A The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time player hacked the game so he could beat Ganondorf with the last weapon he ever thought could take him down: a Zora princess named Ruto. Ocarina of Time is a long-time favorite of the speedrunning and marathon gaming communities. It can be hacked, modded, and exploited in a thousand different ways, offering players shortcuts or just plain silliness that breathe new life into the Nintendo 64 classic.Ocarina of Time was originally released in 1998. It was an instant hit among fans and critics alike. It has since become a cornerstone of the speedrunning world, with speedrunners from all over the globe constantly trying to find new and mindbogglingly creative ways to shave precious fractions of a second off their times in the hope of breaking world records. As a side effect, tons of mods have been developed and glitches have been discovered and exploited, all to be used as potential speedrunning tools.Ruto-as-a-weapon is the invention of a Zelda speedrunner and randomizer player named Viday James. Vidya James is a member of the Zeldathon community, a gaming collective that raises money for charity by marathoning various entries in the Zelda franchise, often in creative ways. It’s well-known within the world of Zelda speedrunning that Princess Ruto has a hitbox that can damage enemies when she’s thrown. When Link finds her in the belly of Lord Jabu-Jabu, a large whale-like animal that acts as a small dungeon to be explored, fit with puzzles and enemies, Ruto refuses to be saved unless Link carries her. She sits with her knees at her chest. Link can then pick her up and throw her as a weapon. This got Vidya James to wondering if he could defeat Ganandorf, the game’s final boss, using only Ruto. It turns out that he could.
Vidya James hacked Ruto into an Ocarina of Time practice rom, a training ground and testing utility that offers a bevy of editing and management options to speedrunners for training purposes. It's one of many homebrewed PC ports of Ocarina of Time. Once loaded into the final boss arena, James tosses Ruto onto the small square platform Ganondorf floats above, then tosses her again onto the chest at the center of the platform. When he downs Ganondorf with a light arrow, Ganondorf falls, leaving him open to an attack with the Master Sword. But with Ruto in his way, there’s no need to swing the sword. Once Ganondorf makes contact with Ruto, he goes into a loop where he takes constant damage without returning to his floating phase. Vidya James says Ganondorf has a total of 40 health points, which explains why he’s defeated after 40 consecutive hits from Ruto.
Then Vidya James got curious. The only reason this is possible is that the damage done by throwing Ruto is flagged in the game’s code with the same slash damage offered by the Kokiri Sword. Since all bosses require slash damage to be defeated, he wondered if all the bosses in Ocarina of Time could be defeated with Ruto. It turns out the answer to that is also yes. In a video originally posted to his YouTube channel, Vidya James dispatches every boss the game has to offer by tossing Ruto into their glowing weak spots.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is available on the Nintendo 64.
Source: Nintendo Life