Can You Beat Zelda Backwards?

[@KarmaticFluff]

Basically Link's journey to go back to sleep

[@succinyerbollz]

lmao

[@kethaldo]

Poor kid will get one hundred years of it eventually

[@indexmessenger01]

link's slumbering

[@cocoearmuffs6207]

I mean zelda gets to sleep almost the whole game so I guess it's fair that link gets to sleep too...

[@novaduck_iv]

Isn't life just a journey to go back to sleep

[@GunSpyEnthusiast]

" I don't care who I have to beat. Who I must slay. What I must conquer. I. WILL. TAKE. A *NAP!* "

[@frediculous1191]

Kirby Nightmare in Dreamland ahh plot

[@Firestar19]

But before that, we have to talk about parallel universes.

[@kethaldo]

The worst part is that you’re technically not wrong 💀

[@Rekdon]

I dont know how i never knew this game was so broken

[@researchinbreeder]

Because on launch it was nearly airtight, and it wasn't until only about 5 years ago that it started to get cracked. But once those cracks were found, it's steadily become more busted.

[@lpfan4491]

Because 90% of it relies on BiT. Which, BiT is very easy to perform, but basically impossible to casually find without a lot of luck.(Like, who is going to reset the game at the same time as selecting continue?)

[@researchinbreeder]

@@lpfan4491 Actually, not as unlikely as you would think. Back in Time was discovered in Twilight Princess less than a month after the international release, and some time later was found to also work in Wind Waker. The main holdup on Skyward Sword BiT was that in TP and WW, you get BiT by resetting on the same frame Link voids out from a bottomless pit. But that method was removed in SS bc they changed how pits work. So it was assumed BiT just didn't exist in SS at all. The method of BiT that SS uses where you Reset after you Continue from a Game Over also exists in Wind Waker, but people literally just didn't think to try it for a long time bc standard BiT didn't work.

[@lpfan4491]

Tbh, TP BiT being found on release seems more like a stroke of luck than anything. Otherwise, it seems like it has a track record of not being found for a while. WW BiT was only found in responce to TP BiT, SS BiT also took a good while and I have only seen people start referencing OOT3D BiT(Which somehow exists) a few years ago. "Exception proves the rule" and such.

[@researchinbreeder]

@@lpfan4491 Most glitches are initially found by luck. And honestly the way that BiT was found (A speedrunner hitting the reset button after falling in a pit and happening to hit the frame) isn't that weird, so if anything it's more surprising that it wasn't found in Wind Waker earlier. Also idk who's saying BiT exists in OoT3D, but at best it's an unrelated glitch that also happens to allow you to play on the title screen. Back in Time is specifically a glitch caused by Resetting the console during a map reload (which pits trigger in TP/WW, and continues trigger in WW/SS). But OoT3D doesn't have the same type of reset function as the GCN/Wii titles.

[@MrTTnTT]

If I understood the BIT stuff correctly the following should be a better explanation: In Skyward Sword, each zone has its own list of checkboxes that determine the state of that zone. For whatever reason, the checkboxes of different zones overlap with each other. For this reason, changing the checkboxes in Skyloft on the menu affects all other zones in different ways, so that depending on what zone you're interested in, you can manipulate that zone as you like by doing the right things in Skyloft. I could speculate on why, but the point is that it seems to work like this. A fascinating glitch!

[@pascalprincess]

For whatever reason, the checkboxes of different zones overlap with each other. the game to save resources might use a table like a byte[255] to store in each area. when your save and BIT you still have the area you were in table loaded. most games use a scene system to its like it loaded eldins scene flags into the title screen via BIT and when you reload all the flag changes transfer instead of doing a save file load and loaidng eldins scene flag from file. (it likly cahced the last save to save loading times)

[@Evnyofdeath]

Its done that way because under normal conditions the game does individual checks on the list per zone. Why code individual check lists for each map when you can code one function that swaps between different iterations of the same check list when you load a new map. This does mean that if you set a flag at the exact moment you load it gets applied to the new list but that will never come up in normal play. It saves time and means there's fewer moving parts in the code that could fail later down the line. Its only weakness is setting a flag and loading at the same time which shouldn't be possible. BIT was originally only thought to exist in Twilight Princess until people started experimenting with the other 200s Zeldas that had similar main menus.

