The Oldest Unsolved Zelda Mystery

[@CricketStyleJ]

Imagine if you contacted the original developers, and they responded with a hint just as cryptic as the one you're asking about.

[@MonsterMaze]

That sounds like something the Zelda staff would do xD

[@atomdecay]

Lol "Those who question the right things are the same who discover the True Light". "Does that answer your question??????"

[@Bloodstar-o7]

N.o.A.: The secret is on the Easternmost Island.

[@phyllotaxis]

Basically what happened with the pendant in Dark Souls lol

[@MonsterMaze]

@@phyllotaxis That's FromSoft for ya

[@treelineresearch3387]

As as kid in '89 having no idea what a Famicom was or that the controller had a mic, I thought "Pol's Voice doesn't like loud noises" in the instruction book meant use bombs.

[@illuminatus3125]

I always thought it meant to use the flute. I was wrong.

[@lucyloo2228]

I used the flute too. It was the only thing that made a loud noise in my inventory. I blew it like 10 times.

[@noxxyy]

to be fair, at that point, that should just be a feature

[@1800mexicano]

That makes sense tbh

[@HerohammerStudios]

Wow, that actually makes so much sense

[@aratherbritishdinosaur]

I appreciate you spending 4 hours animating a single joke. It was worth it 💯

[@MonsterMaze]

Glad to hear that it was worth the time investment

[@aratherbritishdinosaur]

@@MonsterMaze You should try incorporating animation into your videos more. You’re really good at it!

[@GabrielGerbeau]

As a 3D artist I can appreciate the effort that went into this.

[@Big_Dai]

Was it? The overused JoJo reference that is hardly finny. Simple delivery and execution. And a model that doesn't even look like the original monster.

[@aratherbritishdinosaur]

@@Big_Dai Alright genius, no need to be a hater. Let’s see you make a video that’s this well-made.

[@AppaTalks]

I played Zelda as a kid, I used no guide, I won through painstakingly bombing every wall, burning every bush, blowing the whistle in every location. I was legend.

[@trucid2]

I still do this...

[@Ryan-zh1bo]

Ditto

[@poolhall9632]

My brother and I use the original map that came in the game and we hand drew the remaining empty sections 😅 Fun fact, I still have the map and the game booklet.

[@Brownsauce243]

My age 4 memories unlocked reading this

[@tjeisenman4439]

Same I was just remembering that game was so amazing! And yes you had to push every statue you had to do. Every Bush burn everything. I mean it was amazing you had to figure out the clues. It was so good

[@Wyrdwad]

As a professional localizer myself, I really appreciate how in-depth you went here. It really is striking how far game localization has come lo these past 40 years! My favorite example of obvious "Engrish" localization in The Legend of Zelda is the classic line "It's a secret to everybody." After I'd learned Japanese and gone back to Zelda 1, I instantly knew exactly what the original Japanese must have said when I read that, and exactly what error was made when translating it. And after looking it up... yep, it was just as I expected! The line should have been translated as something like, "Don't tell anybody about this." Which, when you're trying to save on character count in Japanese, can be abbreviated as "minna ni naishou wo" -- literally, "To everyone, a secret..." It's not a complete sentence, but in Japanese, that's completely fine -- it's perfectly acceptable in Japanese to trail off if the remainder of what you're saying is something that can be easily inferred. And any Japanese person reading this sentence fragment would absolutely be able to tell that the Moblin is trying to say, "Keep this a secret from everyone." As in, don't let other people know I'm helping you, or it'll ruin my reputation as one of Ganon's minions. But a non-native speaker of English will just translate what's written, and when all you have to work with is "To everyone, a secret...", it's totally understandable why the final line wound up being the rather nonsensical "It's a secret to everybody." ...I don't know if you actually care about any of that, and I think it was gone over in Legends of Localization as well, so I probably didn't need to type all of it, but I love talking about linguistic quirks like this, so I figured I'd share anyway, because why not? ;) You got me thinking about it with this excellent video, after all! So if I can share even a tiny tidbit of vaguely related info as a thank-you, then that works for me! Looking forward to future videos from you on similar mysteries, should you decide to make them!

[@screetchycello]

oh that's so cool, thank you for this

[@Bloodstar-o7]

これはありがとう。おもしろいです。

[@ryancarlson9680]

Very neat. Great insight, very interesting. Thanks

[@TayoEXE]

Sssh, みんなに内緒を

[@idonnow2]

This is amazing, thank you

[@ongakutanuki]

The oldest Zelda mystery is how can you tell a child that it's dangerous to go alone and then actually let him go alone.

[@excrono]

He didn’t walk alone with that sword. So, if you find yourself alone, get a weapon.

[@m0nt0y4]

It's dangerous to go alone, but I can't stop you from doing it, so at least take this sword

[@excrono]

@@m0nt0y4 Yep, it’s also a leading statement.

[@Crow_Rising]

@@m0nt0y4 I'd imagine that if they had the freedom for a longer speech, he'd probably go on about destiny this and chosen one that before discussing the dangers that have befallen Hyrule and instructing Link to destroy these new threats with this sword. Either way, when you have a very limited word count to say what you are trying to say, intentions can easily get lost in favor of the bare essentials. More properly translated he'd probably say something like "Danger has befallen Hyrule, save us with this!"

[@anthonybenci9035]

You have your sword by your side

[@GreenOfFields]

Nothing is more quintessentially “Zelda fan” than taking a single awkward sentence and analyzing it enough to make a nearly half-hour long video to share your findings. Bravo on that, and the excellent Pol’s Voice animation!

[@onijester56]

AND THEN getting actual high-level executives to respond to your random email, Like, that alone deserves props.

[@shenanitims4006]

Actually, I’d think a bona-ride Zelda fan would just get a Japanese copy and translate it themselves, to see what was actually said.

