There’s a guard in Kakariko Village who has been lying to us for twenty-eight years. In 1998 he told us he wanted the Keaton Mask for his son. In the Ocarina of Time remake, if you put on the right mask and walk up behind him, he finally admits the truth. We’ll get to him at the end, because he’s the best secret in a game that’s packed with them.

Ocarina of Time came out on Switch 2 on November 5th, and the original was already one of the most detailed games Nintendo ever made. The remake keeps most of those old secrets, quietly changes a few, cuts one or two, and adds a lot of new ones. I’ve been through the game finding as many as I can, from Kokiri Forest to the Mask of Truth, and in this video I’m going to show you every one of them. Some you’ll remember from the N64. Some are brand new, and a few of them are strange.

Let’s get into it.

KOKIRI FOREST, HYRULE FIELD AND LON LON RANCH

[#1] Let’s start where Link starts. Walk around the base of Link’s treehouse and look at the trunk. There’s a small carving of a figure with a sword and shield, facing down something enormous, a beast that looks almost like a dragon or something similar. It was there on the N64, and despite the complete graphical overhaul, the remake has kept it faithfully. Nobody in the game tells you who carved it. Maybe it was Saria, as she seems to know a little bit about the future.

[#2] While you’re in Kokiri Forest and the Lost Woods, keep an eye on the floating debris. Some of it looks a lot like a Korok.

[#3] Out at Lon Lon Ranch, the oldest joke in the game is still standing. Talon is short, round, moustached and dressed in red and blue. Ingo is tall, thin and dressed in green. this is Nintendo’s first nod to Mario and Luigi from Super Mario Bros.

[#4] Look closely at the clasp on Malon’s scarf and at Talon’s bolo tie. They’re both shaped like Bowser’s face. That’s interesting, because the remake removed other Mario references, which we’ll get to at the castle. Eiji Aonuma explained the difference to Game Informer: the Bowser design is part of Talon’s original character design, so they didn’t change it.

[#26] And Talon has gained something. When you wake him behind Hyrule Castle and he runs back to the ranch, listen to the noise he makes as he goes. It’s a very familiar yell, from a very familiar plumber.

[#5] Go up to the second floor of the ranch house and you’ll find drawings pinned to the wall, almost certainly by Malon. There’s Hyrule Castle, there are the horses, there’s the ranch, and there’s Talon, Malon and Ingo standing together as one happy family. It’s the kind of detail the remake does best.

[#8] Hyrule Field has changed too. In front of the castle there’s now a wide field of wheat that you can run through and cut down. The N64 had a few patches of grass there that you’d cut over and over for rupees, and this feels like the remake’s bigger, prettier version of that.

[#7] Nearby there’s a ruined building in the field, and next to it one of the remake’s new Navi’s Thoughts. These are hints dotted around the world, and this one talks about shaking trees. Shake the tree to your right and a blue rupee drops out.

[#8] There’s another Navi’s Thoughts near the entrance to Kakariko, telling you to clear the plants around you. Cut through the weeds and crops on the farmland and you’ll uncover a Song of Storms hole, along with a lot of bugs to catch, so bring an empty bottle.

[#9] Put on the Bunny Hood. The Stalchildren’s entry in the new Hall of Fallen Foes says they stay hidden if someone looks cute enough, and that’s exactly how it works. With the hood on you can wander Hyrule field at night without a single skeleton climbing out of the ground. The moment you take it off, they come for you.

HYRULE CASTLE

[#10] Sneaking into Hyrule Castle has been almost completely rebuilt. On the N64 you ran up a hill and across a big, open stretch of grass with hardly any guards. Now, before you even reach the courtyard, there’s a hedge maze in front of the castle to work your way through.

[#11] There’s also a new bridge, and the only way past the guards on it is to swim underneath.

[#12] The little service door on the side of the castle is gone, replaced by a large window. You still get in through the spot where water spills out of the castle wall, but where the N64 dropped you straight into the grounds, the remake puts you in an underground sewer with a ladder to climb out.

[#13] And the outdoor stretch with the hedges and the big statue in the middle has been swapped for an indoor room, where you slip between stacks of crates to stay out of sight.