[@sirgarde2293]

'For whatever reason, the checkboxes of different zones overlap with each other." The reason for this is just because that's just how tables work. Think of it like an excel spreadsheet, every spreadsheet has the same address values (A1, B4 ect). Each zone just has it's own separate sheet. What you're doing is effectively telling the game to "Enable the flag on address A2", but the game only ever has the correct "sheet" of flags open for the zone you're in, so when you load your file you unload the Skyloft sheet and load the say, Faron Woods sheet. Since the game command is still "Enable flag on address A2" it'll check whatever happens to be at address A2 on that table. So they don't really "overlap" per-se, you're just telling the game to write to the wrong variable.

[@Panana]

My head hurts

[@masteraustin11]

This was very fun to watch. Seeing all the bit tricks, and just how broken this game can get is hilarious. I've seen this stuff in other videos years ago, though this helped clear it all up, now I understand the BIT stuff much more.

[@Jurarigo]

I get it, but I don't, and my brain hurts.

[@soldierofkazus]

Back in Time is the name of Link's Stand.

[@Jurarigo]

@@soldierofkazus I guess It Just Works, then.

[@theultimateamazingsleepyko6687]

Crazy how much of this speedrun is spent on the menu

[@weinereater-wm6qm]

woah this is a small channel didnt expect that for the quality editing very good video

[@linklight2]

Just saw your prior minimum transforms run and now this. You've earned yourself a subscription. Good work on these videos and I'm excited to see what challenge runs you come up with next!

[@kethaldo]

Thanks! I really appreciate that

[@fabi3790]

I really appreciate you explaining the back in time stuff and all that more casual I am just at 4:20 and completely lost. Not your fault that shit is just sooo confusing even if explained fot idiots

[@kethaldo]

Yeah, Back in Time is basically just using the reality stone on what your file has saved

[@thewolfmanhulk2927]

You really helped explore skyward sword, programming, and how the game works, thank you for making this

[@happeninthedark]

This is the craziest and most captivating Zelda SS run I've ever seen!

[@kethaldo]

@happeninthedark thank you!

[@Sky77E4]

I did this back in the day with Majora's Mask 3D using a combination of Goron Missile and Wrong Warping and it was pretty fun! Highly recommend if you've already played through the game plenty of times!

[@YourAverageLink]

16:09 Yeah, obtaining the harp sets Lanayru Desert layer... 2, I think? Which removes the cutscene that would normally play the first time you enter LMF, which I assume also makes the other loading zone exist. This is why the old all dungeons route got harp on file 2 instead of file 1, so this wouldnt break (and so it can fit the AD category rules that require beating LMF by exiting the door after Moldarach)

[@kethaldo]

Gotcha. That stinks. I got the harp as the only way I was able to get to Faron in BiT without crashing, and was too lazy to reset again, so it ended up being my downfall. This game really is a big math equation

[@marioman118]

Since I am newer to BIT, explaining it was definitely appreciated!

[@fireworkspinner]

This makes me wanna learn the all dungeons route lol. Great video and very informative of all the BiT tricks

[@kethaldo]

Yup, pretty much. For a quick example scenario: You can activate 3x08 on Skyloft as you start your file that is saved in Eldin, and end up transferring that and activate 3x08 in Eldin instead of

[@boomfanfic-a-latta8996]

Writing this before I watch I’m just calling it now there’s gonna be SO much use of Back in Time shenanigans

[@kethaldo]

Booya

[@moonlightpathfinder1380]

only 42 coment? u rlly put your heart in that video i love it. watched till the end and subscribed

[@TheLofiGamingChannel]

Back in Time is one of my favourite glitches because it makes fore some amazing yt videos

[@thequeen17]

This is insane, BIT is such a powerful glitch!

[@hexi-jb2tt]

I didn't understand any of what you just said but I loved it anyway 😂 very entertaining ❤

[@DevinHeiss]

A 23 hour run the day after a 62 hour run? Kethaldo, you a busta.

[@kethaldo]

Hahaha thanks! I’ve been planning this out since October or something, otherwise there’s NO WAY I’d be able to do that

[@YourAverageLink]

8:30 I assume the video you followed is of the old (early boss rush) all dungeons route? That scene flag allows you to perform the (spoilers for the special surprise in Sandship) Tentalus Skip RBM

[@kethaldo]

Ah, I gotcha. Thanks! I did a mixture of a few Any% and All Dungeons, old and new, but I think it was primarily that old All Dungeons route you mentioned

[@gingersolacemusic7590]

Zelda, of the Legend: Homeward Bound

[@sofichu_gamer655]

Bro how this is more interesting than every school class ever 😭🙏

[@michmill7007]

I knew this was possible in Oot, MM, and even LA, but Skyward Sword too!? Fantastic job, man.

[@kethaldo]

Thank you!

