Somebody pass the Lens of Truth
Mario rumors. Pokemon rumors. GTA rumors. So many rumors fans want to believe, but end up being completely and utterly false. Is any series immune to this scourge? With Hyrule Warriors putting The Legend of Zelda back on our minds, I started to wonder--how well has the Hero of Time managed against this onslaught of untruths? Have he and his warrior companions been victorious over the forces of falsity?
Answer: no. Not even a little bit. Which is why I'm back for another round of rumor refuting, with nine Legend of Zelda rumors everyone believed (that were totally fake). Link may be a great hero, but when it comes to disproving the existence of a horned horse geyser, or a Sky Temple? Or breaking the news that you will never get your hands on the Triforce EVER? Leave that to the experts.
"You can get the Triforce in Ocarina of Time!"
"Yearning for the Triforce soon turned to lust for power, which in turn led to the spilling of blood." That's what players learned about the Triforce in the manual for A Link to the Past, and no one could have guessed how much it would apply to Ocarina of Time. I don't mean in the game, either. I'm talking about the fanbase, desperately chasing rumors that the Triforce can be found in the N64 release (and yes, there was probably blood). But the struggle is all for naught, because the Triforce can't be obtained anywhere in Ocarina.
According to the many, MANY versions of this rumor, there are about a million ways the magic triangle can be unearthed. One says you need to collect 100 skulltulas without dying; another claims you have to learn the (fake) Overture of Sages. Yet another talks about how using a bomb here and catching some fish there will totally lead you to the Triforce, somehow. None of these methods work, and a look at the game's text files shows that even if you could find it, Link was never programmed to actually pick it up. So close, and yet... not close at all.
"The Triforce is in a secret pyramid level in the desert!"
You know in old cartoons when characters get lost in the desert and see a beautiful oasis, only to to despair at finding out it's a mirage? That's pretty much this rumor in a nutshell, except without an oasis' practical application. Here, fans are chasing the silhouette of a pyramid in the Gerudo Desert, one said to lead to immeasurable wealth and a certain gold triangle. But alas, while it can be seen, it can't be reached, because it isn't actually a pyramid at all. I feel like there's a metaphor there.
A little credit to the rumor mongers, the shape of the pyramid is definitely there, seen through walls of sandy wind when you play the Song of Storms. However, the pyramid isn't actually a structure at all, but part of a map boundary that is highlighted during lightning strikes. Ah well, the vain search continues
"Nintendo's going to remake Wind Waker to look like Twilight Princess! And make it a pre-order bonus!"
Wind Waker was a bit of a divisive game, due in no small part to its cartoony--I mean *clears throat, puts on Serious Gamer voice* clearly inferior art style. The look doesn't seem to have held it back much, but many fans still wish for a more graphically grown-up version. Electronic Gaming Monthly knows this well, and mercilessly exploited it by telling readers that a visually revamped Wind Waker was set as a pre-order bonus for Twilight Princess. On April Fools. D'oh!
Rather than apologize when the gag was exposed, EGM twisted the knife. In their next issue, they printed letters from infuriated fans that fell for the joke, mocking them for believing anything anyone says on April 1. How mean! Rest assured, readers, GamesRadar would never play such a cruel trick...
"There's a place called the Unicorn Fountain hidden in Zora's Domain!"
The hardest rumors to shake are the ones that have the tiniest grain of truth to them, like the tale of the Unicorn Fountain. Once upon a 1999, Nintendo released a disc peripheral called the 64DD that never took off, and it and all the expansions made for it were canceled within two years. That included an addition to Ocarina of Time called Ura Zelda, which was set to contain the Unicorn Fountain. The fountain went down the pipes with the rest of the update, but that hasn't stopped fans from looking for it. And looking. And looking. And looking.
Some resourceful players have pinned down the spot where they say Link would have accessed the fountain, beneath the waterfall in Zora's Domain. However, what lies below the surface is a dead-end gap. All fans really have now are their dreams of what may have been found there, like a mysterious blue fairy or a geometric shape of some sort.
"You can beat the Running Man in Ocarina of Time!"
"It doesn't matter," you may (or at least should) say to yourself when you agree to a race with the Running Man. He's always a bit too quick for you, and finishes the race from Gerudo Valley to Kokiri Forest faster than you ever could. It doesn't matter. Really. It does. Not. MatteRAUGH *$%^ THAT GUY!!! While some of us drown our rage against this marathon man by self-destructively attacking chickens, others aren't willing to accept defeat. They know, deep in their heart containers, that there is a way to beat him. But there isn't. I'm sorry. It's going to be okay.