[@archerestarcher]

@@shenanitims4006 this video already includes the fact that Japanese version has a completely different sentence there

[@cnnhdlvth9557]

I respect people who made it to the end but I'm at 4:00 thinking "OF COURSE IT'S OPTION TWO! Broken english doesn't care that peninsulas are in water!" I'm sure the full video is great but I can't.

[@SELECT289]

Was thinking something similar. I mean he basically solved the "secret" in the first 1/3rd, but elaborated on the sidequests he stumbled upon during the process which, with his strong production values and overall cohesive atmosphere led to a really well done and entertaining video.

[@BismuthBorealis]

"I have altered the hints... pray I don't alter them further..."

[@SerranoSalazar]

Highly underrated comment

[@hairball178]

Lisa Simpson: "I thought Dinosaur Island was just a name!" Other guy: "It is! Dinosaur Island is actually a peninsula!"

[@Iron-Van]

ha

[@deimoslash1337]

It's Monster Island XD

[@hairball178]

@@deimoslash1337 whoops 😬

[@deimoslash1337]

@@hairball178 Lol honest mistake. I'm just a fairly big fan of Treehouse of Horror. I used to be able to recite those older episodes 🤣Even if I miss a few episodes during the season, Treehouse is a MUST.

[@lavarivy2259]

I'm glad I'm not the only person who thought of that joke 😂

[@targetplayer]

When originally playing, I interpreted it as the location of the boss and triforce. A simple, self-evident 'hint' didn't feel out of place in the game's first and introductory dungeon.

[@catsbutthole]

exactly, as this is the first level and the first triforce piece. FIRST time would make it a secret

[@ComputerMD82]

This is exactly how I always took it. It's the game's way of saying 'Hey, wrong direction.' It's the first level so it made sense.

[@voulgac]

Agreed - I interpreted the “peninsula” as that one literal easternmost “block” within the dungeon…. Which could be read as a peninsula of sorts… it is also in line with the mentioned (though unfounded) theory that an American audience might need that extra hint near the beginning of gameplay

[@lapanthanim]

It never occurred to me anyone would see it any other way. Hints usually appear for the same area they're in, not other areas. So the first dungeon's hint would be for the first dungeon, overworld hints for the overworld, etc.

[@lucyloo2228]

Yeah, dude wasted a lot of time making this video because the hint was for level 1.

[@NoTimeForGoblins]

"The inferior sequel to Train to Busan" Speaking facts but I didn't expect it lmaoooo

[@MonsterMaze]

I was so hyped for Peninsula, but it didn't really live up to the previous movie, haha ^^

[@aomccaskill81]

Gail Tilden is awesome. I used to write Nintendo Power and ask questions about games. I swear at least one of the responses was from Gail herself. All of them got thrown away at some point or another, but I wish I had kept that one. Also, imagine not knowing what to do next in a game and having to wait four weeks for an answer.

[@gyromurphy]

I used to do the same thing. I remember stumbling upon the Chris Houlihan room in LTTP and being blown away by it. It dumps you out in front of links house, so my kid brain figured it was the attic of the house. I wrote to Nintendo asking how I got there and they wrote back. I cant remember what the letter said, but I kept that letter for years, and over the years it just vanished. I wish I would've kept better track of all the letters I got back from them. They ALWAYS responded. That was our internet search back in the 90s.... it just took a little longer

[@jasonhildebrand1574]

a friend claimed to have discovered minus world in SMB and called or mailed a letter to Nintendo Power. They said that it didn't exist... according to the friend. This was in 1985

[@Charles2112pp]

As a mid 40s person that played this when it was new I just would like to point out that I found out I could walk through the wall because the location map clearly showed there was something in the top right corner and I did everything I could possibly think of for what seemed like hours in that screen. Eventually I walked through. And THATS how they made a game last longer in the 80's.

[@savezelda]

Nice

[@apushman]

watch this be a multi-decade old troll by a programmer leaving a message leading you to a meaningless treasure hunt

[@richierich6389]

Reminds me of the Pendant in Dark Souls 🤣

[@skygalvan1880]

Yeah but think of all the Snipe you will catch

[@CleaveTheDragon]

It isn't, the answer is clarified pretty quickly what it mot likely refers to, mot of the video is about localization quirks and speculation on the reasoning behind the changes.

[@Skinflaps_Meatslapper]

trolling is a art

[@kibosh8774]

Respect

[@ViewtifulGene]

The Moblin saying 'it's a secret to everybody' at that peninsula alcove sounds like pretty solid corroboration of the peninsula holding the secret.

[@phattjohnson]

Yep, sounds like the most 'side quest complete' like dialogue for the situation.

[@MonsterMaze]

Sorry I'm late folks! My dog ate my computer... Hope you all had a great weekend

[@sorryiateyourgoldfish]

happens to the best of us

[@Timberwolf69]

I sure hope your new computer doesn't resemble a biscuit like the old one.😉

[@jruler93]

Excellent video, man, and that Pols Voice bit was very well animated and honestly pretty funny too.

[@MonsterMaze]

@@jruler93 Thank you!

[@Timberwolf69]

@phxdowner Interesting. My computer is a potato. Coincidence?

[@jharrison3786]

Part of the confusion I think, is it's not obvious the NE portion of the map *is* actually a peninsula during game play. For awhile, the only maps were the ones included with the game, which omitted the NW and NE portions of Hyrule (to include the peninsula).

[@happysmilesworldandgames8755]

6:20 the moblin literally says "its a secret to everybody"

[@dominicmoisant8393]

literally days

[@happysmilesworldandgames8755]

@@dominicmoisant8393 kkkkkkkkkk edited

[@TheMightySwash]

But it does not say "It's a secret to everybody except the old man in the first dungeon." Checkmate atheists.

