Zelda Timeline 2026

Last verified: 2026-11-10

Child timeline

On the child timeline the young Hero of Time returns with knowledge of what Ganondorf was planning, and the games that follow are Majora's Mask, Twilight Princess, and Four Swords Adventures.

Official key art for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on Nintendo Switch 2
Original parchment chart of the Downfall, Child, and Adult branches

Key art © Nintendo, used with a link to the product page. Chart art on this site is original.

Games in this branch, in current chart order

GameOriginal platformPlacement status
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's MaskNintendo 64Nintendo chart + independent release reference
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight PrincessWii / GameCube (regional dates below are Wii)Nintendo chart + independent release reference
The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords AdventuresGameCubeNintendo chart + independent release reference

This column exists because Ocarina of Time ends by sending the child Link back. He carries the warning. The adult years he already lived are the other column, the one that floods. I am not treating the child path as a dream sequence. Nintendo prints it as its own list of games.

Majora's Mask is the direct sequel for that child. He leaves Hyrule looking for a friend, falls into Termina, and has three days. The Zelda Wiki summary of the opening, which I checked against the usual retelling on 10 Nov 2026, puts Princess Zelda in a flashback rather than in Clock Town. So the honest answer to “do they meet?” is: not in Termina. The flashback is a meeting he already had. I will not upgrade that into a reunion scene the game does not stage.

Twilight Princess comes generations later. The Hero of Time is a memory and a shade, not the rancher you play. Ganondorf's execution is the political fact this path is known for: the warning worked well enough that he was caught, and after the failed execution the sages banish him into the Twilight Realm. Zant invades. The GameCube and Wii versions shipped days apart in November and December 2006, and the HD version is a Wii U release from 4 Mar 2016. None of those dates moves the game off this column.

Four Swords Adventures is the last game printed on the child path. It is not the same cartridge as the Game Boy Advance Four Swords, which sits before Ocarina in the Force era. The shared title is why people file it in the wrong century. In Four Swords Adventures a different incarnation of Ganondorf becomes Ganon, while Vaati and Shadow Link also threaten Hyrule, and the chart stops. There is no official arrow from Four Swords Adventures into Breath of the Wild.

Questions

Do Link and Zelda meet on the child timeline?

In Majora's Mask they do not share a scene in Termina. Zelda appears in the opening flashback in Hyrule. Their next meeting on this path is not in that game.

Sources