The placement of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild within the series' timeline continues to be questioned, even though Nintendo's Japanese website has positioned the Switch release at the very end with no connections to existing time arcs.
According to a translation of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Creating a Champion book, provided by Nintendo Insider, series Producer Eiji Aonuma explained why this particular entry would not be placed in the chronological timeline:
"We made this game with the intention of returning to our roots, so the response from players about feeling the same as they had when they were young is promising. Since Nintendo Switch is portable, I hope that they will be able to engage deeply with the game in a fresh, new way too.
"In books like the recently released The Legend of Zelda Encyclopedia, we revealed where each Zelda game fell on a timeline and how their stories related, but we didn’t do that for Breath of the Wild. There is a reason for that. With this game, we saw just how many players were playing in their own way and had those reactions I just mentioned."
Aonuma further explains how the development team didn't want a timeline to restrict anyone's imagination with a definitive story:
"We realised that people were enjoying imagining the story that emerged from the fragmental imagery we were providing. If we defined a restricted timeline, then there would be a definitive story, and it would eliminate the room for imagination, which wouldn’t be as fun.
“We want players to be able to continue having fun imagining this world even after they are finished with the game, so, this time, we decided that we would avoid making clarifications. I hope that everyone can find their own answer, in their own way.”
Do you think was a good decision by Aonuma and his team? What are your own theories? Tell us below.
[source nintendo-insider.com]
Comments 53
Kinda feels like a cop out but then again, I get what he's trying to do and it does make me imagine where it could fit in the zelda universe. Besides, YouTube has a ton of videos about this topic
It's fun to talk about. But I'm not wedded to any one idea or theory. I kind of like the haphazard manner in which they play fast and loose with the timeline.
I also want to say while I agree that the idea of legend implies that stories and their tellings may change over time, I'm not entirely on board with the idea that every game is the same story retold differently when evidence is explicitly presented in various games that they take place before or after whatever game.
.... I liked the timeline of being connected.... Maybe have the next Zelda game detail more of how they all merge and connect. (As well as being the beginning of the ancient civilization Sheik)
Could be cool way to work the new Zelda
I wonder why no one ever asks where Mario games fit in the Mushroom Kingdom timeline.
The way I see it, it lies at the end of each of the 3 timelines. Not that they combine back into one but that each independently arrives at BotW. Regardless of what happens to Link in Ocarina of Time BotW is the eventual result and destruction is Hyrule's fate
I'm fine with this. It lets me go with the merged timelines theory.
I like reading/watching discussions on the Zelda timeline because sometimes I get that "Cool, never thought about that" moment. However, I don't take the timeline as gospel.
Just enjoy each game for what it is. Some are clearly related, but many series entries can just as easily stand on their own.
The timeline's always been made-up nonsense to sell a book. Don't know why anyone cares about it.
Maybe the Zelda timeline was the friends we made along the way
This is a suitably vague answer to a question that presumes a concept that never really existed to begin with.
Because there is no timeline...
Current final game in the Windwaker timeline
Just put it at the beginning or end like they do every other time. Or in the shadow realm with the cdi ones if that's easier.
Seriously though, I think it probably takes place somewhere between The Prisoner of Azkaban and The Return of the King.
@Ttimer5 it makes perfect sense if you allow Hyrule Warriors to be canon. Cia reconnected the three timelines when she opened the various portals, which would explain why things from multiple timelines appear here.
Considering Nintendo basically is refusing to fit this into the timeline at all, that’ll be my headcanon.
And honestly... the timeline is a load anyways. The games have always been made without any thought to the timeline, it seems more than likely that they bothered to make one to appease fans. The games are just meant to be standalone with a few exceptions of direct sequels. And that’s fine, it gives them more freedom.
@Dezzy It was ''cool'' when it wasn't official. It's always neat to speculate about these things, but for a company to come out and say ''this is the official timeline'', even though most games were never made with it in mind kinda ruined it all. There's a lot of speculation on how the Team ICO games are connected; ICO, Shadow of the Colossus, and The Last Guardian. It's fun to speculate, and I'm glad they don't come out and say what the ''canon'' explanation is lol.
@backlogrob there would be problems there. For one, it’s very much the same Hyrule (evidenced by the general geography) while that timeline let the old Hyrule get permanently submerged and the characters went to find a “new Hyrule”. Two... there’s Zoras. It is explicitly stated that the Rito evolved from Zoras, and Zoras don’t exist in that timeline (not much could survive in the oceans there, aside from monsters and an odd human faced fish). And Ganon never really appeared in that timeline after OoT, Ganondorf did but not Ganon... it’s actually the only timeline Ganon wasn’t fought, and previously Aonuma hinted that had something to do with where it falls in the timeline (there’s actually multiple interviews he’s given hints about where it’s placed, despite him now saying it has no official placement).
