When Ganon's Castle was the Hub World in Ocarina of Time | Zelda Cut Content 

This had a fun amount of texture hacking I had to do to get the paintings to look this way in the artistic rendition, which felt like a real callback to when I use to work with the RU-vidr, TamashiiHiroka (Now Tama Hero) on texture hacking Super Mario 64 to look like Pokemon.... that was a good 12 years ago I think lol.

As cool as that sounds I’m glad we got the open world in the final product

I'm glad Ganon's Castle wasn't the hub. Zelda is meant to be an open world.

Funny Story: They actually did later revive this concept in TriForce Heroes in a way. And people hated it! However, it was only mostly really because of the horrible handling of multiplayer and single player modes and severe lack of story.

Aria is an enigmatic figure.

I get a feeling the Ganon's Castle Hub was never programmed into the game, but was just an idea to link all the areas together. What little they did build of the castle was probably reused as Ganon's Tower in the final game (especially since it's quite suspicious that the game specifically transitions to a new map for that final area)

I hope Nintendo one day makes a Zelda game with this concept, would be neat! Maybe like a sort of ''spin off'', like how Majoras Mask and Link's Awakening were ''different'' from the traditional Zelda norms. Maybe this game just focuses on Link trying to escape the curse of Ganon's castle that have bound him to the castle.

I love these videos. It's fascinating to see just how much changed and what could have been. Great job, and here's hoping for another massive cart-dump

the amount of cut content and even mods for zelda 64 games is insane. one could only imagine what this game could have been, or what it could be with enough interest and modders

I wish they went with the Ganon hub world. But made it like a late game segment. Like, it would've been cool going around saving Hyrule. And then go into separate dimensions/universes at the hub world fighting lesser forms of Ganon until the true final fight.

Great video man! Keep digging this stuff up we need to show the world this

Dude these OOT vids are awesome. It’s my fav Zelda game and I also love game development stories too! It’s perfect 😄

I'm so happy you're making these videos. I've been following beta zelda64 since I was like 9? Whenever I was able to use the internet (we took a while to switch from dial-up), early 2000s. And there's still so much I don't know and you've done a great job synthesizing it!

The L is real texture actually is in the final build

Awesome video i love how youre putting all the pieces of the puzzles together

these videos are amazing, thank you

Another great informative vid. I never knew any of this ! Great work as always

Dang, that would've been a cool hub world! Like a twisted version of Princess Peach's Castle in Super Mario 64!

What makes this so interesting to me is how different things would be for all of us. Like no matter who or what a person is they would have experienced something so different. It goes so much further than that as well. How would it have effected every other Zelda game after? Now that's even more drastically different experiences for all of us. I think about how some video games shaped who I am as a person and how even some of these small changes would change how a game effected someone. So crazy. Keep up the good work, some of my favorite videos to watch.

Yo those edits are clean af! 💎 @8:42

Incredible research and editing

Really fascinating concept. I wonder how far they ever got with this idea (beyond the Forest Temple room). Also, as mentioned in your previous videos, there was that other intermediary version of Hyrule Field where the large central Hyrule Town structure hadn't been moved to the edge of the map yet (like in the final), and had entrances on different sides. I guess that was another example of them testing to see what the most tech efficient way of building a world world would be on N64. Anyways great video, keep up the awesome work! It gives me way too much Zelda stuff to think about. Lol

thanks for the video

I actually think the Ganon's Castle hub idea spurred the team to make Miyamoto's impossible Hyrule Field dream, possible. The team wouldn't have wanted to be known as just a Super Mario 64 clone, they wanted to stand out...... cue OoT.

So basically they made Hyrule Field the hub world and made you feel like it was a much more open world within the limited system of the N64. Ingenious, really. They totally got the most they could out of the system.

The 'hub world' idea was probably never implemented but was only a "Plan B" if they ran out of space on the cartridge.

Interesting... (It's been since I've watched your Zelda cut content...)

It's like comparing Demon's Souls to Dark Souls. The hub of Demon's Souls has things going for it but the interconnected map of Dark Souls elevates that game above it's predecessor.

I love all this beta info from the making of Ocarina of Time. It's one of my favorite games, and it's so interesting seeing bits and pieces of how came to be get revealed.

