Hyrule Historia, Zelda timeline apparently confirmed [Archive]

Kyrith_Ranger_Pso

Dec 21, 2011, 05:40 PM

it would appear that in 25th anniversary Zelda book (as of now JP only here's to hoping for an English version) confirms the timeline of the Zelda games, http://mynintendonews.com/2011/12/21/heres-the-legend-of-zelda-timeline/

And it goes like this for anyone who doesn't feel like clicking the link:

Main Timeline
1. Skyward Sword
2. Minish Cap
3. Four Swords
4. Ocarina Of Time

Split 1: Link defeats Ganon – childhood branch
a) Majora’s Mask
b) Twilight Princess
c) Four Swords Adventures

Split 2: Link defeats Ganon – adult branch
a) Wind Waker
b) Phantom Hourglass
c) Spirit Tracks

Split 3: Link fails in Ocarina Of Time
a) A Link To The Past
b) Oracles
c) Link’s Awakening
d) The Legend Of Zelda
e) The Legend Of Zelda II

What do you guys think?

Ark22

Dec 21, 2011, 05:49 PM

Mind blown. So many questions, But I understand link getting lost in MM and going ghost in TP.

Kyrith_Ranger_Pso

Dec 21, 2011, 05:56 PM

Man, split 2 really has the short (but obvious) end of the stick, Windwaker was great but after that I really don't think Nintendo took much time to make the stories of PH or ST very relevant

Outrider

Dec 21, 2011, 06:11 PM

So I don't entirely understand the "Link fails" timeline. Who seals away Ganon in the Golden Land if not Link? Ocarina of Time strongly implies that Ganon being sealed away in the Golden Land is the beginning of its transformation into the Dark World in A Link to the Past.

Kyrith_Ranger_Pso

Dec 21, 2011, 06:18 PM

ganon fails implies that he doesn't complete his quest in Ocarina of Time so other stuff happens

Rashiid

Dec 21, 2011, 06:59 PM

Sheesh this is more "wat." than Kingdom Hearts' storyline.

Ark22

Dec 21, 2011, 07:02 PM

Kingdom heart story line is a huge octagon. So many angles, so many lines. What connects to where.

Keilyn

Dec 21, 2011, 07:54 PM

Split

Dec 21, 2011, 09:59 PM

Sheesh this is more "wat." than Kingdom Hearts' storyline.And the tragic thing is, Kingdom Hearts' storyline would've been fine if they hadn't introduce 5683976425 cash-in, asset-recycling spinoffs and had instead just done one straight up Kingdom Hearts 3 and ended it with that (or ended it w/ KH2, which would have tied up nicely if not for that letter in a bottle or the secret ending that I'm sure the writers didn't even understand at the time).

As for this Zelda timeline...all I know is Wind Waker is supposed to take place after Majora's Mask. It says in the intro to Wind Waker that the ancient hero, after saving Hyrule (presumably by going back to being a child like in the very end of Ocarina, warning Zelda, and then defeating him without having to jump forward in time), left Hyrule on a personal quest which I assume refers to the search for Navi, who left him at the end of Ocarina. That was the whole point of his traveling through the woods at the beginning of Majora. Then it says that while he was away from Hyrule (again, presumably in Termina), the evil returned and the gods had to evacuate people to the mountaintops, then flood the entire world, creating the oceans of Wind Waker. Therefore, it seems the timeline should be as follows:

Ocarina: Adult Link kills Ganon, his timeline does whatever. I'm not gonna even try to figure adult Link's timeline out.

Ocarina: Young Link, just having gone back in time from killing Ganon as an adult, kills him again as a kid. Then he goes on a journey to find Navi and gets lost in Termina, kicking off the events of Majora's Mask. While he's away in Termina, Ganon returns in Hyrule, resulting in
Wind Waker.
Phantom Hourglass
Spirit Tracks

Shut up Nintendo. My timeline actually makes sense.

White Mage Reks

Dec 21, 2011, 10:45 PM

I think it actually makes sense, but I have a wierd way of seeing things.

Kyrith_Ranger_Pso

Dec 21, 2011, 11:55 PM

As for this Zelda timeline...all I know is Wind Waker is supposed to take place after Majora's Mask. It says in the intro to Wind Waker that the ancient hero, after saving Hyrule (presumably by going back to being a child like in the very end of Ocarina, warning Zelda, and then defeating him without having to jump forward in time), left Hyrule on a personal quest which I assume refers to the search for Navi, who left him at the end of Ocarina. That was the whole point of his traveling through the woods at the beginning of Majora. Then it says that while he was away from Hyrule (again, presumably in Termina), the evil returned and the gods had to evacuate people to the mountaintops, then flood the entire world, creating the oceans of Wind Waker. Therefore, it seems the timeline should be as follows:

Ocarina: Adult Link kills Ganon, his timeline does whatever. I'm not gonna even try to figure adult Link's timeline out.

