A few Tri Force Heroes tidbits

[HelpTheWretched]

In The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes, there's an NPC standing outside the Hytopia Castle who's known as the "Faux Hero" (http://zeldawiki.org/Faux_Hero).

Source: https://miiverse.nintendo.net/posts/AYMH...V0f-95nFvQ

He wears a green tunic like Link's and carries a sword in his left hand. But his brown shirt and pink hair likely make him a reference to Link from A Link to the Past:

Source: https://www.spriters-resource.com/snes/l...tothepast/


An outfit oddity: When Link wears the Hero's Tunic in his "Tri Force Heroes" form (when three players gather and each player's hair matches their outfit colour), his cap has a gold brim:

Source: https://miiverse.nintendo.net/posts/AYMH...V0f-n9jFfg

But when Link wears the outfit in Hytopia, the cap has no brim:

Source: https://miiverse.nintendo.net/posts/AYMH...V0f_NGfx1A


Drablands Diaries secrets: Several books are scattered around Hytopia that detail a previous adventurer's experiences in the Drablands (where the game's levels take place). Each book mentions a particular object/item which the adventurer had encountered and photographed, and as such, one of these objects is hidden somewhere in each level of the game.

Screenshots of the diary text and (most of) the hidden objects are in my Miiverse thread: https://miiverse.nintendo.net/posts/AYMH...V0gAk8Wc8g



Timeless Tunic origins: Due to the game using streaming (pre-recorded) music, the developers created NES-style chiptune versions of every song in order to fit within the memory limitations of Download Play (which allows up to 3 players to play together with just 1 copy of the game). Realising that players would want to hear this music at times other than using Download Play, they created the Timeless Tunic, an outfit that enables the chiptune music while turning Link into a blocky "retro"-styled character model.

Source: http://nintendoeverything.com/zelda-tri-...ame-to-be/


Highfairy: There is an unfinished outfit based on the Zelda series' Great Fairy still remaining in the game's data. It gives Link a pair of Fairy wings, prosthetic antennae, and a Kokiri-like tunic, while the character model is from an early stage in the game's development and features the "Toon Link" facial features with the proportions and skin colour of Link from A Link Between Worlds.

Picture Source: My own screenshot
Info source: https://tcrf.net/The_Legend_of_Zelda:_Tr...sed_Outfit & my own findings
The outfit's filename is "costume_highfairy" and it can only be accessed by hacking the game. It has no abilities of its own - it uses the abilities of the costume you replace it with - but based on early concept art and the outfit's icon being a duplicate of the Queen of Hearts outfit, it was likely meant to grant the players 3 extra heart containers.


International implorement: The Japanese version has a different Communication Icon (emoticon) for the "Sorry!" gesture, featuring Link bowing his head with his hands together. It can be seen a few seconds into this video: https://youtu.be/4gHRI7D0YmI?t=524

This was likely changed for all the international versions because it more closely resembles praying in other regions.

Comparison of the icons for all regions: https://www.spriters-resource.com/3ds/th...eet/73930/


Late changes: Two of the Communication Icons were altered before the game's release. The "Thumbs Up" icon was changed to show Link winking instead of having both eyes closed, and the "Nooo!" icon had Link's teeth removed and eyelids emphasized.


Early icons. Source: http://zelda.gamepedia.com/Communication_Icon


Final icons. Source: my own screenshot, posted at https://miiverse.nintendo.net/posts/AYMH...V0aJNsTa1g

It seems these icons were altered at a late point in the game's development, based on the fact that the art assets were distributed by Nintendo in their early form (as seen on Zelda Wiki and this guy's blog, both posted before the game's release) and even showed up in another Nintendo game, Nintendo Badge Arcade:

Source: My own screenshot, posted at https://miiverse.nintendo.net/posts/AYMH...VHlHa1VLaw


Madame's song: Madame Couture is actually singing and whistling her own shop's background music. Not only does one of the song's two vocalists have the same voice as Madame, but whenever she is speaking (via on-screen text), her vocal parts stop playing in the background music.

This is done by giving the audio file for Madame's shop more than the standard 2 stereo channels, and having Madame's vocals in separate channels which are disabled/enabled on the fly. This is the same method used to give the game's stage music extra instruments that are heard when the Links perform various "totem" formations.

Here's a screenshot of Madame Couture's music (BGM_TAILOR in the game's files) loaded in Audacity:

The first 2 channels are the standard left/right stereo channels of the music (with male vocals), and the following 2 are the left/right channels of only Madame's vocals.

Here's a YouTube video showing that her vocals stop during dialogue. I've also made a 1-minute sample of the song that showcases the music and the vocals alternating.


Unheard music: Following on the multi-channel music files, there is an extra section of percussion during the introduction of the standard boss battle theme. Since you need the players in a totem formation to hear the extra channels, and the game automatically separates the players and places them in starting positions when a boss appears, it ends up being unheard in the game.

Info source: https://tcrf.net/The_Legend_of_Zelda:_Tr..._Drum_Roll


Wrongy Righty: Link is incorrectly shown as right-handed at two points in the game: The "Item!" communication icon (shown above), and in this artwork during the game's ending.

Sorry, I'm having trouble uploading the image. Please see this YouTube video at 8:24 (credit roll; barely spoilers).


More tidbits to come ^_^