I would love to play a romhack that includes all the cut content areas. Just cuz I'd love to run around them. And maybe use all the cut items too

Hey if there was nothing keeping all the paintings being accessible the game probably would have been super cool. It could have even been very similar. Like entering kakariko to get the hookshot to access another area in another painting, only to return for some sort of shadow temple. At least it's nice to think it wouldn't be linear, that would actually make me think of it as being better.

Okay that was awesome

There's also a connection in this hub world concept with the original Legend of Zelda although maybe more indirectly. That game only started as just the dungeons with a scrolling selection screen showing graphical representations of the dungeon entrances topside (of which images somewhat recently came to light). Not quite a hub world but it's essentially the same concept with two different reasons asking, "why isn't there a world to traverse between these places?"

@The Obsessive Gamer What do you think about this below: I just HATE how Nintendo said Master Quest WAS Ura Zelda. I mean, come on… There was no difference except the fact the Temples were switched to ULTRA HARD and the doggone Boss Key was in a completely different Location. I spent 60 dollars for what I thought was Ura Zelda on the Gamecube!!! Too bad I didn’t have Internet at 12 years old…

It would be very interesting to see the painting concept tied to Zelda, perhaps when you entered a room, only one painting worked, and brought you to the start of an area, but then you could enter sub-areas like a town/dungeon, and once you exited, the paintings beside the first would bring you back to that sub-area without having to travel through the previous ones. could make for a cool game, gaining new abilities from each place to slowly unravel a twisted hub castle. they tried to do something similar with the DS zeldas, but it just didn't work out because they made you re-do so much of the dungeon you already cleared each time.

People on the TCRF Discord server speculated that the castle map you showed that was only discovered as a collision map (The square map with a tunnel entrance on each corner, and a small castle in the center, you thought it was Hyrule Castle or the Temple of Time) was this version of the hub world. Ganon's castle in the role of Hyrule Field apparently WAS that map.

It's 2021 and we are still talking about Ocarina of Time. LOVE IT!

Very epic

Buck yeah

could we do Metroid fusion next?or you have another video planed out then I shall wait

I suspect this concept is closer to Stage 0. The way Miyamoto explains it, it sounds like this was likely a VERY early concept idea that may predate most of the game design itself. Considering how close it is to Mario 64's design, this seems like something that would have been roughly planned when the concept video was shown using low polygons similar to Super Mario 64. What existed of "Ganon's Castle" may not have been more than a couple test rooms at Stage 1, eventually being recycled as the Phantom Ganon boss room and the rooms/staircase leading to Ganondorf. That would explain all of the paintings lined up in a single small room, allowing devs to quickly travel between areas they're developing. I say this was probably abandoned very early because I'd imagine Miyamoto wanted a much larger scope for an overworld in the game, but didn't know how to make it happen yet. His vision for the first game in the series was inspired by his experience exploring the wilderness as a child. That leads me to believe that his vision for Zelda as a whole has always been more about the exploration than anything, and that would require a lot more world building than Mario's world of creative platforming mechanics.

Commenting for the algorithm, since it failed to notify me

I have this weird picture of what looks to be a beta Zelda OOT map with a snow town. Ruins on floating islands. The great deku tree a giant fish with a horn in a lake. I wish I could upload it somewhere I found it on a poster a store

It would be an interesting idea for a spin off title

Hmmm you been doing alot of zeldas ocarina of time beta vids!! Witch is ok!

I love the earlier models of link with brown hair and what not

There being a larger focus on puzzles and actual danger hiding in parts of Ganondorf's castle would have made for a hub world even more interesting than Peach's castle. Not to mention assuming the gameplay mechanics and enemy designs would have been nearly the same as in the actual final product would have still made for a fun game with a Zelda 64 that focused on a system where you enter an explorable location via one of the paintings and find the dungeon in said location. Especially if you add in the unused "Ganondorf is gradually mutating into Ganon" idea. The closest to that in the final product is Phantom Ganon, Ganondorf, and Ganon. Encountering him a few times as he becomes Ganon would have been more exciting than the Bowser fights in 64 (though the final Bowser fight was epic for the time). Then again, that would have probably meant Ganondorf would have been a one-time thing for Zelda 64; which just wouldn't have been the same. It seemed like there used to be more emphasis on Zelda 64 being a prequel of ALTTP at the time; especially with ALTTP mentioning that Ganon was once a human thief. Either way, I am still personally glad they were able to put in Hyrule Field in the long run. It added in a sense of open exploration that just wouldn't have been as prevalent with the original hub world concept. Not to mention that Ganondorf would go on to become more iconic than Ganon, which is ironic since both are the same person.

