The Legend of Zelda has been built on a classic formula since 1986. With over 130 million games sold, why mess with it? However, the game phenomenon’s real trick is walking a fine line between that tradition and innovation. As the saga has amassed nearly 30 games, serving up a familiar experience and game-changing mechanics, it’s also picked up an increasingly complicated chronology.
For years, the timeline of the game series that makes a feature of reincarnation and cycles was obscure. Fan speculation ended in 2011 when Nintendo and Dark Horse published the Hyrule Historia, which set the official timeline of The Legend of Zelda in stone.
It wasn’t a coincidence that it was released simultaneously with Skyward Sword. That franchise installment flew back to the very start of the timeline and the creation of the Hyrule we’ve known and seen rise and fall many times over the years.
To fans, The Legend of Zelda timeline is wildly complicated. To casual observers, it’s impenetrable. So it was about time there was a record of how the games do or don’t connect, even if some don’t appear where we expect. It all becomes complicated thanks to the classic game that dragged the franchise into three dimensions. The events of Ocarina of Time split the Zelda timeline in three, creating freedom for games that followed, even if it left gamers scratching their heads. Subsequent installments can choose a timeline and their places upon it, adding a particular fabric to a franchise not afraid to play with time.
The Nintendo Switch has hosted two Legend of Zelda games, Skyward Sword and Breath of the Wild, each taking place thousands of years apart at opposite ends of the chronology.
Here’s how you navigate Zelda timeline.
The Legend of the Goddess and the Hero Timeline
Skyward Sword is set so far back in Hyrulian history that it ends with the creation of heaven and earth. In hindsight, it starts a direct timeline that extends until the pivotal title, Ocarina of Time. The events of that game split the timeline, dictating where most Zelda games fit in.
Skyward Sword references an earlier hero, and alongside reincarnation, it sets the template we already knew, including Links’ relationship with the princess and Master Sword. The Minish Cap added Link’s famous cap, although the overarching mythology of Skyward Sword superseded that. It does, though, act as the Four Sword’s origin, building to the game with that title, set decades later.
The two periods of Ocarina of Time find Link as a child and adult all the way to the hero’s first chronological confrontation with his great foe Ganondorf.
- Skyward Sword
- The Minish Cap
- Four Swords
- Ocarina of Time
The Twilight Realm and the Legacy of the Hero timeline
Princess Zelda is to blame for the complicated chronology that follows. She creates two timelines when she sends Link to the past at the end of Ocarina of Time. After a rest, the hero leaves Hyrule, presumably to search for the fairy Navi only to be trapped in the time-loop of Majora’s Mask. Link steps from the loop, having saved the parallel world of Termina, and starts a family. That leads to a dynasty and the Link of Twilight Princess, mentored by his ancestor’s spirit, the Hero’s Shade.
Ganondorf’s death at Link’s sword leads the great villain to reincarnate as Ganondorf II and take his place as the villain of Four Swords Adventures. Thanks to the Hyrule Historia, we can place that game in this timeline despite its strong connection to A Link to the Past.
- Majora’s Mask
- Twilight Princess
- Four Swords Adventures
The Hero of Winds and a New World Timeline
This timeline occurs when Princess Zelda sends Link back in time, leaving Hyrule unprotected. With the hero gone, the goddess flooded Hyrule to defeat a resurgent Ganon.
The Wind Waker is a cheerfully colored dystopia that leads directly onto the diverting adventure of Phantom Hourglass after the hero is shipwrecked. From there, Link’s descendants appear in Spirit Tracks, set about a century after Phantom Hourglass. That’s where this timeline concludes, fittingly serving up the first game where you can play as Zelda.
- The Wind Waker
- Phantom Hourglass
- Spirit Tracks
The Decline of Hyrule and the Last Hero Timeline
A Link to the Past has been shunted back in the timeline by successive games, but it remains the first prequel by release. This timeline may not have the overt dystopian changes of the previous timeline, but it formed when Link fell during Ocarina of Time, and no bottled fairy could save him. At the end of A Link to the Past, Link’s connection to the Triforce sets the timeline that follows.
Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons, which see the resurrection of Ganon, take place before Link sets sail for his Awakening. Unusually in the franchise, these games feature the same Link, no matter how forgetful Zelda can be when she meets him. Link’s Awakening, as its name suggests, is a more reflective title before the more recent A Link Between Worlds acknowledges and plays with history and the weight of previous games.
Triforce Heroes doesn’t easily fit into the timeline, but it’s some effortless fun before a classic pops up. The game that started it all, The Legend of Zelda, is set in a future Hyrule that has been deserted, although things are much brighter by the time of the sequel, The Adventure of Link.
- A Link to the Past
- Oracle of Ages
- Oracle of Seasons
- Link’s Awakening
- A Link Between Worlds
- Tri-Force Heroes
- The Legend of Zelda
- The Adventure of Link
The future timeline
Breath of the Wild took a breather from the complicated tri-part timeline containing most games. It jumped thousands of years in the future, which is where the direct sequel, Tears of the Kingdom, also sits, although it’s difficult to tell which of the preceding timelines it followed. It references many previous games, although it slightly leans towards the timeline of the Decline of Hyrule, not least in the presence of Ganon.
That said, perhaps, as in A Link to the Past, Link will one day be able to combine and calm the timelines. There’s plenty of time to go.
- Breath Of The Wild
- Tears of the Kingdom
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom will be released on Nintendo Switch on May 12, 2023.