Ocarina of Time Remake Story Summary and Ending

This is the story of the Ocarina of Time remake on Nintendo Switch 2, told in the order you play it. It follows the 15 chapters of our walkthrough, so each part links to the chapter that covers the same stretch of the game. It retells only what the game’s cutscenes and dialogue show; for who each person is, see the characters page.

What happens in the child half of the story?

Chapter 1: Kokiri Forest and the Great Deku Tree

A narrator opens the game: in a small forest at the edge of Hyrule live the Kokiri, each with a fairy companion, except for one boy. That boy, Link, has the same nightmare every night: a castle gate in a storm and a girl carried away on horseback. The dying Great Deku Tree sends the fairy Navi to bring Link to him and asks him to defeat the monster cursing him from within. Afterwards he tells Link about the three goddesses, the Triforce and the Sacred Realm where it rests, and warns that the man from Link’s dreams wants that power. He gives Link the Kokiri Emerald, sends him to find the princess at Hyrule Castle and dies. Saria catches up with Link just past the forest exit and gives him her ocarina. See chapter 1.

Chapter 2: Hyrule Castle and Princess Zelda

The owl Kaepora Gaebora points Link down the road to the castle. In the castle courtyard, Zelda explains that she dreamed of dark clouds over Hyrule and a boy from the forest holding a green stone. She tells Link the royal family’s legend: the Triforce is sealed behind the Door of Time in the Temple of Time, and opening the door takes the three Spiritual Stones and the Ocarina of Time. Through a window she shows him Ganondorf, leader of the Gerudo, and says she is sure he is after the Triforce. Zelda asks Link to collect the other two stones and gives him her letter; her attendant Impa teaches him Zelda’s Lullaby and sends him toward Kakariko Village and Death Mountain. See chapter 2.

Chapter 3: Death Mountain and the Gorons

In Goron City, Darunia, the Big Boss of the Gorons, is in a foul mood: Dodongo Cavern, their source of food rock, has been overrun. After Saria’s Song cheers him up, he gives Link the Goron Bracelet and asks him to clear the cavern. Once King Dodongo is defeated, Darunia explains that Ganondorf’s men had offered to deal with the Dodongos in return for the Spiritual Stone, and he refused. He names Link his sworn brother and gives him the Goron Ruby, the Spiritual Stone of Fire. See chapter 3.

Chapter 4: Zora Domain and Lord Jabu-Jabu

In Zora Domain (Zora’s Domain in the N64 original), King Zora’s daughter Ruto has gone missing. Link brings him her letter, found in a bottle at Lake Hylia, which says she is inside Lord Jabu-Jabu, the Zora’s guardian deity. The king mentions that Jabu-Jabu has been acting strangely, then opens the way to Zora Fountain. Inside Jabu-Jabu, Ruto insists Link carry her until she finds the stone she dropped. After Link defeats the monster, she gives him the Zora Sapphire, the Spiritual Stone of Water, and tells him it was meant as an engagement gift for her future husband. See chapter 4.

Chapter 5: The Door of Time

Link returns to the castle with all three stones, in the rain, just as the drawbridge lowers. Impa rides out on a white horse with Zelda, who throws something into the moat. Ganondorf rides up behind them and demands to know where they went, then leaves Link with a warning: his name is Ganondorf, and he will rule the world. Link finds the Ocarina of Time in the moat, and Zelda’s message teaches him the Song of Time. In the Temple of Time the Door of Time opens and Link draws the Master Sword. Ganondorf appears behind him, thanks the “little hero” for opening the way and walks into the Sacred Realm. See chapter 5.

What happens when Link wakes up seven years later?

The Chamber of Sages and Sheik

Link wakes as an adult in the Chamber of Sages. Rauru, who built the Temple of Time, explains that Link was too young to wield the sword, so it kept him in the Sacred Realm for seven years. In that time Ganondorf took the Triforce, became the Demon King, and his power turned Hyrule into a land full of monsters. Rauru says that when the sages awaken, their combined power will form the Shackles of the Sages and imprison Ganondorf; he gives Link the Light Medallion and calls him the Hero of Time. Back in the temple, Sheik, a survivor of the Sheikah, tells the legend of five temples whose sages the hero must awaken, starting with the one in the deep forest. See chapter 5.

Chapter 6: The Forest Temple

Mido blocks the Lost Woods until Link plays Saria’s Song, then reveals that Saria went into the Forest Temple and made him promise to guard the path. Sheik teaches Link the Minuet of the Forest in the Sacred Grove. At the end of the temple Link defeats Phantom Ganon, and Ganondorf’s voice dismisses it as a mere illusion. Saria awakens as the Sage of the Forest, asks Link to tell Mido she is sorry and gives him the Forest Medallion. Outside, the Deku Tree Sprout tells Link that he is a Hylian: his wounded mother fled a war into the forest and left him in the Great Deku Tree’s care. See chapter 6.

Chapter 7: The Fire Temple

Goron City stands almost empty, and Sheik teaches Link the Bolero of Fire in Death Mountain Crater. In the Fire Temple, Darunia explains that Ganondorf has revived the evil dragon Volvagia and is feeding it captured Gorons; he goes ahead to fight it and leaves Link to free his people. After Volvagia falls, Darunia is the Sage of Fire, saying Rauru pulled him out of the fire, and gives Link the Fire Medallion. See chapter 7.

