Nintendo’s Ocarina Of Time Remake Could Finally Explain One Of Legend Of Zelda’s Most Confusing Timeline Controversies

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time‘s upcoming remake has a lot of expectations. The game is a reimagining of one of modern gaming’s most respected classics, as well as one of Nintendo’s most commercially successful games from the N64 era. The game has been remade and re-released before, but this new version is being seen by some as a real test of Nintendo’s recent embrace of remakes as a developmental direction.

One thing this new game could do to appease fans would be to tackle the tangled lore that came out of the game’s ending. That resolution was eventually used to justify three distinct timelines, explaining some of the confusing connections that exist (or don’t exist) between games in the series. In fact, by expanding on the final stretch of the story, the remake could finally give players a better view and understanding of the grimmest version of Hyrule.

Ocarina Of Time’s Unseen “Downfall Timeline” Could Finally Be Revealed In Full

The timeline of The Legend of Zelda has been a point of contention for fans for years, which was only further complicated by the release of Hyrule Historia. To explain the connections between all the games and their different versions of Hyrule, some fans began to argue that the events of Ocarina of Time had resulted in two seperate timelines. In one of them, Link returned to the past, prevented the rise of Ganondorf, and helped Hyrule continue on for eons. In the world he left behind, Zelda helped pick up the pieces of a ravaged Hyrule, only for the background events of The Wind Waker to flood that land and force the survivors to relocate to a new land. Hyrule Historia confirmed that these two timelines were present in the continuity, along with a third option.

Dubbed the “Downfall Timeline,” this branch of the universe was created when Link was defeated and killed by Ganon during the course of the game. Having claimed the complete Triforce in the aftermath, Ganon could only be stopped by trapping him within the Sacred Realm. This act corrupted the mystical realm into the Dark World. That actual event has yet to be formally seen, even though it has been used as the background for the earlier entries in the series and as an explanation for how Hryule became the ravaged setting of the early games. The exact circumstances have never been revealed or explained, however.

The Ocarina of Time remake is the ideal chance for Nintendo to actually give players a better idea of how that event transpired and what happened. It could be the “Bad” ending for the game, a tragic cutscene that shows the hero falling and Ganon being trapped in another realm. The battle between Link, Zelda, and Ganon could have a more overt split where the heroes can be tested and fail. It could even shift focus from Link to a desperate Zelda for a chunk of the final battle, allowing the player to either fight back and cast Ganon to the other dimension — or even reverse time to create a different path, all while leaving this downfall timeline intact.

Now’s The Perfect Time To Fix Legend Of Zelda’s Timeline Once And For All

Ocarina of Time has always been a useful junction point for different timelines, serving as a perfectly acceptable in-universe explanation for how different versions of Hyrule with similar but ultimately differing histories could exist. For fans, that explanation is great and leaves the door open for future stories to fill out the blanks. For Nintendo, it has seemed like less of a concern. That’s likely why Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom take place so far in the future that they can effectively be when the timelines reconverge or become so similar that the timeline difference means very little.

It’s clear that Nintendo doesn’t want to dwell on these different timelines, so putting the issue to bed once and for all could be a great way to appease fans obsessed with this minutae of the franchise. It would also be the kind of grim imagery that some fans of the original game are hoping appears in the modern remake, giving players a downer ending that reflects the cycle of life and death that Link, Zelda, and Ganon have been caught within. Even just showing the timelines being created would confirm long-standing theories about the issue and showcase how it came to be, all while giving them room to then move on from that beat and continue to expand and evolve the series much as it did with Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.

The “Downfall Timeline” has been a fascinating concept for fans to unpack since it was set up. It positions a version of Ganon who is truly the cosmic equal of Link and Zelda, while teasing a somber timeline where the heroes were killed and the world only survived through desperation. It could help cement the differing paths that transpire after Ocarina, especially if the other timelines are referenced or explained. It could clear up any lingering confusion over how the timeline split happened. This might be Nintendo’s best (and only) chance to really revisit this piece of Legend of Zelda lore and they could finally clear up this long-standing piece of lore once and for all.