The Legend is real.

There is a very early huryle field that was basically focused around the Castle being the center of the world and you go in 4 directions exactly like Majora's mask... It was found in the giga leak. It didnt came with textures. You're mixing up the Giant hyrule Castle entrance with the early hyrule.

I actually like the early look, it's eerie

I thought Stage 1 Had Hyrule Castle in the center with the 4 exits leading to different places making the Ganon Castle hub area even earlier than that of Stage 1 of development.

There is a rumor that they change the oot engine because they saw rareware doing banjo-kazooie and it was much better becuase of the rare's computer tecnology. Oh, and Myamoto wished he could help banjo kazooie develoment but he couldn't because of oot, since both games came in 1998

I want to correct some terminology here for the word "Beta". In the game industry, "Beta" is used to refer to the second to last stage of the entire project. At the point of something being called "Beta", that means that the final choices for everything have been set in stone, and that the majority of the game is completed, with only bug and minor changes being fixed/worked on. It's used to refer to the stage of the product as a whole. Calling something within the game a "Beta" of its final version, doesn't really work. I would recommend using "Revision", "Version", or "Design", though those also have their own nuances. They also need to be broken into their own timelines. For example, with the Hyrule Field maps, Revision 1 is when Miyamoto most likely had the "central hub" way of thinking. "Stage 3" as you call it, appears to be an earlier "Design" for "Stage"/Revision 4. You COULD say "The A+B Builds version of Hyrule field...." for example.

Oh this seems like it would have been like super Mario 64

Sounds like it would been a different game from what we received! :O

I’m so glad we never got a Zelda game like this on the 64 as the franchises debut into 3d. A hub world makes sense for a Mario game which typically aren’t very story oriented and where the physics are cartoon like in nature and gameplay is centred around completing very loosely connected platforming levels, and I think peaches castle as a hub world for Mario 64 was perfect for that game, but Zelda games are story oriented and gameplay focuses heavily on exploring the world of hyrule and its hidden secrets with a much less cartoonish atmosphere about it. I wonder if they didn’t scrap this original concept and botched this first 3d game if Zelda as a franchise would have continued to have been as relevant going into the 3d era and beyond.

If you think about Mario and compare the top of the mountain in Bombomb Battlefield to a dungeon then yeah it could have made a good game. Especially if every level was huge like the old hyrule field. I would love to see this game redone like that

Interesanting

In the end... The game that had that might be the closest to the original idea might be Skyward Sword, with Skyloft being an hub world where you reach the levels from it. Man... I wonder how the serie would have evolved if they kept this idra of Ganon's castle.

70 watching now. 36 likes... I love stuff like this.

I glad they changed the concept of hub castle area to a huge field. Because if they wouldn't then everybody started to think Nintendo ran out of ideas and they just can't create something new👍

Great video. This sounds like a very convincing idea, though I'm glad they moved away from this tower as the game wouldnt have felt like a giant open world to adventure in! Also one of my biggest desires is a more complete dump of the beta files so we can see the rest! If someone finds please dump it!!!

I wish someday, Nintendo revisits this idea, sounds like a cool thing to have in a Zelda game, and quite original from a Zelda final dungeon point of view. Game developers have sometimes revisited old ideas from long ago, for a new game. Such as Gamefreak with Pokemon how they used an old design of a scrapped Pokemon to make Drednaw (as far as I can tell anyways), or SEGA taking the odd wall-scaling mechanic from the canceled Sonic Xtreme, to be used in Sonic Lost World. I didn't say that ALL revisited old ideas for new games were put into good games.

I don’t think it would be as organic and natural as the original if they would have used paintings. I like what we got 😁

L is real plak did appear in both games. i’m pretty sure it’s in the death mountain dungeon. fire temple whatever it’s called

SWAG

00:20 what did he say?

