Ocarina of Time Story Explained: The Hero of Time, Ganondorf and the Zelda Timeline Split Before the Switch 2 Remake
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time returns on November 5, 2026, as a full remake for Nintendo Switch 2, and for a lot of players it will be their first trip through the most important story in Zelda history. This is Ocarina of Time story explained from start to finish: who the Hero of Time is, how Ganondorf seized the Triforce, what happens across the seven years Link sleeps, and why the ending splits the entire Zelda timeline into three separate branches.
We stick to what the games and Nintendo’s official material establish, mainly the in-game story and the official timeline Nintendo first published in the art book Hyrule Historia in 2011 and has updated since. Where fans still argue, or where we are only interpreting, we say so clearly. For the remake itself, we only cover what Nintendo has officially shown.
โ ๏ธ Spoiler Warning โ ๏ธ This article covers the full story and ending of Ocarina of Time, as well as major plot points of Majora’s Mask, Twilight Princess, The Wind Waker and A Link to the Past.
๐ก๏ธ Quick Facts: Ocarina of Time in a Nutshell
- The hero, Link, a Hylian boy raised among the Kokiri, who becomes known as the Hero of Time
- The villain, Ganondorf, King of the Gerudo, who wants the Triforce hidden in the Sacred Realm
- The princess, Zelda of Hyrule, who foresees the danger and later hides as the mysterious Sheik
- The structure, a story told across two eras seven years apart, with Link as a child and as an adult
- The legacy, the ending creates three timelines, the Child Timeline, the Adult Timeline and the Downfall Timeline in which Link is defeated
- Where it sits, after Skyward Sword, The Minish Cap and Four Swords in the official chronology, and before every branch of the split
โจ Before the Story: The Goddesses, the Triforce and the Sacred Realm
Ocarina of Time opens its mythology with the three Golden Goddesses. Din, the goddess of Power, Nayru, the goddess of Wisdom, and Farore, the goddess of Courage, created the world and then departed, leaving behind the Triforce, a sacred relic of three golden triangles that grants the wish of whoever touches it. The Triforce rests in the Sacred Realm, sealed away from the world.
The entrance to that realm is the Temple of Time in Hyrule Castle Town, built by ancient Sages. To open its Door of Time, someone needs the three Spiritual Stones and the Ocarina of Time, a treasure of the Royal Family of Hyrule. Behind the door waits the Master Sword, the blade of evil’s bane. The game also adds a crucial rule: if someone whose heart lacks a balance of power, wisdom and courage touches the Triforce, it splits into three pieces. That person keeps only the piece of the virtue they believe in most, and the other two pieces go to those chosen by destiny.
The Triforce, the relic at the center of Ocarina of Time, as it appears in the Switch 2 remake.
๐ณ Who Is the Hero of Time? Link’s Origins in Kokiri Forest
Link grows up in Kokiri Forest among the Kokiri, a forest people who never grow up and who each have a fairy companion. Link is the only one without a fairy, and the bossy Mido never lets him forget it. His closest friend is Saria, who later gives him the Fairy Ocarina.
What Link does not know is that he is not Kokiri at all. Much later in the game, the Deku Tree Sprout reveals the truth: Link is a Hylian. During a great war in Hyrule, his mother fled into the forest with her baby and, gravely wounded, left him in the care of the Great Deku Tree before she died. The guardian spirit of the forest raised him as one of the Kokiri, knowing that Link was destined to shape the fate of Hyrule.
๐ Ocarina of Time Story Explained, Part 1: Young Link and the Spiritual Stones
The story begins with a nightmare. Link dreams of a stormy night at a castle gate, a young girl fleeing on horseback with her guardian, and a tall man in black armor chasing them. Soon after, the fairy Navi arrives to wake him and lead him to the Great Deku Tree, which has been cursed by a wicked man of the desert. Link enters the tree, defeats Queen Gohma, but cannot save it. Before dying, the Great Deku Tree tells him about the Triforce and the man who wants it, and hands him the Kokiri’s Emerald, the Spiritual Stone of the Forest.