[#14] Before we get to Zelda, stand Link on some steps and look at his feet. He puts one foot on the higher step and bends his knee, instead of standing flat on thin air. It’s tiny, but it’s everywhere in this game.

[#15] If the guards catch you and throw you out, go and talk to the soldier closest to the gatehouse. For a price, he’ll open the gate for you, as long as you understand that it’s a secret to everybody. That’s a line Zelda fans have known since a Moblin said it in a cave in 1986.

[#16] Now, the courtyard. On the N64, if you looked through the right-hand window next to Zelda, you’d see portraits of Mario, Luigi, Peach, Bowser and Yoshi. The 3DS version swapped them for a 2D Mario level. In the remake the Mario characters are gone. Look through the window now and you’ll find the Threads of Time tapestry hanging inside the castle, and it’s the complete tapestry. Eiji Aonuma explained the change to Game Informer. In a world this detailed, he said, a player who spots Yoshi might stop and ask why Yoshi is there, and they didn’t want anything pulling people out of Hyrule like that. I think the replacement is better than the joke. The tapestry fills in as Link’s journey goes on, so hanging the finished version here, before he’s done any of it, suggests the whole story has already been written. That idea runs right through Ocarina of Time: Link isn’t writing his own legend, he’s playing a part in one that was laid out before he was born.

[#17] The left window still has its old secret. Fire a Deku Seed through it and a guard leans out, tells you off, and throws a bomb at you. Remember, at this point in the game you’re a child who has never even seen a bomb.

[#18] But the remake adds a twist. Do the same thing standing right next to Zelda, or Impa, and the guard won’t throw it. The princess would be in danger, so he holds back. Apparently it’s fine to bomb a child, as long as nobody important is nearby.

[#19] That doesn’t mean you can’t cause trouble. Once you’ve met Zelda, swing your sword at her. Impa, unsurprisingly, isn’t having it. She tells you to stop and come over for a talk, and if you keep going, she pulls you over herself and tells you to show some restraint.

CASTLE TOWN

[#20] On your way into Castle Town, look up at the gatehouse. Get close to the bird statue there and interact with it, and it tells you the time of day. Even Navi finds this unsettling. The statue has been redesigned to look like a cockerel, or more likely a Cucco, so a bird that knows the time at least makes a bit more sense.

[#21] The shooting gallery owner is as touchy as ever. Pay for a round and then don’t touch your controller. He gets upset, tells you that you don’t have to play if you don’t want to, and refuses to look at you. The remake gives you a way back: you can apologise, and he’ll let you have another go Or you can make things much worse. Turn your back on the targets and shoot him instead. Keep at it and he throws you out of the shop, telling you to learn some manners, and once again you’ll need to apologise before he lets you play. The Gossip Stone tells you about this if you have the Mask of Truth.

[#22] The people of Castle Town now run on a schedule. In the morning you’ll see crowds walking into the market to start their day, and at night they head home again, with the dogs running down the alleyways after them.

[#23] And some of them have things to say only after dark. Talk to the shopkeepers at night and you’ll catch them checking their stock.

KAKARIKO VILLAGE AND THE GRAVEYARD

[#24] Kakariko is still the village we remember, but its layout has changed more than anywhere else in the early game. The N64 version was tight and narrow, with buildings packed together and alleyways between them. The remake opens it all up, and Impa’s area, which used to be tucked away round the back of another building, is now out in the open.

[#25] The Cuccos have moved too. One of them is sitting on top of a tall stack of bricks in the middle of nowhere, and you’ll need to pick up another Cucco and glide over to reach it.

[#26] And the strangest Cucco of all, the one you used to reach by gliding awkwardly onto the corner of a gate, is much easier now. There’s a large gap in the fence, so the game makes it clear what you’re meant to do.

[#27] Here’s a properly useful change. Gold Skulltulas that only come out at night now leave gold webbing on the spot where they’ll appear. Spot the webbing in the daytime, play the Sun’s Song, and the Skulltula is waiting for you.

[#28] Inside the Windmill, the man turning the music box doesn’t like being interrupted. Hit him with your sword and he stops playing for a moment.
[#29] While you’re in there, look closely at the roll in his music box. You can see the holes punched into it that make the notes. Are those holes the Song of Storms?

