The Legend of Zelda’s newest release is connecting classic Zelda with the Wild Era in a major way.
Nintendo’s newly announced Ocarina of Time remake promises a “reborn” version of the highest-rated video game of all time. In fact, judging by the game’s recently revealed teaser trailer, this new take on OOT shares a much deeper connection to Breath of the Wild than many fans of traditional Zelda might have hoped.
Not only does this connection seemingly confirm recent leaks surrounding Zelda’s future, but it could very well indicate an entire reboot of the Zelda Timeline and lore.
Ocarina of Time’s New Logo Has BOTW Connections That Are Deeper Than Just a Font Change
As soon as Zelda: Ocarina of Time was revealed with a teaser trailer at Nintendo’s June 9 Direct, fans immediately fixated on the game’s new logo. A far cry from the iconic red font of the classic OOT, this new title logo bares a near 1 to 1 resemblance to the logo used in the Wild Era. The font is decayed and cracked just like in BOTW and TOTK, which marks a heavy departure from the cleaner, more metallic look of the original Ocarina of Time logo.
But it’s not even just the font that has changed. The other notable difference between OOT’s new logo and the classic one is that the Hylian Shield is not the same one from the original game. The Hylian Shield used in the new logo is actually the one from Breath of the Wild instead.
The biggest difference between the two shields is that BOTW’s version replaces the classic upside-down golden triangle at the bottom of the shield with a larger version of the red bird that went on to become Link’s Crimson Loftwing in Skyward Sword.
While the connections to games like OOT and Skyward Sword always just felt like nothing more than fun Easter Eggs in BOTW, they suddenly bear much more meaning when Ocarina of Time‘s remake comes into play.
The New OOT Remake Might Finally Be Fixing The Wild Era’s Lore
There are some interesting new possibilities opened up for Zelda lore thanks to this newfound BOTW x OOT connection.
On the downside, the removal of that upside-down golden triangle in the Hylian Shield means that OOT‘s iconic Tetraforce fan theory no longer applies to the Switch 2 version of the game. As disappointing as that may be, there are far more positive lore implications inherent with this change than there are negative.
Suddenly, this new version of OOT already feels more connected to the version of Hyrule seen in BOTW and TOTK than ever. Fans could feasibly find many other connections like this to the Wild Era in Ocarina of Time’s world, hinting at the missing link between these two previously disconnected periods of Zelda history.
Up until now, the Wild Era games still lack any direct connection to the official Zelda Timeline. As far as anyone knows, they can represent a complete reboot of the entire lore of the franchise, or even exist in an alternate universe. By connecting Ocarina of Time (the game that originated the timeline split with) to BOTW, the Zelda franchise can finally make sense out of the Wild Era’s confusing place in the timeline.
In fact, if Nintendo continues to remake the series with future games, there’s suddenly a very real possibility that the entire franchise could receive a more cohesive lore going forward, effectively rebooting the Zelda Timeline to make more sense of it all.
Ocarina of Time’s Logo Corroborates Major Switch 2 Zelda Leaks
Lore details aside, Zelda: Ocarina of Time’s gameplay could obviously see a dramatic change if this Wild Era connection is taken at face value. But it may not be as simple as OOT just becoming an open-air Zelda game.
Leaks prior to OOT’s official announcement stated that the next Zelda game would be created in the Breath of the Wild engine, a fact which strongly implies that the same would be the case for OOT too.
If the Zelda Team is still using that same Wild Era engine for its future games, there’s no way they would make a whole separate engine solely for this Ocarina of Time remake, so it makes perfect sense that they’d stick with what has been working.
Importantly, just because this game is likely made in the same engine as BOTW, that doesn’t mean its gameplay or graphical aesthetic will be the same. It just means that the physics of the Wild Era titles will be used as a foundation to build this game from.
For example, Splatoon 3 was also created using a variant of the Breath of the Wild engine — and it’s very clear how different that game is to BOTW.
For Nintendo, the Wild Era logo could indicate a new era for the Zelda franchise as a whole. Even the Zelda movie has been associated with a version of this logo, so it could really be Nintendo’s attempt at homogenizing the iconography of the franchise moving forward. Whatever the case, that new Hylian Shield definitely presents some exciting possibilities for Zelda lore nerds and is absolutely something to pay attention to as more info comes out in the future.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time comes exclusive to the Switch 2 in 2026.