The Legend of Zelda Series has had a long history of amazing stories that share many similar themes and trends. Over the years many players tried to connect the stories for each of these games into one cohesive timeline. In 2011, with the release of the book Hyrule Historia in Japan, an official timeline was finally revealed. Showing a singular story until a three way split at the legendary Ocarina of Time, each game in the series has been officially placed. That is, until 2017’s Breath of the Wild, which failed to see any official placement on the timeline at launch. Fans have speculated on the timeline since the game was first revealed and many had hoped a canonical reveal would be given after the launch. Unfortunately, it looks like such a confirmation will be withheld indefinitely, at least for the foreseeable future. In the newly released book, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Creating a Champion, series producer Eiji Aonuma provided the following statements.
“The final thing I’d like to convey to all of our players is that video games, not just Zelda, can go much, much farther! We got a lot of responses from adult players who said they felt the same way playing this game as they did when they used to be hooked on video games when they were younger.
We made this game with the intention of returning to our roots, so the response from players about feeling the same as they had when they were young is promising. Since Nintendo Switch is portable, I hope that they will be able to engage deeply with the game in a fresh, new way too.
In books like the recently released The Legend of Zelda Encyclopedia, we revealed where each Zelda game fell on a timeline and how their stories related, but we didn’t do that for Breath of the Wild. There is a reason for that. With this game, we saw just how many players were playing in their own way and had those reactions I just mentioned.
We realised that people were enjoying imagining the story that emerged from the fragmental imagery we were providing. If we defined a restricted timeline, then there would be a definitive story, and it would eliminate the room for imagination, which wouldn’t be as fun.
We want players to be able to continue having fun imagining this world even after they are finished with the game, so, this time, we decided that we would avoid making clarifications. I hope that everyone can find their own answer, in their own way.”
What do you all think of the decision to hold back information on Breath of the Wild’s timeline placement? Are you in the camp of wishing they would give an official disclosure, or are you on the side that thinks the timeline was just shoe horned into the series?