See I am not sure if Ganon's castle would of been the HUB world. I just assume (This is just me by the way) that the field wasn't finished yet so they just showed areas that they finished.

I doubth that build idea was ever put into developmemt, from the way they talk about it, it didnt make it past the planning phase

This reminds me of the Super Mario Bros. structure

Glad they took it out, it would have been too much like Mario 64

This may be a hot take, but I have never liked Miyamoto’s ideas for Zelda games, some of them are good, but when skyward sword came out it was literally just what this video describes and it was SO disappointing to me, it felt like a Mario game with Zelda characters, it was the first Zelda game in a while where Miyamoto was more hands on with it, and it shows. Aonuma, on the other hand, makes the absolute best Zelda games IMO.

Huh, they kinda reused the idea in Skyward Sword. (I really wish people didn't suck at using the Wiimote's motion controls, that game is so fucking fun if you know how to control it and I legitimately don't understand why people struggled. Did you not play with sticks as kids or something?)

"at one point"? Yeah, that point was the final release.

While the beta stuff is fascinating, Thank god we got the version we have today instead lol. At least most things changed for the better imo.

They should have made it Master Quest mode

here what im think what happen when you beat ganon in first stage, ganon will slip and fall to his death

Oh yeah the tidbit that Ganon's Castle was planned as the hubworld of OoT... That's well-known, and boy am I happy that it's not the case in the final game... Because: I don't like Mario 64. And no, I am not taking that back.

I thought you would say a couple of words about that creepypasta girl Aria. Yeah, there are a lot of creepypastas about her👻

I'm glad they didn't choose to rip off their own game. That would have squandered the enjoyment of OoT.

hub worlds just dont feel the same. I am on sky keep on skyward sword and the game is good (never played, started picking up nintendo games again in my late 20s, reminds me of simpler times) and the hub aspect of the game doesn't give the same feel as OoT, wind waker, or other classics. Doesnt help i plated BOTW first as well

It would have been basically like battlespire. Most definitely done better though

I really wish somebody made a mod that restored all the cut content in to a playable version of what oot couldhave been,but nobody will ever succeed at recreating such a concept ever and nintendo its too dumb to realize how much people want this.

Skyloft in SS is pretty much a boring hubworld.

Lies, the open world actually happened also in twilight princess when it was fully realized.

im glad this didnt make it like this in some way this reminds me of silent hill 4

That would feel extremely creatively lazy as it would just be copying mario 64. Very glad it didn't go that route.

Yeah I feel the way you do where the game would have been almost just as good with Ganon's Castle as a hub world, but I'm glad they didn't do that because the game sure does feel a lot more adventurous as is

Idk why I feel like it makes no sense for a Zelda game but is totally fine for a Mario game.. hmm

Definitely would NOT have liked Gannon's castle as the hub world. Way less immersive.

I'm glad they never did this, I don't think I would of enjoyed it as much if it was just a glorified level select stage. Zelda is meant to be open world!

i feel the story would have been less epic if you were just in a hub opposed to actually adventuring

7th

I like the concept, but there’s no way something like that would be made now. (Curse you, Breath of the Wild! I want a proper Zelda game, not Skyrim!)

Ocarina of Time is the worst Zelda game. It uses the Mario 64 engine, but in a worse way. It cribs ALttP's story, but is told in a worse way. The only reason why most people love it is it was babby's first Zeldy game.

given how important The Master Sword is in modern zelda and the final version of OoT, I wonder if originally you needed to find the silver or light arrows in this build of the game in order to defeat ganon. it isn't exactly clear as far as I know if the paintings are just self-contained worlds or maybe Ganon trapped hyrule in his tower, so I doubt there would be a way to implement the master sword in this build. maybe instead you find a magical sword at the midway point of this concept, and the silver/light arrows later? or maybe you even start with the master sword, and defeating the boss monsters in the paintings would weaken 'Dorf's power and put him in a state where the sword could harm him. since in a Link To The Past the master sword was just a powerful sword that could fight off dark magic and you needed the silver arrows to even finish off the king of evil at the end. maybe they never even thought that far ahead unfortunately. I hope one day a book about Ocarina of Time's long development is released since it could shed a lot of light on these mysteries