Perhaps "wise man" is a mistranslation, as the Japanese name for the Sages is technically closer to wiseman. So The Fairy Tree says take the stone to a "sage", and Zelda is a sage.

Maybe the wise man was meant to be the King of Hyrule, explaining why Link goes to the castle, but Zelda is the one recieving him because, as she explains in the final game, her father doesn't believe her when she says Ganondorf is dangerous.

19:58 love the iconic line "it's a secret to everybody!" being re-contextualised as the king accidentally losing a precious artefact of his people and telling link not to dob him in 💀

Another interesting tidbit is there was a guard gate at Zora's River that opened with Zelda's letter too, meaning that it was optional which area you went to second and third.

A pretty good summation of what we found when the overdump was discovered. You did an incredible job adding visual flair to this as well, using modding to make things look more legitimate. There are a couple of things to add, which were only hinted at, and a couple of corrections to make... 1. The Child Songs didn't exist yet, there was no Zelda's Lullaby, Epona's Song, Song of Time, etc. The only songs in the game were the Warp Songs. We're also not sure what they planned for the Master Sword Chamber as that door in the beta has nothing behind it. The Prelude of Light may have actually whisked Link away to somewhere else rather than opening the Door of Time, but that's hard to determine. Odds are they weren't sure what they wanted to do with the Master Sword Chamber yet. (as some parts of the Gigaleak imply that they may have gone with a pre-rendered background for it at first.) Since there was no Zelda's Lullaby, no song would open the way to Jabu-Jabu at this point. That must have been something they added later and then subsequently removed for the final. 2. An interesting note about learning the Prelude of Light, apparently the text is in ancient Hylian and Zelda spends the first part of the game trying to decipher it. She leaves the instructions with the dying guard, so that was a required event at the time to experience. 3. The Zora Prince wasn't the only hotel (also does anyone else find it odd that when a Zora Prince is added to the series he's taken to a hotel? Haha...) There's a couple of others, one that seems to be run by a scheming Ingo who will rob you while you sleep. 4. As for corrections... it is not accurate to say that there was an Ice Temple at this point. Calling the beta Water Temple an Ice Temple is like calling the Forest Temple a Wind Temple. The beta Water Temple had similar water mechanics (yet seemingly no way to lower it back). There is one mention of the Ice Temple in OoT's files and its likely a typo since it's in the Ice Cavern (alongside all the other Ice Cavern checks). Did they plan for an Ice Temple at any point...? Well, we can't be sure. But the various commits to the files does not imply so. 5. Please give more credence to The Cutting Room Floor. You do good work, but its also important to give credit to the trailblazers that make this information open to everyone so others can know where to look to learn more,

Maybe the orcarina platform indicated "play a song" to wake up Jabu Jabu so you could feed him; but it was later changed to Jabu Jabu waking up when a fish is dropped, not needing to be woken by a song in order to be able to feed him. Another possability is that the ocarina pads may have acted as "play a certain song to warp here" - a sort of song-based fast travel system. Though this is isn't likely unless it was just one song, and after playing it you can choose which platform to warp to.

Some thoughts - Miyamoto is not concerned with story, so I would guess the early beta stuff was mostly just for design/gameplay. IIRC he once said they were sort of remaking Zelda 2 at first. - This sounds similar to the story beats of LttP. They were probably using that as a general blueprint. Maybe even bringing back some old ideas that were cut from that game. - They may have originally been using the backstory of LttP as a starting point for this one. - I also heard that Yoshiaki Koizumi was the one doing most of the storytelling and writing. Apparently he was putting too much of it in for Myamoto's taste, or they had to cut a lot of it for time. - You can see how the flow of the story is built off LttP. Each area of Hyrule needs to be explored. There is a race of creatures living in each area with a town, two dungeons, and an important NPC. Ganondorf is looking for the Triforce which only The Royal Family members like Princess Zelda know the location of. - I think Koizumi said that he put his cut content in the Gossip Stones so it would not go to waste. I guess that's a good place to look. - Someone said something about how they wanted there to be a dating mechanic, which is why there are a lot of young girls around Link's age. Who knows if they got very far with that. - Personally I am curious if the Sheikah were ever going to be more involved.

I always wonder if they create a lot of areas and try to stitch them into a story with unused levels and objects they couldnt find a place for them or having a redesign. I just find these old games being so cool to theorize and look back on cause you can almost make out things but not quite

i have always enjoyed these videos as they provide information that all of the other channels haven't already provided several times - thank you (lol)

26:05 Now we know... Navi was Wilma Flintstone all along.

I had no idea Twilight Princess took story elements from Ocarina of Time's beta, though I guess it does make sense since Twilight Princess was made in response to western zelda fans at the time wanting the series to be more like Ocarina of Time and Majoras Mask instead of the cartoony style of Wind Waker. Also I love the design for the master sword from the concept art you showed at 24:34 while the design in the final game is iconic the bulbous cross guard always looked a bit silly in my opinion.