As a lifelong fan who grew up with the series starting with its original NES entry, I've never cared for a second about timelines. Even as a child I figured out in every generation in Hyrule there would be a Link, a Zelda and a Ganon and they'd fight. The sequence of events is a pointless complication
Let's just face it. There is no real coherent Zelda timeline. But if I were to take a crack at it, this game is furthest in the Zelda future. Far far after numerous catastrophic "resets".
Ye, sod the timeline and let the player use their imagination. Get's my vote everyday.
It's not in the timeline, yet I clearly rememeber in the game that Nabooru was mentioned as a great Gerudo of the past.
Was she just a random Nabooru totally not related to Ocarina of Time? Is "Nabooru" the name of every great Gerudo of the past?
The more they try to keep the great picture simple, the more the details get complicated honestly XD
To be fair, I don't think any of the Zelda storylines should be linked, they are great games, maybe just different parallel universes.
Just enjoy the games, thats it in my eyes.
Even if the timeline is a little crazy I still love it and love contemplating where BoTW may fit. Since the Zora and the Ruto coexist in the game and there’s Koroks, I think that it falls later into the timeline maybe before spirit tracks..? Lol I dunno. Can’t wait for the next entry in the series! Bring us a new 2D Zelda Nintendo!!!
Link does not seem to age, he just changes his appearance so there is no time line. Just a selection of games. Xenoblade seems to have a sort of timeline and they have different characters in their games, xenoblade chronicles 2 torna golden country for example.
It's all just make believe...... Unlike Mario who is caught in a groundhog day timeline. He wakes up to find his Princess has been taken again.
Any attempt to put the story in these games in chronological order just kind of cheapen them to me. The original LoZ was the template for other games to build on this world, but not in any direct causal way. Each game attempts to refine various gameplay concepts and attempts to place them in the same world with some aesthetic and character differences. Trying connect everything into a timeline makes the whole series a big convoluted mess and misses the point. All I know is when I saw the Deku Tree in BOTW I thought that it was a perfect place for the character. Was it the same tree as the one in OOT? Irrelevant...
@Eef
I have an unhealthy love for the Zelda series and I like the fact they tried to make all independent games stick together.
The timeline wasn't meant to be at first but they managed to build something pretty clever and created games to fill the gaps or give the story an origin with Skyward Sword.
I see the Zelda timeline like the Star Wars extended universe. It gives you a background, a universe, a bigger story and something to dream about (I said I had an unhealthy love for the serie ).
And I enjoy each Zelda game independently as well. I probably played most of them between 5 and 20 times and never got bored.
I hope this explains why some people like the Zelda timeline. Also I perfectly understand why someone wouldn't care about it since it is not the directly the game.
I sort of see Breath of the Wild at the end of the timeline. So no matter what games come next, Breath of the Wild is always the last one.
Or, maybe even something that connect the timeline back to the very beginning - Skyward Sword?
@Crono1973
They do, actually! There's a guy on Talk Amongst Yourselves that's put out a series of fascinating articles called Warped Pipes. He's gone through all of the early Mario titles, including Game & Watch stuff, and has finally reached Super Mario Bros.
https://tay.kinja.com/tag/warped-pipes
Timeline and continuity or just lots of Easter eggs and nods peppered into the games that we've tried to link into a gratifying narrative, forcing the creators to come up with one 😜
Either way it has admittedly been alot of fun to talk about and others POV on the subject.
I just assume it is the Hyrule Warriors timeline, after they all finished up they realized just how confusing everything was and used the Triforce to wish it all made more sense. So the goddesses sent the ancient machines to stitch time back together and defeat Ganon (yet again). Centuries later Breath of the Wild happens.
I love the continued confirmation that the creators don't consider Zelda games to be happening in a canonical order, or that they even share any clearly defined continuity of concepts or causality.
They're legends. Mythological tales.
The timeline in the book was based entirely on fan-speculation anyway. The idea of the split timelines was never anything propagated by any official series spokesperson.
It’s better this way. Zelda timeline never made any sense.
As far as I remember, the only obvious connections/sequels were Oracles games, OoT + MM, Zelda 1 and 2, ALTTP + ALBW, Wind Waker + Phantom Hourglass. They don’t fit together when you try to arrange every single game in a timeline. Some details might make sense (Skull Kid appearing in Twilight Princess, Temple of Time, Koroks) but those games are legends happening in the same universe, without the need of any chronological order.
This approach to telling a Zelda story is lazy and counterintuitive. It's lazy because they're passing off the creative work onto the consumers, and it is counterintuitive because once you reveal that a question will never have a real and objective answer, there's no point in trying to find or imagine one. Why is Nintendo going through the trouble of creating a timeline if they're just going to crap on it? This is the same anti-story attitude that destroyed the Paper Mario series.
