IGN Fails On Their Zelda Knowledge

The almighty IGN presents: Hyrule Times – The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Field Guide. I’m glad to see IGN so excited about the upcoming Zelda titles, but just like their speculation on Skyward Sword, this feature fails pretty bad. At least their speculation had some merit, but this guide that aims to give you a overview of Hyrule in Ocarina of Time actually gets some of its facts wrong. And here I was thinking that IGN had standards to get their simple facts correct, but I guess it’s understandable that their Zelda knowledge fails in comparison to a dedicated Zelda fansite. Read on for my list of what IGN got blatantly wrong.

• They call the Fire Temple the “Fire Dungeon”, the Ice Cavern the “Ice Palace” and more forgivably, leave off the “Inside” in “Inside Jabu-Jabu’s Belly”. There has never been a dungeon called the “Fire Dungeon” in any Zelda game, and the “Ice Palace” appears only in A Link to the Past.
• They say “Lake Hylia is the source of water for Zora’s Domain”, when in fact Zora’s Fountain is the source for all of Hyrule’s water. A Zora in Ocarina of Time says “All of the water in Hyrule flows from Zora’s Fountain. That water flows through Zora’s River, which eventually reaches Lake Hylia to the south.”
• They say Gerudo Valley is “where the Running Man and a handful of lazy, flamboyant carpenters ran away to in hopes of finding a new life for themselves.” While this is true for the carpenters, it is not true for the running man. He “came here to run through the Haunted Wasteland, but it doesn’t look like good timing for that.” He was just after yet another challenge, not to join the Gerudos and live a new life.

For those of you who endeavor to actually read the feature (which I assure you is not necessary because you will most likely already know more than they do), you will find overall pretty questionable wordings and what seems like an overall lack of knowledge, or perhaps confidence, in really knowing what they’re on about. And another thing, IGN does realize that Ocarina of Time is 13 years old right? They do realize that it really isn’t a spoiler to let people know about Ganon’s Castle anymore. Overall, I’m disappointed IGN. Let me know if you find anything else wrong, because there very well may be more. I will leave you with what is the only good quote of the piece:

Too true, too true – which is sadly more than I can say about the rest of the feature though.