Since the inception of The Legend of Zelda series, its timeline settings have constantly puzzled players. Online debates rage on year after year: where do each of the games fit within the timeline, and which branch of the timeline do they belong to?
The development team for the Switch 2 remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is quite young, with some developers even admitting they had never played the original. Normally, the team would likely be bogged down by numerous timeline-related issues. However, series producer Eiji Aonuma, who supervised the project, simplified their approach with one piece of advice: just "focus on making this game well."
The world of The Legend of Zelda is split into multiple timelines. The "Creation and Early Era" chapter tells the origin of Hyrule, covering titles like Skyward Sword and Ocarina of Time. The story of Ocarina of Time further splits the series into three distinct timelines:
- Defeated Timeline: Includes A Link to the Past, Link's Awakening, the original The Legend of Zelda, Echoes of Wisdom, and other titles.
- Child Timeline: Includes Majora's Mask, Twilight Princess, and Four Swords Adventures.
- Adult Timeline: Includes The Wind Waker, Phantom Hourglass, and Spirit Tracks.
The subsequent Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom then reconverged these timelines, telling a long-standing legend. The entire timeline system is inherently complex. Eiji Aonuma revealed in an interview with Game Informer that he received many questions about it during development, as much of the team consisted of newcomers.
He stated, "It's quite interesting. Team members sometimes ask me if we should include some timeline-referencing Easter eggs or homages to other works in the game. But every time, I tell them: No, let's just focus on doing this one title well and strive to create the best possible remake of Ocarina of Time. We are certainly aware of the timeline, but we won't deliberately add such explicit crossovers or homages in this installment."
While developing a Zelda game certainly requires consideration of the timeline, this development logic is entirely sound for a remake. The core task for this remake team was to refresh a classic work with a self-contained story and a clearly established position in the timeline. They didn't need to worry about causal connections with other entries; they just needed to do their best to polish the optimal version of the game. Judging by the final product, they clearly succeeded.