Link leaves the forest for the first time and sneaks into Hyrule Castle, where he meets Princess Zelda. Zelda has had prophetic dreams of her own: dark clouds over Hyrule, and a boy from the forest with a fairy. She is convinced that the Gerudo king Ganondorf, who has sworn allegiance to her father, is lying and plans to take the Triforce. Her plan is for Link to gather the three Spiritual Stones so they can reach the Triforce first. Her attendant Impa, one of the Sheikah, teaches Link Zelda’s Lullaby, a melody passed down in the Royal Family that Link will play again and again on his journey.
The other two stones are entrusted to Hyrule’s other peoples:
- The Goron’s Ruby, the Spiritual Stone of Fire, held by Darunia, leader of the Gorons on Death Mountain. Link earns it by defeating King Dodongo in Dodongo’s Cavern, and Darunia names him his Sworn Brother.
- The Zora’s Sapphire, the Spiritual Stone of Water, held by Princess Ruto of the Zora. Link rescues her from inside the guardian fish Lord Jabu-Jabu and defeats Barinade. Ruto gives him the stone as her engagement ring, which becomes a running joke later on.
When Link returns to the castle with all three stones, he is too late. Ganondorf has betrayed the king, and Link watches Zelda and Impa escape on horseback, exactly as in his nightmare. Zelda throws the Ocarina of Time into the castle moat for Link to find.
Ganondorf on horseback in a thunderstorm, one of Ocarina of Time’s most iconic scenes, remade for Nintendo Switch 2.
โณ The Temple of Time: How Link Opened the Way for Ganondorf
Link takes the Ocarina to the Temple of Time, places the three Spiritual Stones on the altar and plays the Song of Time. The Door of Time opens, and Link pulls the Master Sword from its pedestal. This is the tragic twist of the first act: Ganondorf had followed him. By opening the door, Link gave Ganondorf the path into the Sacred Realm he could not open on his own.
Ganondorf reaches the Triforce, but his heart is not balanced. The Triforce splits. Ganondorf keeps the Triforce of Power, while the Triforce of Wisdom goes to Zelda and the Triforce of Courage to Link. Even so, the power he holds is enough to conquer Hyrule. Over the next seven years he becomes the King of Evil, the castle turns into his fortress, Castle Town falls to monsters, and the Sacred Realm itself is corrupted by his presence.
๐ก๏ธ Seven Years Later: The Sages, Sheik and the Five Temples
Link wakes in the Chamber of Sages as a young man. Rauru, the Sage of Light and one of the builders of the Temple of Time, explains that Link was too young to be the Hero of Time, so his spirit was sealed in the Sacred Realm for seven years until he was old enough to wield the Master Sword. Link is now the Hero of Time, and the only way to defeat Ganondorf is to awaken the remaining Sages, whose power is trapped in temples Ganondorf has taken over.
Back in the Temple of Time, Link meets Sheik, a mysterious survivor of the Sheikah who guides him and teaches him the warp songs that lead to each temple. Every temple ends with a boss, and every victory awakens a friend from Link’s childhood as a Sage:
- Forest Temple, Link defeats Phantom Ganon and awakens Saria as the Sage of Forest
- Fire Temple, Link defeats the dragon Volvagia and awakens Darunia as the Sage of Fire
- Water Temple, Link defeats Morpha and awakens Ruto as the Sage of Water
- Shadow Temple, Link defeats Bongo Bongo and awakens Impa as the Sage of Shadow
- Spirit Temple, Link defeats Twinrova and awakens Nabooru as the Sage of Spirit
The Spirit Temple is the only one that requires both eras. Young Link meets Nabooru, the Gerudo second-in-command who opposes Ganondorf’s cruelty, and helps her. She is captured and brainwashed by Koume and Kotake, the twin witches who raised Ganondorf, and Link has to fight her as an armored Iron Knuckle before he can free her as an adult. The Gerudo themselves add one more piece of lore here: only one man is born among them every hundred years, and by their law he becomes their king. Ganondorf is that man.
