In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, the Ice Arrows have always been pretty useless, seeing as how you can play through the game without them. Even if you do obtain them from the Gerudo Training Grounds, you come upon the final area to fight Ganon pretty quickly after.
The game acknowledges this as players who get access to a gossip stone message, located in the Desert Colossus, may have noticed it reads, “They say that the treasure you can earn in the Gerudo’s Training Ground is not as great as you would expect, given its difficulty!” Clearly calling out the unintuitive item.
That is, until a Japanese fan, named @chikara_shuzei, noticed something that the magical item is in fact useful for. In the post below, the Zelda fan demonstrates the arrow is able to freeze the moving spikes that are located prior to the Water Temple’s boss fight. This is an obstacle many fans remember, with players having to frantically run past and risk losing hearts in the process.
これ最近初めて知って衝撃を受けた。
まだまだ知らないことあるよね。#時のオカリナ #NINTENDO64 #NintendoSwitchOnline #NintendoSwitch pic.twitter.com/TP5TKi6oRJ— ちから (@chikara_shuzei) April 22, 2023
This was unknown for so long since having the Ice Arrow at this point in the game seemed pretty useless. You would have had to complete most of the Water Temple in order to get the Longshot before you exit the area to face the dungeons out of order. Then, you could optionally head to Gerudo Training Grounds mini-dungeon to acquire the ice arrows before heading back to the room just before the Water Temple’s boss. This is a lot of effort just to avoid a single obstacle in the game, and if you already have plenty of heart containers then it isn’t really necessary. @chikara_shuzei seems to have returned to this area after completing the game to show off what the Ice Arrows can do.
Many of the hardcore Ocarina of Time players are likely frustrated from this revelation, as they have more likely than not explored the applications of every item, yet still missed this cool trick. This just goes to show that there’s possibly more to discover within this, and other, N64 games.
Source: chikara_shuzei Twitter Page