[@russellharrell2747]

@@TheMightySwashthe old man’s name was Everybody. Paradox initiated.

[@sgm482]

yea... would be funny if like.. the guy is just giving out the secret.. and the moblin is like... duh.. old dude tells everyone

[@soggysoup2087]

I love when KZbinrs give a little love to the OG's of LOZ franchise. They seem to a lost legend all in themselves.

[@TheIdiot-dl9jr]

Can’t wait for Zelda to use the wisdom of triforce in echoes of wisdom.

[@MonsterMaze]

Wisdom of Echoes

[@patrickaycock3655]

@@MonsterMaze Wand of gamelon 2. change my mind

[@Viehzerrer]

@@patrickaycock3655 That's already Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore.

[@Zeppathy]

This feels like an AI comment. :/

[@RF-Ataraxia]

​@@patrickaycock3655 "You've killed meeee...!"

[@AllGlitchdOut]

"If all else fails use fire" is the most iconic,

[@foughito]

I AM ERROR is far more iconic!

[@CheesyX2]

You also have to take into consideration how games were programmed back then. In simplified terms: You called the function to draw the textbox with a memory pointer and it was most of the times hardcoded to read a fixed number of bytes so in many cases text strings could not be changed at will because it would throw off the entire rest of the textboxes. You could get away with shorter textes if you replace the removed letters with empty spaces but longer texts weren't possible without extensive reprogramming of the text display routines of the game. This is why you often see weird abreviations of words or sentences that aren't really grammatically correct but still convey the meaning.

[@Edino_Chattino]

And also why we got so many short-named characters, which I believe led to a long-lasting tradition of fantasy character naming. A good example is Crono (Chrono) from Chrono Trigger.

[@wheedler]

"You also have to take into consideration how games were programmed back then: poorly."

[@JohnDoe11VII]

I don't know what they were programming with back then but you easily control a string length with a null terminating string instead of a constant with assembly languages I have worked with, and if not you create your own functions. This isn't a big issue. The assembler should easily stack all your data, including strings without wasting space or manually moving things around. What I have seen as an issue is having words break up and run onto the second line poorly, so long names and words are heavily avoided for display purposes in these games. Player names were often extremely short for line runoff and maybe limited space from the number of characters provided by Japanese developers not being aware of the typical length for English names.

[@CommanderGumball]

​@@wheedlerI'd say _tightly,_ more than poorly. They were working within very tight constraints and still pulled off great games!

[@ytmndan]

I seriously can NOT be the only 80s/90s kid who 1: knew what a peninsula was 2: found the piece of land that reached furthest east (northeast corner of the map) 3: noticed there was an area to the north, and looked for a way to get there, finding the illusory wall. 4: associated that discovery with the hint that explicitly described it. 5: didn't consider it an unsolved mystery for 30 f***ing years. I mean seriously. Where did you get the impression that no one else understood this hint?

[@1Worm_antifurry]

You are so cooll:3

[@ytmndan]

@@1Worm_antifurry I'm not. I even said as much. I said that I can't be the only one that figured out this stupidly simple puzzle.

[@Double-X2-Points]

Pretty sure the mystery that took decades to figure out refers to the 10th enemy has the bomb, but you likely were too busy trying to correct the grammar of your little rant message during the video to listen carefully. Nobody believes you btw. We all know your babysitter showed you the secret area and you are you using the information that everybody now knows to sound like you figured it out "by yourself". It's easy to look at a solved puzzle and see how it logically fits together. Also, you did this as a kid, so....last year? glhf

[@ytmndan]

@@Double-X2-Points At least 21 other people read my comment and had the same experience. Y'all keep thinking I'm trying to sound special, when its obvious that a ton of people figured it out. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if the video creator didn't make this video just to get people arguing over it for engagement. And every tenth enemy you killed gave you a bomb. That was self-explanatory. I didn't really do all of the research to figure out which enemies counted towards the ten or what other factors were considered. But I knew enough to know that when I needed bombs, I could farm them by killing enemies.

[@wheedler]

@@ytmndan "At least 21 other people read my comment and had the same experience." If you're talking about how many people liked your original comment, are you implying that the only reason you ever like comments is to show that it mirrors your own experience? I think "That's an interesting opinion that I never would have thought of myself" is much more common. But I am impressed with your memory of this game. I played it about ten years ago and can't remember what I did in relation to this message or the hidden area. Maybe I never found it. Maybe I knew exactly what it meant just as you did as a child.

[@ericpeterson6520]

You know what unsolved Zelda mystery has always perplexed me? Why is Link's hair pink in LttP. People have given all sorts of explanations, but none of them make any sense - it can't be a pallet limitation because Link's sprite already has enough brown and yellow tones to give him blond hair, people say it's not visible on old CRTs but that's just not true, etc. I just can't imagine why they'd make such an odd decision for the sprite of one of their biggest mascots in one of their system-seller bombshell games, and then not even reflect it in the official art

[@MonsterMaze]

That IS a good question... especially since Link's hair is blond in the official artwork.

[@Clyde-S-Wilcox]

He was young and rebelling against his uncle. Notice how quick he disobeyed his order to stay home. If he'd said anything it would have been "you're not my real dad!"

[@MonsterMaze]

@@Clyde-S-Wilcox Thank you for the new headcanon

[@DAVO360]

My guess is it just stood out better with the game graphics

[@mistermike4023]

Perhaps it has something to do with the Bunny form in the Dark World? Maybe the bunny was supposed to have a normal, blonde color at first to reflect Link's hair as well as real world rabbits, but it was changed to pink for some reason, perhaps because they thought pink would make it look cuter. Maybe the color change happened late into development and nobody cared to fix it

[@dlpi9212]

Funny, I got this game in 1987, and managed to beat both adventures with no trouble. My friends and I paid no mind to anything that didn’t make sense. It’s interesting how generations who didn’t grow up during this time seem to worry about all these in-depth details kids during the 70s and 80s never cared about.