Ocarina: Young Link, just having gone back in time from killing Ganon as an adult, kills him again as a kid. Then he goes on a journey to find Navi and gets lost in Termina, kicking off the events of Majora's Mask. While he's away in Termina, Ganon returns in Hyrule, resulting in
Wind Waker.
Phantom Hourglass
Spirit Tracks

Shut up Nintendo. My timeline actually makes sense.

He does go on a personal quest after OOT in both timelines, it's just that one timeline follows said quest and the other doesn't

NoiseHERO

Dec 22, 2011, 03:59 AM

I think it makes sense, but I never dove deep into Zelda's backstories to connect timelines...

I can definitely see how it'd split into three times.

I'm just not understanding... How...? It would mean the games aren't completely connect but more of a "What if this "thing" happened in the last game to make link either a nobody who you have to finish the job for, or a hero of time that you were reincarnated from to follow in his footsteps."

But yeah "Link fails" sounds kind of depressing... and that Adult Link cut confuses me (Why would you stay an adult when you missed 7 years? Don't answer that question. And... Majora's mask link grows up to be TP link?? @_@ Whuh...??

This is like trying to connect final fantasies anyway.

Keilyn

Dec 22, 2011, 04:52 AM

I guess one thing everyone can agree to...

Since consoles do breakdown and people pay for these games and we have the technology, they really need to make a compilation that combines all of these games or make one major game that takes everything from this and allows alternate endings.

I played through a lot of zelda games and so did my friends, but I am not going to go out and buy consoles (or the same titles over again on a different console) to play them again.

They really need to do something about combining them all or making one central zelda story that makes sense and stop doing every thing in installments, just to go against their own graphic novel and short-story comic and tell us 25+ years later "Oh here is the timeline" as a measure to spur up sales and sound interesting on something conjured up at the last moment to spur up xmas sales.

I loved Twilight Princess, but always going back to Hyrule and doing something in parts....I mean at LEAST the game series Xenosaga back then had the story in order and we didn't go playing the entire game out of sequence outside of the notion that it was all a prequal to Xenogears.

Ark22

Dec 22, 2011, 09:55 AM

And... Majora's mask link grows up to be TP link?? @_@ Whuh...??

Actually MM link dies in a forest and teaches ADULT link those moves in TP. You know the one eyed wolf. But that's just a guess.

Kyrith_Ranger_Pso

Dec 22, 2011, 11:07 AM

one thing that everyone must keep in mind when reading the timeline, almost none of the Links are the same person, there are a few direct sequels, but for the most part they are all different

Outrider

Dec 22, 2011, 11:20 AM

ganon fails implies that he doesn't complete his quest in Ocarina of Time so other stuff happens

No, the point is that in A Link to the Past, it's stated that Ganon has been trapped inside the Golden Land/Dark World by the Sages during the Imprisoning War.

If A Link to the Past takes place in a timeline where Link fails in Ocarina of Time, I don't understand when or how Ganon was trapped in the Golden Land.

(And seeing as the adult timeline in Ocarina of Time ends with Ganon getting trapped in the Golden land by the Sages at the end of a war... it seems a little bizarre that A Link to the Past doesn't follow that game's timeline.)

Randomness

Dec 22, 2011, 11:32 AM

Sorry, but you can't have three branches from OoT... I mean, Link fails=Ganondorf acquires Triforce. GG. Further, while two branches off makes sense due to time shenanigans, the third branch is mutually exclusive of the other two.

I really hate that they want to tie things together in some way, it's really annoying. Split 3 is more like "We really don't have any damn clue". Nothing really ties the Four Swords games to anything else (Aside from possibly Oracle).

And as has been noted, Link to the Past HAS to follow OoT's sealing of Ganon. It's the only way it makes sense. Also, you can't exactly put Majora's Mask as the catalyst for Wind Waker imo, since Link clearly returns after three days.

Meh, I just wish Nintendo would stop trying to put together some master timeline for everything. It just doesn't work.

Kyrith_Ranger_Pso

Dec 22, 2011, 12:11 PM

the third branch is mostly supposed to be a "what if" scenario rather then a new branch i think, at least that's how it seems since it can't happen along with the other two

Ark22

Dec 22, 2011, 12:51 PM

I loved Twilight Princess, but always going back to Hyrule and doing something in parts....I mean at LEAST the game series Xenosaga back then had the story in order and we didn't go playing the entire game out of sequence outside of the notion that it was all a prequal to Xenogears.