I also remember the spiritual stones being grey at the back of the N64 games box? So it’s something that changes really late into development.

To this day I believe that Rauru was supposed to be the King of Hyrule, and that plot point's either been obscured or completely dropped.

I'm fairly certain the 'Wise Man' just refers to a sage, which would make Zelda, the wise man. My supporting evidence for that would be that A Link to the Past in some translations, refers to the Seven Sages as the 'Seven Wise Men' So, most likely just another instance of this translation making it's way into English.

My theory is that they realized they were just copying the Link to the Past storyline beats.

Whenever I feel like I’ve heard everything about Ocarina of Time, I learn something new. It’s truly magical that even after all theses years I can still visit the world of one of my favorite games and enjoy more and more content from it

Its strange that nintendo would put details of the plot online back in 97 since they keep these things under wraps now.

Awesome presentation to watch, Ocarina of time is the most wanted exploring game. When Zelda 64 was announced and developed, I only saw two images during that time, which was an early version of a Stalfos and Link face the Stalfos. After learning more about Ocarina of time, their were images from development. There is so much to explore finding images and videos to know more about Ocarina of time in different stories. The most beta I would want to play was spaceworld 96, because during around 96 and 97, I never got any Nintendo power magazines about Zelda 64. So it was likely forgotten what the game would look like. So right now, I'm trying to restore Link from spaceworld 96. I only know how to model Link and animated. Don't have the skills to import the model into the game

I have a theory on Ganondorf's gradual transformation and how we saw it: he was the boss of the Forest Temple before being replaced by Phantom Ganon. If you look at the old concept art, it shows Ganondorf with horns like Phantom Ganon. My thought is then, that they changed it relatively ladt minute because they felt beating Ganondorf early would take his menace away.

11:50 interesting dialogue 25:13 Peter Pan the video game. also, that Sheik fact was incredible!

11:20 Very interesting. Clock Town as a hub may've been a way older concept than we thought

The "Grassy Maze" was most likely reused for the small area you travel in order to rescue Tetra at the beginning of WindWaker. The jealousy of Navi was more than likely taken as inspiration from the cartoon from 1989.

The Kokiri make sense now. If the Deku tree spawns them all at once, then they die and then he spawns new ones, it is likely they are born of seeds he drops every x years. But because the old one died that spawned the Kokiri, the new one instead spawned Koroks. The Kokiri did not evolve into Koroks, the new tree simply spawned a different kind. In the failed and child timeline the (new) Deku tree and Koroks do not exist because the sprout never grew.

Wouldn’t the grassy maze just be the lost woods? Or an earlier version of the lost woods, as the mobiles do appear in that last maze part.

I never get tired of hearing about Ocarina of Time and its beta elements! I do remember accessing those beta cutscenes of the spiritual stones in the Temple of Time and at that time, it didn't make any sense to me. It's nice to know what purpose they served now! I also remember Lord Jabu Jabu being farther out in Zora's Fountain and thought it was just a placement error. Now it's all starting to come together. :) As with this development cart, I wouldn't be shocked if the older stories still exist somewhere, locked away in someone's personal archive. Heck, they might not even realize they have it. Since we did gain access to these things, let's just remain hopeful that even older beta elements still exist somewhere.

It's funny how it turned out to be one of the greatest games of all time, because I think it got pretty butchered due to the N64's limitations. There are at least a few things in the game that hint at that, like there being no dungeon for the light medallion (although it is possible it was always meant to be just given to you), Zora's Domain never unfreezing, and the unfinished path underneath the ice of Zora Domain. They squeezed as much in that cartridge as they could, but I think the things I mentioned plus the Ura Zelda and Zelda Gaiden expansions that never happened prove that they originally planned for a bigger game. Yeah, eventually we got some form of both, but I don't think either of them turned out to be what was originally intended. They tell us that Master Quest is Ura Zelda, but I don't buy it. All that was is rearranged dungeon items and altered dungeon puzzles that were harder. Ura Zelda was suppose to be an actual true expansion with new locations, dungeons, story, items ect. As for Zelda Gaiden, it may have eventually morphed into Majora's Mask, but I'm pretty sure it would have been quite a bit different if it had been the expansion to Ocarina it was originally meant to be.

Is that clip of Link at the Zora hotel an actual clip from the codes? If so then it appears it was reused for Stock Pot Inn, in Majora's Mask, which considering the time constraints in that game's development, would make sense.

Would be nice if you could include your sources, mainly so people have this information archived and proof to show others as people not gonna stand out much to watch a whole 26 minute video that doesn't exactly shown the text in the magazine as the story is being told.