[@EnjoySackLunch]

We’re all so proud of you!

[@goldengrill769]

@@EnjoySackLunch ​ Enjoy admitting you are some big game baby and your mental illnesses that are common to your generation held you back good for you too, good for you get to not know anything, can't figure anything out yourself and need hand holding and then get sarcastic that people not at your level of idiocy explain that its mindblowing people can be this pathetic, then you have to reply and say yes I fucking AM.

[@GossipGeist]

"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me." - Pols Voice R.I.P.

[@jnnx]

They never said that.

[@ivaldi13]

​@@jnnxWhooosh.

[@kgrfirdjy]

(yells in microphone) although on some devices you can also just blow into it, but why not be an annoying loudmouth? 😂

[@joeszymanski3540]

Finally a benefit from screaming at my controller!

[@drmadjdsadjadi]

Eastmost is most definitely a word and is found in the Collins English Dictionary and the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. It just is a word that isn’t used very much compared to easternmost.

[@Troggbot]

I loved the little animation, not because it was silly and goofy but because it really shows that you care and have passion about the videos you make.

[@niagargoyle]

I grew up thinking that the "eastmost penninsula" was the eagle's wing. Over the years I heard various arguments about the moblin in the northeast corner, but the piece of evidence that tipped the scales for me was the "you found a secret" music that plays when you walk through the wall above the tree for the first time.

[@spectralumbra1568]

I remember my brother telling me how frustrating it was that the silver arrows were never mentioned anywhere in the game. He was one of those kids who was frustrated by getting to Gannon and finding out he was unbeatable. he was stuck on it for so long until someone else who had the game finally told him about the arrows. He went on a pretty impressive rant about how it's never mentioned at any point in the game. It's kind of interesting to find out years later that the hint actually did exist in the Japanese version.

[@KainYusanagi]

Your brother feels a bit like he has poor pattern recognition, because the entire rest of the game has you exploring the dungeons for the hidden item that will help you in the dungeon, so why would the last be any different?

[@doomtho42]

@@KainYusanagi I’m gonna go out on a limb and say it’s probably because his brother was like 10 years old at the time.

[@JoeMama-st1ro]

Didn't it show them in the scrolling list of items when you turn the game on

[@KainYusanagi]

@@doomtho42 Back in the day, I knew plenty of kids that had the same or similar problems, and they also had problems with basic pattern recognition that other kids didn't have issues with.

[@richjordan6461]

​@JoeMama-st1ro excellent point. Doing a tiny bit of digging, I think it did

[@youtubeuniversity3638]

Imagine the devs responded "You're giving us too much credit. If your theory doesn't make you lose respect for us it is strictly wrong."

[@ProducerX21]

That's pretty cool you got a response from Gail and that she actually gave to some useful information

[@livefreeprintguns]

"I am Error" has been living rent free in my head for over 35 years now.

[@phattjohnson]

LOL, damn straight.

[@saffronnie3969]

I love that you mentioned they mess up even now. Because, in BOTW... When Zelda says that Ganon has given up on reincarnation... It was actually supposed to be he is trying to reincarnate now, or more than ever or something along those lines. So for poor English players that did not know the translation mistake....... TOTK is probably SUPER confusing...

[@MonsterMaze]

Yes! I was actually gonna use that clip during that section, but I couldn't find it in my archive and was already running out of time. So I settled for a random shot of the ending, haha

[@saffronnie3969]

@@MonsterMaze It still conveyed the message! I love that attention to detail! When TOTK was announced, knowing the translation error I was like... Well aint this confusing for English players XD

[@Jotari]

I love how you're criticizing their translation for being ambiguous while simultaneously conveying the actual information in the most ambiguous way imaginable.

[@saffronnie3969]

@@Jotari "Given up on reincarnation" is ambiguous? I also forgot the exact quote. Want me to go find it? The point of the comment is that the English version straight up says Ganon gave up on reincarnation.. And yet he reincarnates in the sequel... Where as the Japanese version makes it more clear he is trying to reincarnate.

[@CJ-mk3nf]

Just to give your comment a bit more depth and context, here's the relevant lines: (the preceding lines from Zelda in this scene are pretty much the same, except I would maybe say that the jp version has more emphasis on the fact that he's revived no matter how times his destruction is attempted) Eng: "He has given up on reincarnation and assumed his pure, enraged form." Jp: "復活を諦めない妄念から暴走した姿。。。" By a rough translation, "A rampaging form born from a corrupted will that never gives up on reincarnation" Essentially, exactly the opposite lmao. I really don't quite get how a professional translator got that one wrong, it's not particularly out of the way grammar or something. It's basically just "won't give up on reincarnation" being attributed to something. Ah well, at least we get some fun facts out of it

[@napoleonion]

If you check out Pop Fiction: Season 3: Episode 32, you can see around 9:30 that one of the development materials for LoZ included the treasure drop chart (8th enemy has the bomb) meaning this was at least easily accessible to the Japanese developers. Nintendo developers often continue tweaking a game before its localized releases, which sometimes get back-ported to later revised Japanese editions - it's very feasible to assume these hints were put in to help clarify certain things, but with the lack of proper English localization just made things more confusing instead. Literally translating "dejima" to "peninsula" (as the name could easily also have been in the development materials, but never provided to NoA for inclusion in translated print materials) is likely to have been done by a Japanese developer with a dictionary to clarify a confusing secret.

