Is It Possible To Get Permanently Stuck In a Zelda Dungeon?

Have you ever thought to yourself, is it possible to get stuck in a Zelda dungeon? Well then you're in luck, because in this video I'm going to answer that very question. I'm going to look at 4 Legend of Zelda dungeons and see if its possible to get permanently stuck in them. They are Ocarina of Time's Shadow Temple, Skyward Swords Lanayru Mining Facility, Links Awakening's Eagle Tower and Links Awakening's Angler's Tunnel.

[jackdaniel]

It's hard to appreciate it in the moment, but when you think about it, creating a puzzle system with so many keys and doors and avoiding softlocks is an extremely meticulous task. Props to Nintendo devs, because they seem to be very conscious of this.

[jackson_mcgrath]

The link's awakening Eagle's Tower soft lock happened to me, it's especially devastating because at that point you're so close to the end of the game, but then have to start all over from scratch.

[FifteenthApollo]

So this actually DID happen to my dad on Master Quest on GameCube back in the day...due to a glitch. It was the spirit temple, the young Link section. My dad had the small key you're supposed to use to get to the room with the Iron Knuckle, to finish the child portion of the dungeon. He ended having trouble advancing to that room, went to the beginning of the dungeon, and repeatedly rolled into the jets of water. He ended up no-clipping past the jets of water into the adult section of the dungeon, using his only key, then was unable to complete the child portion of the dungeon, and absolutely boned his Master Quest playthrough. Granted it was a glitch, but damn, he got STUCK stuck. This was back before the days of YouTube video walkthroughs, so we had to scrub written walkthroughs on old forums...this was easily in 2004/2005 lol.

[tommycorts]

Zero footage of anyone actually jumping the gap in the angler's tunnel. WHY?

[delphy]

it's actually pretty impressive that for so many games, they have been so well constructed to have so few ways to softlock even with glitches

[Thanatos]

If it’s so easy to jump that gap, you could have included some footage of the jump.

[GoeTeeks]

Funny thing about that Angler's Tunnel key, in the GB and GBC version of the game, it's possible to grab that key with your sword as it falls down the hole the first time you enter the room. I'm not sure if it's possible to leave the dungeon or reset the game to trigger the key to fall again, allowing you to grab it with your sword or not, however. If it is, this is no longer a permanently softlock situation. If not though, then yeah, you're SOL there.

[prezpnage]

Ocarina of Time: Master Quest. In the Spirit Temple you can use the small key on the wrong door by making a couple precise jumps and be softlocked forever.

[elesfinter]

Is incredibly how a franchise with 35+ years of dozens of puzzles and dungeons, these are the only four partially easy to encounter softblocks

[AceZephyr]

In Ocarina of Time's Fire Temple, it's possible to collect the first key, then perform a relatively easy jumpslash clip to pass through the hammer-locked barrier and use the key on the lower door in the entrance room instead of the upper door without having gotten the hammer, locking you out of being able to get the hammer without using significantly more complex and difficult glitches. This is probably the closest to a key-lock you'll get in Ocarina of Time.

[cario]

It's actually possible to become softlocked in Spirit Track's Spirit Tower on a specific floor by using the small keys in the wrong way. The floor this can happen in is the floor you go to after getting the whip. I know this because I've done this before myself.

[truedude]

After all these years of zelda it’s crazy that there are less than a handful of these situations

[Enlightenment]

Eagle Tower can be softlocked with the iron ball and then completed using the map scroll to navigate between floors. Requires some out-of-bounds navigation, but the boss room is accessible from that dungeon as well as a few other dungeons and cave areas.

[TheMaplestrip]

I'm really confused, because I'm not seeing you do the jump in this video for that final example? At 7:41 I just see you walking on the floor?

[AzarathMetreon]

I don’t think it was so much that people were permanently stuck as much as they got stuck for an extended period of time and gave up. I distinctly remember spending two irl weeks trying to find a key in the water temple. I did eventually find it though, and I’m sure plenty of other people would’ve given up on it way sooner.

[timothybogle]

Note to self.
Never save at any of these dungeons. Play in one shot.

[damiencouturee]

I definitely got stuck in the water temple when I was a kid lol. I know now where the key is, under some platform and the only clue is a split second showing of the gap during a cutscene, but as a kid before the internet I simply couldn't find it so I ended up just starting again.

Pretty sure everyone knows, but it was a big enough problem that they redid that cutscene for future rereleases of OoT, where it shows the hole you're meant to go down for a good couple seconds and makes it obvious you should go check that spot out lol. In the original it looks more like a camera glitch than a direction lol

[CharemTheShadox]

Okay, decent video here, but it makes me unnaturally-upset that you talked about the Angler's Tunnel jump skip but never actually SHOWED it. The footage always just walks by the jump...and doesn't actually do it.

Given it was the crux and conclusion of your video, I'm flabberghasted why we weren't shown the trick. :p (I'm personally aware it works as I've seen it before, but c'mon man - verify your data.)

[Killer_Kotomibro]

There's another way to softlock Eagle's Tower that I triggered as a kid. The original GB release of Link's Awakening had a glitch where if you brought up the map with SELECT during a screen transition it would warp you to the other side of the screen. This enabled a bunch of sequence breaks and made it possible to get stuck in non-existant rooms with no doors.

Another effect that I ran into is that it caused the iron ball in Eagle's tower to get trapped in one of those non-existent rooms. I must have wandered around for hours trying to find it, no dice. Had to restart the game.

Fun little glitch you could pull off with the warp was getting multiple followers at once, which would either turn Marin into a chicken or a ghost based on the other follower.

[thevangsta]

Can't say I've been stuck in a dungeon on a Zelda game however for Ocarina Of Time I did miss out on 2 Heart Pieces permanently!! The first one was a 10lbs fish at the fishing pond!! I glitched it so I could get the Golden Scale instead!! I left then went back in and caught a 12lbs only to recieve 20 rupees!! Later on I found out the fish has to be at least 8 or 9lbs for this to work and to still get the Heart Piece!! I guess after 10lbs the prize is flagged!?
2nd time was digging with Dampe!! I was so impatient I kept going under the grave and coming back out hoping he'd dig up the Heart Piece!! Finally he did dig it up but I once again fell into the grave!! I tried again many hours after and several times after I said fuck it and just went on to finish the game!! Turns out once that Heart Piece is dug up it's flagged so it can't be dug up no more!!

These were on separate files both files I ended it with 19 and 3 pieces!! While still grabbing everything else!! If it's a game I love I'll 100% it everytime I revisit it and I love Ocarina Of Time!!