YouTube has some convincing footage of the Running Man getting his just desserts, but it also has pretty solid proof that that's all bullshit. The game's own code supports the debunkers, since there's no prize for winning and no dialogue written for a victory condition. Those who've managed to complete the race in zero seconds using the debug menu have been met with defeat themselves, as the Running Man will have completed the race in -1 seconds. How about a new rumor that this guy's a time traveler? We've got some pretty strong evidence.
"There's a Sky Temple in Ocarina of Time!"
Damnit Rauru, couldn't you be like all the other sages and get locked away in your own temple while you waited for Link to finish his seven-year nap? You are entirely to blame for the Sky Temple rumors, which started when fans tried to figure out where, exactly, the Sage of Light came from. Maybe they were a bit hasty deciding that the temple was real, and a certain three-sided object could be found there, without any proof whatsoever. But you should know better than to taunt them!
While plenty of explanations exist about how to reach the Sky Temple (throwing a bomb in the lava pit at Ganon's Castle, one-shotting a giant skeleton in Hyrule Field and using its skull as a telepad, etcetera), none have been shown to work, and there's no footage to suggest the temple's real. While one YouTuber claimed to have found it after beating the Running Man, the assertion was brutally debunked with little chance of recovery. The search for the mighty polygon continues.
"You can break into Fado's house in Twilight Princess!"
Okay dude, take a breath here. Sure, there's nothing wrong with breaking into a few NPCs' houses and taking all their valuable stuff, since none of them actually seem to care. Plus, you might find something really useful and hey, who's the Hero of Time here? But when you react to a single locked-down house by starting a rumor that you can totally get in if you just try harder, maybe use some cheats and, AND Dude! I think you have a problem.
While there's no indication in Twilight Princess that Fado's house is accessible (or interesting enough to bother trying to get in), some fans were just too curious to let it go. This led to rumors that it really could be done if you just knew the trick. A lot of the rumors weren't even started out of genuine interest, but by jokesters intent on crushing their fellow players' dreams of virtual home invasion. It was eventually discovered that Link could technically get into the house, but only by glitching through the door (into the uncoded void beyond) and breaking the game. So breaking and entering?
"You can get phantom arrows by killing the Phantom Guide!"
You know, arrows made out of silver, magical ice or pure, life-giving light are okay. But you know what would be really cool? Arrows made out of ghosts! Heck yeah, that'd be so awesome that I'd totally complete a bunch of bizarre tasks outlined by a stranger on the internet to get them. That's pretty much how the phantom arrows rumor in Ocarina of Time shook out, and it ended about as well as you'd expected.
While different versions of the rumor change details here and there, the basic concept remains consistent. First, you have to catch all the Big Poe ghosts floating around Hyrule Field. Then you have to find the Phantom Guide in the Haunted Wasteland, re-kill him or something, visit the Poe Collector in Hyrule and profit? As you can probably guess, there's no proof that these phantom arrows ever existed and if anyone has successfully obtained them, they've been quiet about it. Now all we have are arrows imbued with flesh-rending fire and ice. Dang.
"There's going to be a Zelda game set in the future!"
Hmm, a Legend of Zelda game set in the cyberpunk future? Using the not-at-all obvious title A Link to the Future? Advertised with footage compiled from Google Images and the voices of random podcasters? Where Epona is a motorcycle? And first announced on April Fools' Day? ...Sounds legit.
Unlike EGM, which actually tried to make its Zelda-inspired April Fools' at least kind of believable, the fine folks at wii.tv went in the exact opposite direction. Using one of the least convincing fake trailers ever made, they actually got people to believe that a futuristic Zelda game was in the works, particularly after Miyamoto hinted that Twilight Princess would be the "last of its kind". The charade was exposed pretty quickly (by folks none-too-happy about the Google-image-raiding thing), but people kept believing it for quite some time. Heck, some still swear by it six years later. Ah well, at least it got them thinking about the future.
Tetraforce? Really?
One who reads this article will be able to see what's hidden in the darkness, so I hope you were paying attention. As appealing as some of these rumors may be, they are nonetheless fake, and you're better off knowing the truth. Were you fooled by any? Did you see through them without my help? Sound off in the comments below and seriously, you're never getting the Triforce. Please let it go. We're worried about you.
You know what will help drown your sorrow over the Zelda lies you've believed all this time? MORE ZELDA! Check out our Hyrule Warriors review, The best Zelda games of all time, and a breakdown of the full Legend of Zelda timeline.