[@ganonfan]

You should make more of these classic Zelda mysteries. I actually learned so much from this video alone, and I thought I knew a lot about the original Legend of Zelda!

[@MonsterMaze]

More is on the way! The next video will be an old Link to the Past mystery ^^

[@ganonfan]

@@MonsterMaze I can't wait!!

[@cristianmedina1416]

And people say games aren't educational 😂

[@BlueMoon1890]

​@@MonsterMazeis it why Link's hair is pink? I've always wondered why, even though it doesn't have any bearing on the game

[@homerman76]

Agreed, I keep finding out there's still more to explore with these games from videos like this

[@nict4343]

I always assumed he was referring to the location or the dungeon boss. I didn't even know there was a mystery lol.

[@balaam_7087]

That’s awesome that Gail Tilden replied to you and corroborated your thoughts. You are Great champion and super constancy!

[@johncameron1935]

Why would a character in the first dungeon talk about a secret not only outside of the dungeon they're in but not even really relevant until quest 2? That whole thing seems like a pretty big stretch honestly.

[@wheedler]

They're just trying to be helpful.

[@dirtywhitellama]

"Eastmost" is a word that, according to multiple online dictionaries, has been used since before the 12th century, so calling it not a word seems a little rude 😂

[@MonsterMaze]

I guess I was being "wordist" then, haha

[@dirtywhitellama]

@@MonsterMaze 😱 how could you 😂 Enjoyed the video though, including the animation that took 4 hours! Your clip will probably be viewed for a greater amount of time than it took you to build it, when you total between all viewers ...maybe that makes you feel better?!

[@atomdecay]

I think we are all in AGREEANCE that "eastmost" definitely is a word 😉

[@russellharrell2747]

If someone speaks it or writes it, it’s a word. That’s how language works. If enough usage is noted, it’s recognized by ‘authorities’. That’s all. The dictionary is descriptive, not prescriptive

[@knurlgnar24]

@@russellharrell2747 I've speaked many o wurds that wernet wurds. If a word is commonly used it becomes part of language. If not, that language is unique to you and not really anything useful except for your own purposes. Eastmost is a deprecated word and linguists would generally consider easternmost to be the proper substitute today. In fact, google does NOT recognize eastmost as a word, correctly so.

[@VoiceUnder]

2 reasons why it is referring to the first temple: 1. It's the first temple in the game which often is part tutorial. It's the glass Joe of Zelda temples. While the compass might make it seem redundant, it's helpful for the beginner. Consider the *hint* is given at the furthest West point. It's a good tip to tell you to go the other direction. 2. Broken English is often mentioned in this video. It stands to reason they could not come up with a better word to reference the map. It's enough to connect the dots while also being a little cryptic.

[@senordivinebeast646]

I didn’t even know about this topic at all so it’s fun to see you cover a mystery that I didn’t know even existed 😂

[@sethfulton7011]

the 5 second clip is what made me subscribe. definitely worth the effort

[@407BRR]

I never new there was a debate about that hint. I always assumed it was direction the player to the first triforce piece. But you made a compelling argument. The only thing I'd say is that hint, in that location, is very obtuse if it refers to the overworld peninsula because the only map in game are the dungeon maps.

[@DCBiscuit]

I always find it fascinating when Zelda 1 through Link to the Past show up on lore channels. They’re so integral to the core idea of the series and yet they get peanuts.

[@PowerStar004]

I think that they wanted "Spetical Rock is an entrance to Death" to be in level 8 because most hints at the location of a dungeon are in the prior dungeon (ex: the hint to the location of level 7 being in level 6). For this same reason, I genuinely thought the peninsula hint was about the location of level 2.

[@metalfenix]

That animation you did, got you another subscriber. That's a whole level of dedication for a youtube video that is about a cryptic quote in the game. Keep up the good work.

[@ctsamurai]

Its so weird that the "10th enemy bonb" secret only works if the player *uses* a bomb on that tenth enemy. So theyd need to have a bomb to get a bomb. 🤷‍♂️

[@NIMPAK1]

Bomb drops in Zelda 1 give you four bombs, so only needing one bomb is well worth the trade off.

[@loudgoat5241]

Being able to force a bomb with that trick is huge for speedrunners. Also if you kill the 10th enemy regularly, its a forced 5 rupees. 16th enemy is a fairy, which resets the counter. Unless you skip the fairy then you can force a bomb/5 rupee on 20. It's actually a fairly complex thing.

[@dansmith1661]

Should have said blue enemies may drop bombs.

[@loudgoat5241]

@@dansmith1661 That's not quite the case though. Its the "B" group in the chart at 11:25, and there are a few red enemies in there.

[@ridetheheckler]

I love Gail. She is a wealth of knowledge into that time at NoA. She is also such a brillant woman.

[@RoninCatholic]

Pol's Voice was always one of my favorite enemies in the game, glad to see that cute little animation of it.

[@feathero3]

It's not much, but that 4 hour animation just got you another subscriber. 👍

[@Dethneko]

Eastmost peninsula is the secret. When I first saw this, I looked at the map of level 1 (where the text is found) and if you view the dungeon as an island, then the eastmost peninsula is where the triforce piece is. But, if you look at the world map, the ocean starts somewhere in the southeast and curves to run up the entire east side. When you get near the top, a river curves in, so if you look at the northeast of the map, you have a strip of land that is now implied to have water to the south, east, and north, so we officially have a peninsula, and it's eastmost of the map. Looking at the north side of the section, it looks like there's no way to go north, except there is, via a hidden path (i.e. a section of "impassible" terrain you can actually walk on). I believe that is the secret. In the first quest, it's 100 rupies. In the second quest, it's where you buy the blue ring.

