Hyrule Castle Town

Hyrule Castle Town, also known as Hyrule Castle Town Market or just Market, is the main forum and center of activity in Hyrule, located in the same vicinity as Hyrule Castle. It is usually depicted as a bustling metropolis where Hyruleans come to engage in business and trade and, as such, it is considered to be one of the liveliest towns in Hyrule. The population is mostly Hylian, but as seen in Twilight Princess, Gorons commonly occupy the streets in hopes to sell their wares. In all the games in which it appears, Hyrule Castle Town is home to a wide variety of shops, sidequests, and even minigames.

As a means of some protection, the city is usually surrounded by a moat that is only accessible by bridges or drawbridges. Throughout the Zelda series, Castle Town has been prone to conflict multiple times and has been the subject of invasion more than once.

Ocarina of Time
In Ocarina of Time, Castle Town Market is located in the northernmost section of Hyrule, directly in front of Hyrule Castle. The entrance to the Castle Town is surrounded by a moat whose source floats from Zora's River, and the only way to get across it is by using a drawbridge; however, since monsters roam the field at night, the bridge is only lowered during the daytime in order to protect the townsfolk.

Directly inside the gates of the town is a small building filled with jars. Further in is the main area of the Castle Town, a rather happy-go-lucky, yet surprisingly small community. All throughout the day and night, the Castle Town Market is home to various stores and outlets where Hyruleans from all over come for shopping and entertainment. It hosts a wide variety of shops, including the Bazaar, the Happy Mask Shop, and the Potion Shop; moreover, businesses that focus in the entertainment area can also be found, which consist of the Bombchu Bowling Alley and the Shooting Gallery. While all of the previously mentioned shops and businesses are only open during the day, there are also other locales that are open exclusively during the nighttime such as the Bombchu Shop and the Treasure Chest Shop.

During the night, the Market becomes a quiet, calm town seeing as most of the citizens will have departed by now; furthermore, packs of dogs roam all over the now-empty town, and they will follow Link if he gets close enough to one of them.

The smaller, less austere version of the city also serves as the home of the Temple of Time, a large structure that functions as the resting place of the Master Sword. The Temple of Time is located at northeast part Castle Town in a more secluded area, far from all of the bustling and noises that surround the Market.

However, when Link returns seven years later after retrieving the Master Sword from its pedestal, he is shocked to find the town completely in ruins as a result of Ganondorf's invasion. Most of its citizens managed to escape to Kakariko Village, leaving the town overtaken by hordes of ReDeads. Due to this, Link can no longer enter any of the previously inhabited locales of the Market. Directly outside of town, the drawbridge has been destroyed by Ganondorf, allowing the city to be accessed by Link during the day as well as the night. However, because of this, the monsters outside of town were able to cross the rubble of the bridge and gain access to the town as well.

Back Alley
An area known as the Back Alley is also situated within the Castle Town, and it is considerably less crowded and quieter than its market counterpart mostly due to the fact that this is where most of the town citizens live. Not too many people roam these streets; thus, Link can usually only find one or two people dawdling in the alley at any given hour. The young hero can only enter through three doors in the Back Alley, two of which are residents' homes and one of them being the Bombchu Shop.

After obtaining all of the three Spiritual Stones and retrieving the Ocarina of Time from the moat near the Castle Town entrance, Link can go to the Back Alley to witness one of the most commonly-missed scenes in the game. There will be a dying soldier in the east area of the alley where, if the young hero speaks to him, he will tell Link about Ganondorf's betrayal to the King as well as Princess Zelda's escape from the castle. He then urges Link to go to the Temple of Time and, shortly after, the soldier takes his final breath and dies. If Link tries to speak to him again, Navi will mention that he's not moving anymore.

Once Link becomes an adult, the Back Alley becomes inaccessible due to its entrances being blocked off by rubble.

The Minish Cap
In The Minish Cap, the town is named Hyrule Town and is located in the middle of Hyrule, just south of Hyrule Castle. Unlike the other games, there are no other Hylian settlements, and most important buildings can as such be found in Hyrule Town. The town contains ordinary personal houses, a shop, a library, a school, a bakery, a cafe, an inn, a post office, a figurine shop, and several mini-games. The town's mayor is named Hagen. Most of the townsfolk are more than happy to fuse Kinstones with Link (some of them being Gepper, Herb, Emma, Jasmine, Keeley, Sheila, Verona, Marshall and Dottie).

Twilight Princess
In Twilight Princess, the town is considerably larger and named Castle Town. The town is filled with busy Hylians who, unlike in the Ocarina of Time incarnation, won't all talk to you. The town is home to many several different areas of interest such as Telma's Bar, Purlo's STAR Circus minigame, and Jovani's side quests to find 60 Poe souls. It is also where the sub-quest to locate the 24 Golden Bugs begins, started by interacting with Agitha.

The main town is split into central, western, eastern and southern areas; with the entrance to Hyrule Castle located north of the town center. Two back alleys connect the longitudes (east and west) with the southern part of the town, used to avoid walking through the center and waiting on the loading screens.

One of the odder things about Castle Town is that Link can pick up a sweet apple for free on the South Road. One of the booths containing apples supposedly has sweeter ones, though, so Link puts it back, although no matter which he goes to the other is supposed to have sweeter ones, Link can also do this with bread and flowers, but instead puts them back as they are too expensive.

Running through the town in wolf form causes a public uproar. Soldiers soon appear, though they don't attack Link, but he can scare them away with a spin attack. Midna advises that the young hero doesn't change form until he leaves town, as to avoid an even bigger panic amongst the locals.

Link's Crossbow Training
Hyrule Castle Town is easily missed as in Stage 3, which uses Hyrule Castle as the backdrop and focuses on aerial targets. The Fruit Balloons from the Fruit Pop Flight Challenge reappear with the same ranking system for the scoring. Watermelons are the largest, and worth the least; oranges are median in both size and score; and strawberries are the smallest and highest scored. An occasional meteor can be seen streaking across the night sky, and shooting it yields 300 points.

Spirit Tracks
In Spirit Tracks, the town, as usual, is located in front of the Hyrule Castle grounds, and also houses a water fountain at the center. However, Castle Town is very small in appearance, housing only a few buildings and people. Unlike previous games the town, is not obligatorily revisited often, and as such, not much occurs there. However, a woman there will give Link a Force Gem that will extend the tracks in the Forest Realm in return for giving her the Fish obtained from Papuchia Village. A man will also sell 5 Cuccos to Link for 50 Rupees. Castle Town is also the location of this game's endurance level known as Take 'Em All On.