Okay, let’s talk Zelda timeline. Any Zelda fan worth their salt has had more than a few uh, “discussions” about the series’ timeline. Many of these discussions tend to be about whether or not a master timeline even exists in the first place.
Nintendo’s on record as saying there is in fact a timeline for the Legend of Zelda series, but hasn’t elaborated much beyond that. Each game, particularly the more recent ones, drop some hints that they may be part of a greater continuity, but it’s not exactly a neat and tidy narrative. Generally it only takes slogging through a couple 500-reply message board threads to drive most Zelda fans to throw up their hands and declare “f–k it! I don’t care what Nintendo says! There is no timeline! Now let’s never speak of it again!”
Well, guess what? It turns out Nintendo wasn’t just teasing us. A 25th anniversary Zelda art book was recently released by Nintendo in Japan, and it contains the full, official, it’s-actually-real Legend of Zelda timeline. It’s been translated and can be scoped out after the jump…
via GlitterBerri
I never thought I’d see such a thing with my own two eyes. A few of the things I found interesting about the timeline…
They Actually Included The Capcom Developed Handheld and 4 Swords Games
Nintendo has kind of a frustrating history of trying to pretend games not developed internally by their main Japanese studios don’t exist. The most egregious example being a recent Metroid timeline they released that completely ignored the Metroid Prime games (which were developed by their branch based in Texas, Retro Studios).
They even gave the Capcom developed Minish Cap (one of the most criminally underrated Zelda titles in my opinion) an important pre-Ocarina of Time slot in the timeline.
Hit up page 2 for more of my musings…
The Timeline Splits into Three Branches After Ocarina?
One of the few facts Nintendo let slip about the timeline in the past was that it splintered after the events of Ocarina of Time, but it was always thought to only split into two branches. We now know it actually splits three ways.
Even more surprising, one the branches, the one that leads to the classic 8 and 16-bit adventures, is set in motion by Link being defeated by Ganon. What the heck? This is a Nintendo franchise! Heroes aren’t defeated. They don’t lose. Next thing we’ll learn Super Mario World was full of dinosaurs because Mario actually suffered a bitter defeat at the end of Mario 3 causing the Mushroom Kingdom to be colonized by Bowser’s reptilian friends.
Who Out There Has Actually Played the 4 Swords Games?
Why is 4 Swords a pre-Ocarina of Time game, while 4 Swords+ is way down at the bottom of the 2nd prong? I thought 4 Swords+ was a pretty straightforward remake of 4 Swords. Seems strange, but maybe it would make sense to those who actually played them.
Yeah, never played these. Getting four people to sit through a Zelda dungeon with you is tough.
I Want to See Some of These Wars
The timeline makes reference to various wars — “The Hyrule Unification War”, “The Sealing War” and so on. We never get to witness these wars in an actual Zelda game. How about some sort of Zelda-themed strategy RPG? Get the guys who work the Fire Emblem series to do it. You can’t tell me replacing all the generic knights and stuff with Gorons and Zoras wouldn’t be rad.
Holy Crap, the Timeline Looks like Ganon’s Trident from Link to the Past Turned Upside Down!
Did I just blow your mind? Admit it, I did, didn’t I?
Will This 100% Official Timeline from Nintendo Itself Finally Stop Zelda Fans From Bickering Over the Timeline?
Oh f–k no.
Merry Christmas nerds!
Another sword to the face? I swear, it’s always the same from Santa Link.