[@clashblaster]

2:25 While "eastmost" is far less common than "easternmost", it is still valid English and found in both Merriam-Webster and Oxford's dictionaries, both attesting to its use for over a thousand years, since the Old English period. It's more common in certain regions of the UK than it is elsewhere.

[@underdarkness7692]

If I had to guess why some of them were changed it was exactly the fact that it's people that don't know English very well using phrase books combined with the limited memory and difficulty of manually changing the text. Assembly, especially early assembly, can be kind of fucky to work with and changing even how much text there is in a given message can have consequences. If only a certain amount was allocated, you kind of have to cram the text into that space or it gets very complicated very quickly to grow and shrink buffers and make sure the data is still reachable from where it's needed (esp when taking into account bus switching etc). I wouldn't be surprised if they had translated the text, found it wouldn't fit, and didn't really know how to properly rephrase it to fit. It's possible this is also the reason some of the text got shifted around - they found that a translated message in area A didn't fit in the space they had allocated, but *did* fit in area B's message space, so they moved it without thinking too hard about the consequences. Especially if they don't remember *exactly* what the message originally said before they translated it. E: To be clear I'm not saying the messages have to be exactly as long, just at most as long as the buffer, you can pad the end with blanks/spaces

[@joelwarren6005]

Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest suffered from a lot of the same translation limitations that Zelda did. English speakers often forget that Japanese kanji is a symbolic text, able to express more information in a single symbol than English words often can. Spacing and storage limitations led to compromises that affect the accuracy of translations, especially in the earliest days of international game development.

[@jswets5007]

The "secret" is the "walk through wall" mechanic, not any of the rewards. As you pointed out, there is no hint that walking through walls is even possible in the manual. Hence, "Eastmost Penninsula is the Secret" that you will need to complete the next dungeon. 😉

[@UltirianWren]

Honestly, I want more of that animation you made. It was amazing! :D

[@HilariousButTrue]

The hint was for the Triforce piece. It was the first dungeon and the makers of the game wanted to hand hold players a little bit since The Legend of Zelda was the first game of it's kind and they wanted to direct players to the goal so they would know there actually was something to get in the dungeon. The word secret is used broadly to communicate importance and is used more than it should be because the game makers knew only so much English. I wasn't aware that people were on the fence on the hint's meaning, it was always very obvious IMO. Nice vid, very entertaining and well edited.

[@ericfrancisrock9974]

I never questioned this quote, I always thought it was talking about the triforce location in the first dungeon. The secret in the northeast of the map has the hint of there being another spot above it on overworld map.

[@Joooooooooooosh]

This is 100% what it refers to. I can't believe I had to scroll this far to see this comment.

[@destructodisk9074]

Absolutely. Its the first dungeon. It is giving you the basics of the game. Everyone I have ever seen play the game thought the same. “Ah so I have to head to the end of the eastern wing of this dungeon”. In those days they didn’t hit you over the head with tutorials, but instead in the beginning of the game, gave you tools and mechanics right near where you could use them. The first rooms have keys and then immediately after, locked doors. There is an obvious block to push near a closed door with no key hole, so you know you can push blocks to open up secrets. They didnt put a secret in the first dungeon having to do with something complex and far away. The game opens up like that later as you get more comfortable and know whats going on, it will let you have more complexity, but the first dungeon is all about itself and learning how a dungeon works. The secret to dungeons is the triforce peace at the end. Also peninsulas can refer to bodies on maps. It doesn’t have to be land and water. We were all looking at our in game map of the dungeon to see the eastern peninsula of the dungeon. The other thing he is talking about in the overworld is not a peninsula. The outer edge is impassable rock, not water or even an empty body on a map.

[@doomtho42]

I’ve never played a Zelda game in my life and I’m only 5 minutes into this video, but to me it seems abundantly obvious that this is the correct answer. The use of the word “peninsula” a) makes much more sense than the video creator implies, and b) may just be an unmodified translation that doesn’t have a direct 1-to-1 match in English. Maybe the rest of the video will have more information that changes things, but so far the other possible meaning seems like a huge reach.

[@RollingCalf]

Same. And the hint about "the tip". The first boss dies so much faster if you strike the horn

[@Chubby_Bub]

I always thought Pols Voice is a "silly little guy" so I really like the animation you did for it.

[@thomasmarenda6651]

It wasn't until the internet, that I learned about game creators scrapping things that they initially wanted in the game. On a play thought few years after, I started thinking about why the developers would have made such a hard secret to find be only a reward of rupees. Then I came up with the theory that maybe it was supposed to hide something scrapped from the final game. Maybe an item that would have been so powerful it would have made the game to easy if it was discovered early on or an item that just wouldn't work do to software limitations. Possibly a more detailed map of the over word or one that points to dungeon locations, which would have made the hidden dungeons to easy to find.

[@kaiseremotion854]

I wonder, could the bow have originally been there, but test players couldn't find it, so the moved the bow into the dungeon itself. This would make even more sense with the translation, as both have to do with the bow.

[@pirojfmifhghek566]

The real unsolved mystery of Zelda is why they made the boomerang look so much cooler in the first game, but so awkward in all the others.

[@tazien]

Definitely make more of these, this stuff is super fascinating and i love seeing your thought process and dedication in your research. Also that four hours you put into that lil animation def paid off, i watched it like four times XD

[@eugeneedens4525]

A buddy and I played this game so much that we drew our own maps, complete with every hidden door, cave, and other stuff. Some years ago, he sent me three NES systems and a bunch of games, including the original Zelda. I spent weeks redrawing those maps for both levels and making a list of every possible detail in regards to hidden secrets and other information. He even included a Game Genie, and I found a way to add more than three codes to a character. Start the game, add three codes, create a new character, and immediately save the character and restart the game system, not just the game itself. When the code screen comes up, add up to three more codes, and start the game using the newly created character. Once you resave the game, the character will retain all the codes you entered. I usually use the unlimited bombs, unlimited rupies, no damage, and full hearts. Those are pretty much the best and only codes you really need.

