough for the real one to deliver a devastating shock to him. Phantom Ganon retains the Tennis Boss feature when he reappears as a miniboss at the Forsaken Fortress and Ganon's Tower in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, while Ganondorf does in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess while possessing Princess Zelda's body.
• Shockwave Stomp: Ganondorf can do this with his fist. Aside from inflicting damage, it causes parts of the floor to collapse.
• Shoplift and Die: The Happy Mask Salesman. He always has a grin on his face coupled with Eyes Always Shut, but if you don't have enough Rupees to pay back the mask you sold, he'll be extremely angry and the angry face alone can be creepy for some people. Luckily this is the only thing he will do if you are short on funds.
• Short-Distance Phone Call: Averted; if you use Saria's Song right next to Saria herself, she'll comment on it and wonder why you use it, since she's right there.
• Shout-Out:
  • The Keaton Mask is said to be based on a "very popular character", and bears a resemblance to Pikachu.
  • The four Poe Sisters are named Jo, Amy, Meg, and Beth.
  • In the German translation, the four carpenters (Ichiro, Jiro, Sabooro and Shiro) are called John, Paul, George and Ringo.
  • Also in the German translation, Ingo is referred to as Basil, though the manual still calls him Ingo.
  • Also there are five Mario references: outside Link's house is a drawing of a knight fighting Bowser with a mushroom dropping from above him, Malon and Talon have Bowser head brooches and there are pictures of Mario, Luigi, Peach, Bowser, and Yoshi in the Castle Courtyard. Also, Sharp and Flat are Poe versions of Mario and Luigi who appear if you examine the graves on either side of the Royal Family's Tomb. Then there's Talon and Ingo themselves...
    
    The remake does away with the paintings in the Courtyard, but looking through the window does show what looks like a level from New Super Mario Bros..
  • The Kokiri race has various allusions to Peter Pan, such as them being accompanied by fairies, their child-like image and playfulness, and the fact that they can't grow up. Also, Miyamoto has stated that Navi has a crush on Link and is jealous of Zelda, an allusion of Tinkerbell being in love with the eponymous main character and being jealous of Wendy (coincidentially, this kind of relationship was also in the Western animated series).
  • The BGM in the Forest Temple includes the leitmotif for the titular alien from Predator.
  • Koume and Kotake are called Killa Ohmaz^note "Killer Grandmas" in the German translation. The deliberate misspelling and the plural -z are a reference to the German rock band "Böhse Onkelz", who used the same alterations. This was changed in the remake.
• Shown Their Work: If you look closely at the unique jellyfish circling Barinade, you will see what appear to be eyes placed around their bells. Real jellyfish actually do have eyes ringing their bells, and box jellyfish in particular actually have complete eyes (as opposed to the simple ocular organs possessed by most).
• Sibling Fusion: Koume and Kotake are twin witches and can merge into a single being called Twinrova, who has the combined powers of the two siblings.
• Sigil Spam: The Triforce symbol is on almost everything, and the Gerudo symbol is on every block and switch in the game. And there are many blocks with the Door Of Time's design on it, and guess how you deal with those? The 3DS version had the Triforce show up on the moon of all things.
• Signpost Tutorial: The game contains a number of literal signposts in a maze near the cave that leads to the Kokiri Sword. These cover basic jumping and attack maneuvers. You can ignore them if you want to (and most people do, as unlike some tutorials, the game doesn't say You Shouldn't Know This Already if you use them) and still be able to do everything.
• Simon Says Minigame: A Heart Piece is earned by playing a game of this with the Skull Kids in the Lost Woods, requiring you to memorize musical notes and play them back using the titular ocarina. The frog choir's game (active after receiving their first Heart Piece) is similar, but much harder, as you have to match up every note as it is played; fortunately, the sequence is fixed.
• Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Ice Cavern, which is a Mini-Dungeon. There were development plans for it to be a main dungeon, but they were scrapped. It marks the debut of Ice Keese and Freezard in the series, which are capable of freezing Link temporarily.
• The Slow Path: While you time travel, everyone else has to live through all seven years of Ganondorf's rule.
• Smart Bomb: Din's Fire, which sets everything around you on fire. Unfortunately, the Keese don't mind being on fire, it just turns them into flying dive-bombing fireballs instead.
• Smashing Survival: Repeatedly tapping the A button is the only way to get away from a ReDead or Gibdo.
• Smash Mook: Moblins. All they do is pace back and forth in narrow corridors and charge Link if they see or hear him. The large Moblin at the end of the maze carries a club, and the only difference is that the attack sends shockwaves through the ground to hurt you from a distance.
• Soft Water: Link often finds himself jumping onto not-too-deep water from great heights. Like the Great Deku Tree, or the waterfalls at the Gerudo Valley and Zora's Domain that are even higher. It's worth noting that Link takes those dives head first. Then again falling doesn't seem to be particularly dangerous in the Zelda Universe, even if impacting solid ground. There's a hidden area in The Fire Temple, which requires the Scarecrow's Song to reach, with a drop that is long enough that Link will stop yelling before he hits the bottom. The result? Landing in a crouch on both feet, grunting, and taking a couple hearts of damage. In fact, for this franchise, a couple hearts is extreme. Usually, one quarter of a heart, sometimes half, is the penalty for distant falls.
• Some Dexterity Required: The targeting system can be quite the pain in the ass when you're trying to target the boss and not these pesky little things around him.
• So Near, Yet So Far:
  • You can go to the outside of the final dungeon, Ganon's Castle, as soon as you set foot in the Bad Future halfway through the game, though in order to get inside you need to rescue the sages who then build a magic bridge to allow you to enter the castle.
  • A single dungeon version happens in the Fire Temple where the boss key and door are in rooms right off the entrance of the Temple, but you can't access the boss key until you get the Megaton Hammer later on in the temple.
