50 Fun Facts About Ocarina of Time

Ocarina of Time launched in 1998 on which Nintendo console?

It reached Japan and North America in November and PAL regions the following month.

Ocarina of Time was the first Zelda game to feature what?

The world was rendered mostly in real-time polygons, a huge leap from A Link to the Past.

Who produced Ocarina of Time?

The series co-creator oversaw five directors, including Eiji Aonuma and Yoshiaki Koizumi.

Who composed the soundtrack?

The series composer wrote every ocarina melody as well as the score.

How many directors led the development of Ocarina of Time?

Eiji Aonuma, who later ran the whole series, was among them.

The game's lock-on targeting system is named after which controller button?

'Z-targeting' and context-sensitive buttons became standard in 3D action games afterwards.

How many melodies does Link learn on the ocarina over the course of the game?

They solve music puzzles and teleport him to places he has already visited.

Which area serves as the central hub of the game's world?

Lon Lon Ranch sits in the middle of it, famous for its horses and milk.

Kakariko Village sits at the foot of which peak?

The mountain is home to the rock-eating Gorons.

Which race, living in the western desert, consists mostly of women?

Ganondorf is their king, the rare male born to them.

Which dungeon is located in Lake Hylia?

The lake is a fishing spot; the dungeon's iron boots became a byword for tedious design.

Where does Link live at the start of the game?

His friend Saria is a Kokiri, and the forest is guarded by the Great Deku Tree.

Who instructs the fairy Navi to become Link's guide?

The cursed tree gives Link the Spiritual Stone of the Forest before dying.

Malon, who Link befriends early on, is the daughter of which ranch owner?

Her song is the key to winning Epona's trust later on.

Zelda's caretaker Impa belongs to which people?

The shadow folk's symbol, an eye with a tear, appears throughout Kakariko.

Ganondorf is the king of which people?

Zelda believes he is after the Triforce, the relic that grants godlike power.

How many Spiritual Stones must Link collect to enter the Sacred Realm?

Forest, fire and water: one each from the Kokiri, Gorons and Zoras.

Who gives Link the Ocarina of Time itself?

Saria gives him a humbler fairy ocarina earlier in the game.

What happens when young Link pulls the Master Sword from its pedestal?

The villain follows him in and seizes the Triforce of Power.

How many years pass while Link sleeps in the Sacred Realm?

He awakens as an adult and is met by Rauru, the first of the Sages.

Sheik turns out to be whom in disguise?

The reveal also makes the disguised character the seventh Sage.

Which of these characters is one of the Sages Link awakens as an adult?

The Goron chief joins Saria, Ruto, Impa and Nabooru, Ganondorf's own subordinate.

In the final battle Ganondorf transforms into a boar-like beast called what?

The name harks back to the original 1986 game, where the villain was simply Ganon.

How does the game end for Link?

The split timeline this creates has fuelled fan arguments ever since.

Ocarina of Time was developed alongside which two other games starting in 1994?

The EAD team numbered more than 200 and the budget passed $12 million.

Roughly how much did Ocarina of Time cost to develop?

That was a huge sum for a 1990s game, with a staff of over 200.

Ocarina of Time originally ran on the engine of which game?

It was modified so heavily that Miyamoto considers the finished engines different.

From which perspective did Miyamoto initially intend the game to be played?

The idea was dropped, partly so players could see Link on screen.

The cartridge was originally targeted at 16 MB but was increased to what?

That made it one of the largest N64 cartridges of its day.

Later revisions of the game recoloured Ganondorf's blood from crimson to what?

The same revisions fixed glitches and altered the Fire Temple music.

The music in which dungeon was altered to remove a sample of an Islamic prayer chant?

The altered theme simply removed the vocal sample.

Roughly how many copies of the original cartridge version were sold worldwide?

About 1.14 million of those were sold in Japan.

What is Ocarina of Time's average score on Metacritic, the highest of any game?

GameRankings gives it 98%, also a record.

Japanese magazine Famitsu gave the game what score?

Four perfect tens from four reviewers made it the first game ever to earn Famitsu's perfect score.

How many awards did the game win at the 2nd Annual Interactive Achievement Awards?

The ceremony, now the D.I.C.E. Awards, named it Game of the Year.

The harder remixed version developed for the 64DD add-on was known in Japan as what?

The name was usually translated 'Another Zelda'; the 64DD's poor distribution meant it went unreleased there.

The remixed 64DD version eventually reached the West in 2003 on GameCube under what subtitle?

It kept the plot but altered the dungeons and puzzles and raised the difficulty.

Nintendo re-released Ocarina of Time on GameCube via a bonus disc for people who pre-ordered which game?

The same year saw The Legend of Zelda: Collector's Edition compilation.

The 2011 3DS remake added which mode alongside gyroscope controls?

It also included Master Quest and a Water Temple with the difficulty toned down.

How many Sages are there in total, counting the final one revealed late in the game?

Rauru, Saria, Darunia, Ruto, Impa, Nabooru and finally Zelda herself.

The trading sequence side quest involves how many items?

It ends with the Biggoron's Sword, the strongest blade in the game.

Nintendo announced a second remake of Ocarina of Time for which console?

It was scheduled for 2026, following the 3DS version from 2011.

What is the strongest weapon in the game, earned at the end of the ten-item trading quest?

It is two-handed, so Link cannot use a shield while wielding it.

How many motion-captured animations did the game stream, forcing the move off the 64DD?

Cartridges could handle the data throughput the disk drive add-on could not, which is also why the game slipped from 1997 into 1998.

Miyamoto visited which region of Germany for the half-timbered look of Hyrule Castle's market?

He spent a few weeks in northern Bavaria, while modelling the sword combat on Japanese chanbara samurai films.

How many tracks are on the official Japanese soundtrack CD released by Pony Canyon in 1998?

IGN's one complaint about the music was that the traditional Zelda overworld theme was missing.

At which Nintendo trade show was the game first shown as a demo video, in December 1995?

At that point Nintendo planned to launch Super Mario 64 with the console and put Zelda on the 64DD disk drive.

Which item does nothing on the Wii Virtual Console because it relied on controller rumble?

The 2015 Wii U release restored the rumble, and a five-minute demo can be unlocked in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Which independent studio co-developed the 2011 3DS remake with Nintendo EAD?

The studio, headed by Koichi Ishii, also eased the notorious Water Temple and added instructional videos for stuck players.

Roughly how many US pre-orders did the game receive, earning a Guinness World Record?

That tripled any previous game's total; its $150 million in 1998 US revenue beat every Hollywood film of the year's last six weeks.