Legend of Zelda hid an incredible secret from us in plain sight for 15 years

With The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake set to release later this year, many Zelda fans may not be aware of some of the incredible easter eggs that have populated the series over the years.

For example, some popular easter eggs in the games include the references to Super Mario in Link’s Awakening, or Majora’s Mask appearing in Link’s house in A Link Between Worlds.

With a series as long as The Legend of Zelda, it makes sense that Nintendo would find ways of including a whole manner of different references and easter eggs for players to spot in unlikely places.

However, one easter egg that has been hidden away in the series for nearly 15 years completely stunned me when I discovered it, and it’s to do with the main musical theme from 2011’s The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.

The main musical theme of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is called “Ballad of the Goddess”, and as is usually the case with Zelda’s music, the melody also appears as a song in-game with narrative importance.

Here’s what it sounds like, in case you’re not familiar with how it sounds.

However, something that Nintendo secretly hid inside this track is that if you reverse the audio and play it backwards, it actually sounds a lot like Zelda’s Lullaby, which first debuted in A Link to the Past but is most famously associated with Ocarina of Time.

Here’s what the song sounds like reversed. Note that at around 0:12 in the video, it sounds a lot like Zelda’s Lullaby.

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The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword's Ballad of the Goddess song hides a fun little reference

While I’m sure a lot of Zelda die-hards are already aware of this, I simply was not. But it’s apparently been noted within Zelda communities since at least 2012, even if some people have contested if they can actually hear it or not.

Anyway, I thought this was pretty cool, if a little creepy, but it also works quite well thematically with the story of Skyward Sword.

A lullaby is something you sing to children to help them sleep, but with Skyward Sword being a prequel to the entire Zelda franchise, it makes sense to reverse that song almost as if it’s a “wake up” call.

After Skyward Sword, Ballad of the Goddess reappeared in Tri Force Heroes and A Link Between Worlds.

It hasn’t made an appearance in any modern Zelda games though. With Nintendo set to remake Ocarina of Time later this year, it could possibly add in more songs for Link to play on the ocarina during regular gameplay.