YMMV / Ocarina of Time: Randomizer

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• Difficulty Spike: If enabled, Master Quest dungeons can take the place of vanilla ones. If shuffled into the main item pool, dungeon maps will reveal which variant of dungeon it is.
• Fan Nickname: As is standard for a randomizer, the fandom has come up with an entire vernacular for various parts of the game.
  • The water puzzle in Gerudo Training Ground where Link must gather five silver rupees from inside a swirling water vortex is referred to as "the toilet".
  • The elemental Medallions that are needed to beat the game are referred to as pie plates, frisbees, or pizzas.
  • The Kakariko cucco lady is frequently called Anju, after the character that uses the same model in The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask.
  • There are various "modes" a randomizer player can find themselves in:
    • Go Mode: The player has every item they need in order to finish the seed.
    • Know Mode: The player is not quite in Go Mode, but knows exactly where the items are needed to enter it.
    • Glow Mode: The player is only missing the Light Arrows, which in no-trial seeds are only required to defeat Ganondorf.
    • Bow Mode: A rare situation, more common in limited item pool settings that have fewer bow drops than usual, where the player is missing the bow needed to beat Ganondorf, but otherwise has all items necessary to beat the game.
    • BK Mode: Exclusive to multiworld seeds, the player has completed every check available to them and must wait to be sent an item from another player; named for an event where a player found themselves in that situation, and was able to go and order takeout from Burger King and get back before they were able to progress.^note This became enough of a Memetic Mutation that it became a common term for the situation in any multiworld randomizer, not just Ocarina of Time.
  • The Deku Scrub in Death Mountain Crater is commonly referred to as "Worst Scrub", due to it being child-exclusive in an area where Child Link has very few reasons to go, as there are no other child-exclusive checks around it (beyond a single Gold Skulltula a decent bit away). It's also one that few people know exists before playing rando, due to it only having a bomb refill.
• Good Bad Bug: With the correct gameplay options selected, it's possible for adult Link to maintain double walking speed from the Bunny Hood.^note Both "Bunny Hood Speed" and "Keep Masks Between Scene Switches" must be enabled. If the player saves and resets the game immediately after drawing the Master Sword but before moving in any direction, the game still thinks the Bunny Hood is equipped and adult Link will move at double speed until returning the Master Sword and reverting to child form.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Thanks game.^ExplanationA sarcastic quip usually uttered when a Gossip Stone provides the player with a useless hint.
  • Spirit Key Logic.^ExplanationWhen determining key layouts, the randomizer program makes an automatic assumption that the player will use their keys in the worst order possible, and this can result in some particularly obnoxious logic. The worst offender is Spirit Temple, owing to the complexity of its interior layout. To a lesser extent this also applies to the maze in Gerudo Training Grounds: only seven keys are needed to reach the central chest, but since there are two locked doors that aren't on that route, logic dictates all nine must be available before the central chest is reachable.
  • Meme%.^ExplanationA mock speedrun category for collecting five unique items that do basically nothing: the single green rupee, the "WINNER!" Heart Piece usually found in the Treasure Chest Shop, Nayru's Love, the Stone of Agony, and the Ice Arrows. This is sometimes extended to include Double Defense.
    • Bongo in logic.^ExplanationThe Ice Arrows aren't required for any check in-game, but using them on Shadow Temple boss Bongo Bongo results in a unique animation.
    • GREG.^ExplanationThe single green rupee, otherwise known as the Green Rupee of Eternal Glory.
    • HUGO.^ExplanationSimilar to the above, gold rupees are called "HUGO" for HUge GOld rupee.
  • Rush Ice.^ExplanationIce Cavern is very difficult to route in, so some runners developed a trend of rushing there as soon as they have the items to be able to clear it.
  • SCAM^ExplanationWhen a Deku Scrub or Shop gives a 1 or 5 Rupee reward after the player pays much more.
    • REVERSE SCAM^ExplanationWhen a Deku Scrub/Shop gives a Purple or Huge Rupee instead.
