The Zelda Ocarina of Time Iceberg Explained: Oddities, Rumors, Myths and Trivia 

The fact that I knew roughly 95% of these really says something about how much this game took over my life as a kid

When you first get access to Hyrule Field early in the game and have not yet entered either Gerudo Valley or Hyrule Lake, you can go to the point on the map between the two. This around the 7 o'clock position and there is a ledge. Standing here, you can simultaneously see Kaepora Gaebora perched on the pillar outside Hyrule Lake and the tree outside Gerudo Valley

5:03 I spent hours as a kid trying to figure out why Navi went green like that at random spots and years wondering about it. Thats so crazy.

This went from nostalgia to "Am i watching the same video?

26:03 Actually, that is an easter egg. That is the map of the work studio, where they developed the game. The layout is the same. Even if you translate it, it says the names of the rooms. Search it online

Heres an interesting and unmentioned theory that I came to in a recent replay. The room in Goron city where you break a ton of multicolored boulders is a Food storage cache as its mentioned that Gorons eat rocks. You've just destroyed a bunch of their food reserve.

The butterfly turning into a fairy with the stick trick is an homage to Mario 64, where certain butterflies will fly away from Mario very slowly and, if followed, turn into a one up

I remember being 8 years old, finding zoras realm after a really long search, being flashed by the area, running to my parents telling them "how I'll never draw my sword in zoras realm because its such a beautiful and peaceful area", Im not sure how they reacted, probably like: "oh thats nice", not knowing what Im actually talking about, didnt phase me at all tho, right back to my room to play this awesome game. Good times.

Old timer here. About the epona hopping a fence thing. I was an active member of the speedrunning community at that point in time and still talk to julian1000 every now and then. The origin of it was from the Speed Demos Archive forums, but in a thread about Majora's Mask where people speculated how to get past the fence to Great Bay Coast without Goron Mask or damage boosting with bombs, where julian as a joke suggested using epona. Fiercelinkmaster as a joke claimed he didn't know how that worked so julian then posted that video as a tutorial. Good old times.

20:32 The Gorons are actually a hint at having to play Saria's Song for Darunia. The wall paintings are on the same floor as the shortcut to The Lost Woods and are showing the Gorons doing the same dance as Darunia.

All I'm saying is this: Has anyone seen Jabu Jabu and the Zora's Domain ice in the same room? I rest my case.

12:52 Not just ANY Gerudo but Nabooru. When you approach her in the child portion of the Spirit Temple while wearing the mask she notes how "It looks kinda like herself" befor correcting herself that it looks nothing like her after all (same as Talon). Coupled with the fact that we're told by one of the stones that gerudo take men from Hyrule to continue their line AND that Malon has red hair, while Talon has black hair ...

2 things I think would have been worth mentioning: 1. When you don't shoot anything in the shooting gallery, the shopkeeper's head will start looking away from you rather than following you 2. The theory that the Sheikah were involved in an insurrection during the Hyrulean Civil War and for their treachery, were genocided

I've seen a lot of Zelda iceberg videos, but this is by far the best. Really appreciate the dry sense of humor about the B7 theories, haha

It may have been Swanky Box, but it was revealed that the dungeon map texture is actually the interior of an office at nintendo. The text translates to rooms typically found in offices too.

I love that it's 2021 and we're STILL finding new things about this game. I've been interested in OoT's secrets since childhood and they're still finding ways to surprise me.

17:22 as a French person who played the game, I have to clarify it. « Péteur » can be the translation for « farting » but in French, it has another meaning which is explosion. When something is about to péter, it can means that it’s gonna explode. Thanks for this awesome video. Love on you ❤️

I know I'm a little late to this but the "farting cabbage" isn't very accurate. It's true in french the verb "péter" means "fart", but we also use this verb instead of "explode", so in this case it's actually "explosive cabbage" ^^

So another secret you didn’t mention regarding the Mario portraits in Hyrule castle. If you actually shoot them with the slingshot some rupees come out. Conversely, if you shoot at the other window across that does not have Mario portraits, a guard gets mad and throws a bomb at you. Try it yourself

Something that can be added that I don't think is very well known is that you can walk across the desert colossus quicksand river with the hover boots equipped which absolutely baffled me the first time I did that years back.