• Songs in the Key of Lock: Just as when its predecessors in the franchise often removed something barring your progress (except in A Link to the Past), Link's ocarina can be used for the same purpose. Zelda's Lullaby will trigger mechanisms if Link stands on "the Crest of the Royal Family" aka the Triforce; the Song Of Time removes and summons blocks with the Door Of Time's design on it, starting with the Door Of Time itself; and the Song Of Storms opens up the Bottom Of The Well.
• Soul Jar: Ganondorf cannot die as long as he has the Triforce of Power, and after Link defeats him for the first time he resurrects himself and turns into Ganon. Even after he's Sealed Evil in a Can he promises to return someday.
• Source Music: That organ playing in the background in Ganon's Castle? Ganondorf himself is playing it. It even stops when he does!
• Spikes of Doom: Spikes are relatively rare, being at their most frequent in the Shadow Temple. There's a room where you have to use a large block as a shield to prevent the moving ceiling from crushing Link. Another room requires Link to think fast and use Din's Fire to burn the spiked walls that attempt to reduce him to gibs (luckily, this spell will also get rid of the present ReDeads in the process).
• Spin Attack: Once Link learns how to use magic from a Great Fairy, he can perform a stronger version of the spin attack. It loads energy so its range is wider, and has two levels.
• Spoiler Opening: The artwork on the side of the box reveals adult Zelda. Likewise, the title screen and most official art shows Adult Link doing things. The one twist that is preserved is HOW this is brought about.
• Sprite/Polygon Mix: Outside, sprites are used for effects and some flat-but-detailed objects. Most building interiors have 3D characters and objects, but a totally 2D background with fake perspective which hides parts of Link to allow him to walk "behind" objects. Averted completely in the remake, where all backdrops are polygonal models due the more powerful hardware on the 3DS and to it being obviously fake when viewed with stereoscopic vision.
• Stable Time Loop:
  • In the future, Link meets an irritated musician who accidentally teaches him a song a young boy played in his windmill seven years ago by recollecting it. Of course, it's then your mission to go back and play it to him so he can later teach it to you in the future.
  • Master Quest has an inversion: In the Spirit Temple, you create a chest as Adult Link then go back in time where it's somehow still there. Note that it wasn't there the first time you visited the temple.
• Stalactite Spite: Stalactites are plentiful in Ice Cavern and a part of Ganon's Tower, where the ceiling is high enough that you probably won't see the icicles from a distance, and they also respawn.
• Standard Hero Reward: For defeating Barinade, Ruto basically proposes to you. Of course, you're both kids at the time, so it doesn't quite turn out that way. That said, Ruto still takes the proposal, and Link's alleged acceptance, seriously seven years later.
• Start of Darkness: This was the first game in the series to explore Ganon's origins and introduced Ganondorf, who would become Ganon when he took the Triforce of Power.
• Stationary Boss: At the start of the battle, Barinade's main body is linked via tentacles to the ceiling. You must chop it free in order to send it into a suicidal frenzy and kill it.
• Stealth-Based Mission: Getting past the guards at Hyrule Castle. Also, rescuing the carpenters from the Gerudo's Fortress. And, to a lesser extent, the maze to get to the Forest Temple, in that getting caught doesn't lead to a Stupid Surrender.
• The Stinger: Young Link once again finds Zelda at the exact moment that she's spying on Ganondorf's meeting with her father. She turns to face him, followed by a color fade. ^note This simple scene became a key moment in the split-timeline theory which later became canon.
• Stock Beehive: Beehives, minus the bees, can be found at various points in the game. They're spherical and brown, and covered with hexagonal cells on their undersides.
• Stock Sound Effect: The sound the cuccos make when Link attacks them is a rooster sound effect from the General Series 6000 Sound Effects Library, released in 1992. It was very common from the mid-1990s to the 2000s. This sound is also used in the game to signify the beginning of a day.
• The Story That Never Was: Zelda resets the timeline to just before Link met her and she sent him off to try to stop Ganondorf on his own. They realize that Ganondorf would've never have risen to power if they had simply turned him over to the proper authorities instead of unlocking the Sacred Realm, which gave him the opportunity to steal the Triforce. However, in doing so she actually failed to fully erase everything and created at least two timelines - one where Link simply vanished from existence after defeating Ganon as an adult (the setting of Wind Waker and its sequels), and one where he exposed the conspiracy as a child (the setting of Twilight Princess and Four Swords Adventures). Eiji Aonuma confirmed that, despite being able to live out his childhood, Link retained memories of the events of the plot and lived an unfulfilled life because he never got to be the Hero of Time.
• Stupid Surrender: When sneaking through either Hyrule Castle or the Gerudo's Fortress, Link will remain rooted to the spot if a guard sees him, rather than letting you run away or use any of your numerous weapons. This makes no sense at Gerudo's Fortress, since the guards can be knocked out with a single arrow, and there are times when Link actually has to fight some of them, so why he throws up his hands and surrenders goes unexplained.
• Super Drowning Skills: Averted for Link, as he doesn't need the Flippers in this game. However, some enemies, such as Stalchildren, will be destroyed the moment they go into deep water.
• Supernatural Sealing:
  • Bongo-Bongo was originally sealed within the Bottom of the Well by Impa before escaping.
  • At the climax of the game, Zelda and the other Sages combine their powers in order to seal Ganondorf within the Sacred Realm.
• Super Sliding: The player can acquire the "sacred feet", a.k.a., the Hover Boots, in the Shadow Temple. The primary function of the boots is to allow Link to cross large gaps. A side effect of wearing them is that, after Link stops running, the boots' effect causes Link to keep sliding on the ground by inertia.
• Swallowed Whole: Lord Jabu-Jabu will swallow Link right after he feeds him with a fish. This is actually necessary, because Link has to look for Princess Ruto, who is trapped inside.
• Sweet Polly Oliver: Sheik is Zelda.
• Sword Lines: Link's swords leave a trail that persist for a second or two after it has been swung. There are Gameshark codes for the game that allow complete customization of the sword lines, from the color to the persistence.