Adult Link with the Master Sword, the Hero of Time after his seven-year sleep.
๐ญ Who Is Sheik? The Seventh Sage Revealed
Once all five Sages are awake, Sheik reveals the truth in the Temple of Time: Sheik is Princess Zelda in disguise. Impa helped her hide from Ganondorf for seven years, and Zelda is the seventh Sage, the leader of the Sages. She explains how the Triforce split and that she holds the Triforce of Wisdom, then gives Link the Light Arrows, the weapon that can harm the King of Evil.
That was exactly what Ganondorf had been waiting for. With Link and Zelda in one place, he traps Zelda in a crystal and takes her to his castle, daring Link to come for her. Ganondorf wants the other two pieces of the Triforce, so that he can complete it and rule the world.
๐ฅ Ocarina of Time Ending Explained: Ganon and the Song That Rewinds Time
With help from the six Sages, Link breaks the barrier around Ganon’s Castle and confronts Ganondorf at the top of the tower, defeating him with the Light Arrows and the Master Sword. Ganondorf, refusing to die, brings the castle down around them. Link and Zelda escape, but Ganondorf rises from the rubble and uses the Triforce of Power to transform into Ganon, a monstrous beast. In the final battle, Ganon knocks the Master Sword out of Link’s hands. Zelda holds Ganon in place with her power, Link recovers the blade and strikes the final blow.
The Seven Sages then seal Ganondorf away in the Sacred Realm, which had become a dark realm under his influence. As he disappears, Ganondorf curses Link, Zelda and the Sages and swears revenge on their descendants. The Triforce of Power stays with him.
Zelda feels responsible for everything that happened, because her plan to reach the Triforce first is what opened the door for Ganondorf. She takes the Ocarina of Time and sends Link back to his own time, so he can regain the seven years he lost. Link returns to the Temple of Time as a child. Navi flies away, and the game ends where it all began, with young Link meeting young Zelda in the castle courtyard, this time already knowing the future.
๐ฟ The Zelda Timeline Split Explained: Why Ocarina of Time Creates Three Timelines
For years, fans debated how the Zelda games fit together. In 2011, Nintendo answered with the official timeline in Hyrule Historia, and Ocarina of Time turned out to be the turning point of the whole series. Its ending creates two eras that continue separately, the future Link left behind and the past he returned to, and the official timeline adds a third possibility in which Link loses to Ganon. Nintendo’s official games before the split are, in order, Skyward Sword, The Minish Cap, Four Swords and Ocarina of Time.
๐ง The Child Timeline: Majora’s Mask, Twilight Princess and the Hero’s Shade
In the Child Timeline, Link returns to his childhood and warns Zelda about Ganondorf. In Majora’s Mask, he sets out from Hyrule on a personal journey to find a beloved friend, widely understood to be Navi, and ends up in the parallel world of Termina, where he has three days to stop the moon from falling.
Because Link’s warning exposed Ganondorf, he never got the chance to rule Hyrule in this era. In Twilight Princess, the Sages explain that Ganondorf was sentenced to death and taken to the Arbiter’s Grounds for execution. The Triforce of Power awakened in him, he broke free and killed the Sage of Water, and the surviving Sages banished him to the Twilight Realm using the Mirror of Twilight. From there, he lends his power to the usurper Zant, who invades Hyrule. Twilight Princess also features the Hero’s Shade, a skeletal warrior who teaches the new Link his hidden sword skills. Hyrule Historia identifies him as the Hero of Time from Ocarina of Time, a spirit bound by regret who could only find peace by passing on his techniques. The Child Timeline continues with Four Swords Adventures.