Nearly 23 years later and people are still talking about OOT . Absolute masterpiece !!! Fav game of all time !!

"Willst thou soar? Or willst thou suck?" Was actually the censored version of the commercial. The original was: "Willst thou save the girl? Or play like one?"

Better than other OOT icebergs I’ve seen

You missed a small detail of the rocket gossip stone feature: if you hit it while it is blue or red, it will stop blasting off and stay that color!

The extinct dog part of the iceberg is kinda crazy I never realized that tbh

This is Miyamoto’s greatest achievement. He even said so in Nintendo Power. My favorite game of all time.

26:03 in The Legend of Zelda Encyclopedia they actually explain that the layout on the dungeon map is actually one of their offices. Edit: each room is labeled as well

This iceberg is going to be good when most of the surface entries I wasn't aware of. Also Jabu-Jabu is the ice blew my mind.

First 23 minutes: Ah yes, a Zelda Iceberg The next 4 minutes: POR FAVOR NINTENDO

Damn, didnt know you could bribe the guard. Thanks for bringing this to my attention!

Jesus, this is fantastic! Quite possibly the best OoT Iceberg (and video) yet! I actually didn't know a lot of those early entries. Things like "Stealing the Fisherman's hat" blew my mind. Also, great editing, particularly with the visuals.

Holy crap, this by far, one of the best iceberg videos, not just OOT. Great job dude!

I love your voice change as the theory's get more and more insane lmao

My biggest argument against "Gannondorf killed Jabu Jabu" is that Jabu Jabu appears in Oracle of Ages which takes place in the "Hero is Defeated" timeline. My theory is that Jabu Jabu migrated to Labrynna sometime in the 7 year skip and was subsequently embraced by that tribe of Zoras who also did not "devolve" the way Hyrule Zoras did between Ocarina of Time and Link to the Past

You forgot: Epona can jump the gap of the fallen bridge in Gerudo Valley, the Hylian Loach at the fishing pond and the guard that throws a bomb at you when you fire the slingshot at the opposite window from the Mario images in Zelda’s garden. Oh, and in the hidden hole by the castle, you can time your backflip into the extraction light with your boomerang receiving the golden skull reward, if done right you can have an infinite number of golden skulls.

Played this game for more than a decade now and I've never heard about of most of these. What an absolute masterpiece this game. This is definitely the best OOT iceberg video too and I've seen a lot by now. Very original! Also great music choice!

Great depth of content! I also appreciate you noting what’s a theory and rumor rather than blending that stuff in without specifying.

I love this game and Majora's Mask so much I can't even put it into words. It really was a case of right place at right time for many people.

A lot of the points on the iceberg I had never heard before and I learned a lot of interesting stuff. Great job!

Idk why but 6:41 is funny to me as I imagine Link on his like 1000th run is testing everything; confirming what you were telling us and is the one saying "yep"

That ending chunk, almost all of them I had no idea about! It was pretty cool to hear about those. And I thought I knew just about everything about OOT lol. Good job! 😄

This was amazing! Hopefully you can make a Majoras mask Iceberg as well, that would be... a terrifying video.

Was the fence hopping entry a joke? I feel like a lot of these need more explanation. Like the Leever Armor one.

Wow an actually good Ocarina iceberg! Seriously there is stuff here I didn't even know still which is just insane. I regret not watching this sooner. If anything I'd say some lower level rumors still feels near surface level knowledge but I understand the arrangement, last layer could be a little less jokey too lol. As for missing entries a lot are ones in my proposal for a definitive edition version of the iceberg (which this is like a more legible version of). It contains more rumors, easter eggs, beta content, and shared practices between players, especially from back in the day. You can check it out if you want, but I'm just glad this was such a step up from the first iceberg chart.

Dude, the amount of things I learned here is astounding. Great Job! Thank you!

great video! never thought I'd learn something new from an oot iceberg but here I am, enlightened!

I always thought the order for the temples were forest, fire, water, spirit and shadow. I always beat them in this order, weither on the 64, the gamecube edition or the 3d remake.

This was great! Informative and entertaining overall. I even learned some new thing from this video, and I appreciate that greatly. Keep up the good work 🙏🏽

I like the theory that Jabu Jabu dies of starvation in the adult link one bc the Zora people always feed him and he relies on that, and when the temple freezes over and so do the Zora he dies of starvation since they can't feed him anymore.