• Sword of Plot Advancement: The Master Sword, again. It is presented to you just as you unveil what you think is going to be the Sacred Realm, and pulling it out... causes your plan to fail, Ganon's to win, evil to reign for seven years, and you to fall asleep for the whole thing.
• Sword Plant: This how Link travels back to the past. Originally, as a child, he had pulled the sword out of its pedestal in the Temple of Time, prompting the Time Skip to the future and his growth into an adult. By planting the sword back to its pedestal, Link returns to the past and becomes a child again.
• Symbolic Blood: After you defeat Ganondorf he falls to the ground, his red cape unfolding around him in a way that makes it look like blood is flowing out of him.
• Sinister Scimitar: The Gerudo are known to carry scimitars as weapons, and any Jump Attack they perform with them in battle must be dodged by Link, or else he'll lose the battle due to a Non-Lethal K.O.. The Gerudo themselves are never pure evil in and of themselves (Ganondorf notwithstanding, though he was never shown to wield a scimitar himself), but they do initially serve an antagonistic role in the game before Link earns their respect (and one of them also awakens as a Sage to help him against the King of Evil).
• Tactical Suicide Boss:
  • Koume and Kotake, as well as their combined form, Twinrova. If the sisters never passed by each other during the fight (allowing them to be hit by their counterpart's attack), they'd be invincible. Meanwhile, Twinrova doesn't mind hitting you with spells your Mirror Shield can absorb and throw back at her, making her vulnerable.
  • Ganondorf uses a Desperation Attack that leaves him open to a free Light Arrow shot if you're just getting good, or speed-running.
• Take It to the Bridge: Link and Saria have a poignant goodbye on the bridge between Kokiri Forest and Hyrule Field as he leaves the forest for the first time to go on a quest.
• Talking Animal: Kaepora Gaebora. He is a wise and altruistic owl who gives Link advice throughout his childhood; sadly, he is excessively talkative and his information is mostly trivial, and so his honest endeavors to guide Link come across as useless babbling to most gamers, who usually mash the A button to get through the pages and pages of text. He has a way to punish the Button Mashers, though — he gives them an option to have him repeat himself or end the conversation, and the cursor always defaults to "Yes, I do want you to repeat".
• Teaser Equipment: Happens a lot near the beginning of the game, where some shops have items whose price exceeds what you can even store in your starter wallet.
• Teleportation with Drawbacks: Farore's Wind can only be used inside dungeons, and when first used it will warp Link to the entry point of whichever room he's in and create a warp point he can return to later, but only one warp point can be active at a time.
• Temporal Paradox: You learn the Song of Storms from the man inside the windmill, who tells you that 7 years ago, some kid played the song and screwed things up. You warp back 7 years and play the song, letting the guy learn it when you do so. At no time is a legitimate origin of the song established. However, the same song turning up in Majora's Mask may provide some degree of closure.
• Tempting Fate: The guard that's in the room with the pots complains about being bored, and actually hopes trouble could happen. If only he knew Hyrule would go to hell within seven years.
• Tennis Boss: Phantom Ganon and Ganondorf, to the extent that this trope is sometimes referred to as "Ganonball". At least as far as the franchise is concerned, the OoT version is the Trope Codifier.
• Tentacle Rope: The Water Temple boss, Morpha, can grab Link and swing him around before throwing him against the wall. This is even shown in Morpha's official art, except Link doesn't lose his weapon.
• Thematic Sequel Logo Change:
  • The logo evokes that of A Link to the Past, which it is billed as a prequel to, save for the plot-relevant and redesigned Master Sword^note This would be the basic form the sword would take in the franchise by this point onwards being behind the Hylian Shield instead of in front of it. The weapons and "Zelda" portion of the logo are also 3D renders to represent Ocarina of Time being the first 3D Zelda title.
  • The Master Quest version of the logo has the Master Sword and Hylian Shield darkened to represent it being a harder version of the original game with redesigned puzzles and dungeon item placements, and in the 3DS version, Link taking double damage from attacks.
• Theme-and-Variations Soundtrack: The game has a recurring progression in the title theme, Saria's Song, Zora's Domain, and others.
• Theme Music Withholding: Despite being one of the most well-known entries in the franchise, the game never had the series' main theme in its original release. It would only be added thirteen years later, when made part of the end credits for the Nintendo 3DS remake.
• Theme Naming:
  • The four kidnapped carpenters are named after Japanese numbers: Ichiro (Ichi, 1), Jiro (Ni/Ji, 2), Sabooro (San, 3), Shiro (Shi, 4).
  • The Poe Sisters in the Forest Temple are named after the sisters from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.
• There Are No Bedsheets: Link during his Good Morning, Crono. He and the Kokiri are used to sleep in their treehouses' beds without any bedsheets, likely because Kokiri Forest is always warm enough.
• This Cannot Be!: Ganondorf doesn't take being beaten by Link the first time all that well.
  Ganondorf: The Great Evil King Ganondorf... beaten by this kid?!
• This Is the Final Battle: Navi tells Link they're about to fight their final battle right before fighting Ganon at the end of the game.
• This Way to Certain Death: Skeletons can be found in certain parts of Bottom of the Well and Shadow Temple. Approaching them allows Navi to receive their messages, usually related to something about those places.
• The Three Trials: Link has to gather the three spiritual stones of forest (Kokiri's Emerald), fire (Goron's Ruby), and water (Zora's Sapphire), needed to open the Door of Time and lift the Master Sword from its pedestal. Unfortunately, Ganondorf pulls a Trick-and-Follow Ploy on Link, gaining access to the Sacred Realm and claiming the Triforce of Power.
• Tide Level: The Water Temple, where Link must raise and lower the water to three different levels to progress through the dungeon.
• Time Travel: Putting the Master Sword back in its pedestal allow Link to travel back in time, which is needed both story-wise and gameplay-wise.
