The Legend of Zelda timeline is often discussed in-depth online, but the series producer Eiji Aonuma doesn’t put too much stock in it, as he feels that it creatively often boxes them in. He said he feels it limits where they can take a story and creatively gets in the way of that. Aonuma concluded by saying that the series timeline is something for people to interpret in their own way. Here’s what he said:
“I think just as you say, this is a series that really lends itself well to each person playing, then thinking back and interpreting the story elements in their own way. We have these major players in each game, with Zelda, and Ganon, and Link, and they each surface and play their roles in potentially slightly different ways in each title.
“But personally, I don’t like to put too much stock in the chronology of the series, because from the design perspective, that can kind of box us in and limit where we’re able to take the story as we continue making games in the series. And so I do think it’s something that is best for people to interpret on their own. And yeah, I was kind of agreeing with many of the things you said.”
Good to hear. I’d rather them have the ability to be as creative as they want rather than feel the need to fit a timeline that’s already convoluted as it is.
Yep, totally agree. I understand the timeline needs to be accurate with the likes of botw and totk as they are the same style of games and hyrule, but yeah to start again fresh is also ideal.
I’d be happy for hyrule to take a miss on the next big Zelda, perhaps return to the seas again with a nice big epic ocean with many a lands to discover.
Or It will never have an end.
Pretty lazy reasoning and disrespectful to the previous games attempting to create an established continuation between games. Its not that hard to have one person assigned as a loremaster that helps monitor consistency between titles. Its not like it would even get in the way of whatever new thing or gimmick they wanted to do as it never has before.
If he didn’t wanted to be “limited” because of a timeline, then why did he made one in the first place? not only that, he has already shown that he can work with a timeline just fine with both Wind Waker and Twilight Princess, so there’s really no excuse, he is just lazy in that regard for no reason, in fact, it’s really easy to be honest since most games don’t happen directly after each other, he can easily just think of where the gameplay will make more sense within the timeline and that’s it.
For example, having Botw happen after 10 000 years was a dumb move because it means there’s nothing happening between those 10 000 years until Botw happens, so he either has to backtrack a long time, way before the era of Botw/totk or just continuing adding numbers up just to make them so far apart that literally nothing of the previous games matters at all.
I just don’t buy the whole “it limits us” excuse, Aonuma and his team is incredibly talented and creative, and a simple timeline is really giving them trouble? just look at your own documents or the wiki if you forgot and that’s it, in fact, I dare to say he just says to leave it to fans interpretation just so he can steal the idea of where the games exist in the timeline and pretend it was planned all along. Great developer, but I can’t agree with his reasoning for his timeline, it makes him sound incomptente as a storyteller.
He didn’t make the timeline. That games were never created with a timeline in mind. Fans did that and then Nintendo forced it to sell a new product( the book). You can’t blame someone from not wanted to constrained by something that was forced on them.
Aonuma wasn’t really the one who started this whole thing, it was mostly fans trying to make sense of inconsistencies. They kinda had a “timeline” going since its inception when Zelda I and II were stated to have the same Link, then Link to the Past referenced the Master Sword and the seven sages, and then OoT showed the origins of that story. Link’s Awakening was the only ambiguous one at the time with Miyamoto saying it could take place at any point in the timeline in 1998. If there was any real debate at the time it was whether LA Link was the one from Zelda I and II, or the one from LTtP.
Things didn’t really get convoluted until the Oracle games, since he sets sail on a raft at the end of those games which implies Awakening and Oracle Link are one and the same. There’s further hints like Link’s name being written on the back of his shield, and it’s implied he wrote it after he had his items taken in Ages because his name wasn’t written on it. The problem arises when you see that people consider Link from LTtP as the same Link from Link’s Awakening, thereby Oracle Link being the same by extension. You see, Link and Zelda are childhood friends in LTtP, but in the Oracle games she introduces herself as if they had never met. Before all the games were connected rather cohesively, but this threw a wrench into things and fans got obsessed over over-analyzing things and trying to make sense of it. They couldn’t agree.
