The Legend of Zelda series has been around for over 30 years since the first game came out for the Nintendo Entertainment System back in 1986. Ever since, the series has seen many sequels, some prequels, and even some alternate stories make their way into consoles.
While the
Zelda series has been consistently great, what isn't so consistent is its timeline; which fans have been trying to figure out pretty much since
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past came out—which many thought to be a sequel at one point, only to realise it wasn't the same Link, nor a sequel to the first two titles in the series—but a prequel.
The main problem with the
Legend of Zelda timeline is that there isn't one, except for the fact that there actually is one that developers tried to make sense of after they had already released quite a bunch of games in the series. Long story short...yes, there is an official
Legend of Zelda timeline and no, it wasn't carefully planned out by the developers until they realised fans had theorised a timeline that made some sense.
In a recent interview with Famitsu, translated by Siliconera,
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild director Hidemaro Fujibayashi and long-time series producer Eiji Aounuma were asked about the game's place in the timeline.
"
Well of course it’s at the very end. But, I get what you’re asking, it’s which timeline is it the end of?", said Aonuma playing coy to waht Fujibayashi added "
That’s… up to the player’s imagination, isn’t it?". In order to clarify this a bit more, there was a main series' timeline that split into three after Ocarina of Time; one in which Link is defeated and main series villain Ganon makes his return, one in which Link defeats Ganon and is sent back to the past—thus creating the Child Era timeline, and one which is the result of Link defeating Ganon and leaving that timeline in the future—creating the Adult Era timeline. Time travel just complicates things.
"Hyrule’s history changes with time. When we think of the next game and what we want to do with it, we might think, 'Oh, this’ll fit well', and place it neatly into the timeline, but sometimes we think, 'Oh crap', and have to change the placement. Actually, the decided history has been tweaked many times", said Aonuma.
Fuyibayashi then adds that they simply add new information to the timeline without actually changing stuff about it in order to make it fit with previous games."Lately within the company, a term called ‘New Translation’ has cropped up. (laughs) Strictly speaking, we don’t change it, but rather new information and truths come to light".
The Legend of Zelda timeline is still up for debate, especially because many fans actually feel the need to give the games a specific place in time given that, for the most part, the main hero is never the same but a reincarnation of the original hero. But, who is the original hero? It honestly doesn't really matter since the games take the Legend word quite literally, especially Breath of the Wild, which we know takes place, at the very least, 10,000 years after any of the other games in the series. But, in case people are still wondering where The Legend Of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is placed, it's exactly where everyone thought it was: at the very end of the timeline.
No kingdom. No memories. After a 100-year slumber, Link wakes up alone in a world he no longer remembers. Now the legendary hero must explore a vast and dangerous land and regain his memories before Hyrule is lost forever.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is currently available for the Nintendo Switch and Wii U.