• Timey-Wimey Ball: The Master Sword allows you to travel back in time. Sometimes you actually can change the past from the future (such as Heart Pieces and other collectibles), other times you can't. One plot event depends on creating a Stable Time Loop. Eiji Aonuma confirms that the time travel at the end of the game created a split in the timeline explicitly because Link used Back To The Future-based time travel; one timeline where Link returned to the past (and arrested Ganondorf, altering a fixed event), one timeline where Link disappeared to the first timeline (thereby altering only flux events), and one timeline where he disappeared from past and present (a logical interim timeline between existing in the present and then using time travel to exist in the past). These three timelines have their own sequels.
• Toggling Setpiece Puzzle: The Water Temple has two examples, one that is central to its overarching theme and a more specific instance in one of its rooms:
  • The water's level in the entire dungeon is full by default, so only the highest floor is relatively dry. However, as explained by Princess Ruto when Link meets her, there are three areas in the dungeon where Link can play Zelda's Lullaby to modify the water level: The first one empties it almost completely, leaving only the basement and certain higher areas with their own sources of water wet; the second restores the water to the middle, and the third one restores the water to the original full level. Since each of the major parts of the dungeon can only be accessed when its entrance door or path is reachable with a specific water level, it can become difficult to keep track of the progression (as failing to visit a certain area holding a required key will force Link to restart the level-changing cycle). Luckily, the game's Nintendo 3DS remake adds luminous marks in the walls that remind the player where Link can find the spots that modify the water's level (which, alongside the added ability to change between Kokiri and Iron Boots in real-time, makes the dungeon more manageable).
  • In the room preceding the illusory hall where Dark Link is, there's a red-colored crystal at the top of a pillar in the center. When it's hit (either with an arrow or with the Hookshot), it will turn blue, and as a result, the room's water will raise and certain dragon-headed statues with Hookshot targets will erect. This allows Link to make his way around the room by latching onto the statues with the Hookshot, but at one point he has to shoot the crystal once again to lower the water's level and the statues, allowing him to climb one of the statue's dragon heads and keep moving. He has to repeat the procedure until he finally arrives at the other end and reaches the famous room where he fights his doppëlganger.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: While he was never the friendliest person in the game, Ingo was nothing more than a disgruntled employee who complained about Talon's laziness when Link was a kid. After Ganondorf comes to power, he uses the Evil King's "good" graces to take the ranch for himself, exile Talon to Kakariko Village, and proceeds to generally make life miserable for Malon until Link returns and intervenes.
• Took a Level in Kindness:
  • Mido is the resident jerkass in Kokiri Village, giving Link shit over not having a fairy, even going as far as calling him "Mr. No-Fairy". When you meet him seven years later, he's guarding the entrance to the Forest Temple, but his tone is very different. He says that he wishes that he could take back everything he said about Link (unaware that he is actually talking to Link as an adult) and tells you that if you ever meet Link, to tell him that Mido is sorry for being such a jerk to him.
  • Ingo becomes a gentle character (or at least makes an effort to act like one) after Link defeats him in a race twice and escapes the ranch with Epona.
• Trauma Inn: The 3DS remake has Link's bed in Kokiri Forest, which completely restores health and magic.
• Tragic Time Traveler: Link. At one point during the game, the Temple of Time is unsealed and Link ends up being whisked away seven years into the future, leaving Ganon to take the Triforce from him and goes on to wreck havoc across Hyrule, and it doesn't get much better from there.
• Tree Trunk Tour: The very first dungeon is located inside the Great Deku Tree, where Link has to find and slay the parasitic Giant Spider Gohma.
• Tricked-Out Gloves: The game has the Silver Gauntlets, allowing you to lift rocks and move large blocks; and the Golden Gauntlets, allowing you to lift and throw aside huge rock pillars.
• Trick Shot Puzzle: One room in Jabu-Jabu's Belly has you using the Boomerang to hit a switch behind a pane of transparent material. You have to stand at an exact distance from the barrier for the boomerang to hit. The Forest Temple has the classic "fire arrow through fire onto switch" variety.
• Tsundere: Ruto. Decidedly tsun-tsun type. She acts harshly towards Link at the start of the game, but her feelings gradually become more affectionate, culminating in a marriage proposal.
• Turns Red:
  • Iron Knuckles, as detailed under Sequential Boss, lose the heavy parts of their armor and start running at Link when they're at about half HP.
  • You know Ganondorf is about to go down when they foolishly lower their guard to use an attack that is guaranteed to score a hit on newcomers. Pros and speed-runners take advantage of the opportunity for a free hit. Master players charge up a Spin Attack and time the release to when he unleashes his attack.

U - Z

• Ultimate Blacksmith: Biggoron. His little brother is the penultimate blacksmith, too.
• Unbreakable Weapons: All swords except the Giant's Knife, and all items except the Deku Stick.
• Uncommon Time:
  • We have Ganondorf's battle music. It starts out in 4/4, but only stays that way for four bars before switching to a complex pulse of 23/16 (13+10/16).
  • "Fairy Flying", Navi's theme, has three sections: two in 13/8 and one in 5/8.
• Underground Level: Dodongo's Cavern, the Fire and Shadow Temples and Beneath the Well. The former two are set inside the volcanic Death Mountain, so they also qualify as Lethal Lava Land dungeons. The latter two are placed in the underground of Kakariko Village, and them being overrun by undead creatures makes them Big Boo's Haunt locations as well.
• Underground Monkey: Many enemies come in assorted colours, sometimes indicating vulnerability to elemental attacks, others just to indicate they're not the same enemy.
• Under the Sea: The game has its incarnation of Lake Hylia, since Link will eventually be able to dive to the bottom with the Zora Tunic (for Super Not-Drowning Skills) and the Iron Boots (to safely sink to the bottom). Beneath it is the famously difficult Water Temple, which teems with lots of water and the many ways Link has to take advantage of it: Raising or lowering its level at certain designated spots, cyclic water currents, aquatic whirlpools that act as bottomless pits, a large waterfall he has to climb through with Hookshot-based platforms, and aquatic enemies.