Xenogears was a very VERY maybe the BEST rpg on the Ps1. Wish they didin't rush Disc 2 though.

NoiseHERO

Dec 22, 2011, 01:30 PM

Actually MM link dies in a forest and teaches ADULT link those moves in TP. You know the one eyed wolf. But that's just a guess.

D: That sounds kinda sick...

MM is scarey enough. ;o;

Ark22

Dec 22, 2011, 04:37 PM

You know when kids go in the forest that turn into skeletors? That's one theory. But I still love MM to this day.

Split

Dec 22, 2011, 05:34 PM

He does go on a personal quest after OOT in both timelines, it's just that one timeline follows said quest and the other doesn'tHoly crap I just got it. It just seems like Wind Waker fits so well after Majora's Mask, but I just realized something: after he goes back and stops Ganon as a child (which he presumably does at the end of Ocarina after you beat him as an adult), he goes on the personal quest to find Navi, which leads him to Termina and the events of Majora's Mask. After he stops him as an adult, however...he heads to the Temple of Time and goes back to being a child. So he doesn't actually go on a personal quest after he stops Ganon in his adult timeline; however, what he does do is straight-up leave the timeline, because he's going back to being a kid. Therefore, he "crept away from the land that made him a legend" in both scenarios.

And as Ark22 is saying, perhaps after he left Termina and got back to the Lost Woods, he continued to search for Navi deeper and deeper in the woods, and eventually became a Skull Kid, then a badass Stalfos like the one that teaches you sword techniques in Twilight Princess. I also choose to fill that gap in with this explanation, because Majora is awesomely dark enough for this to be a possibility. I'm still not sure I buy that Miyamoto or Aonuma or anyone else at Nintendo had this in mind the whole time (although they definitely did w/ Skyward Sword), but I rescind my earlier statement saying it doesn't make sense; it does, just in a really f****d up way.

Keilyn

Dec 22, 2011, 08:14 PM

Xenogears was a very VERY maybe the BEST rpg on the Ps1. Wish they didin't rush Disc 2 though.

It was my favorite and due to its ending it was banned in over 14 nations for a while. However, the game was freaky in the sense that the year it came out, there was a character that had my height, age, personality and build.....

...and i was like "my god....is someone spying on me?"

NoiseHERO

Dec 22, 2011, 08:32 PM

Wait I just thought of that, and now I'm confused...

He saves hyrule as an adult...

But then he goes back to being a kid... which would be BEFORE HE SAVES HYRULE...

BUT THEN LEAVES IN MM, so that means he technically undid everything he'd done if he died in MM. or he would have to beat gannon again when he got to the right age-or-

Yeah The Hero of Time should get his name changed to the hero of "you fucked up all of time and now you have clones everywhere in different dimensions"

Everyone looking messed up in wind waker is the result of too much time travel, which is why all the earlier timeline Links look more realistic and everyone after turned into deformed midget elves.

Randomness

Dec 22, 2011, 09:09 PM

Everyone looking messed up in wind waker is the result of too much time travel, which is why all the earlier timeline Links look more realistic and everyone after turned into deformed midget elves.

LOL.

/thread.

yoshiblue

Dec 23, 2011, 04:15 AM

Sure its not Link not failing but putting back the sword made him go through alot of unneeded stuff?

Kyrith_Ranger_Pso

Dec 23, 2011, 10:05 AM

Dhylec

Dec 23, 2011, 10:24 AM

Trying to connect & make sense of the various Zelda time/story lines confused me more than I expected. >_<

NoiseHERO

Dec 23, 2011, 10:30 AM

After going back in time he confronts Zelda and explains what's going to happen and the nthe king has Ganon sealed away before he can ever take over, but he still does have the triforce of power and he eventually breaks out in Twilight Princess

BUT THAT MAKES HIS WHOLE ADULT ADVENTURE POINTLESS!! D:

Wouldn't his time travel work as only being able to go back the 7 years he went forward? D:

Which means...

this timeline no matter what you can think of is the only closest to making sense, while still being full of crap and multiple plot holes that are probably never going to be explained.

I just say that some games used each other for reference, but you may as well just say they're all different dimensions... Or like normal time travel splits up into multiple different roads to make those dimensions.

Which still just brings us into trying to comprehend all of this BS. D:

Either that or...

http://www.wiizelda.net/news/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/the-missing-link.jpg

It's still a secret to everybody. THIS TIMELINE IS FAN FOOD!

