Within latest months, Nintendo updated the official timeline for the Legend of Zelda franchise, providing followers some extra readability about Echoes of Wisdom. While the sport featured a Hyrule closely impressed by A Link to the Past, the sport’s graphic fashion evoked the 2019 remake of Link’s Awakening. We lastly have a selected reply from Nintendo, as the firm revealed that Echoes of Wisdom takes place in the identical timeline department as these two video games, solely a lot additional into the future. On one hand, it’s good to have some readability, nevertheless it additionally begs the query: does the Zelda timeline truly matter?
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The Zelda timeline has been a subject of debate going again to A Link to the Past. That sport basically acted as a reboot of the sequence, with a brand new tackle Link, and no prior data wanted from the first two video games. Despite feeling disconnected, Nintendo lengthy insisted that the SNES sport was a prequel to the two NES Zelda video games. Things received much more difficult with Ocarina of Time, which additionally appeared to reboot the sequence completely from scratch. For some time, it appeared like Zelda was Nintendo’s equal to Final Fantasy; some video games received direct sequels, and others merely maintained acquainted parts between them. No one actually complained an excessive amount of, as a result of the video games have been a few of the greatest in the business.
All of this modified with the launch of The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia in 2011. In that ebook, Nintendo provided a big quantity of background details about the sequence and at last laid out its official Zelda canon. The timeline shortly captured the consideration of followers, because it established a definitive place to begin (Skyward Sword), and three separate branches that every one spun out from the time journey parts in Ocarina of Time. In the years since that ebook was revealed, Nintendo has added new video games to the timeline, however has waffled a bit with Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, which exist outdoors the remainder of the timeline. It stays to be seen whether or not we’ll see future Zelda video games minimize off from the timeline in an analogous method, or if the Breath of the Wild continuity was merely a one-off factor.
What’s fascinating about the Zelda timeline is that the followers appear to place much more inventory into it than Nintendo does. The firm has usually mentioned that it focuses on gameplay first, and story second. Somehow although, when the firm does discover methods to hyperlink the video games collectively, it comes throughout pure and it looks like there’s an actual payoff for having invested in the sequence. The world map in Echoes of Wisdom is one such instance, however there are different methods Nintendo has introduced collectively disparate video games. For instance, The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess will be loved with none data of previous video games, however in addition they act as direct sequels to Ocarina of Time, however in several timeline branches. Having earlier data of the sequence significantly rewarded gamers in each of these instances.
While these ties between video games are enjoyable to search for, it looks like Nintendo’s personal strategy to the Zelda timeline is finally the greatest one. Timeline placement can usually turn out to be an obsession for Zelda followers, and it usually takes over quite a lot of the franchise dialogue on-line. However, discovering out that Echoes of Wisdom and A Link to the Past have some connectivity between them ought to be icing on the cake, moderately than the full dessert. When I performed Echoes of Wisdom, the map similarity wasn’t one thing I instantly put collectively. I was too invested in new additions like the Echoes system to fret about which video games this one would possibly (or may not) be related to. Some followers would possibly get annoyed that Nintendo has to reply timeline questions after the truth moderately than in the sport, however I’d moderately see the gameplay mechanics stay the staff’s main focus.
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None of that is to say that followers shouldn’t care in any respect about the timeline. At the finish of the day, Zelda followers ought to get no matter enjoyment they’ll out of the sequence, and if it feels extra fulfilling when Nintendo retains the video games related, that’s completely okay. However, followers shouldn’t let that take away from all the different parts that the builders have constructed up. Generally talking, Nintendo has maintained a excessive degree of high quality throughout every Zelda entry. As lengthy as that continues, the timeline ought to proceed to stay an afterthought, each for Nintendo and for the fanbase.
Do you set quite a lot of inventory into the Zelda timeline? Should Nintendo put extra effort in connecting the varied Zelda video games? Share your ideas with me straight on Twitter at @Marcdachamp, on Bluesky at @Marcdachamp, or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!