[#30] Back outside, pick up a Cucco and throw it into the well. It climbs out and shakes the water off.

[#31] Look at the doors around the village, too. Some of them have small designs that tell you what the building is for: the House of Skulltula has a spider’s web.

[#32] There’s a house in Kakariko where the boy who hangs around the graveyard lives. You can’t go in. By day his mother tells you where he is, and at night he’s asleep. But walk round the side of the house and you’ll find his drawings: Cuccos, and Dampé, the man he looks up to.

[#33] Dampé’s own shack has had the biggest makeover. His diary is still sitting on the desk, but now there’s a kitchen with fruit hanging from the ceiling and a plate of bread. And on the table is a sculpture of a head, which appears to be his own face.

[#34] The gravedigging tour has been fixed. On the N64 you followed Dampé slowly round the graveyard and stopped him on a random patch of dirt, again and again, hoping for the heart piece. Now you pay for each dig, there are fewer spots, and you can walk to the patch you want and call him over.

[#35] And there’s something new. Some spots are too hard for him to dig. Pay him an extra 10 rupees and he digs harder, and something blue flies up into the air. Sometimes it’s just a rock. Sometimes it’s a piece of heart.

[#36] Before we leave the graveyard: Flat and Sharp, the ghostly Composer Brothers, are back unchanged. One is short and dressed in red, the other is lanky and dressed in green. This is a nod to Mario and Luigi, from Super Mario Bros.

SECRETS ALL OVER HYRULE

So far, the remake has mostly been adding detail: drawings on walls, families at dinner, and a guard who won’t bomb a princess. From here the secrets get stranger, and by the end of this video one of them changes how you see a character you’ve known for nearly thirty years. First, though, the secrets you can find almost anywhere in Hyrule, starting with the Gossip Stones.

[#37] Hit one with your sword and you’ll hear a bouncing noise, then the stone announces the current time. Keep hitting it and the time updates. That’s exactly how it worked on the N64.

[#38] What’s new is what happens if you try it right at the start of the game, before time starts moving. The stone gives you a rough answer instead, like “around midday”, and the more you ask, the more fed up it gets. It points out that checking won’t make time go any faster, then asks if you’re always this persistent, and finally tells you, firmly, that it’s midday. Understand?

[#39] Hit a stone with a projectile and it shakes. Hit it with an elemental attack and it shakes even harder.

[#40] Cast Din’s Fire next to one and the stone stretches up, tall and thin, and spins round on the spot.

[#41] The Megaton Hammer flattens it like a cartoon.

[#42] And best of all, put a bomb next to one. It starts a countdown, and then the whole stone blasts off into the sky like a rocket.

[#43] Gossip Stones also have a kinder side. Play the Song of Storms or Zelda’s Lullaby next to one and a fairy appears to heal you.

[#44] Signs have their own trick. If you slash one to pieces before you’ve read it, don’t worry. Play Zelda’s Lullaby and it puts itself back together, good as new. That one’s carried straight over from the N64.

[#45] Over on Zora’s River, look at the magic bean seller. He’s sitting there eating his own stock.

[#46] Buy a bean and plant it in the soft soil next to him, and seven years later it grows into a plant that will carry Link around. But you don’t have to wait. Play the Song of Storms over the sprout as a child, and you water it, and a fairy comes out to restore your hearts and your magic.
[#47] Those soft soil patches have another use. Let a bug out of a bottle over one and it digs in, and out comes a Gold Skulltula.

[#48] On the N64, some spots had a secret: Navi would mysteriously turn green, and if you played the right song, usually the Sun’s Song or the Song of Storms, a fairy would appear. The remake has rebuilt that idea around the new Navi’s Thoughts. Now the fairies appear where a Navi’s Thoughts gives you the clue. If it mentions wanting the sun, or feeling warm or dry, play the Sun’s Song. If it talks about rain or wind, play the Song of Storms.

[#49] There’s another fairy hiding in plain sight. Hold out a Deku Stick near a group of butterflies and stand still, or walk slowly. One of them lands on the end of the stick and turns into a fairy.