• Unending End Card: The game leaves you hanging after the final cutscene with a still image of young Link warning Princess Zelda about Ganon.
• Unholy Ground: The Shadow Temple. Monsters like Redeads, Gibdos and Stalfos roam its halls and the temple itself is a gathering place for Hyrule's bloody history of greed and hatred.
• Unique Enemy: Peahats are incredibly rare normal enemies, only appearing in two very specific places in Hyrule Field and only as Young Link. Heck, it's entirely possible to go through the entire game without even fighting them.
• Unlockable Difficulty Levels: The 3DS remake unlocks Master Quest (originally a separate harder version of the game in GCN), with the added perks of stronger damage by enemies and a mirrored overworld.
• Unlucky Childhood Friend:
  • Saria, who apparently has her own Unlucky Childhood Friend in Mido.
  • Navi counts too since you've known her since the beginning of your journey and the developers have said that she has feelings for Link.
• Unnecessary Combat Roll: Link's "attack" default move is a short forward roll. It can break crates, knock stuff out of trees, and give you some extra distance in jumping, but that's about it. Combat-wise, it is good for is that Link is invincible while rolling, which can be a lifesaver if you are about to get hit. It might be easier and more intuitive though just to pull up your shield. Otherwise it's useful for rolling under Ganon's legs. It gets you in position to attack his tail without shooting him in the face or taking time to circle around.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: This may exist between Link and Zelda during the end of the game.
• Unrobotic Reveal: The game features an Animated Armour variation with the Iron Knuckle fought before the boss of the Spirit Temple, upon its defeat it is revealed to be Nabooru.
• Unwinnable by Design: During the fight against Ganondorf; if the player runs out of magic with which to fire Light Arrows, and also runs out of magic refills from the pots in the floor below and has no magic refills left of their own, then it will be impossible to do any further damage to Ganondorf and the player will need to restart. Averted in the fight against Ganon. While the Light Arrows can be used to stun him, they are ultimately not required to defeat him.
• Unwinnable Joke Game: The infamous Marathon Man challenge. Don't listen to any fans claiming to have done it or have found some way to do so, or even people who have cheated and beaten it with 0:00 on the time, the Marathon Man will always beat you to the Kokiri Forest bridge—even the developers have confirmed that he cannot be beaten. They claim the reason for it was because they couldn't figure out a good reward to give the player for winning it, so they rigged it into a harmless, optional joke challenge instead.
• Unwitting Pawn: By getting all of the Spiritual Stones and taking the Master Sword, Link allows Ganondorf's plans to come to fruition.
• Useless Item: Zig-Zagged with the Stone of Agony in the VC releases. It would make the controller rumble when Link was near a hidden treasure chest or grotto. However, the Virtual Console rerelease removes the rumble feature, making the item indeed entirely useless. Even the operations guide says that it's useless in context. This is not the case in the Wii U virtual console which does have rumble. Thankfully, its 3DS counterpart, which serves the same purpose, instead chimes and shines on the screen when it reacts.
• Uvula Escape Route: Inverted when Link is swallowed by Jabu-Jabu. He can exit the beast any time he wants through its mouth, and hitting Jabu-Jabu's uvula unlocks a "door" over its throat allowing him to progress deeper into its body.
• Variable Mix: In Hyrule Field, the music is made up of 21 different segments that are about 15 seconds long and shift around depending on whether Link is standing still, moving, or near an enemy. According to the developers, the Variable Mix program for the music was quite intensive on the N64's hardware.
• Vent Physics: The Shadow Temple and the forest route of Ganon's Tower use giant fans for this purpose. Wearing the Iron Boots will keep Link from being blown around and even let him advance through the gust. At one point, however, you have to use the Hover Boots so you can be safely pushes airborne towards a distant spot without falling into the pit in-between.
• The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: After the Sages you spent most the game bringing together make that light bridge leading to Ganon's castle, it's pretty obvious the plot ends here.
• Video Game 3D Leap: This is the first 3D Zelda game in the series, and uses the graphic engine that brought Super Mario 64 to life.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential:
  • The Cuccos, of course. This time around, you can laugh at Video Game Cruelty Punishment in one location by trampling over them in Lon Lon Ranch with Epona and watching the entire flock chase after you from horseback — they can't actually harm you as long as you're on your horse.
  • The Poes. Link can move a grave, disturbing the soul's rest; he can then defeat it and trap it in a jar. From there he can either sell off the soul, or consume it to (have a chance to) revitalize himself.
  • The Skulltula family can be attacked from behind just like any other Skulltula, which makes them cry out in pain and be stunned for a bit. Of course, if you get close to them after they're stunned, they'll attack in retaliation.
  • Inverted with Epona. You have a limited amount of times you can slap her to make her go faster, but Ingo has an unlimited amount during the race.
• Video Game Remake: For the Nintendo 3DS.
• Video Game Tools: The Hookshot is excellent at this. You can use it to one-hit kill the small Moblins in the annoying Lost Woods hedge maze and stun the extremely annoying giant Moblin guarding the way to the Forest Temple.
• Video Game Vista: When Link first enters Hyrule field, we get a panning shot of the whole thing. This serves a narrative purpose, as Link grew up confined to Kokiri Forest, and this is a whole new world to him.
• "The Villain Knows" Moment: Near the end of the game, once all Sages have been rescued in the Temples, Link reunites with Sheik in the Temple of Time, who tells him the truth about how the Triforce works and then reveals her true identity as Princess Zelda. She tells Link that she disguised as Sheik so she could escape Ganondorf's evil forces and help Link over the course of his adventure, and then gives him the Light Arrows (which are capable of penetrating the evil king's defenses). Unfortunately for her, Ganondorf casts a Crystal Prison onto her, and reveals that he knew all along about Link's plan to awaken the Sages and defeat him; he hadn't done anything against him by that point because he knew that Sheik would eventually drop her guard and expose her true identity. Link has no option but to go to Ganon's Tower to confront the Big Bad and save the princess as well as Hyrule.
