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Just the other day, I was watching Vinny Vinesauce's VOD of him playing some leaked early versions of Nintendo 64 games, including Rare's never-released Dinosaur Planet, Glover, and Ocarina of Time.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCuQxkH4ceA
I've always been interested in these development versions of games that the public never sees, but when Vinny got to this version of Kakariko Village, something about it really resonated with me.
For some reason, I was absolutely struck by how particularly dead it felt to the point of it feeling a little bit creepy. The copy/pasted house neatly lined up in rows, the otherwise blank environment, and that classic old-school fog effect certainly didn't help. Not to mention, absolutely zero music or sound effects to the area. Just the echoes of Link's footsteps.
Now, I can only guess that the reason it feels so off is because I'm just used to how the final version of Kakariko Village is, which has lots of character and life to it. By comparison, this just seems alien. Now I really understand why so many mediocre creepypastas from the late 00's are based on early versions of games like these.
I'm immediately reminded of Winter Sleep's work, especially the cover of Return to Dream City, which appears as if you've gone out of bounds in an old video game. Just like these unfinished maps, it is similarly empty and devoid of life.
View: https://winter-sleep.bandcamp.com/album/return-to-dream-city
Anyway, here's a selection of stills from other early areas in the game's development that I feel are particularly unsettling.
From the map titled "Sacred Forest Meadow."
Link approaches the completely faceless façade of what might have become the forest temple later in development. The entire area is dark and shrouded with fog. Again, no music either.
An unfinished version of the Fire Temple, which seems mostly similar to the final product, save for the fact that it is incredibly dark, and the labyrinth pictured here is much larger than in the final game.
The graveyard connected to Kakariko Village. It's very plain, save for the chunk of bricks inexplicably missing from the wall in the back. Note the crosses on the headstones that most certainly didn't make it into the final version.
There's a lot more than that, so feel free to check out Vinny's walkthrough of all the maps.
Parting question: are there any other old video game betas that give off a similar feel to this?
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCuQxkH4ceA
I've always been interested in these development versions of games that the public never sees, but when Vinny got to this version of Kakariko Village, something about it really resonated with me.
For some reason, I was absolutely struck by how particularly dead it felt to the point of it feeling a little bit creepy. The copy/pasted house neatly lined up in rows, the otherwise blank environment, and that classic old-school fog effect certainly didn't help. Not to mention, absolutely zero music or sound effects to the area. Just the echoes of Link's footsteps.
Now, I can only guess that the reason it feels so off is because I'm just used to how the final version of Kakariko Village is, which has lots of character and life to it. By comparison, this just seems alien. Now I really understand why so many mediocre creepypastas from the late 00's are based on early versions of games like these.
I'm immediately reminded of Winter Sleep's work, especially the cover of Return to Dream City, which appears as if you've gone out of bounds in an old video game. Just like these unfinished maps, it is similarly empty and devoid of life.
View: https://winter-sleep.bandcamp.com/album/return-to-dream-city
Anyway, here's a selection of stills from other early areas in the game's development that I feel are particularly unsettling.
From the map titled "Sacred Forest Meadow."
Link approaches the completely faceless façade of what might have become the forest temple later in development. The entire area is dark and shrouded with fog. Again, no music either.
An unfinished version of the Fire Temple, which seems mostly similar to the final product, save for the fact that it is incredibly dark, and the labyrinth pictured here is much larger than in the final game.
The graveyard connected to Kakariko Village. It's very plain, save for the chunk of bricks inexplicably missing from the wall in the back. Note the crosses on the headstones that most certainly didn't make it into the final version.
There's a lot more than that, so feel free to check out Vinny's walkthrough of all the maps.
Parting question: are there any other old video game betas that give off a similar feel to this?