Even though the final product of the game was outstanding, many fans of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time have taken an interest in the development of the title. Early footage of the game was released throughout Ocarina of Time's lengthy development, but frequently the image quality was poor and there are often more questions than answers. However, a recent leak of an F-Zero X development cartridge contained a significant amount of data from an old Ocarina of Time build dating back to about 1997, and much of it was fascinating.
Just a few months back, a plethora of Nintendo games had their beta builds leak online, so it's surprising to see a leak of this magnitude again so soon. That leak revealed the first 3D model Nintendo created for Link, but this new development build has so much more to discover. It was common for Nintendo to reuse old development cartridges for new games, so it turns out that this specific cartridge they used for F-Zero X still had lots of data leftover from the Ocarina of Time beta still on it.
After sifting through old footage and pictures found in magazines for the game, The Legend of Zelda fans realized there were multiple areas that looked completely different from the final version of Ocarina of Time. For example, there are pictures that seemed like early versions of the Kakariko Graveyard and Lake Hylia, but these areas only appeared in screenshots so it was always difficult to get an idea of what they were supposed to look like. Some of these images were the reason why so many players believed the Triforce was an obtainable object in Ocarina of Time. Now, with this new beta build, players have found the full maps for a lot of these old places, which allows modders to view them in great detail.
Zelda's Beta Answers Old Questions & Raises New Ones
These aforementioned areas used to be really mysterious, but now with this new leak, it's easy to analyze them. This video by GameOver Jesse on YouTube breaks down lots of the content that was discovered in the cartridge online, such as the new maps and items that were found.
There's also this Twitter thread by @MrCheeze_ which shows off some of the details regarding the equipment and items from the beta build and how they differed from the final version of Ocarina of Time.
While all this content is certainly fascinating to look through, one of the coolest new discoveries of the beta was the old sprites for each of the items in the game. After looking through them, some of the biggest changes include the removal of many elemental arrows that were associated with the game's medallions, and a horse reed which would have originally been used to called Epona instead of the ocarina. Certain items also have different designs, like the Lens of Truth and the Ocarina of Time.
There are some new questions that have arisen because of this leak. No one seems sure what the blue shell was supposed to do, and the exact effect of the spirit, shadow, and wind arrows are also still a mystery. Unfortunately, the mystery of the Triforce being obtainable has yet to be solved with this new information either.
However, there was a segment of the files which explained that the medallions were supposed to offer specific magic abilities, much like Din's Fire. Fans knew that these medallions were supposed to offer abilities to Link, but now those specific abilities have been revealed. For example, the shadow medallion would have granted Link the ability to turn invisible, and the spirit medal would have turned Link into Navi herself. There was once a point where Ocarina of Time fans assumed they'd never know half of the information that came out this week, yet here it is.
Sources: GameOver Jesse/YouTube, @MrCheeze_/Twitter