• Villainous Badland, Heroic Arcadia: Ganondorf hails from the harsh Gerudo Desert, while Link spent his whole life in the idyllic - albeit somewhat muted — Kokiri forest. Sure enough, when Ganondorf takes over Hyrule, it turns into a wasteland of death. Lampshaded in The Wind Waker: Ganondorf admits that his initial reason for wanting to conquer Hyrule was the land was green and fertile with winds that brought life while in the desert the wind brought nothing but death.
• Villainous Breakdown:
  • Ganondorf has one of these after the first round of his final battle with Link. After he's defeated and his castle collapses around him while Link, Zelda, and Navi escape, he bursts out of the rubble in a rage. He then uses the Triforce of Power to change into the feral, dual-sword-wielding, boar-like Ganon. His breakdown continues even after he reverts back to his human form as he angrily vows revenge against Link, Zelda, and the sages as they imprison him in the Sacred Realm.
  • A really weird example happens to Ingo after beating him in a horse race with Epona. First he becomes desperate because Link gets to keep the mare that was originally meant to be a present for Ganondorf, so he locks him up. What happens after Link escapes, anyway? He suddenly becomes nice the next time you enter the ranch. According to Miyamoto, the plan was to have Ingo burn down the ranch in a fit of madness after you beat him, but then someone asked what would happen if you re-entered the ranch, so it was dropped.
• Violation of Common Sense:
  • There's an unusual method to avoiding ReDeads: Equipping the Iron Boots before getting close. Re Deads detect you based on sound, not sight. The Iron Boots are clunky and noisy...to the player. But the Re Deads will ignore you. This is because the game registers the sound of Link's slower walking animation differently from that of his regular walking. As long as you don't pull out or put away a weapon, you'll be completely invisible to them.
  • If you're about to die because of the heat tolerance timer running out in the Fire Temple or Death Mountain Crater, you can just jump into a lava pit and you'll be teleported back to the entrance with the timer reset and only a small amount of health lost. Of course, this doesn't help if you're only one hit away from death.
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot: When Ganondorf dies. In the gold-cartridge version, he vomited up red blood, which was bowdlerized to green in subsequent versions.
• Voodoo Shark: There is Time Travel involved, which seems to invoke a Stable Time Loop, right up until the ending where Link is sent back in time permanently and then goes to child Zelda to warn her about the future events yet to unfold. Many fans deduced that Ocarina, canonically the earliest game at the time, finishes by creating two divergent timelines. Then, speculation raged as to which games - before and since - belonged to the "Adult" and "Child" timelines. While there were several games that unquestionably belonged to the described timelines, there were several games, such as the original The Legend of Zelda game, A Link to the Past, and their followups, that left fans scratching their heads when it came to timeline placement. Hyrule Histoira tried to give a final answer by saying that there were actually three divergent timelines - "Adult," "Child," and a timeline where Link actually failed, and this timeline was where all the games that didn't have an obvious timeline placement were put in. But all it did was raise more questions as to how this Downfall Timeline even came to being in In-Universe, how Zelda canon is supposed to work with the inclusion of a What If? scenario, and if a timeline is created every time Link gets a Game Over.
• Wake-Up Call Boss:
  • Barinade. It's the first boss battle to have multiple "stages" to it, as well as taking far more hits to kill. A player who's familiar with their attack patterns and weaknesses can easily beat Gohma and King Dodongo in about 20 and 40 seconds respectively without taking a single hit, but Barinade will likely take at least a minute-and-a-half or more, with a much higher chance of inflicting damage to the player in the meantime.
  • Even though they quickly become regular mooks afterward, the Stalfos mini-boss counts as one. All the enemies you've fought up until then either had an easily exploitable weak point or could be blade-spammed to death. The Stalfos marks the point when enemies start fighting the same way as Link; not only can they block (and face towards Link as they block, as if they were Z-targeting you), but they also have a jump attack that —just like Link's— does twice as much damage as a normal hit.
  • Phantom Ganon. The previous bosses were Gohma, King Dodongo, and Barinade, all of whom were beaten easily provided you knew which tools to use (Slingshot for Gohma, Bombs for King Dodongo, and Boomerang for Barinade). But Phantom Ganon, your first boss as Adult Link, can't be beaten unless you know how to use more advanced game mechanics like reflecting his own attacks back at him, and he can easily defeat you if you don't adapt to the increased difficulty of Adult Link's dungeons quickly enough.
• The Walls Are Closing In: There's a room in the Shadow Temple where rickety wooden spike-walls slowly close in on you.
• War Comes Home: Implied Trope. When Link wakes up seven years later, he finds his former home of Kokiri Forest abandoned, with Deku Scrubs growing wild and hardly anybody to talk to besides Mido. After Ganondorf unleashed destruction on Hyrule, something terrible happened to the Kokiri and it was likely attacked by his armies while you were unable to help at all. Thankfully, checking inside the treehouses reveals that the Kokiri are still unhurt, but are holed up in their homes out of fear, and the little village is made safe again after the Great Deku Tree is reborn.
• Warp Whistle: Adult Link learns six songs that teleport him to various places throughout Hyrule. They also double as an Escape Rope in the sense that they will even work when played inside a dungeon (they won't work in boss rooms because the player is barred from using the ocarina at all when in a boss room).
• Waterfront Boss Battle: Morpha is fought in a room holding a large pool of water, with a raised edge and four platforms in the pool itself. Link spends the battle standing on these raised areas, while Morpha lurks in the water and uses its hydrokinesis to turn it into tentacles with which to attack Link. Morpha is invulnerable while underwater, so Link must use the Longshot to pull it on dry land and attack it while it crawls back into the pool.
