Prerelease:The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time/Sword on A (Part 3)

This is a sub-page of Prerelease:The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

To do: Add missing screenshots from [here.]

April, 1998

Actions

Magic Spin Attack

April 1998	July 1998

The magic spin attack is seen for the first time and had a simpler looking effect. The surrounding area also didn't get dimmer yet.

Crouching

It was possible to crouch without having your shield equipped. This was later implemented in The Wind Waker.

Turning

When Link took a turn, his eyes would move left or right to watch out for dangers.

Running Slash

It was possible to do horizontal sword slashes while running. This was later implemented in Twilight Princess.

Bomb Anchor Walk

When Link threw a bomb his sidestepping animation changed to an animation where he held his hands on the bomb bag. This animation and many others were cut to make the gameplay feel more fluid. This animation wasn't deleted and as such remains unused in the game.

Spin Attack Charging

Link's spin attack charge speed was initially cumbersome. The animation was redone to play at a faster rate sometime in May 1998, and wasn't changed afterwards.

Items

Deku Shield

Prototype	Final

Link's Deku Shield could withstand fire.

Deku Stick

At this point in development only a single Deku Stick could be carried. It acted more like a sword in the way it could be used in combat compared to the final game where the Deku Stick can only be used to slash vertically. Its longer range is the only benefit at this point. In the final game it also deals twice the damage of the Kokiri Sword.

Unlike the final game where the stick breaks in half after a single hit, it could withstand three hits. Link doesn't discard the stick when it breaks and it can be used freely, a 1/2 icon indicating its current state in the inventory. Restoring the stick would thus require finding a new one. Curiously, if the stick hits something more than once in the final game, Link will not discard the broken stick, allowing it to be used freely like in the early build. The texture for the half stick counter still exists unused in the final game.

Horse Grass Whistle

Epona's Song was not yet implemented so calling her was done with the use of a dedicated item. An unused get item model for the whistle is still present in the final game. The idea was revived later in the form of the Horse Call item in Twilight Princess.

Story

Deku Tree Creation Cutscene

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Characters

Darunia

Darunia doesn't look beat up during the cutscene. His model differences are covered in better detail on this page.

Rauru

Prototype	Final

Map Select was used carelessly.

Saria

Prototype	Final

Saria's model bears few changes. She's got no belt and her skirt was darker green in tone.

Phantom Ganon

Prototype	Final

Prototype	Final

Child Zelda

Prototype	Final

Child Zelda's model is much simpler, with larger ears and a less defined face.

Sheik

Sheik makes her first appearance. Her model is quite rough at this point which is visible better in screenshots from July 1998.

Dampé

Prototype	Final

Even in the future, this plucky gravedigger is alive and well. He's even awake during the day, instead of sleeping in his shack like usual. Based on the lighting in the screenshot, the entire graveyard was in the middle of a lightning storm but no rain. In the final game lightning storm and rain begin once Link gets near enough to Royal Family's Tomb.

Medallions

Prototype	Final

Prototype	Final

The get item models for the medallions look rough.

Prototype	Final

Old colors for the Light and Shadow Medallions can be seen.

Effects

Link blinks yellow instead of red when taking damage.

Environments

Revisited - Deku Tree

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Revisited - Gohma's Lair

November 1997 (Spaceworld 1997)	April '98	Final

Gohma's Lair was missing the boss door in April 1998. Spaceworld '97 had two doors and final has one, but neither are as tall than the door frame here. Looks like they were planning it to be full-sized in this point in time.

Revisited - Hyrule Field

Prototype	Final

The two pillars where laundry lines are hanging at the Lon Lon Ranch entrance aren't present.

Prototype	Final

Where there is a lone grey boulder in the finished game. They had two smaller objects around here in April. One of them which is the bush object was found in the iQue leak by the name of zelda_stree.

Prototype	Final

There's no raised land in the April screenshot close to Kakariko, as seen on the in-game World Map. The map also shows that the path to Zora's River wasn't cut off, meaning that Epona could be rode to Zora's River. A grassy hill leads up to Kakariko Village instead of the stairs of the released game, and the tree next to the entrance is missing. The tree upon which Kaepora Gaebora perches is not present in most of the cutscene environments, making it evident that it was added to the game fairly late. The bridge is intact as you were able to ride Epona to Market, the pre-rendered texture of Market was placed higher up in the map and the Temple of Time towers still featured a black roof instead of red like in the Overdump.