This video was amazing, this game is actually so timeless. Good job!

17:16 , For the "chou-péteur", in french "péteur" also means "exploding" so it's ofc not used as "farting cabbages" but as "exploding cabbages"

Missed if you walk on the path at night in hyrule field as child link then skullchildren won’t spawn which might be a reference to how the same would happen in Zelda 2.

I am playing this game for like 15 years and i still found new stuff today great video fr

20:30 That's the position of Link's hands when he holds things. The Goron picture has nothing to do with it & it doesn't mean that the developers intended for the glitch to occur.

Another thing that could be added is what I call the Laboratory Glitch. It's an alternate way to get the Heart Piece from the scientist. Sink to the bottom of the tank with the Iron Boots and go to the side with the shark. Use the Hookshot on the box down there and while it's firing switch to the Kokiri Boots. It may take a few tries but eventually you'll hear the success jingle and if you talk to the scientist he'll give you the Heart Piece. This works in every official release of the game, including the VC and 3DS remake. You never need the Golden Scale and never have to fish as an adult. You are welcome Zelda Nation.😎

26:07 This HQ image is actually a layout of the Nintendo offices. The text in the HQ image translate to things like "closet" and "cafeteria"

I had a great childhood in almost every aspect, but the N64 and especially Ocarina of Time still holds some of my fondest memories .. Every now and then I watch a video like this, as it oddly comforts me, I have explored the world of Hyrule to the last corner (or so I thought), and finished the game 100% all by myself without any help, not even from the internet, at the age of 10, which made me super proud .. The sound, the music, the ambience .. it all feels oddly "homey" to me :')

Great video! Glad I stumbled upon it. Personally, I always did the spirit tumble first then the shadow temple. Always fun memories with this game

“U don’t have to play if u don’t want to 🥺”

My favorite cucco attack is in Lon Lon Ranch when you temple them on Epona and that attack her hooves instead of going after Link. It’s fun to ride around the ranch with the flock following you.

how did I play this game over and over endlessly as a kid and only just realize the cows aren't supposed to be there-

for some reason as a kid, I thought the bottle thing was what you were supposed to do to defeat Gannon 😂

30:34 Oh my god, is this why TP Ganondorf gets distracted by the fishing rod? "Why does this seem so... familiar?"

26:35 "Could they have an ACE up their sleeve?" Heh heh, I see what you did there.

Had a great time with this video! Thanks for putting so much effort into it! OoT is still my favourite Zelda game and I guess that won‘t change in future :)

Love this framing for OoT specifically! It’s hard to explain why the bottom half of this iceberg-subtext/darker lore and theories, glitches, speedruns, etc.-moves me so deeply the way it does, 25+ years later!-but having an easy way of categorizing all of that stuff together is clarifying. To add to the ‘Hyrule Field’s music changes from calm to energetic while you’re walking,’ item, gotta excerpt this retrospective review of the OoT soundtrack (that also serves as a thoughtful tribute to Koji Kondo’s whole body of work): “Kondo also boldly ditched Zelda’s iconic main theme, broadly regarded as his standout work, for the very first time. This could have resulted in open revolt amongst diehards but for two majestic new pieces inserted in its place: The rousing “Hyrule Field,” which follows you throughout the game’s central area, stayed fresh by utilizing an adaptive mechanism that told the game’s internal engine to cleanly cycle between eight-bar segments with open chords, depending on whether you were in danger, resting, or in full flow on horseback. Then there’s the tender “Title Theme” greeting you as soon as the N64 loads up: drifting chords, spare keyboard rolls, one quivering ocarina, and clip-clopping hooves as Link’s horse, Epona, strides across the screen.”

You can really tell when a game is made and the people make it truly live their job and their product. Like they truly care and what to see it to fruition. So many cool Easter eggs and mechanics for a 90’s N64 game.

Many cool ones I'd never known about here. Well done and thank you!

I am pretty sure that if you use the lens of truth in 7:03 you can see a ladder or something. Great video

I do like the Rauru & Kaepora Gaebora theory, but the owl does appear when Link is an adult - he can be seen during the Requiem of Spirit cutscene in the place where he talks to you as a child after you get the Silver Gauntlets. That could mean Rauru is able to turn back and forth into the owl?