[@elnurgling]

Another mystery from the original Legend of Zelda is on who's side the dungeon monsters are if Zelda herself hid the Triforce pieces in there, to be guarded by Gleeoks, Gohmas, Dodongos and expertly animated Pol's Voices and whatnot. Makes me think that this particular Link is happily going around murdering Zelda's underlings...

[@Curseius]

OR OR OR and hear me out its a very badly translated clue that meant something completely different

[@CZsWorld]

I'm gonna start using the word Eastmost whenever giving people directions.

[@MonsterMaze]

Eastmost streetcorner is McDonalds

[@mattsmith8160]

@3:42 That second hypothesis has always been the one I subscribed to. It makes the most sense to me. Anybody arguing that that room with the first triforce piece isn't really a peninsula hasn't considered the fact that people don't always use words correctly, especially when they can't even spell them correctly. It seems an obvious clue to where the end of that dungeon is.

[@tattertot8259]

So new mystery : How do we save Marin from being trapped as a seagull forever ?

[@Z-Man7]

Never.

[@S4NSE]

3:40 so it's not mystery at all

[@Hscaper]

Correct. But you gotta make money online somehow!

[@S4NSE]

@@Hscaper haha well yea, true I guess

[@mrmosty5167]

I always wondered why the sword underneath the title is like a rapier or cutlass when the swords Link uses are more of the broadsword type

[@MusicThatSuitesMe]

I think of Princess Zelda's sword from Twilight Princess. As if it was meant to represent the fallen kingdom or something, of sorts.

[@Tom_Emody]

And now we have “secret” stones in totk….. Secrets aren’t for keeping…they are for revealing….Tom

[@AzurePip]

I honestly never bothered to question that Old Man's quote, always thinking he was referring to the location of the Triforce in the easternmost peninsula of the Level 1 dungeon.

[@bryantmcdiarmid]

This! This right here! I always thought that is exactly what it meant.

[@circeciernova1712]

Given how they were trying to make the game easier for American release, it really wouldn't shock me if they decided the Compass wasn't enough, and so added an extra hint to the first dungeon to help guide players.

[@wfchannel4673]

same. considering it's the first dungeon and really important not to miss. doubling down on making sure players know to go there makes the most sense, especially in light of the goblin nose clue.

[@Agret]

This is the real answer but it doesn't make for half an hr of video content does it 😂

[@xGOKOPx]

Why do yall act like he didn't literally talk about it in the video

[@the.nostalginaut]

Neat idea to unpack this - and kudos for getting in touch with Gail!

[@Primordial_Radiance]

Thank you for animating that blob.

[@goddessdeedeebubblesofimag7789]

R Radiance Light LÄMP _"the light, forgotten."_

[@sirenastellataa]

As a translator, I love seeing translation/localization mistakes being pointed out; it really makes you admire how important a well-informed and hardworking translator is. Also i just love watching a video about one of my interests and it turning out to be about translation. much love!

[@BirdieParTee]

It is 1000% the "2nd option" where it is telling you that the TriForce piece is hidden in the eastmost portion of level 1. It's not a mystery, that's what he's saying. It's all about context. He's IN the dungeon. If he was referring to the overworld, he would be IN the overworld. And you said it yourself....the old men in the dungeons provide a clue to what you are looking for along the way. Consistently, they do this in every dungeon. The ones where they give you hints like "did you get the sword outside" are because THIS is the point in the game where you need the extra damage to reliably take out the boss of THIS dungeon. It's still to help you with the progression curve of the current dungeon. Making any other assumption is just ignoring the context of the rest of the entire game. It's the very first dungeon. It's essentially a tutorial. That's why it's so obvious and straightforward. It's a game from 1985. Analyzing it with the depth that we do with a "modern" game in terms of analyzing terms like peninsula for accuracy is a fool's errand.

[@MatthewCobalt]

Obvious and straightforward? My man, he just presented evidence which would attempt to validate his perspective, yet you only use an implication and downplaying his own understanding of the reason for why it was like this.

[@0shark096]

I never thought it was anything but a reference to the TriForce location. As for it being obvious and straightforward, yes, it is because you just need to play the game for it to be obvious. You don't need to research how games are developed and localized to come up with a plausible alternative.

[@theonlybilge]

15:50 "To blame" is a *_very_* fitting phrase to use when referring to Treehouse.

[@TheDrexxus]

I always assumed it was referring to where that triforce piece was in that particular dungeon. I had no idea there was a tinfoil hat community that rejected this and have been desperately looking for an alternate meaning for the past 40 years.

[@BlackIce420]

your 5 second blob joke was awesome lol

[@lyricbread]

I played the game when it was first released in the USA. Option 2 is how I always viewed it. Given that it was Level-1, it was an honest hint for a new player who might have gotten lost (or hadn’t yet found the compass or map).

[@thetick48]

So funny - 44 year old gamer and from childhood, I always thought they were trying to ease the player into how to get the first Triforce piece. This explanation never entered my mind... but it makes way more sense! I've always attributed the cryptic messages to poor translation or game limitations... nice dive!

[@HeadRedShot]

the heart container secret feels like its on its own little island tbh. i know its technically connected to the mainland but there is no way to actually see that in game right?

[@MonsterMaze]

True, you can only see the connection when you look at a zoomed out overworld map. In-game it appears as its own thing.

[@adrenallenX]

This is 2024 thinking. The way games were designed 40 years ago and the way people interacted with them was very different.

[@adrenallenX]

Grew up watching AVGN? I was in my 20's. I guess I'm old now.