Prototype	Final

Link gallops down a bare path.

Prototype	Final

Closer up to the Market where we can tell more clearly that the drawbridge wasn't indeed broken. The windows for the Guard House are missing and the pre-rendered texture as mentioned above is different in terms of placement.

Revisited - Zora's River

Prototype	Final

A cut shrub is in the spot of the soft soil and the Bean Seller didn't yet encamp by the River.

Revisited - Market Entrance

Prototype	Final

Link riding Epona in the Market. The lamp post has been removed since we first saw the Market Entrance in November 1997. A door for the Guard House is still missing, so that area was added quite late in development. Collision to use Epona in Market exists, though it goes unused because the bridge is broken.

Revisited - Hyrule Castle

Prototype	Final

Hyrule Castle, devoid of its trees, guards, and flowers, and with different ground and grass textures. The stone gate is also more narrow.

The map for the exterior of Ganon's Castle is evidently based off this early version of Hyrule Castle, judging from the ground texture and the narrower gate.

Bazaar

Prototype	Final

The Bazaar lacks the NPC normally found as a child.

The stock also appears to be slightly different, with duplicate Recovery Heart items, a different Hylian Shield model, and what may be magic jars rather than arrows on the left shelves.

Revisited - Temple of Time Exterior

Prototype	Final

This pre-render was discovered in the iQue repository leak.

Oct '97	April '98

A sign which was not here in Oct '97 was added. An unused sign text for Temple of Time exists in the game's unused text.

Revisited - Temple of Time

Prototype	Final

It was planned that the Spiritual Stones would lose their power when Link became Adult. In order for them to regain their power, you would've had to beat Forest, Fire and Water Temple before going back to Child Link. This was scrapped to allow Link to go back in time after getting the Forest Medallion. Remnants of this exist in form of unused cutscenes in the final ROM, unused cutscene from the leaks and unused pause code from the leaks.

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Link putting down his Master Sword to go back in time. His sword still remained in the sheath though and this is something they fixed later on.

The green colored Door of Time door was possible to open now with the power of the spiritual stones. The area with the Master Sword pedestal didn't exist in the Late 1997 Overdump map yet.

Revisited - Kakariko Village

Prototype	Final

The second look at Kakariko Village since its inception in May 1997. The ground, rock walls, and house on the right were retextured for the final game.

There are two large, bare trees, with a circle of grass. In the final game, a single tree surrounded by a circle of grass is placed further back. (The tree actually changes types depending on whether Link is a child or an adult.) Bugs crawl all over the ground.

The houses have black holes that are normally covered up by doors. This can still be seen in the final game by removing the door actors from the map.

No well is present because it used to be located in a different spot, and the house that is normally under construction as a child is instead fully built.

Prototype	Final

Prototype	Final

• The tower is missing and Kakariko Potion Shop was moved closer to the stairs.

• Kakariko Shooting Gallery didn't have a poster for it and it's not textured with red bricks as every house used the same texture before. The outer walls of Kakariko didn't extend as much.

• Almost every wall in this older version of Kakariko used the Windmill texture for the bricks. This was later changed to another brick texture.

• Impa's House wasn't as wide as it's in final and a fence can be seen after the stairs. Branches of a removed tree are seen and the fence next to the Skulltula House wasn't added yet.

• The gate is nowhere to be seen on the path to Death Mountain. Instead the area looks to be engulfed by grass. This difference could be seen on the World Map which was based on older design of Hyrule. Windows for the Potion Shop and Granny's Potion Shop building were removed because there are none seen in their interiors.

• The windmill blades were significantly smaller. In footage from around this time, it could be seen that the windmill blades were also stationary.

(Source: Xiartic & ZeeRoX)

Revisited - Graveyard

Prototype	Final

A near-final version of Kakariko's graveyard is unveiled. The writing on the grave only goes halfway down, unlike the final game, in which it is covered in nonsensical Hylian.

Lon Lon Ranch

Prototype	Final

Lon Lon Ranch's fence used to be strangely short. It was made taller later on to prevent Epona from jumping over it.

Sacred Forest Meadow

Prototype	Final

Forest Temple's entrance was on floor level. You could enter it without the Hookshot.

Prototype	Final

Sacred Forest Meadow doesn't have its own skybox in the final game. This very same skybox was found in the iQue repository files a while ago.

