Anyone who’s played Ocarina of Time will know that Kakariko Village is home to everyone’s favorite gravedigger, Dampé. When Young Link first encounters Dampé, he will see him wandering Kakariko Graveyard at night digging up treasure. Link later returns as an adult and will discover that Dampé has passed and is resting in the same Graveyard he used to wander. If Link manages to sneak into Dampé’s grave, he will be able to race the ghost of the gravedigger through a large underground cavern in order to obtain the impressive and useful Hookshot. This is typically done very early on in Link’s journey through the Hyrule-of the-future as the Hookshot is needed to access many important areas. However, after taking a closer look at the designs adorning the grave, there appear to be a significant number of Gerudo symbols despite the grave being located in Kakariko Village.
The crescent moon symbol seen surrounding the top of the cavern is a Gerudo design, namely one that is seen in the Gerudo Training Grounds. Dampé’s grave, as a whole, happens to also contain plenty of traps and monsters, which makes it similar to the Gerudo Training Grounds. While it may initially seem like this is some kind of hint that Dampé’s origins lie in Gerudo Valley, this is actually because Dampé graveyard was originally part of the Gerudo Training Grounds, and these symbols were mistakenly left unchanged before release.
In both the Virtual Console re-release and Ocarina of Time 3D, this symbol is replaced with a floral pattern more befitting of the interior of a grave, which undoubtedly indicates the presence of these symbols as a mistake. The fact that this area was moved from the dessert to Kakariko does beg the question of whether or not the Hookshot was originally meant to be found with the Gerudo as well. Possibly, the original intent until far into development was to have the player start their journey by stopping in Gerudo Valley first, picking up the Hookshot, and then continuing towards the Forest Temple.
These small details are the kind of thing I always love researching about. Getting a window into the development process is always very insightful to me, as it can reveal a lot about what the game may have looked like if things had gone slightly differently. It’s interesting to imagine a world where Dampé’s race might have taken place instead against a Gerudo at the Training Grounds, or if Dampé himself were remodelled as the Gerudo’s Gravedigger!
