Nintendo reveals Breath Of The Wild and Tears Of The Kingdom are not part of the Zelda timeline-Adam Starkey-Entertainment – Metro

There’s no link to the past here (Nintendo)

An updated version of the Zelda timeline has been spotted at a Nintendo event, but where does Zelda: Echoes Of Wisdom fit in?

The Legend Of Zelda series isn’t exactly celebrated for its storytelling but Nintendo has tried to apply some narrative logic to tie all the games together, over the past 37 years.

This comes in the form of the Zelda timeline, which was first published publicly in 2011’s Hyrule Historia book for the franchise’s 25th anniversary. Zelda: Skyward Sword is officially the first game chronologically, but things get more complicated following Ocarina Of Time, as things branch off into separate ‘Hero Is Defeated’ and ‘Hero Is Triumphant’ timelines (which itself splits into two separate branches).

The placement of the latest instalments, Breath Of The Wild and Tears Of The Kingdom, has never been acknowledged, but now Nintendo has officially confirmed they are both entirely divorced from past Zelda titles.

In a graphic spotted at Nintendo Live 2024 in Sydney, Australia, Breath Of The Wild and Tears Of The Kingdom are placed in a separate timeline disconnected from the ‘Hero Is Defeated’ and ‘Hero Is Triumphant’ branches.

Weirdly, unlike the rest of the timeline, there’s no line connecting Breath Of The Wild and Tears Of The Kingdom despite the latter being a direct sequel. It’s probably an oversight, but then Nintendo has never treated the timeline with the same importance as some fans do.

Last year, Nintendo said it only considers the timeline ‘to an extent’ when creating new games in the series. ‘We realised that fans have a great time theorising and enjoy thinking about where things fit on the timeline,’ director Hidemaro Fujibayashi told Game Informer.

‘That’s something that the development team recognises and it considers, but to an extent. And I say ‘to an extent’ because if we get too into the weeds or too detailed in that placement, it results in kind of creating restraints for our creativity; the process of creating new ideas becomes restricted because we’re so tied up and trying to make this fit into a very specific spot in the timeline.’

What this timeline (which can also be viewed on the Zelda website) doesn’t answer is where the next Zelda game, Echoes Of Wisdom, fits in. The obvious assumption is somewhere around Link’s Awakening, considering it shares the same art style as the remake, but the presence of Ganon in the trailer muddies the waters somewhat.

Zelda fans have speculated it could be a Link’s Awakening sequel or a prequel to A Link To The Past, but it’s likely we won’t know officially until Echoes Of Wisdom comes out on September 26. And probably not even then.

Zelda is leading the charge (Nintendo)

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