[@hyrumkohler]

I love how this and other Skyward Sword runs require dying repeatedly 😂

[@kethaldo]

Skyward Sword speedrunners all share the same weakness Damageless

[@vixwashere7811]

14:25 this was acutally my favorite boss in the game. It's super fun and unique. My least favorite was the stupid golden statue that you had to whip. I died to it twice and it has like 6 phases. Awful.

[@javen9693]

if you play skyward sword backwards then the title theme turns back into zelda's lullaby

[@kethaldo]

@@javen9693 AW! I should have made a joke out of this- that is so clever

[@moramoment3536]

i didn’t understand any of this but i still had fun. i like your funny words magic man

[@azer67]

You could have made LMF work in this run by opening it and entering it before obtaining the harp. Having the harp makes the LMF entering cutscene not exist, and the trigger for the loading zone to exist is the intro cutscene inside LMF. By raising LMF before obtaining the harp and entering LMF, you can watch the intro cutscene which spawns the loading zone which guarantees that you can enter LMF later after obtaining the harp :) I think the route you followed was a modified old AD route with the combined LMF and gate of time RBM. That route worked because the harp was obtained on a different file and not directly on the main file like you did here, which is why you stumbled upon that issue. Technically if you go all in with making setup files, you could complete skyview much later as you could rbm both the eldin and lanayru pillar onto a file that has done no dungeon and that would allow you to do skykeep first. But you are 100% right that you can't complete earth temple before skyview anyway so the goal of reverse dungeon order skyward sword barely fails near the end.

[@kethaldo]

@@azer67 gotcha. Thanks you!

[@grifleep4916]

I had a really hard time keeping track of this run... I think having like break screens would be good. Or visuals to show what BIT was trying to accomplish would help show off how impressive it actually is. The big part I couldn't keep track of was File swapping? What was part of the route vs BIT setup. So many glitches I've never seen before

[@YoungChip69]

and i thought the stuff i study in uni was tough, this shit magical

[@Achronelius]

Beating the game backwards is technically in many parts lore accurate because the same Link already defeated many forms of the final boss in the past XD

[@Julius_Strife]

This is why this games Rando is underrated

[@Mistyman6]

Three Words. Underrated as fuck.

[@ionamorwenna5564]

I haven't fully started the video yet so I don't know how exactly you're doing it for Skyward Sword, but backwards is my favorite way to play Majora's Mask! Play the prologue, get to the swamp, get the dungeon item, skip to mountain, get the dungeon item, skip to ocean, get the dungeon item, skip to canyon, finish dungeon, finish ocean dungeon, finish mountain dungeon, finish swamp dungeon, kill final boss, with sidequests scattered throughout. EDIT: Yeah, I'm not doing it like that.

[@kethaldo]

@@ionamorwenna5564 Oh that sounds fun! Maybe I should try that for a future challenge video 😏

[@ionamorwenna5564]

@@kethaldo It's not necessarily a challenge-challenge since I have no glitch knowledge so I just play vanilla, but it is a _different_ experience since you have like Zora Mask in Snowhead Temple and stuff~ But it would be fascinating to see what someone WITH glitch knowledge could do with it! 👀

[@kethaldo]

@ I gotcha. Unfortunately, I really only know Infinite Sword Glitch, and, by extension, Bomb Hovering, but I would love to look into this and even learn more glitches and see how backwards Majoras Mask can be beaten. It does have Wrong Warping, so the answer for an advanced run is probably VERY backwards

[@Silverstar114]

Reverse Reverse Back to Sleep Magic

[@MultiMadness_]

HAH I love this ima have to try these glitches to give my dad an aneurysm from how wild they are LOL Love this this was so cool and so funny behendhdh

[@elliotljungdell8700]

Skipped one of the best dungeons to fight the worst boss early

[@mylittledarkworldjohn4289]

So its more like Cani Beat skyword sword while being in back in time

[@Taskmeister67]

This makes me wonder, which is more broken, modern titles like breath of the wild and tears of the kingdom, or the older titles.

[@kitakin10]

This is extremely fun

[@MACMAN2003]

"reverse BIT magic" is a very apt name especially considering that scene flags may very well just be bits. and computer science is magic.

[@amaryllisbelladonna9299]

this gave me a headache 10/10

[@bmarfu]

Fun, but confusing. I'd love to see a version of this with some trackers, graphics, or maybe just an on-screen file number.

[@kitakin10]

Well I'm subscribing.