[#50] The ocarina is more expressive than it first looks. While you’re playing with the controller, you can push the D-pad up or down to make a note sharp or flat, tilt the left stick to shift it a full step up or down, and hold the stick left or right to add a tremolo. The N64 let you bend notes too, so this isn’t completely new, but there’s a lot more to play with here.

[#51] And Link can jump. The remake has a dedicated jump button, and the development team has talked about how adding it changed the rest of the controls, combat included.

[#52] Watch Link run through tall grass. As a child, he puts his arms up to protect his face. As an adult, he still puts his arms up, but he doesn’t need to cover his face, because now he’s taller than the grass.

[#53] Some enemies, Tektites included, can be hit with the Megaton Hammer so they flip over, again and again, like a pancake.

[#54] The new Hall of Fallen Foes is worth reading properly, because the entries hide hints. The Keese entry mentions that they’re fond of skeletons, and the Stalchildren’s entry is where the Bunny Hood secret comes from. It’s a bestiary that also tells you which secrets to try.

[#55] The new Hyrule map is lovely, a storybook-style animated map of your adventure with little drawings hidden all over it. But zoom in on Gerudo Fortress and you’ll see Gerudo warriors and a Gerudo child. We never meet a Gerudo child in Ocarina of Time. That doesn’t mean they don’t exist, but it’s an interesting thing to draw.

[#56] And over at Lake Hylia, the scientist’s diving pool looks empty at first. You might think Nintendo removed his pet shark. Keep watching. It’s still there.

MASKS AND THE MASK OF TRUTH

[#74] Which brings us to the Happy Mask Shop in Castle Town, and the Happy Mask Salesman. The deal is simple: he lends you a mask for free, you sell it to someone who wants it, then you come back, pay him what you owe and keep whatever profit is left. He’s an unsettling man at the best of times.

[#57] The reward for finishing the mask trading sequence is the Mask of Truth, and the remake has turned it into something else entirely. On the N64, it let you hear what the Gossip Stones had to say, and anyone else you spoke to would just make a comment about it. In the remake, it lets Link read people’s minds, and some of what’s in there is unhinged.

[#58] There’s a bearded man in Castle Town who wonders whether beards are as dirty as a toilet. And there’s the child chasing a Cucco around the market square. Read their mind, and it turns out they aren’t playing with it. They are planning to eat it.

[#59] It works on animals too. Play Epona’s Song for a cow and you’ll still get Lon Lon Milk, but put on the Mask of Truth and you can hear what the cow is thinking.

[#60] The Mask of Truth cares about how you approach someone. Walk up from the front and they see the mask, and what they think is a reaction to it. Come up from behind, out of sight, and you hear what they’re thinking without that distraction. You’ll often get a completely different answer, and sometimes it fills in a piece of a character’s story that the original never told us.

[#61] Timing matters as well. The couple in Castle Town will share their side of the story, but which side you hear depends on which of them is closer when you start talking. Catch the woman and she’s hoping her partner never hurts her, because she could never forgive him. Catch the man, and, well. She should leave.

[#62] And that brings us back to the guard at the gate to Death Mountain in Kakariko. He wants the Keaton Mask, and he says it’s for his son.
For a long time I assumed that was a father being pushy about a present. Then I put on the Mask of Truth. Sell him the Keaton Mask, talk to him from the front, and he tells you he likes his mask more than yours. Then go round and approach him from behind, where he can’t see you. After twenty-eight years, he finally admits it. The Keaton Mask was never for his son. It was for him. The son was just an excuse. So the man guarding Death Mountain was willing to close the road and blackmail a child for a toy he wanted for himself.

That’s every secret I’ve found so far: old ones Nintendo kept, a few they changed, and a lot of new ones that, I think, show what this remake is really about. Most of them don’t change how you play. A drawing on a wall, a family at dinner, a guard who finally tells the truth. But together they make Hyrule feel like a place where people lived before Link turned up, and will carry on living after he leaves.
I’m sure there are more out there. So tell me in the comments: what have you found in the Ocarina of Time remake that I’ve missed? And if you’ve read a mind with the Mask of Truth that I need to hear, I want to know whose it was.

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