One of the features of the mask of truth is that Link can get hints from the strange stones that dot the landscape. Some of these are things I’ve already figured out on my own (dropping bugs into small holes, the running man in Hyrule Field), some have been said elsewhere (Kokiri have companion fairies, Impa’s one of the Sheikah), and some should be bloody obvious (Ganon wants to rule the world), but there’s still some interesting things to learn here:
- The owl’s name is Kaepora Gaebora, and he’s the reincarnation of an ancient sage.
- Non-fairies who enter the Lost Woods become monsters.
- Zelda’s a tomboy, which I’m sure has no connection to a character I’m about to meet.
- There’s 100 of the gold skulltulas.
At this point, I have a fairly good idea of how things are going to go, based on what I’ve played before and stuff in the manual. This is clearly set in the pivotal time before A Link to the Past, around the time that Ganon got the Triforce. So Link and Zelda’s efforts are going to be in vain and Ganon will enter the sacred realm, and then the rest of the game – the part with the adult Link – will be the Imprisoning War with Link fighting to keep Ganon from conquering Hyrule while the Wise Men seal him away in the Sacred Realm.
Except there’s that other thing, the fact that the games set after this one are split across three timelines, so that’s just one outcome. It’s not necessarily even the one we see here; it could be that this game is the story of Ganon getting the Triforce rewritten to allow Link to stop him more permanently – actually, the A Link to the Past manual seems to suggest there wasn’t a Hero to wield the Master Sword during the Imprisoning War [1], so this feels right.
At any rate, it’s obvious this isn’t quite the end of the story. There’s still a bunch of spots left to fill on the inventory, a lot more skulltulas to get, and an entire second row to the life bar to fill in. Plus there's a bunch of talk of things happening over the next years, Chekov’s magic beans, Link as an adult to play as, and an area he’s not allowed to properly explore as a child. No, this is clearly the “Link has the three pendants, gets the Master Sword, and goes to stop Agahnim only to get drawn into a bigger quest” moment.
The Door of Time
Well, in the time I spent running around between getting the Ocarina of Time and going to the Temple of Time, I’d forgotten what to do. So, naturally, I stood on the image of the Triforce on the ground and played Zelda’s Lullaby and was surprised/disappointed when nothing happened. Then I tried Song of Time, and still nothing. As it turns out, Link has to go up to the altar itself and play the Song of Time there. Anyway, the Spiritual Stones go in the altar, the door opens, and Link finds the Master Sword. Drawing it from the pedestal floods the room with light.
However, Ganon shows up and reveals he’d followed Link. Now he has access to the Sacred Realm, and Link is powerless to stop him. All Link and Zelda’s planning has massively backfired, and while there’s no denying Link helped the gorons and zoras in his efforts to round up the Spiritual Stones, it would have been better if he’d left them with their respective protectors afterward and done his best to protect the Kokiri Emerald.
Anyway, Link finds himself in a room with an old man, Rauru, one of the ancient sages. Link has aged seven years, and yet somehow his clothes still fit. Rauru explains that Link was too young to wield the Master Sword when he attempted to take it, so he was sealed away until he was old enough. Ganon has the Triforce, but if Link unites the sages, Ganon’s evil can be contained in the Sacred Realm.
As Link leaves the Chamber of Sages, he returns to the Temple of Time, where he meets a Sheikah named Sheik. He [2] tells Link where to find the other five sages: one in a forest (Kokiri Forest, or more likely, the Lost Woods), one on a mountain (Death Mountain), one under a vast lake (Lake Hylia), one within a house of the dead (Kakariko graveyard?), and one inside a goddess of the sand (Gerudo Valley, no doubt). The first one he says Link should awaken is in the Forest Temple, a girl Link knows – Saria, no doubt. But apparently, Link needs something to get to the Forest Temple, and like Impa before him, tells Link to start his new adventure at Kakariko Village.
Next: Racing horses and ghosts.
[1] Although it also says that the Master Sword was created as a response to Ganon getting the Triforce, when this game clearly depicts it existing before that happened.
[2] I know who he is, but I’ll play along.
