Ocarina Of Time Remake Devs Didn't Focus On The Zelda Timeline

The Ocarina Of Time Developers Were Told To Ignore Zelda’s Confusing Timeline Published Nov 6, 2026, 3:46 AM EST Sam Woods is TheGamer’s Senior Reporter. He’s been in games journalism since 2020 and has undertaken a variety of roles in that time. These have included roles such as SEO Editor, Managing Editor at DualShockers, and Global Head of Gaming, and he's also been seen on the BBC. He was promoted to the Senior Reporter position in 2025 following a series of high-quality reports and exclusives for TheGamer. Since 2020, Sam has written over 3,000 articles and specializes in telling the stories of the people behind the games. He’s interviewed the biggest game directors, some of the industry’s top talents, told the stories of how indie games came to be, and spoken to players about what really makes them tick. He’s also interviewed some of the world’s biggest musical artists to find out how the medium has inspired their work, and TV and Film actors about their roles in video game adaptations. He even hosted a PAX panel in 2021 and made a documentary in 2024 surrounding the creation of a Disney game. Alongside this, Sam focuses on breaking news. He got the scoop on Perfect Dark’s cancellation, provided context on some AI drama, and revealed that Lady Dimitrescu’s actress would love to step back into the character’s giant shoes. These articles have been picked up by the biggest gaming sites, including IGN, GameSpot, and PC Gamer. He also loves to dive into the numbers behind the games. Sam’s journey in games journalism has taken him all over the world. He’s covered Gamescom in Germany, Summer Game Fest in Los Angeles, and Tokyo Game Show in Japan, each on three occasions. He’s been learning Japanese since 2024 with the intention of identifying and translating Japanese-language news and bringing it to English-language audiences first, something he’s done countless times. Sam’s first review was 2020’s Battletoads reboot, and he’s since reviewed games in The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario, and Pokemon franchises. For as long as The Legend of Zelda has existed, its timeline has caused confusion. Online debates have often raged over which games fall where on the timeline, and which timelines they even exist in to begin with. With such a young development team, you'd expect The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time's Switch 2 remake to face a lot of timeline-related questions, especially since some developers admitted they hadn't played the original game. Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma, who oversaw the remake, sought to simplify things with one piece of advice: just "focus on the game." The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time Switch 2 Devs Had To "Focus On The Game", Not The Timeline Spoilers for The Legend of Zelda timelines ahead. The Legend of Zelda is split into multiple timelines. The Creation and Early Eras explores how Hyrule came to be and includes games like Skyward Sword and Ocarina of Time. Ocarina of Time then serves to split the series into three further timelines: The Downfall Timeline: A Link to the Past, Link's Awakening, The Legend of Zelda, and Echoes of Wisdom (and more). The Child Timeline: Majora's Mask, Twilight Princess, Four Swords Adventures. The Adult Timeline: Wind Waker, Spirit Tracks, Phantom Hourglass Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom then unite these timelines, telling the story of a distant legend. It's all a little bit messy, and with a fledgling development team, Aonuma revealed to Game Informer that he received lots of questions about it during development. "It's funny because the staff would sometimes ask me about the possibility of including nods to the timeline or references to the other game," he said. "And I actually, at the time, would say, 'No, let's focus on this game. Let's make this the best version of Ocarina of Time that we can.' So, the timeline was in the back of our mind, but we didn't consider taking an approach to this game where we actually, explicitly included references like that." No, let's focus on this game. Let's make this the best version of Ocarina of Time that we can. Naturally, when you're developing a Zelda game, the timeline has to be considered, but as a remake, this makes total sense. The new Ocarina of Time team was redoing a self-contained story, and one where the timeline had already been determined. They didn't need to focus on the cause and effect, just making the best version of the game possible, and they seemed to do just that. It's now comfortably the best-reviewed game of 2026, at least until we find out what GTA 6 scores, and it received a 5/5 from us here at TheGamer. In our review, we said, "Nintendo’s remake feels like a triumphant celebration of what made it so special while wisely modernizing small aspects to make for a more enjoyable experience," praising the new art style, auditory updates, and gameplay balance. Systems Released November 5, 2026 ESRB Everyone 10+ / Animated Blood, Fantasy Violence Developer(s) Nintendo Publisher(s) Nintendo Genre(s) RPG, Action, Adventure