8 MORE Video Games Where The True Ending Is The Bad Ending

This Nintendo 64 adventure game classic might be the only game where, no matter what happens, it’s considered canonical.

For a long time, Zelda fans tried their best to make head and tail out of the spiralling number of games in the series. Detailed lore experts slaved away trying to understand which games took place when and how to justify how Hyrule looked one particular way and then another entirely in the next title.

And then Nintendo blew everyone’s minds with its three-way split timeline..

In Ocarina of Time, as his wont, Link faces down the villainous Ganon. With the beast slain, the time travelling hero is sent back to the time he came from to live out the rest of his childhood. From here, the timeline splits. The young Link goes onto Majora’s Mask and the world he leaves behind eventually floods to become the setting of the Wind Waker.

But what if you die during the boss fight? Well, that’s canon too.

If Link is defeated by Ganon in this showdown then the timeline splits in a third direction. The adventures that feature on this arm focus on the decline of Hyrule in the earliest games in the series like Link to the Past and the original Legend of Zelda.

So worry not if you die during Ocarina of Time. You’re making sure the timeline stays intact, right?