Kyrith_Ranger_Pso

Dec 23, 2011, 10:46 AM

@Michaeru: the timeline splits off before then, otherwise yes, when link goes back in time he creates a second timeline in which he tells Zelda, but the other one still remains along side it unaffected by the other, it makes sense if you just think parts like this through

Ark22

Dec 23, 2011, 01:37 PM

It was my favorite and due to its ending it was banned in over 14 nations for a while. However, the game was freaky in the sense that the year it came out, there was a character that had my height, age, personality and build.....

...and i was like "my god....is someone spying on me?"

Depends, if you looked like Elhaym or Maria, that would be pretty hot. AS FOR LEGEND OF ZELDA Yeah my brain is being tickled by Nintendo's timeline still. I even had a dream about it last night.

.Rusty.

Dec 23, 2011, 06:20 PM

And now we wait for the mario timeline...

Mushroom abuse, go karting,space travel,bad castle security and a giant turtle with a crush on your girlfriend.

NoiseHERO

Dec 23, 2011, 07:30 PM

And now we wait for the mario timeline...

Mushroom abuse, go karting,space travel,bad castle security and a giant turtle with a crush on your girlfriend.

Mario is like a cartoon, his adventures don't need an order, he just does whatever he wants the next episode, BWAHAHAHAHA!

Still don't even think zelda needs a proper timeline.

It'd be better to list which games have the same links and that's all. Something more obvious but more simple than trying to force it all into being one story.

Sadly Nintendo playing into this fan trap = there HAS to be a timeline now.

Kyrith_Ranger_Pso

Dec 23, 2011, 07:35 PM

what's wrong with a timeline? it makes the story significantly more interesting, until last year I didn't even care a little bit about the story, but now I talk to my friends about it all the time.

NoiseHERO

Dec 23, 2011, 08:34 PM

what's wrong with a timeline? it makes the story significantly more interesting, until last year I didn't even care a little bit about the story, but now I talk to my friends about it all the time.

In the game creators shoes... I can only imagine "Let's make a new zelda, this time link will go into space using a flute!"

Fans: "THIS MUST BE THE GAME WHERE LINK'S UNCLE WENT INTO SPACE AND MET THE GODS OF THE TRIFORCE!! SO IT HAS TO BE A PREQUEL TO LINK TO THE PAST!"

Hmph a timeline, they barely tell us who keeps giving birth to link and Zelda, and making sure they're all named Link and Zelda!

And the king of hyrule is never human! Stop getting turned into stuff!

Kyrith_Ranger_Pso

Dec 24, 2011, 12:17 AM

no one is giving birth, it's an inherited spirit

Rashiid

Dec 24, 2011, 12:34 AM

Link's gotta have parents at some point. Every child in each village has a mom and dad, even sisters and brother.

"Oh, Link? Your parents?

...you know Batman, right? You're Batman. With a sword."

Kyrith_Ranger_Pso

Dec 24, 2011, 12:39 AM

it never says he doesn't have parents, they just aren't necessarily of the same ancestry of the other links

Rashiid

Dec 24, 2011, 12:50 AM

I'm not even talking in terms of the timeline. I just wanna know where this guy's parents are in every adventure.

Kyrith_Ranger_Pso

Dec 24, 2011, 01:01 AM

oh... well in Ocarina of Time it sounded like they died, i have no idea in the others

Ark22

Dec 24, 2011, 01:13 AM

Maybe they're Gods.

yoshiblue

Dec 24, 2011, 04:07 AM

His mother died escaping and left him with the great deku tree I believe. In windwaker you do have to rescue a sister but you live with your grandma at the start of the game.

ShinMaruku

Dec 24, 2011, 06:43 PM

[spoiler-box]
http://i.imgur.com/pGzUd.jpg
[/spoiler-box]
Zelda you bitch! XD

Ark22

Dec 25, 2011, 01:57 AM

That picture makes total sense.

ShinMaruku

Dec 25, 2011, 12:07 PM

Blame Zelda, all this shit is her fault. It's she who chose link and marking them as divine.
Just look at her face, the witch knows something. :E

Nitro Vordex

Dec 25, 2011, 12:23 PM

Or she's just incredibly high.

NoiseHERO

Jan 7, 2012, 11:04 PM

http://kotaku.com/5873589/zeldas-boss-offers-a-giant-disclaimer-over-official-series-timeline

TL;DR It's just a game and I was totally right that people were overthinking this timeline.

Even though I myself over thought it, because of plot holes made by them releasing this timeline as if it was supposed to answer every unimportant-over-speculative-fanboy-question.

BAM! I'm mean!