Thousands of hour into this game and yet I still learned something new

My god...that intro music, it could make me cry tears of joy.

Woah, Malon's mother was a Gerudo? Wouldn't that have meant taht Malon would have been taken to be raised by the Gerudo? Or was it that she looked too much like a Hylian that she was left with her father? Wait... this means that Twilight Princess Link may have Gerudo Lineage based on a theory that OoT Link married Malon (and it is confirmed OoT Link is TP Link's ancestor).

The 5th level entries were kind of a mess man. Is didn't understand most of what you talked about in them. Other than that small gripe good stuff. Glad you went back and added all the addendums since that was some "important" stuff. Haha. Great stuff in the comments here also. Almost enough for a part 2!

Door outside doesn't line up with door inside? Maybe there's two doors connected to a room.

This stuff of the hyrule field music come from calm to energetic when ur walking is so fucking amazing

talon is mario thats why hes sleeping by the castle (while "noone is playing mario64") thanks for putting this all together - its amazing!!

Can't believe how much stuff they added and thought about, a lot of small details. They had to be very creative to come up with so many things that years later people keeps discovering

Hey, did you know that playing the basic non warp songs in front of different gossip stones has different effects? I only remember 2; one gives up a fairy, and one of them makes them spin. I forget which.

ZFG must have had some sort of ACE up his sleeve....sketchy

There's only two I didn't see. You can wait for Shadow Link to turn solid and he'll attack you and you can freeze Bongo Bongo's hands and he'll try to break the ice.

I really appreciate the brevity of this video. Some people would draw this out into 2 hours.

This is by far the best "iceberg" video I've seen on any topic, and it's due to the fact that you're the maker of the original image. In most of these "iceberg" vids, the speaker is clearly unknowledgable about the topic, and sounds like an idiot. "I even got to the second page of Google results and I still could not find what this means!" My first thought is always, "well, did you, like, ask the actual creator of the image what it meant? Because you're making a whole video about their work without crediting them..." Can't stand most of these, but this video is quality stuff. Really great job 👍

I loved this, OOT is a masterpiece and will always be in my heart

When I was a kid I found a way to reach gerudo fortress in childhood link. First, you have to transport to desert colosus. Then I had to memorized the right track, the location of the flags in order to cross the desert. In order to cross the quicksand that is located at the very beginning of the wasteland, you have to go to the border of the quicksand and move backwards. Once you crossed the quicksand, now you’re able to reach gerudo desert and now you are able to explore the zone. 😂😂😂 things that kids do when you have a lot of time.

I’ve always done the temples in the intended order. Except for back when I was a kid and would just get as far in any place as I could until I had to go to some other dungeon to figure it all out.

The Gerudo mask thing is interesting and makes me wonder if the non trading quest masks originally had bigger parts in the game. Also the wilst thou suck is also referring the phrase replacing the original line of wilst thou get the girl or play like one. Understandable why it was changed. Finally you referenced MM instead of OOT during the Epona Jumping Fence segment.

Fun fact: Ganondorf and Navi’s themes are the same, they just use different instruments, and one is in minor while the other is in major :)

"Could they have had an ACE up their sleeve" Bravo, Seedy, bravo

I never knew Shadow temple was meant to be the 4th temple until I got older. I always did Spirit Temple before Shadow.

If there was one thing that I didn't know I liked, was how crisp those texts were. That was neat.

I can't lie to you, "did he have an ace up his sleeve" is some incredible punmanship.

Am I the only one who remembers Phantom Epona?? I remember seeing a few videos about it as a kid and it has stuck with me since

Some very big ones missed like all Sages being dead or the Poe sisters in the Forest Temple being murdered in the civil war.

I want a meta game, where you play as a kid playing a game. And the goal is to achieve all the stupid 90's rumors your friends tell you at recess.

THE CROUCH STAB WAS A NEW ONE FOR ME

I don't think the Redead was mourning his felled friend but moreso devouring.

you put so much work into this wow, thannk you for the nostalgic feelings !!!

song of storm - Maybe Mido played it for the windmill guy, and then when that guy says a forest kid in green clothes we all think it is Link.

oh i guess i have the OG build cuz my fire temple still chants that and i personally love it. hell yea!