Amazing, bro, the story was very interesting with all that cut content ❤

One thing i found interesting is that there's an interview where we're told that Ganondorf was modeled after Raoh from Fist of the North Star. Raoh was interesting in that he was initially a one-dimensional villain, but had surprising death once the story spent more time with him. In the end, while Ganondorf looked a lot like Raoh, he was a pretty shallow bad guy. Windwaker and twilight princess each show us an older, wiser Ganon. Maybe that was the original vision all along?

I am wondering if the game was more intended as a direct/indirect remake of LTTP in 3D.

I just realized, the Kokiri become Koroks to survive in the great sea. But what happened to their fairies? Do Kokiri who lose their fairies become Koroks? Does the fairy combine its life essence with the Kokiri to become the Korok? How does it work?

13:06-13:28 So... the Beta Kokiri Forest was basically a fantasy version of "Logan's Run"?

Good video, dude. Very informative.

Wow, even the beta footage of Twilight Princess, the one from the E3 2004 reveal trailer and GDC 2005 trailer (just before the proper Twilight Princess title was announced) , looks like Ocarina of Time's beta content. That goes to confirm what you just stated.

I read the title and im like "no way youre calling my man here a beta" 😂

The Zelda books says that Rauru is supposedly the same as the Owl. The Owl has the same name as Zelda's dad in Skyward Sword. The Rauru of Tears of the Kingdom is also the King of Hyrule. One wonders what role the King in OOT was supposed to originally play.

Your a damn magician finding stuff I somehow never heard of all the time idk how you do it

Great video

I could have sworn I heard ocarina of time was originally going to have castle town/ ganondorf's castle as the main hub and you went to different areas and dungeons through paths in the castle, like in mario 64

Why does Nintendo not gave us Ura Zelda instand of making Remakes and Ports for milking the Moneycow dry....

Maybe the wise man were the friends we made along the way.

Thanks for the video

19:15 did he say "It's a secret to everybody" in some beta version of the game?

this was fun bro. i think the perlude of ligth was because it was the ligth temple. witch they recycled in twiligth princes

Ganon grardually transforming into a monster, huh? Seems to pair nicely with the fact that a half-monster Ganon makes an appearance as a temple boss which is completely off-theme and unrelated to its associated temple. I find it highly likely that Phantom Ganon is just a repurposing of a model made for this point in the story.

The idea of Link disappearing in the old story makes me sadder than I should be. I care about this fictional character too much.

Wow. 1997? Can't believe it was that long. I was born in 91 too...

Those early story ideas sound quite interesting. It would have been neat to see the dungeons like they do in this video or we got another game with dungeons like that.

Nice video!

I’m glad they went with what they went with

what was Navi doing for the first ten years of Link’s life? or did the Deku Tree just being her into existence at the beginning of the game, or what?

The final Ocarina of Time storyline is very similar to Disney's Aladdin (1992 with Robin Williams, the good one). *Main Character:* Humble, poor, diamond, in the rough, lives in a house with a curtain as his front door. *Princess:* Brilliant, astute, tomboy who immediately identifies the main villain. Her father is the king/sultan and her only known living relative. *Villain:* Arab man from the desert who seeks a treasure that will allow him to take over the kingdom/world. Attempts to murder the hero multiple times. *Mentor:* Blue mythical creature, who parts ways with the heroes at the end of the story. One of them is extremely annoying, and the other is extremely funny. *Animal Companion:* Real-life animal covered in reddish-brown fur. One of them is a male spider monkey that turns into an elephant. The other is a female horse that stays a female horse. *King or sultan:* Kind-hearted benevolent ruler who lives in a palace/ castle that looms over the capital city. He is extremely naive and does not realize his new advisor is evil. Aladdin finds the magic lamp inside a cave. Link finds the Goron Ruby inside a cave. In both stories, the hero unintentionally gives the villain the treasure he needs to take over the world. In both stories: The villain erects his castle on the sight of the old one. Final battles: The Hero shows up at the villain's castle. The princess is imprisoned in a small transparent object. A sword fight happens. The hero has the upper hand in the first half of the battle. The villain turns into a monster resembling a real-life animal in an attempt to kill the hero. The villain is sealed away by magic but returns in a sequel. Hero has to fight the villain again.

Very cool video

18:44 thats actually cannon in the zelda show 😂😂😅

“Hyrulean” 💀💀💀

I thought my life was the complete beta story

Cool video

Fairies life long partners? navi: uhm nooooo, absolutely not 😂"

It's about time you came up with a new video, God damn

They made all the right choices with this game

I hope someday zelda 64 can be leak

You sound familiar but i don’t believe I’ve watched your vids before…

14:41 what's the name of this song?

Cool

Notigang

W vid

You always speak negative about Twilight Princess do you hate Twilight Princess?

cool

Notification Squad

Hype

457th

Zelda64 was the real game we suppose to get the not the final oot story.

Second

Please stop using "Beta" that way.