  • FOOL.^ExplanationIce traps did not have pickup text in the original game, as they instead instantly froze Link when the chests were opened, so the Randomizer has the custom message "You are a FOOL!" appear when one is obtained as a "reward" for clearing a sidequest (where a text box would have to pop up). The fandom has taken to referring to ice traps as "Fools," or using "FOOL" to mean any instance of Link getting frozen.
• That One Sidequest: Certain checks in the game are known for being particularly obnoxious, typically due to the time involved in acquiring them, the number of items needed to check them, or both. It is quite common for players to turn some or all of these checks off, which automatically guarantees they won't provide an item necessary for game completion, and if they are kept on the game will almost always set a Gossip Stone to tell what the check yields, which can save the player from completing it unnecessarily if the item is junk. These checks include:
  • The cow in Link's House, if Cowsanity is enabled. To spawn this cow, Link must get Epona's Song, free Epona, complete Malon's race in under a minute (irritating at the best of times, thanks to the dodgy interactions of Epona and the jumpable fences; it also requires a near-perfect run), then trek all the way back to Kokiri Forest to actually make the check.
  • The Song of Time and Ocarina of Time checks, if songs and/or Ocarinas are shuffled. These checks require you to have all three Spiritual Stones. Since under default settings only Medallion dungeons are required for game completion, if an important item is on one of these checks it basically requires you to complete an additional 2-3 dungeons in order to finish, depending on what dungeon reward you start with.
  • The Deku Theatre checks, in particular the Mask of Truth check, which makes a strong bid for the title of "worst check in the game". To complete these checks you have to partially or fully complete the Happy Mask Shop sidequest, which involves trekking all over Hyrule selling masks to people as Child Link, stopping back at the mask shop each time to pick up a new one. Notably, the Mask of Truth cannot be obtained until you sell the Bunny Hood, which you can't do unless you have all three Spiritual Stones (i.e. the three dungeon completion treasures that you don't need to finish the game under default rules). This can potentially be taken up a notch if you have entrance randomizer on, as the Happy Mask Shop can spawn in an adult-only location, necessitating that you travel between adulthood and childhood in between each mask sale. Fortunately, the Randomizer devs eventually recognized how much of a pain in the ass this check was and implemented an option to have all masks available at the Happy Mask Shop immediately, taking a lot of the pain out.
  • The Biggoron Sword check. Similar to the Deku Theatre checks above, this check requires you to complete an 11-step Chain of Deals before you can claim your prize (portions of which are time-sensitive). Fortunately, the randomizer does allow you the option to set the starting item as far along the chain as you like, meaning the first item you acquire can potentially be the very last one you need.
  • The Big Poe merchant check, as it requires hunting down 10 Big Poes across Hyrule Field. Most players take advantage of the option to reduce the number of Big Poes needed to just one.
  • The "toilet room" in Gerudo's Training Ground. This puzzle, located in a side-room of the lava hallway, requires the Song of Time and the Iron Boots to clear, two items that are not required anywhere else in the dungeon.
  • The Zora's River frogs check. This check requires you to collect the first six songs (Zelda's Lullaby, Epona's Song, Saria's Song, Sun's Song, Song of Time, and the Song of Storms), play them all for the frogs, and then clear a tightly-timed minigame with unintuitive controls.
  • The horseback archery minigame checks. For starters, you need Epona's Song (and thus Epona), the Fairy Bow, and the Gerudo Membership Card to even gain access to them in the first place. And if the Gerudo Membership Card is shuffled into the item pool, then it could potentially be a long, long time before this minigame even becomes available.
    • As for the minigame itself, the main issues are the strict scores needed to get both checks from it and the lack of a clear indicator of where your arrows will fly, which is not helped by the stiff analog controls making aiming difficult. This becomes especially difficult for those playing this game on an emulator or virtual console. While the 1000 point reward is isn't too difficult, getting the 1500 point reward leaves practically no room for error as you need to shoot all seven pots on the first pass (which gives you 700 points if you hit them all), and then use the remaining arrows to secure the remaining points on the wooden targets, which will require multiple bullseyes, you also only get 20 arrows in this minigame, so you have to make every shot count..

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