Prototype	Final

In an April, 1998 build of the game. Link would've held an Ocarina note above him when learning a new song, which ended up getting changed to Link gazing at an Ocarina.The note object exists in the game and goes unused.

Prototype	Final

The cutscene for learning Minuet of Forest changed a few times before release.

Revisited - Forest Temple

Prototype	Final

There were stairs instead of a raised wall, so it was possible to enter the corridor leading to Poe Sister Amy's room right at the start. The lighting of this room was not dark until the Poe cutscene was over.

Prototype	Final

Every door was open. In the final version of the dungeon you can either play Song of Time to teleport the Song of Time Block away or go forward to fight the Stalfos to receive the first key.

The lighting darkened when the Poe Sisters fled.

Prototype	Final

Those Blue Bubbles which were seen flying around here in March, 1998 aren't here anymore.

Prototype	Final

A Deku Baba can be seen at the top of the stairs that was removed for the final version. The door was not locked.

Prototype	Final

Stairs lead downwards to a Poe painting.

Prototype	Final

Link stands at the entrance of the lush well room. The entryway is bigger, with a different texture for the wall and floor. The lefthand wall boasts a balcony that was moved.

Prototype	Final

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Phantom Ganon's Lair

Link fails to avoid an electrical charge in Phantom Ganon's painting-covered room.

Zora's Domain

Prototype	Final

The overall design of this area bears similarities to the minimap of the area found in the iQue leak. From the screenshots, it's clear that the spiral ramp that leads up to King Zora's chamber is completely surrounded by water, whereas in the final version it's connected with one path to the entrance and another one leading around the structure to the Zora Shop.

Prototype	Final

Link runs towards the area where you can catch a fish for Jabu.

Prototype	Final

Prototype	Final

Link at the area where you can catch a fish in a bottle. It's pretty much unrecognizable from the final design.

Prototype	Final

Link swimming with his gear out and an early Zora can be found standing in the back.

Prototype	Final

Prototype	Final

Prototype	Final

Prototype	Final

Link is not performing a gracious dive to the pure waters of Zora's Domain and the Zora diving mini-game seems to not have been implemented yet. The waterfall looks different and seemingly lacks the actor that makes it scroll. Zoras are swimming in places where they aren't in the finalized map and their model looks like it could be the early one.

Revisited - Jabu-Jabu's Belly

Prototype	Final

This is the second time we see the room with the spiky moving platform. It no longer uses as tense fog as it did in March, 1998. From this angle this shot is taken, we're able to tell the spiky platform got an overhaul, the entrance to the room where Ruto is waiting was placed lower so using the platform would've been a must to reach it.

Prototype	Final

No vine wall to B1, less detailed texturing, no yellow fog.

Revisited - Death Mountain

Prototype	Final

That old directional sign from November, 1997 is still used. Curled up Goron is placed right next to it. This Goron was moved and it's uncertain if it became the Goron who dashes down the mountain or the one that's just out of view.

Revisited - Dodongo's Cavern

Prototype	Final

No one-point demo cutscene when blowing up the wall that unveils Dodongo's Cavern. 2D cut out texture is used for bombable walls instead of modeled rocks. This texture exists in gameplay_dangeon_keep and may be used for some other purpose. Bomb flowers were moved away by the bombable wall to make it little bit less obvious what you're supposed to do.

Prototype	Final

Armos resides in the center of the room in favor of a Beamos.

Link in a small room fighting against a Dodongo. There are 5 small rooms like this in final Dodongo's Cavern and none of them have a Dodongo.

November 1997	April 1998	Final

Bomb walls were redesigned numerous times.

Death Mountain Crater

Prototype	Final

Prototype	Final

As crazy as it is. The developers changed the location of the Warp Pedestal twice before settling on the location it has in the final game. The location it has here in April 1998 seems to be the earliest out of them all. This is because the commit logs reveal that the bomb walls seen in the Alternate Scene Setup would've been added in August 21st, 1998.

Prototype	Final

The bridge was not broken in April '98 just like it wasn't in the Overdump version of this map. Meaning you could access Fire Temple without the need of the Hookshot.

Revisited - Fire Temple

Late 1997 Overdump	April '98	Final

Link in a room which later was split into two rooms. For a long time the "fire pillar" room that took you to 2F didn't exist and it was part of the "bridge room".

Late 1997 Overdump	April '98	Final

The overdump version of this map was really unfinished but in April 1998 it was noticeably more developed.