Fans would argue a lot about the “official order” of games, and Nintendo realized they could release a book to profit off of all of these fans that were into the lore. Before the fans knew already theorized about the split timeline between WW’s and TP’s games, but the “fallen timeline” that gave us the original timeline we saw earlier was one fans weren’t really theorizing up until that point. Granted, it doesn’t really fix the inconsistencies as stated earlier either, so you’ll still have a few fans trying to rationalize it, but I think most are over it now.
Sounds to me that Aonuma just shouldn’t be involved in the LoZelda franchise anymore if this is a problem for him. Many, many fans of this franchise love the story, the lore, and an overarching timeline. There is no reason, other than his own ineptitude, to have story & gameplay at odds with each other. You know; I just made a comment about how I kinda wish LoZelda would be moved from Nintendo EPD to Monolith Soft. Well if this is Aonuma’s stance, I don’t kinda wish it anymore. I want it made a reality now. Like Sakurai in regards to Smash, it’s time for a change in leadership over The Legend of Zelda. If not & they start treating the story like it doesn’t matter anymore, like Pokémon & most Disney owned shit, it might be time for me to let this franchise go, too. It’s gonna hurt because I love this franchise, but I’ve learned to let a lot of shit go these past 3 years. No matter how much I love & want to hang on to something. When something or someone doesn’t love you back anymore, it’s time to let go. (Plus, one less thing to spend my time (and money) on. Mostly my time as that’s the only true thing I have a limited amount of. (Money is replaceable; time is not.)
I don’t care much about timeline at all. I liked when it felt like they were all just different things, like Final Fantasy. It doesn’t have to have some continuity for me. It’s cool for some of them to be connected but I don’t need every single one to explain this is before this time and this is a sequel and this happened because remember in the other Zelda game when this happened? I kinda didn’t like when they officially made a timeline and fit everything together. I just liked it being a reimagining of a new Link, Zelda, Ganon, that was the only explanation I needed for why they look different. Not that they’re reincarnations or ancestors or there will always be a hero named Link that arises and this is the new one, etc.
I always imagined it as here’s a whole new story, forget everything else, this is the only Link, Zelda, Ganon, King, and Hyrule in a new reimagined story (or whatever land/villain they want to do if they stray from the classic ones). Not always, I like how WW did things story-wise. I just don’t need every single game to fit perfectly in some overall main timeline. If anything, it sort of brings up more questions why things are so drastically different if they’re all in some timeline. Even after thousands of years, things shouldn’t be completely different really. Especially when newer games are supposed to take place before older games but Link has so much more abilities and freedom than he has in older games that take place later and there’s better technology but then it’s nowhere to be found later. It can make sense, I know, but it still sort of just feels forced when they try to explain why this is different and this no longer exists. Just say it’s a new game, not related to the rest, end of story! Final Fantasy works great that way!
That being said, Castlevania works well fitting things into a timeline, but that makes more sense. But it does make me appreciate Zelda doing it too. But Castlevania’s starting to limit itself too, they’re running out of timeline! So I don’t mind if they do the same thing, just say it’s a whole new story, it doesn’t have to have continuity. It all gets to be a bit much to keep track of anyways.
I agree with those that say the timeline matters. Nintendo are the ones who put out Hyrule Historia, and the reasoning behind it doesn’t matter. They’re adults and made a decision to sell people on a chronology of Zelda games and now they’re a large number of fans who are rightfully and understandably upset. As a person who brought Breath of the Wild but didn’t buy Tears of the Kingdom when I saw all the changes in the story, I just wouldn’t buy Zelda games going forward because if you do the Nintendo will get the message that it’s okay to mislead fans in what they’re purchasing.
You heard it folks. Nintendo doesn’t care about the Zelda timeline(s) anymore. Now quit whining.
Some People don’t keep their mouths shut and consume whatever is given at them like some. Some have standards.