Ocarina of Time Miscellaneous Glitches - Guard Freeze
Instructions
- Go to Hyrule Castle as Child Link.
- Get behind a guard and equip either an event item (Zelda's Letter, etc.) or the Ocarina to a C-button.
- Take a step towards the guard and immediately pull out the aforementioned item.
- Repeat the previous step, getting closer and closer to the guard each time. Eventually you'll pull out the item just as the guard blows his whistle and turns towards you.
- If you pulled out the Ocarina, you can now play a song. Play any song except for warp songs or Saria's Song.
Result
Link will play the song, and the gameplay will return more or less to normal... Except that both the guard and Link are frozen in place looking at each other. The game isn't frozen -- time still passes -- but the guard and Link are both frozen.
If you pulled out an item the text saying "It doesn't look like this item works here." will come up and then you'll be frozen in place.
Either way, to fix this, you'll need to reset the game.
Explanation
Please note that my explanation, typed up here, is solely in the realm of theory.
Normally, when you approach the guard, a sequence of events occur.
- The whistle sound is played.
- The guard turns to face you, and Link turns to face the guard.
- The game prepares to display a message box.
- You lose all control over Link, because a message box is about to appear.
- A message box appears, announcing that you've been detected.
- The game waits for you to close this message box.
- Link "respawns" at the entrance of the map.
Using the Ocarina/trade item interrupts this sequence. Your control over Link is disabled (as it would be when a message box appears), but the normal message box (announcing your being detected by the guard) doesn't appear (because it's been "overridden" by the Ocarina/trade item message); the game ends up waiting for you to close a message box that isn't there (and therefore cannot be closed). So the game isn't freezing, it's waiting, which is why time passes.
Of course, if you look closely at the animation included with this article, a slight movement of the camera can be discerned. I am not sure whether or not the camera can move when a blocking message box (one that locks your control over Link) is displayed, but if it can't, then my theory is disproved.