[@niklasrobin4241]

What the heck, banger video

[@WallaWaller]

BIT feels like it's one level below arbitrary code execution

[@kethaldo]

Pretty much, yeah. Ocarina of Time could probably be done backwards better than this game, but I know next to nothing on that game, much less the ACE glitch, so this was my next best bet. Not perfect, but it works pretty well

[@EGNot12]

Back in time 👍

[@MASTERESTLINK]

I've watched a video on Back In Time or BIT

[@JoshNotJohn0]

Skyward Sword? Weird way to say "Link's Bizarre Adventure Breaking The Space Time Continuum Just To Take A Nap"

[@kethaldo]

Not sure why they decided to call this game Skyward Sword and that other old game A Link to the Past, but oh well 🤷‍♂️

[@PersonBeing-z9g]

0:12 Ok, so you grab the belt/stick/other item the other way, and beat her

[@xenix4347]

good stuff!

[@Soapromancer]

I'm so confused

[@j.mxdden4036]

completely off topic, but what is the song clip that plays at 0:48, know its totk but cannot find it anywhere, somone PLEASE help

[@CopperWalker]

If you search it up on KZbin Music it should be called Main Theme (full version) - Tears of the Kingdom and it is by Zelda Universe

[@j.mxdden4036]

@@CopperWalker THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

[@CopperWalker]

@j.mxdden4036 you're very welcome and was it the one you were looking for?

[@dreamz1417]

​@@CopperWalkerI think it's one of the totk trailer themes actually.

[@deathby1808]

Skyward sword went from probably the most boring speedrun to the most interesting one with bit magic

[@kethaldo]

Skyward Sword might be my favorite Zelda game in terms of general movement, but I agree; Skyward Sword really is a one trick pony with its glitches. BiT makes it so much cooler

[@deathby1808]

@ Skyward Sword does so much correct. It’s just a shame that not everyone sees how great it is. It’s not my favorite one; TP is mine, but it’s probably my 2nd or 3rd favorite. Depending on the day 😂

[@StarIightshines]

I don’t know what just happened 😂

[@kerakhunter-b3n]

I find it funny like 90 percent of this is just using back in time.

[@faithcael5703]

"Zelda Games are SO LINEAR" if it were linear, wouldnt backwards also be linear? TAKE THAT ZELDA CRITICS

[@OcarinaOfJesus]

Worst boss in the game? I dunno, bud, that doesn't look like the 75 repeated fights against the giant Muppet of demise at the sealed grounds...

[@kethaldo]

“The giant muppet of Demise” Good one. You got me there

[@zachtwilightwindwaker596]

I think Zelda 1 can be beaten backwards to some extent. 1:08 I used this glitch so I wouldn't have to escort Scrapper up the mountain. 22 hours. Please help me. I'm in editing purgatory. How did you do this? I think when I do this I sometimes look through my videos with VLC because I can speed through the footage faster. However my videos rarely go over 2 hours.

[@88angelswings]

Can I get the name of song cover at the end of the video please?

[@kethaldo]

Not sure exactly which part you mean, so I’ll give the two final songs: Intro Theme - Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door Wind Fish Theme (Ocarina Version) - Links Awakening (Switch Remake)

[@General12th]

It's sad that BiT isn't useful in Wind Waker, even though these two games share the same base engine. I guess Wind Waker just doesn't use flags the same way?

[@kethaldo]

I don’t know much about the flag usage in Wind Waker, but the main reason BiT isn’t useful in Wind Waker is because advancing to the file select screen causes a map reload and cancels the glitch, so you wouldn’t be able to transfer scene flags in the same way. But BiT is useful for Max Keys speedrun or whatever it’s called in Winder Waker

[@General12th]

@@kethaldo The 14 key speedrun still goes over my head whenever I watch it.

[@stunningplatinum9477]

70% of this video is the file select screen. Let that sink in...

[@kethaldo]

Dude I totally misread that as “Let that Link in…”

[@stunningplatinum9477]

@kethaldo The Link time travel PTSD might be showing signs. 😥

[@DARX500]

Can you beat skyward sword with only the Academy Training sword when

[@kethaldo]

Got that idea a few weeks back, and I should be able to start, finish, and get it out in a couple months

[@DARX500]

@kethaldo i expect it to be even more painful than twilight with only the stick

[@fnf9607]

Whats the song that plays at the beginning of the video?

[@kethaldo]

Glass Ocean from Neon White

[@archerestarcher]

What about Skyview Temple? Shouldn't that have been your last dungeon, not the Earth Temple? Also the narration in this video is so rushed and all over the place that at the end here I can't remember if you actually did the ancient cistern or not

[@Xerilos]

Love to see content abusing just how truly broken Skyward Sword is.

[@zamaplayz243]

What? 😕

[@linachiaverini3542]

Diddy

[@kwebi]

what does he mean by this

[@marioman118]

he did not