Kakariko Village

Kakariko Village (カカリコ村 Kakariko-mura) is one of the main settlements in Hyrule, second only to Hyrule Castle Town. It has appeared in several The Legend of Zelda games, making its debut in A Link to the Past. Kakariko is said to have been founded by the Sheikah, attendants who serve the Hyrule Royal Family, and it used to be their village exclusively before Impa herself opened up the village to the common people. The graveyard by the village is known to be the final resting place of the members of the Royal Family and deceased Zora leaders.

A Link to the Past
In A Link to the Past, Kakariko Village is the largest settlement in the game. It is located in the western side of the Light World, just south of the Lost Woods. Here there are several merchants, as well as characters with vital information for Link. Being the largest city in the game, Kakariko Village has a number of businesses, including a blacksmith, a shop, a bottle merchant, a fortune teller, and an inn.

Kakariko is the home of Sahasrahla, the famed elder, and his family, and it is with the intention to find him that Link first comes to the village. Upon arriving in Kakariko, Link discovers that he has been blamed for the abduction of Princess Zelda, and that some villagers who believe him to be guilty will summon soldiers to arrest him. Others are more sympathetic, and the family of Sahasrahla will provide him with clues as to his whereabouts.

After Link retrieves the Master Sword from its pedestal in the Lost Woods, Kakariko Village will be overrun by Castle Soldiers who will attack Link at sight, forcing the village's citizens to remain inside their homes. It is also at this point that Link can free the bird sealed within the monument located in the middle of the village. After the young hero receives the ocarina from the Flute Boy in the Dark World, Link can play the instrument in front of the statue to reveal a small bird within. Now that the bird has been awakened, Link can call the flying animal so that it can transport the young hero to specific places in the Light World any time the ocarina is played.

Blind, the leader of a gang of thieves, once lived in Kakariko Village, where his home served as the hideout for his mischievous companions. However, when Link visits Blind's home, the hideout turns out to be vacant except for a couple of treasure chests lying around. During Link's adventure to rescue the Seven Maidens, he journeys to Kakariko Village's Dark World counterpart: the Village of Outcasts, a town notorious for its corrupt establishments as well as the many thieves it has roaming around. It is here that he finds Blind, who reveals himself to be the boss to the Dark World's fourth dungeon: Thieves' Town.

Ocarina of Time
In Ocarina of Time, Kakariko Village is the main settlement of Hyrule outside of the Castle Town and is a location where Link is faced with several challenges. The town is an entrance to a number of locations, such as the Shadow Temple, the Well, the Graveyard, and the Death Mountain Trail.

The small town also contains many buildings of interest, including a potion shop, a shooting gallery (still under construction in the earlier time period,) and a weapon store. Some notable residents include the Cucco Lady, the Carpenters, the Graveyard Boy and his family, and Dampé. Through various actions, Link will obtain numerous items from this town, including the Lens of Truth, a bottle, a Hylian Shield, and several Ocarina Songs, such as the Song of Storms, Sun's Song, and Nocturne of Shadows. The House of Skulltula is also here, where Link will be rewarded based on how many Gold Skulltulas he has killed.

Little is known about the early history of Kakariko Village. It was originally a Sheikah village while those people lasted, and the village graveyard is where the Royal Family laid their dead. Impa, the last Sheikah, opened the village to the poor and needy, though she vanished shortly after Ganondorf began his reign of evil. Her house is almost a monument.

Four Swords Adventures
In Four Swords Adventures, the village was overrun by thieves, and the four Links were required to capture them in order to advance north of the city to a place where they could summon rain, thus quelling the fire started by arsonist Shadow Link. This time, Kakariko Village had no prominent features but was a collection of houses with few residents within. After swimming the stream outside the city, the Links fight a Big Dark Stalfos and in so doing, recovered the Green Royal Jewel.

The numerous thieves in the city is obviously a nod to A Link to the Past ' s Village of Outcasts, and the Cucco population in the village may relate to the Cucco-tracking challenge in the Ocarina of Time rendering of Kakariko Village. We may also attribute the excessive thief problem to the village's new location - directly within the Lost Woods. One dastardly form of thievery comes from the Fortune Telling swindle run by a mage. For 100 Force Gems, she'll warn Link of upcoming bad luck and steal all of his remaining Force Gems.