Late 1997 Overdump	April '98	Final

Late 1997 Overdump	April '98	Final

Link waits for the fire-powered elevator to take him to the upper reaches of the Fire Temple.

Late 1997 Overdump	April '98	Final

Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. There is no timer even though Link is not wearing the Goron Tunic.

Volvagia's Lair

Prototype	Final

Revisited - Lake Hylia

Prototype	Final

The hero vies against a Tektite on the warp pad at Lake Hylia. Navi is floating above the Tektite but there is no Z-targeting Gem as well as Navi is red instead of yellow like the final version.

Prototype	Final

En_Kusa (the bush usually seen in dungeons) is used instead of Obj_Mure2 (the bush seen in the overworld) because Obj_Mure2 didn't exist yet and En_Kusa was used in both, no blue Tektite enemy was jumping about and the fence beside Lakeside Laboratory wasn't placed.

The entrance of Water Temple was changed a tiny bit. There were two pillars which eventually were removed. These seem to be the same type of pillars seen close to the Zora's Domain shortcut.

(Source: Xiartic & ZeeRoX)

Morpha's Lair

Prototype	Final

Link swims around in Morpha's Lair. Unlike the final version of the game, his weapon is not automatically unequipped when he enters deep water. It is still possible to swim with the sword, bow, and hammer in hand in early cutscene environments.

Prototype	Final

There was less floor space to walk on because water surrounded the room.

Prototype	Final

When wall spikes and hookshot targets were added the floor space was extended.

Prototype	Final

Ladders on the platforms were not there but could be climbed on anyway.

Addionally four spots in the center of each wall had a visual cue for a climbable wall. These ended up removed when the room was redesigned.

Ice Cavern

Prototype	Final

Prototype	Final

Link walks along a corridor in the Ice Cavern, which lacks the stony texture that links it to Zora's Fountain in the final game.

Prototype	Final

The room after the corridor had Bari enemies which aren't seen outside Jabu Jabu's Belly in final OoT. These were replaced with the Freezard enemies. There was no gate so you could just walk away from the Bari's without fighting them.

Prototype	Final

Prototype	Final

This room had no Silver Rupees as they weren't even part of the game back then. Certain pillars were adjusted to be climbable for them. The spot behind Link where Blue Fire can be caught in a bottle is completely missing.

Desert Colossus

Prototype	Final

The entrance of the Spirit Temple didn't have bricks built yet for the ground. Some minor terrain changes are visible in the distance.

Prototype	Final

Prototype	Final

Sheik used to use her iconic Deku Nut move to escape back in April 1998 here. However for the final game they changed it to be more interesting and unique by making her disappear into a sandstorm.

Enemies

Bubble

A Blue Bubble in the Forest Temple. The red bracket square reticle seems to be smaller than normal.

Phantom Ganon

Phantom Ganon flies across the room.

Volvagia

Link fights Volvagia without wearing the Goron Tunic. There is no heat timer, and Link does not have the Megaton Hammer equipped.

Morpha

Morpha attempts to choke the life out of Link. A better view of the pre-release boss room for Morpha, still no spikes anywhere or longshot targets.

Skulltula

Skulltulas die from single arrow in final.

Poe

As a reward for defeating them. Poes dropped two rupees before they were given a soul as a drop.

Armos

Armos take damage from Kokiri Sword without doing a jump slash.

Stinger

Using a Boomerang on these enemies in the finished game will stun them like a Deku Nut would. Here they make the Boomerang shoot up in the air without doing any damage which is unusual.

Bari

These Bari enemies which electrocute Link upon touching used to be in more locations than just Jabu Jabu's Belly. They could float in the air just like their smaller variant Biri. Bari was modified for the final game to drop down and stay still while spinning.

Morpha

The target recticle was placed on the end of Morpha's water tentacles instead of its core. You would've fought it differently by luring it on the floor from the water and slashing its tentacle for the core to drop down. In retail it's possible to use Din's Fire to slash the tentacle. Link is performing an attack that was cut. Since Link used to have extra turn animations, he used to be able to do an attack from those turn animations.

Old Deku Nut Behavior

Tektite

Prototype	Final

Gohma

Prototype	Final

Footage from April 1998 exists where a Deku Nut is thrown at two different enemies. What both of these have in common is the Deku Nut is simply freezing the enemy instead of stunning it. How each enemy handles Deku Nut stunning is in each of the enemy's code, so we can't be fully certain if it acted like this for everything back then but it is highly likely.