In this particular series of posts, I like to write about strange things that can often be, well, overlooked by most gamers. Most of the things I write about are useful or, at the very least, mildly interesting.
This post is an exception.
You see, I once found out about something strange in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time that I must admit makes no sense, and the exclusion of this would have had no impact on the game whatsoever. If you kill enough of certain types of enemies, eventually a huge version of it will appear. At night, Stalchildren sprout out of the ground in Hyrule Field like skeletal weeds. If you kill enough, a giant Stalchild will appear. Guay flit about the skies of Lon Lon Ranch at night, and if you kill enough…a giant Guay will appear. Leevers eject themselves from the blistering sands of Gerudo Desert, intent on causing you harm and a great deal of annoyance. And if you kill enough of them, you guessed it. A giant. Leever. Will appear.
When I first found out about this strange phenomenon, as you might suspect, I had to check it out for myself, and the rumors proved true. I didn’t care as much about the Leevers or the Guay, but I would spend many nights out in Hyrule Field hacking away at Stalchildren until the big one would pop up, then I would proceed to slash the daylights (pun intended…) out of it. I found Stalchildren to be the easiest to kill, and getting the big version to show its ugly mug before the sun rose made it that much more fun.
And yet, I can’t, for the life of me, figure out what point this served. I don’t recall you getting anything special from defeating these fiends, so why did Nintendo include it, and why did players care to lure these oversized beasties out?
In short, I have no idea. Except for one thing. I suppose that the very fact that this pointless bonus was a secret meant that any player that found out about it just had to check it out. For no other reason than to see something others may not know about. And that’s probably the main reason why video game secrets are made in the first place. And now you know, as well. Go kill some Leevers for me.
The Duck Will Leev You Now…Ha Ha…Ha…
I encountered the giant Stalchild exactly once in OoT. Scared me pretty good too! I was going along killing time by taking on all the obnoxious stalchildren when suddenly this giant one pops up directly in front of me! Woah! Didn’t defeat it since I ran away first and the sun come out almost immediately after, but it was still cool nonetheless. I had no idea there were giant crows and leevers though. Nice find!
This was a particularly strange secret, I think, considering it provided no benefit to the player. It really was just fun because it was unexpected. That giant Stalchild was pretty freaky indeed. I guess it’s nothing compared to that huge one in Majora’s Mask, though….