Chapter 8: The Ice Cavern and King Zora

Zora Domain is frozen solid, with King Zora trapped in ice. In the Ice Cavern, Sheik says that only Ruto could be saved and that the monster in the Water Temple caused the freezing, then teaches Link the Serenade of Water. Link thaws King Zora with blue fire and receives the Zora Tunic. See chapter 8.

Chapter 9: The Water Temple

Ruto, now grown up, greets Link in the Water Temple as her fiancé and asks for his help in saving her people. After Morpha is defeated, she awakens as the Sage of Water, gives Link the Water Medallion and tells him she can feel that Princess Zelda is still alive. Sheik then shows Link that Lake Hylia has filled again. See chapter 9.

Chapter 10: Kakariko burns and the Bottom of the Well

Kakariko Village is on fire when Link arrives. Sheik explains that a shadow creature Impa had sealed away has broken free, grown stronger since Ganondorf became the Demon King, and that Impa has gone after it to the Shadow Temple. Sheik teaches Link the Nocturne of Shadow and asks him to help her. To get through that temple, Link first returns to childhood and drains the village well to find the Lenses of Truth. See chapter 10 and Kakariko Village.

Chapter 11: The Shadow Temple

Link defeats Bongo Bongo at the bottom of the Shadow Temple. Impa awakens as the Sage of Shadow, blames herself for failing to stop Ganondorf seven years earlier and asks Link to protect the princess, who she says is safe and will reveal herself soon. She gives him the Shadow Medallion. See chapter 11.

Chapter 12: Gerudo Fortress

Link crosses Gerudo Valley to Gerudo Fortress in the west, where the Gerudo have locked up four carpenters. After he frees them, the Gerudo captain lets him through and asks him to look into Nabooru at the Spirit Temple, giving him the Gerudo Pass. See chapter 12.

Chapter 13: The desert and the Colossus

Link crosses the Mirage Desert (the Haunted Wasteland in the N64 original) behind a ghostly guide and reaches the Evil Desert Colossus. Sheik meets him there, shares the legend that the Spirit Temple accepts only those who transcend time, and teaches him the Requiem of Spirit, which brings him back to the temple as a child. See chapter 13.

Chapter 14: The Spirit Temple

As a child, Link meets Nabooru, a Gerudo thief working on her own. She explains that a Gerudo man is born once every hundred years and becomes their king, and that this time it is Ganondorf, whom she refuses to follow. She asks Link to fetch the Silver Gauntlets through a child-sized hole, but two witches, Koume and Kotake, seize her as a traitor. Seven years later Link fights an armoured warrior who turns out to be Nabooru under their spell; the witches take her again, and Link defeats them as Twinrova. Nabooru wakes as the Sage of Spirit, says Rauru helped her and gives Link the Spirit Medallion in place of the reward she once promised. See chapter 14.

How does the story reach Ganondorf’s Castle?

With the five temple sages awake, Rauru tells Link that an ally is waiting for him at the Temple of Time. There Sheik tells a hidden part of the Sheikah legend: if someone unworthy touches the Triforce, it splits into three. Ganondorf received only the Triforce of Power; the Triforce of Courage went to Link, and the Triforce of Wisdom to the leader of the sages. Sheik then reveals herself as Princess Zelda, who has been hiding in disguise. She explains that she threw Link the ocarina so that Ganondorf could not reach the Sacred Realm, and never imagined Link would be held there for seven years. She gives him the Light Arrows, but Ganondorf seals her in a crystal and carries her off to his castle.

The sages open the way across the chasm into Ganondorf’s Castle, and Rauru asks Link to rescue Zelda. Inside, each of the six barriers around the tower is held by a trial; as Link clears them, the sages speak to him one by one. At the top of the tower Ganondorf, playing the organ, notices that the three parts of the Triforce are in one room and demands Link’s and Zelda’s pieces. Link defeats him. See chapter 15.

How does Ocarina of Time end?

Freed from the crystal, Zelda says that without a righteous heart Ganondorf could not control the goddesses’ power. The tower starts to collapse, and Link escorts her out of the castle. Ganondorf rises from the rubble and turns into the beast Ganon. During the fight Zelda holds Ganon in place with her power, and Link deals the final blow with the Master Sword. Rauru calls on the goddesses, and the six sages and Zelda seal Ganon away; Ganondorf curses them and swears that while he holds the Triforce of Power he will one day break free.

Above the clouds, Zelda tells Link that Ganondorf has been banished to the Evil Realm and peace will return. She apologises: the tragedy began when she tried to open the way to the Sacred Realm, and it cost Link seven years. She will put the Master Sword to sleep and close the way, and as a sage she can now send Link back to the time before they met. She takes the Ocarina of Time, plays it and says goodbye.

The credits show the people of Hyrule celebrating. Young Link then stands in the Temple of Time with the Master Sword back in its pedestal, and Navi flies away into the light from the window. Link leaves the temple and walks into the castle courtyard, where Zelda is again looking through the window, and the game ends with their meeting.

The game itself does not place this story on a series timeline. Nintendo’s official history book, Hyrule Historia (2011), describes the series’ timeline as splitting into separate branches at the end of Ocarina of Time.

For the full route through every chapter, start with the walkthrough; for the bosses mentioned here, see the boss guide.