Enemies encountered in this area:
 * Shadow Link
 * Thieves
 * Keese
 * Bow-Wow
 * River Zora
 * Castle Guards

Items obtained in this area:
 * Bomb
 * Shovel
 * Power Bracelet
 * Fire Rod
 * Boomerang

Kakariko Village
Kakariko Village plays a large role in Twilight Princess. After leaving the Faron Woods, Link travels to Kakariko Village which, at the time, is covered in twilight. After restoring light to the land, many features of the village that appeared in previous games are noticed, such as a graveyard and the nearby Death Mountain. Many of the houses in the village were destroyed by Shadow Beasts and most of the original residents were killed as confirmed by Barnes, the village's bomb maker. When you first visit in wolf form, he recalls how the shop owner was ambushed, and a group of poeple went to help, but were apparently killed. The only survivors left in Kakariko are Barnes, Renado and Luda, Renado's daughter. Kakariko Village is where much of the storyline of the game unfolds and where many items for the game can be bought and found such as bombs, the Hawk Eye, a Hylian Shield, and the Zora Armor.

Places of note:
 * Malo Mart
 * Barnes' Bomb Shop
 * Renado's house
 * Elde Inn and hot spring
 * Graveyard
 * Eldin Spring

Hidden Village
Another area in Twilight Princess, called the Hidden Village, bears resemblance to Kakariko in Ocarina of Time. In fact, a sign on the outskirts reads "Welcome to Old Kakarico[sic]" in Hylian. The name has been misspelled, which is likely a simple mistake given that the original text was written by a Japanese person, likely without knowing the official English spelling of "Kakariko". The sole inhabitant of the town, Impaz, is believed to be one of the only Sheikahs left, Renado being the other, which is strengthened by Impaz's claim that she was named after the creator of her village, suggested to be Impa from Ocarina of Time.

While this theory, however, loses strength when one considers that the actual Kakariko Village in that game shares several similarities with the one from Ocarina of Time, especially its proximity to Death Mountain and the presence of a graveyard, the sign is contradictory and is the strongest piece of evidence there is, essentially confirming that the Kakariko in Ocarina of Time and the Twilight Princess Hidden Village are one and the same.

In the backyard of one of the abandoned buildings, you will find a Howling Stone as well as 'the King of the Cuccos', as the cats call him. The various strays wandering the village will play a game with you (only in Wolf form, of course), where you have to talk to each individual cat at least once. The cucco says that they always want to play and will give you a prize if you can complete the challenge, thanking you for giving them something to do. It appears that Impaz takes care of these strays, as some cats live in her home and will roll balls of yarn around.

Kakariko Village Theme
Kakariko Village Theme is a song that has been featured in several Zelda games. It cannot be learned and played using an in-game instrument at any point. The official guide for Ocarina of Time had the Ocarina notes for it in as a bonus. The song, like nearly all Zelda songs, was written by Koji Kondo.

The song was first used in A Link to the Past. It appeared again, only slightly altered, in Ocarina of Time. It was used next in Four Swords Adventures. The most recent appearance was in Twilight Princess. However, in this instance the song is remixed and heavily modified.

It is usually played when Link enters Kakariko Village. The only exceptions to this is that it no longer plays outdoors in A Link to the Past after defeating Agahnim for the first time, and that it doesn't play in most of the village in Ocarina of Time between the time the village is aflame and the Shadow Temple is beaten.

The instructions for the song performed on the ocarina enclosed:

A, C-down+Up, A, C-left, C-down+Up, C-up

A, C-down+Up, A, C-left, C-down+Up, C-up

C-up, C-up+Up, C-down+R, C-up+Up, C-up, C-left

C-left, C-left, C-right, C-down+Up

C-down+Up, C-down+Up, C-down+R, C-right, C-down+Up, A

A+Down, A+Down+Z, A+Down, A, A+Down+Z

C-down+Up, C-down+Up, C-down+R, C-right, C-down+Up, A, C-up

C-up+Down, C-left, C-right, C-right+Down

Theory
Some fans have suggested the Lost Woods merely expanded in support of the "One Village Theory". A similar retraction of the woods, or placing Ocarina of Time on the timeline before Four Swords Adventures, may account for the distance between Kakariko Village and the Lost Woods in Ocarina of Time.