Link travels between childhood and adulthood to stop Ganondorf from seizing the Triforce. Its ending is the single fork point of the entire official timeline: depending on how it's interpreted, three different futures branch out from here.
Placement Reasoning
Per Hyrule Historia (2011) and the Zelda Encyclopedia (2017), this game's differing endings are the origin of the three-branch split. Verified against Zelda Wiki, Dexerto, and Zelda Archive summaries of the official chart.
Notable & Interesting
- The three possible outcomes of this game's ending — child Link warns Zelda and prevents Ganondorf's rise, adult Link defeats Ganon but a warning is never given, or Link is defeated entirely — are literally what create the Child, Adult, and Downfall timelines.
- Widely regarded as one of the most influential 3D action-adventure games ever made; the Ocarina itself becomes a recurring motif across later titles.
Connections
- Thematically linked to
A Link to the PastIts Downfall-branch outcome becomes ALttP's Imprisoning War backstory.
Part of these threads
Key terms
Also on the Shared Trunk (Before the Split)
Skyward Sword
The chronological origin point of the entire series: the goddess Hylia seals Demise's malice beneath the floating island of Skyloft, and the first Link and Zelda forge the bond — and the Master Sword's earliest form — that echoes through every era that follows.
The Minish Cap
Link teams up with a sentient talking hat, Ezlo, and gains the ability to shrink to the size of the tiny Minish people to stop Vaati, the wind mage whose rise here sets in motion conflicts referenced throughout the pre-split era.
Four Swords
A cooperative-multiplayer dungeon crawler in which Link draws the Four Sword and splits into four colored copies of himself to stop Vaati, who has escaped his imprisonment and kidnapped Princess Zelda.