[@ZipplyZane]

I can agree with the Eastmost peninsula. But the arrow hint has to be about Pols Voice. There's no other hint anywhere to tell you that the arrow would work against them, and it's replacing a hint that was about the Pols Voice.

[@roybatty-]

The programmers simply did not know how to write what they wanted to say.

[@badbuiltbq]

The east-most peninsula in Hyrule in ToTK is where a pretty huge secret consequential to the series plot is revealed. THEY KNEW.

[@devenestes3234]

I just finished this game for the first time about a month ago. It is amazing how much they leave to the imagination. They really didn’t do handholding back then. And some of those dungeons are sooo hard.

[@r_i_e_n_a1471]

This was interesting! Localization back in the day sure was something...the mistakes in zelda 1 are somehow very endearing😂❤

[@MonsterMaze]

It really is a product of its time. And a good product at that!

[@jasommer]

I would love to see more old Zelda mysteries!! Good vid

[@cravdraa]

I could see peninsula referring to dungeon 1 if they didn't understand the meaning of peninsula. Like maybe, it was just intended to be something that sticks out. Apparently "Donkey Kong" was meant to be something to effect of "Stubborn Monkey" and got it though a translation dictionary.

[@kaiseremotion854]

its possible the typo also is from that.

[@spermplant]

I think this was even in a guide back then. It was at least the commonly accepted answer amongst the neighborhood, because a path to progress was there.

[@barrymaslow8441]

I'm a snob regarding the amateur-hour writing found in most videos uploaded to YT, so I'm compelled to compliment ya on this vid, my man. It's fvcking great!

[@AnimusBehemoth]

As someone who is like two months into learning Blender, After Effects, and Photoshop just to animate a 10min video about Hollow Knight that maaaybe 10k people will see… I can’t tell you why you’re like this, but I can tell you you’re not the only one. Goede video!

[@antoinedodsonsbandana5856]

10:30 Katakana is not a simplified version of Japanese; it is an alphabet which is generally used for words of non-Japanese origin. Great video though!

[@farideh4698]

12:30 Sincerely, that was time well spent Don

[@myleswelnetz6700]

He was King Rhoam Bospheramus Hyrule. He was the last leader of Hyrule. A kingdom which no longer exists.

[@SoulsOfWisdom]

I guess it'll be a secret to everybody.

[@caloftyr6388]

The 4 hours you put into that animation paid off. It got me to subscribe. Great work on that. Be proud of your work. Get yourself a beer... Rootbeer, I mean Rootbeer....

[@shay3878]

You know rent is due when monster maze finally uploads 🗿

[@CosmicBit64]

I had this game when it came out. This a great video. So at 5:55 you show what I always thought this hint was pointing to. Remember in the early 90’s we didn’t have the internet. I learned and traded game tips and cheats with other kids at recess and check out guide books from the library. We also poured over instruction manuals as they often had tips and tricks, some of which you needed to complete the games. In the early part of the game, rupees are scarce, and they're essential for purchasing items like the candle, bombs, better shield, and arrows. So 100 rupees is a lot. While there are numerous secret areas where you can collect rupees, this particular location is one of the few you can access without needing any specific items. Anyway ; that hint was exactly how my 6 year old self found that 100 rupee secret on the peninsula. Yeah, it’s obtuse but back then games were more frustrating and less straightforward. But, the game did come with a large fold out map so it wasn’t as obtuse as you might think. .

[@notalexus8125]

this is such a minor thing in the video, but i just wanna say that katakana is not just a "simplified" version of japanese. it's one of the fundamental alphabets, and it's also likely that nintendo avoided kanji because children are unlikely to know most kanji that are on the more complicated side, and having the traditional kanji+hiragana would take way too much space. also... pixelated kanji... i shudder to think of trying to read even simple words like 家 (water)

[@dasheru]

Was looking for this comment! Glad someone mentioned this because I kept thinking about it as I was watching the video. To add to what you were saying for those who are interested in this kind of thing: - Katakana is not an alphabet, it is a syllabary. An alphabet is a writing system where each character maps onto a phoneme (the smallest unit of sound in language). However, in a syllabary, each character maps onto a syllable (or a mora in the case of Japanese). The Japanese writing system contains three scripts: hiragana, katakana, and kanji. Hiragana and katakana are syllabaries, whereas kanji is a logographical script. - 家 is not "water," it actually means "house." "Water" would be 水.

[@alansmithee6273]

​@@dasheru Legitimate question, how do you think this guy wrote 家 in his comment? Like, how do you think it got there? That's impossible to get from a typo. Maybe blind copy/pasting something he couldn't read, but highlighting the wrong line by mistake?

[@dasheru]

@@alansmithee6273 That is a good question. Maybe their source was a table of kanji characters and their corresponding meanings, and they just read the table wrong by accident?

[@GromDarkwater]

Katakana is the simplified japanese alphabet. I was taught this as fact by my Japanese teacher who was from Kyoto. It came about originally for that very purpose.

[@dasheru]

@@GromDarkwater That's not true. Katakana is not an alphabet, it is a syllabary. In an alphabet, each character maps onto a possible phoneme (the smallest unit of sound in a language). In a syllabary, each character maps onto a syllable (or a mora in the case of Japanese). Katakana originally arose as a means for Buddhist monks in Japan to transcribe Sanskrit texts from India. Over time, it was integrated into Japanese schools to help students better grasp kanji. From there, katakana gradually saw use in various applications. In modern Japanese, katakana is used for loanwords and foreign names, scientific names of flora and fauna, to represent onyomi readings of kanji, as a way to denote emphasis or accent, similar to italics in English, and also to write certain proper nouns and counters. Katakana is not an alphabet, and its usage is not that of a simplified script.