• Water-Geyser Volley: Starting from this game, various games feature Down the Drain areas where waterspouts from pipes are used as lifts. In this game's case, they're present in the Water Temple, where some of them can be used as elevators to reach higher areas or paths to cross pits.
• Water Is Womanly: The Zora are ruled by a male king while the Sage of Water becomes his daughter, Ruto, who acts feminine towards Link to the point of proposing marriage in their youth. Curiously, since the Zora evolve into the Rito by the beginning of The Wind Waker these somewhat feminine characters evolve into birds and subsequently into air elementals.
• Weakened by the Light: Playing the Sun's Song near Redeads will stun them for a while. Also, the Light Arrows make your bow the only weapon able to weaken Ganondorf (which is foreshadowed when you battle Phantom Ganon in the Forest Temple).
• Weapon Jr.: The child Link gets a slingshot as his first dungeon item. It functions like a weaker version of the bow (which he can only use as an adult), hitting distant enemies and switches.
• Weaponized Offspring:
  • Gohma lays eggs as you fight her which, if not destroyed, hatch into baby spiders.
  • Sleeping Peahats send out a swarm of larvae when attacked at night. During the day, instead of spinning their slicey-dicey propeller leaves at Link, some take off when approached, hovering well out of bow range showering Link with larvae.
• Well, Excuse Me, Princess!: With Princess Ruto in Jabu-Jabu's belly. She chews you out for following her, then for leaving her, and then tricks you into accepting her marriage proposal.
• Wham Episode: There are two. The first one comes after collecting the three Spiritual Stones, and gaining access to the Sacred Realm. Ganondorf follows you in and seizes the Triforce of Power. You are then trapped in the sacred realm for seven years, and when you wake up as an adult, Hyrule is a Crapsack World. The second one happens after collecting the final Sage Medallion. Sheik reveals to you that she's Zelda, and is captured by Ganondorf immediately after.
• Wham Shot: The final scene of the game, after saving the Bad Future from Ganondorf, is the younger versions of Link and Zelda meeting again... and Link still has the Triforce of Courage visible on his left hand, having retained it even despite being sent back to the past. This actually has major consequences in both The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, where that game's Link has to find it himself because it disappeared from the future and the Kingdom lacked it and the wielder's aid to stop Ganondorf's return, and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, because that Link inherited it from this ending through the family line and as a Reincarnation.
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • The King is mentioned in the cutscene where you meet Zelda for the first time and later by Darunia (who refers to him as his "sworn brother"). The soldier in the Back Alley tells Link that Ganondorf betrayed the King. He's never mentioned after, not even in the context of what happened to him when Ganon took over. Akira Himekawa decided that Ganondorf killed the King in his coup d'état. Considering that's what Agahnim did in his gig, it's a relatively safe bet.
  • Lord Jabu-Jabu seems to have met some undefined fate in the future.
  • Navi. She just flies away. It's likely she goes to the new Deku Tree's side, since Majora's Mask begins with Link searching for her in the Lost Woods.
  • As Link enters the barren wasteland of the Market, several people Link normally sees seems to have disappeared until the credits.
• What the Hell, Player?:
  • You can use the fishing pole to snag the fisherman's hat. He yells at you, and if you lose it he makes you pay 50 rupees for it.
  • There's a lady in Kakariko Village who needs help with finding her Cuccos. After finding all six of them, if you throw even one Cucco out of the pen, the lady will scold you for it.
• Where It All Began: Link begins the second part of the game in the ruins of Hyrule Castle Town, and later returns to the town to infiltrate Ganon's Castle floating where Hyrule Castle once stood.
• White Wolves Are Special: The White Wolfos is a larger, slightly tougher version of the standard gray Wolfos enemies (basically wolves with gorilla-like builds and a prediliction for attacking with their claws) seen in the Lost Woods. It serves as the miniboss of the Ice Cavern, but becomes a Degraded Boss when a few are fought in the Gerudo's Training Ground later in the game.
• Wicked Cultured: Ganondorf. He's playing the organ while awaiting being confronted by Link but aside from that, he has strong knowledge of both the societies and the supernatural phenomena of the in-game world.
• Wind Is Green: The spell Farore's Wind is green, though this has more to do with the spell's namesake, the Hylian goddess Farore, who is always represented by green.
• Windmill Scenery: It is hard to miss the Kakariko Village windmill. It is actually a windpump that draws up water from the nighmarish well sitting in front of it. It would've taken a few years to pump out the water barring Link from the Bottom Of The Well, but the Song Of Storms makes it go so fast that it pumps all of it out in a few minutes. Then, once inside, Link drains the rest in order to confront Dead Hand.
• Winged Soul Flies Off at Death: Koume and Kotake die this way after you defeat their combined form, Twinrova. Humorously, they argue with each other over their ages even as their souls are spirited away to the heavens. Since they were evil, why they are ascending is something of a mystery.
• Wise Tree: The Great Deku Tree, guardian of Kokiri Forest and father figure to the Kokiri.
• Womb Level: Inside Jabu-Jabu's Belly, which is a dungeon whose location is inside the titular Lord Jabu-Jabu.
• Worldbuilding: One of the most noteworthy aspects of this game narrative-wise was just how much it expanded the lore and mythos of Hyrule. It essentially created the foundations for the world building of the entire series moving forward, which are still used to this day.
  • It starts by expanding the Creation Myth that was first written by Yoshiaki Koizumi in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. The three Golden Goddesses, Din, Nayru and Farore, all received their canonical names in this game, and the specific role of each deity was explained in a bit more detail.
  • The idea of the Triforce splitting in three separate pieces if the person who touches it has an unbalanced spirit was also created here. The imagery of each wielder having a Triforce crest on the back of their hands was lifted from Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, but the fact that it indicates that that person literally owns the piece of the Triforce was introduced here.
