The ice arrows in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time have always been considered one of the game's most useless items. Not only is it possible to play through the adventure without them, but even if you do end up grabbing them from completing the Gerudo Training Grounds, there's not a whole lot of time to use them before you have to travel to the final area in order to beat Ganon.
The game itself even acknowledges their uselessness at one point, with players being able to access a gossip stone message as a child, located in the Desert Colossus, which reads: "They say that the treasure you can earn in the Gerudo's Training Ground is not as great as you would expect, given its difficulty!"
Recently, however, a Japanese fan named @chikara_shuzei caused shock online by showing off a little-known application for the magical item.
In a short video posted on Twitter, the Zelda fan demonstrated the arrow's ability to freeze the moving spikes prior to the Water Temple's boss fight. This is a particularly frustrating obstacle that many Ocarina of Time fans will likely remember, with most players simply having to run past them and risk losing a number of hearts in the process.
If you're wondering how this went undiscovered by so many players for years, the answer to that is pretty simple. In order to have the Ice Arrows at this point is pretty unintuitive. It essentially means completing most of the Water Temple to acquire the Longshot, before exiting the area and tackling the dungeons out of order. You then need to complete the optional Gerudo Training Grounds mini-dungeon to acquire the ice arrows and return to the room before the Water Temple's boss. It's a lot of work for a single obstacle, and from the number of heart containers on @chikara_shuzei's screen, it appears that not even they decided to tackle the game in this way, instead returning to the dungeon in the post-game to demonstrate this neat trick.
This is an article that will probably elicit some groans from hardcore Ocarina of Time players: I.E. people who have beaten the game several times and explored every possible application for every item in a range of increasingly questionable contexts. But for casual players, it’s an incredible revelation and proof that there's more to discover yet in the N64 title.
Did you know about this? Let us know in the comments!
Comments 15
This would've been rather helpful years ago. However it really doesn't sound like it'd be worth the trouble of getting the ice arrows first.
@MrModerate Yep, it probably isn't. The only way I can see it being useful is in randomizers maybe.
Funnily enough, I beat the game 100% last month and I remember coming to that obstacle pre-Water Temple and being like, 'There's got to be a better way to do this'. All the guides were like, 'Nope, just keep running!' Pure speculation on my part, but I wonder if the Ice Arrow placement was moved at some point during development because they needed something to place at the end of the Training Grounds that felt significant.
@JackGYarwood That is a possibility. I mean as fun as the training grounds can be, the prize doesn't get much use at that point in the game. Don't get me wrong, the ice arrows are fun to play around with but unnecessary outside of a 100% run.
They can also freeze Bongo-Bongo's hands. fun to see people discover more obscure Zelda stuff.
It's admittedly something I hadn't known, and I'd learnt of trivia like "blue fire can break down bombable walls" before this.
It makes sense though, if the spike tracks are technically an enemy like any other, they can be frozen. They're encountered in later parts of the game too like in Spirit Temple or Ganondorf's Tower.
This goes to demonstrate that some features often go unused in games, since the player has plenty of means to tackle problems, especially if they don't consume resources like arrows or magic.
For example, in Link to the Past, were you aware that enemies frozen by using either the Ice Rod or the Ether Medalion can be picked up and thrown?
Could swear this was shown in did you know Gaming or else, as i already knew this
Didn't know about this, pretty cool (pun intended) and while it's practically useless in vanilla I agree with your comment about it being potentially useful in randomizers at least!
@EarthboundBenjy That I have seen/heard before either from randomizers or someone playing the Shadow Temple after the Spirit temple even in vanilla as some people do.
@RupeeClock That use of the Ice Rod/Ether Medalion is also new to me so thanks for sharing it!
I thought it was impressive that folks were still uncovering new mechanics in Breath of the Wild...
Genuinely useful to know for Rando runs.
I cannot recall if I knew about this. I believe I knew you could freeze the spikes in Ganon’s tower, which is basically the same idea. Don’t the ice arrows have an application in the Twin Rova fight? I thought in the beginning of the fight the twins were weak to the opposite element… but maybe I’m completely misremembering that. I know you mainly use the mirror shield. Anyway, it’s cool to see more discoveries. This game really holds up well I think.
Been awhile but I came up with a pretty fool proof system for getting past those spikes. I just timed it right and ran up the far left side of the ramp.
That's pretty interesting! I'm going to make that detour for my next OoT playthrough!
I didn't know this, but I am not surprised that it works either.
@OldManHermit yep, it's been a while but that was the first thing I thought of when reading this too. Time it right and hug the left.
I've finished Ocarina about 8 times but I don't think I've ever used the ice arrows for anything. I have great memories of them in Majora's Mask though; the one room in that one's water temple where you had to freeze a chu and use it as a step blew my mind back then.
My memory is a bit fuzzy- is there anything preventing players from getting the ice arrows before entering the Water Temple at all? I remember using the Hookshot to cross the desert early- there's a spot where you can just barely latch onto one of the flagpoles and pull yourself across the quicksand.
Or am I misremembering, and it's only the Longshot that can do that trick?
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...