Even tho i find it interesting, i never cared about the timeline. I just want zelda to be legendary.
i hope the next one has the Majoras mask Magick. Travel faster with a goron mask, man.... I loved that part, or the Zora mask to feel like im playing with the Guyver lol and on top of that the fierce deity mask. I hope these things will rerurn in zelda, same for the Ocarina.
Eventho breath of the wild is the beld zelda, i missed that kinda stuff that makes link look more powerfull (dins fire attack, nayrus love and farores wind)
I always saw most Zelda games like Final Fantasy titles: similar themes, tropes and trademarks from game-to-game but each a fresh start. There are exceptions of course much like we have a FFXIII trilogy.
I never cared all too much about the timeline but really if I was to make any personal headcanon it would be to roll in with the temple of time's established time travel-ry and literally shrug and indeed establish it at the end of all the timelines through perhaps some undisclosed "merging of the parralel timelines" event at some point perhaps merging the different Zelda timeline into a single merged reality or something of the like.
I mean, with all we've already seen of the setting's tech back in Skyward Sword's distant past and BOTW's far future tech... I wouldn't pull it against the setting coming up with some kind of dimension machine making this literally canon at some point.
@ShadJV
Wow! I totally forgot about Hyrule Warriors in the sense that this stuff happens. Now that game is awesome!
I mean the ending has all the games go back to the way it was ... But who's not to say that monsters laid eggs and/or droppings in the different locations that were left in the world to later be hatched or emerge as new monsters from different timelines and even Koroko appearing.
That's pretty crazy!
They must have considered it when developing the game, but then again, if I had to level one criticism at BOTW it would probably be around the level of depth on the story and characters - it could have had much more. So maybe they didn't think about it... Whatever they did, they created a masterpiece, so can't complain!
Every game we have a new version of Link and a new version of Princess Zelda, and this franchise is Old.
So I think this approach give more creative freedom when developing a new game, so I'm fine with it.
Link to the Past was the first on. Link had so much fun on his quest that at the end when he touched the triforce his wish was that he could relive quests over and over again that were both similar and different to one another. There is no timeline, the Goddesses just create a world, throw Link into it and say, "Good luck!".
Wonderful news; I'm going to deem it non-canon then.
Go with my own eh? Well, based on all of what's in the game it's a "best of" Zelda, so that leaves two possibilities (for me at least): A) BotW is a convergence of all timelines as it incorporates many things found in the main Zelda games or B) It is a reboot of the Zelda timeline as we know it, allowing it to free flow and incorporate as many established and new elements as it feels like (such as tearing up the script of "boy must be clad in green tunic and cap"). Either one of these is perfectly fine with me, but I feel like the creators truly want BotW to be that wildcard Zelda that "isn't" supposed to fit into the timeline. With that being said, I'm fine with not knowing where it "fits".
PS: I play Zelda for the games, but the lore is present regardless of perspective-- I just look at it as an extra to have fun with since I love Zelda so much
I'll take that over any of Kojima's poor attempts to explain away his fetishes he puts into MGS games.
In my opinion, BotW takes place at a time when all timelines have fused together once more, hence why Link can find items, such as Majora's Mask, Midna's helmet, the Wind Waker blue shirt and others, that refer different timelines.
Timeline is made up, so this is not surprising.
@Ttimer5 don’t forget the extra story Legends added too. Cia’s actions caused additional time rifts to open (from Wind Waker’s time period) and sure, they sorted it out... but how would the know for sure? Clearly they didn’t realize that messing with time would even do that much, for all they know the timelines would inevitably merge. But even without that possibility, yes, just the fact that the timelines crossed allowed stuff from them to leak into the others.
Usually I would oppose this, but I know exactly what Aonuma means.
When I ride past the ruins of Lon-Lon ranch, it evokes the memories I had while playing OoT, while other parts might evoke memories I have from Skyward Sword.
It's all very personal and depends on which games you've played and which of those you liked. Not necessarily on those games that would make sense regarding the timeline.
BotW is full of conflicting references to all kinds of Zelda games from different timelines, meaning it can't possible bring all of those together in a comprehensible, logical way, without any contradictions.
So the only thing that makes sense is: BotW exists in a parallel universe. Outside of the official timeline.
That's the only explanation for it referencing all kinds of games from different timelines (in the main universe) with no connection to each other.
Most of them were never connected anyway, its only because people keep asking that they bothered to make one up in the first place
The only timeline im interested in hearing about is when the next LoZ is dropping
@Crono1973 you mean like this one?
http://fantendo.wikia.com/wiki/Super_Mario_Timeline
Fallen Hero timeline.
It's simple. Fallen hero timeline. Need we say more? Gannon doesn't have THIS much power in the other timelines.
I see this as a cheap cop out. Going forward I'm just going to stop caring about the timeline because Nintendo sure as hell doesn't care about it. It makes me a bit sad because I liked the idea of the timeline but seeing how Nintendo wont commit to it makes me sad and frustrated. Like why did they even bother making it in the first place if they were going to immediately back down from it
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