  • Ocarina of Time was also the first game to introduce the concept of Hyrule having multiple races, and created those that would later on become the most recurring ones: namely the Kokiri^note which would later on evolve into the Koroks, the Goron, the Zora^note which had appeared previously, but they were considered an enemy type, and had a completely different design, the Sheikah and the Gerudo. It was also the game that gave Hylians their race name, since they didn't have one before, and were rather refered to with the demonym "Hyrulean".
  • This game also established the customs and culture of each race, which would be kept in later games. Noteworhty examples would be the Kokiri being a race of forest dwellers who live under the protection of the Great Deku Trees (another entity that first appears in this game), the Goron being a race that lives in the mountains and that feed themselves with rocks, the Zora being a monarchy^note Technically there was a "King Zora" in A Link to the Past, but he only received that name in out-of-game material, and the game didn't show him as a monarch as much as just a bigger Zora, the Sheikah being a tribe of ninja-like warriors who pledge loyalty to the Hylian Royal Family, and the Gerudo being a mostly female-only race of thieves who live in the desert.
  • The game also has a lot of lore and history for this time period of Hyrule, mostly told through environtmental story-telling, dialogues with minor NPCs, subtext and even some item descriptions. Examples would be the Hyrulean Civil War that happens 10 years prior, the origins of the dragon Volvagia and the Megaton Hammer, the story of the two music composers of the Royal Family, the origins of the Lens of Truth, the dark practices of the Hylian Royal Family at the Bottom of the Well and the Shadow Temple, and a suprisingly long etc.
• World of Technicolor Hair: While most Hylians and Kokiri have hair that regular humans can have, Saria has green hair and the Bombchu Shop lady has blue hair, which goes without comment.
• World Tree: The Great Deku Tree is the guardian of Kokiri Forest, the first dungeon, and Ganondorf's first on-screen victim. The great tree imagery also appears in the background of the Shadow Link battle in the Water Temple.
• Wrecked Weapon: Using the Giant's Knife several times will cause the blade to fly off, leaving you with a 200-rupee pocket knife. The real Infinity +1 Sword is unbreakable.
• Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe:
  • The Great Deku Tree speaks like this, probably to signify just how old he is. The ad campaign (linked to in the first page quote) also liberally applied this trope.
  • The trailer shown for the remake at the 2011 E3 (and downloadable to the 3DS) is a remake of the above trailer and thus also uses it, making the classic "Misuse of Ye" mistake. Grammatically, the sentence makes no sense, as it literally means "Have The What It Takes?"
• You All Share My Story: During the first part of the game, Link helps a number of characters of various races in their homelands. Seven years later, the majority of them discover that they are actually the sages of various elements. While exceptions exist, the pattern is sufficiently established that, when Link goes back to his youth and meets Nabooru, the player can easily guess that the same thing will happen to her in the future.
• You Already Changed the Past: The keeper of the windmill hut says that a kid ruined his hut with the Song Of Storms. He then teaches you the song the kid used, and you go back in time, realize said kid is you, and use the song to wreck his hut... ^note This is required to get into the Bottom of the Well and retrieve the Lens of Truth, which is needed to have a reasonable chance of progressing through the Shadow Temple and then needed to even reach the Spirit Temple.
• You Can't Go Home Again: The adult portion of the game reveals that Link is a Hylian and not a Kokiri. Since the Kokiri are are perpetual children who do not age this means that Link, who was already the odd man out among the Kokiri, can't return to his home in the forest after his adventure concludes.
• You Can't Thwart Stage One: It's jokingly said among fans that the easiest way to beat the game is to get the Kokiri Emerald and then stop playing; now that Ganondorf can't collect the three Spiritual Stones, he'll never enter the Sacred Realm. Progressing through the game is secretly part of Ganondorf's plan, because whenever Link and/or Zelda seems to get close to foiling the Gerudo King's plans, the latter reveals to have been one step ahead of them, and is only truly defeated in the final battle. Interestingly, when Link returns to the past, he does manage to thwart his plans before he starts, which changes the course of the timeline.
• You Have No Idea Who You're Dealing With: When Ganondorf meets Link for the first time, he asks him where Zelda went. Link refuses to tell him anything and draws his sword in defiance; Ganondorf attacks him with an energy beam and tells him this trope almost word for word.
  "Pathetic little fool! Do you realize who you're dealing with? I am Ganondorf and soon I will rule the world!"
• You Have to Burn the Web: Thanks to this game, no one knows that spider webs aren't actually flammable — not even other game developers.
• Your Princess Is in Another Castle!:
  • This happens upon getting the spiritual stones and the eponymous ocarina. Now all you've got to do is open the Door of Time and pull out the Master Sword, right? Turns out Ganondorf was counting on you to do just that so that he could waltz right into the Sacred Realm and get his hands on the Triforce.
  • At the end of the game, you fight Ganondorf and seemingly kill him. It's over, right? Not quite. Ganondorf then tries to destroy the remains of his castle with you in it. But that was easy to escape. But as one final twist, Ganon turns into a huge demon-pig-thing.
• You Shouldn't Know This Already:
  • Even if you hit the right notes, the special effects associated with a given ocarina song (like the Sun's Song, which changes from day to night) won't activate until you've been officially taught the song by another character. Likewise, although the Scarecrow lets you play him a song as a kid (which becomes the Scarecrow's Song as an adult), it has to be a custom song — if you play a song that you're supposed to learn later (such as the Bolero of Fire), he won't remember it, but only tells you he can't say why. He also says this to any song that's fewer than eight notes long.
  • In the N64 version, it's possible to get Richard, the missing dog, to follow you in Hyrule Market to his owner's place. In the 3DS remake, it's not possible until you speak to his owner. You can still get dogs to follow you, but before you speak to the woman, they will stop following you once you enter the Back Alley.
• Younger Than They Look: When Link turns into an adult, he looks about 20 or 21. However, Miyamoto states that he's only 16. His title of 'Adult' Link didn't really help.

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