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Zelda · Analysis · 2,114 messages, N64 (1998)

Who talks the most in Ocarina of Time?

We counted every word of text in Ocarina of Time, 39,895 of them, and worked out who says each one. The owl talks a lot. He still isn't number one.

Key findings

2,506words from Navi, the most of anyone
#4the owl's rank, with 1,165 words and 8 offers to say it all again
0words from Link
Watch the video46 s · TikTok

01 · The ranking

Navi says the most: 2,506 words. The owl is #4.

Ocarina of Time's 2,114 messages hold 39,895 words. Navi says 2,506 of them, Sheik 1,450, Zelda 1,334 and Kaepora Gaebora 1,165, almost three times Ganondorf's 393. Count Sheik as Zelda and the princess has 2,784, more than Navi. Link says nothing at all. Hover or tap a bar for each one's messages.

The top 20 talkers

Words of text each character says, every message counted once

Navi #1 2506
Sheik #2 1450
Zelda #3 1334
Kaepora Gaebora (the owl) #4 1165
Fishing Pond Owner #5 950
Malon #6 912
Saria #7 852
Talon #8 821
Ingo #9 756
Great Deku Tree #10 746
Darunia #11 735
Princess Ruto #12 723
Nabooru #13 652
Rauru #14 548
Running Man #15 525
Mido #16 449
Impa #17 446
Anju (Cucco Lady) #18 442
Happy Mask Salesman #19 441
Lake Scientist #20 433

02 · Everyone else

45% of the words aren't any one character's.

Text nobody says (item descriptions, signs, menus, tutorials), shopkeepers, and crowds of unnamed Kokiri, Gorons and townsfolk come to 17,907 words between them. The text nobody says is 6,617 of them on its own.

Everyone else

Words said by many people at once, or by nobody

Nobody: item text, signs, menus 6617
Gorons (unnamed) 1935
Kokiri (unnamed) 1902
Hylian townsfolk (unnamed) 1428
Kakariko villagers (unnamed) 1142
Gerudo (unnamed) 789
Hyrule Castle guards 765
Carpenters 709
Gossip Stone 563
Deku Scrubs 543
Zoras (unnamed) 519
Shopkeepers 500
Child NPCs (other) 273
Frogs 126
Cows 51
Big Poe / Poes 28
Six Sages 17

About this data

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Every message of English text in Ocarina of Time (N64, NTSC 1.0), counted once each however often the game shows it. A word is a run of letters, digits and apostrophes; the player's name counts as one word and button icons as none.

Who says each message is our own labelling: the game's decompiled code (zeldaret/oot) where it shows which character speaks a message, the message's context where it doesn't, checked by hand. Sheik and Zelda are counted apart, as the game names them.

Source: the CloudModding OoT Wiki's text dump, read through its API on October 16, 2026. Only word counts are kept, not Nintendo's text.