๐ The Adult Timeline: The Great Flood and The Wind Waker
The Adult Timeline continues the future Link left behind. Zelda stayed in that era to help rebuild Hyrule, but the kingdom had lost its hero. When Ganondorf eventually broke free, the people prayed for the Hero of Time to return, but he never came. Hyrule Historia describes how the Golden Goddesses answered by sending the chosen people to the mountaintops and sealing Hyrule, and Ganondorf with it, beneath a great flood.
That flooded world is the Great Sea of The Wind Waker, where a new Link and the pirate Tetra, who turns out to be a descendant of the Royal Family and the new Zelda, face a returned Ganondorf. The Adult Timeline continues with Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks, where the people settle a new kingdom on new land.
โ๏ธ The Downfall Timeline: What Happens If the Hero of Time Loses
The third branch is the one players never see on screen. In the Downfall Timeline, Link is defeated in his final battle against Ganon. Ganon takes the full Triforce, and the Sacred Realm becomes a dark world shaped by his wishes. The Sages and Zelda still manage to seal him away inside that realm, a conflict later remembered in Hyrule as the Imprisoning War, which becomes the backstory of A Link to the Past.
According to Nintendo’s current official timeline, this branch continues with A Link to the Past, Link’s Awakening, Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages, A Link Between Worlds, Tri Force Heroes, Echoes of Wisdom, the original The Legend of Zelda and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. Nintendo moved Link’s Awakening ahead of the Oracle games in a 2018 update, and Echoes of Wisdom was added between Tri Force Heroes and The Legend of Zelda in 2024.
๐๏ธ Where Do Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom Fit?
Nintendo places Breath of the Wild after all the other games, at the end of the history, but it has deliberately not tied it to any of the three branches. Director Hidemaro Fujibayashi has said in an interview with Famitsu that it is ultimately up to players to decide which timeline it belongs to. Tears of the Kingdom is a direct sequel to Breath of the Wild, so the same open question applies. Fans have built many theories about whether the later games somehow merge the branches, but these remain interpretations, not official answers.
๐ฎ What Is New in the Ocarina of Time Remake for Switch 2?
Nintendo has not announced any story changes for the remake. What it has shown so far is a full visual overhaul, voice acting in cutscenes, a dedicated jump button, a dodge roll that turns into a sprint, and the option to hum songs into the Switch 2 microphone. An extended clip Nintendo released in September also adds a narrator who introduces Ganondorf and the Gerudo law of a single man born every hundred years, lore that was already part of the original game but is now front and center. You can read more in our news on the remake’s November release date and gameplay changes and on Ganondorf’s reworked introduction.
โ Quick Questions About the Ocarina of Time Story
Is Link a Kokiri in Ocarina of Time?
No. Link is a Hylian. His mother left him with the Great Deku Tree during a war in Hyrule, and he was raised as one of the Kokiri.
Who is Sheik?
Sheik is Princess Zelda in disguise. She hid from Ganondorf with Impa’s help during the seven years Link slept.
Why does Ocarina of Time split the Zelda timeline?
Zelda sends Link back to his childhood at the end, so the adult era and the child era continue separately. The official timeline adds a third branch in which Link is defeated.
What happened to the Hero of Time after Ocarina of Time?
In the Child Timeline he travels to Termina in Majora’s Mask, and Hyrule Historia identifies the Hero’s Shade in Twilight Princess as his spirit. In the Adult Timeline he never returns, which is why no hero appears when Ganondorf breaks free.
When does the Ocarina of Time remake release?
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time launches on November 5, 2026, exclusively for Nintendo Switch 2.
Final Words
Ocarina of Time is far more than a classic adventure. It is the story that explains where Ganondorf comes from, why the Triforce is divided, and how one hero’s journey through time splits Hyrule’s history into three. Almost every Zelda game that followed traces its roots back to the moment Zelda raised the Ocarina and sent Link home. If you play the Switch 2 remake in November, you are not just replaying a legend, you are standing at the exact point where the whole Zelda timeline begins to branch.
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Picture Source: Nintendo
