The Legend of Zelda Timeline
Posted on July 16, 2008 by Jonathan Carr, MIS | 16 Comments
SPOILER WARNING! The following article hints at events and topics you would not know of unless you played through and beat some/all of The Legend of Zelda games. The first thing that must be realized about The Legend of Zelda Timeline is that there is no official chronology released from any official and/or credible Nintendo source that ties all console and handheld video games together. There are, however, cases where sequels were made to take place directly after specific games and there were cases where Nintendo staff has commented on individual games. Being that there is no official word from Nintendo on The Legend of Zelda Timeline in totality, all theories discussed in this article are purely speculative based on logical assumptions perceived within the games and cut-scenes. With that out of the way, lets begin…
I feel that in order to understand the true origin and imagination that created such a fascinating universe of fantasy, you should first look at Kyoto, Japan which is the place where Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto was born in 1952 and raised as a child. It was here where Miyamoto played and imagined himself in a world of fantasy, just as all other kids do with their surrounding environment. Such childhood experiences of Miyamoto have no doubt played a role in the development of all Legend of Zelda games. Use your own imagination and Zelda experience with the following images of Kyoto, Japan…
Makes you want to jump in, cut up a few bushes, and put some rupees in your wallet, doesn’t it? It is simply a beautiful place. Please note, I do not count the 3 CDi games (The Faces of Evil, The Wand of Gamelon, and Zelda’s Adventure) or either of the Four Swords (both for the GameBoy Advance and GameCube) multiplayer adventure games, only the 7 main console games and 5 main handheld games. Ok, so we can draw the following inferences based on fact:
1) The Adventures of Link takes place after the original Legend of Zelda.
2) Majoras Mask takes place after Ocarina of Time.
3) Phantom Hourglass takes place after The Windwaker.
4) In 1998, Miyamoto said Ocarina of Time was the oldest game in the storyline.
With just that to work with, you can put together a rough draft of a timeline (from oldest to newest):
Ocarina of Time, Majoras Mask, Legend of Zelda, The Adventures of Link, The Windwaker, Phantom Hourglass
That is all fine and dandy but it still leaves the following games out (in order of release date):
A link to the Past, Link’s Awakening, Oracle of Seasons, Oracle of Ages, The Minish Cap, Twilight Princess
A link to the Past seems to take place before the original Legend of Zelda and after Ocarina of Time due to its title. It is too hard for me to date Link’s Awakening because the entire game took place in a dream. Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages could take place right after Majora’s Mask because Link is returning to Hyrule from the Woods on his horse (the same condition he left Termina after saving it). The Minish Cap wasn’t released until many years after Miyamoto made his timeline statement about Ocarina of Time. The Minish Cap could possibly predate Ocarina of Time due to the fact that the Minish had to exist before Ocarina of Time (hidden rupees in bushes and shrubs). Also, The Minish Cap was the introduction of the famous green hat that Link wears in every other game. Twilight Princess is interesting because the old skeleton-like skills trainer appears to be the Hero of Time (Link from Ocarina of Time).
This is as far as I will speculate, however, the following video from GT TV represents great Zelda theory based on some pretty solid logic. The video is almost an hour long, so get comfortable if you intend to watch the whole thing and play it in full screen if your computer can support it. Part 6 at the end focuses on The Legend of Zelda Timeline and introduces the spit-timeline theory which is greatly discussed across the Zelda Universe in various message boards and blogs. So fast forward to part 6 (which begins at 42:21) if you want to exclusively deal with the timeline. keep in mind that the video does not take a solid stance on where Twilight Princess fits in as the game was not yet released during the making of the video.
Some great Zelda Links on the internet are Zelda Universe, Zelda Dungeon, and the new Zelda Wiki.
Image (Top) from The Bits Bytes Pixels and Sprites E3 2008
Images of Kyota, Japan from {Inter} Cultural Japan
Video from GT TV
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16 Responses to “The Legend of Zelda Timeline”
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Miyamoto said himself, “Ocarina of Time is the first story.” That’s all there is to it!
Yes, Zelda Freak, but that statement was made by Miyamoto in 1998. The Minish Cap was released in 2004 (Japan and Europe) and 2005 (North America). I think the Minish Cap argument of it being the first story in the timeline holds water. Have you watched the GT TV video?
How can the GT movie put ALttP so late in the timeline. ALttP should pre-date the original LoZ and AoL.
I completely agree Wu and ALttp is one of my favorites. It is so hard to decide what my #1 is after beating them all. For those who need a refresher on the Legend of Zelda Acronyms, here they are:
Console Games:
LOZ – Legend of Zelda
AoL – Adventures of Link
ALttP – A Link to the Past
OoT – Ocarina of Time
MM – Majora’s Mask
TW – The Windwaker
TP – Twilight Princess
Handheld Games:
LA – Links Awakening
OoS – Oracle of Seasons
OoA – Oracle of Ages
TMC – The Minish Cap
PH – Phantom Hourglass
Multiplayer Games:
FS – Four Swords
FSA – Four Swords Adventure
CDi Games:
TFoE – The Faces of Evil
TWoG – The Wand of Gamelon
ZA – Zelda’s Adventure
TV Shows:
CS – Cartoon Series
I’m sure there are others, however, you get the point, just in case you run into any more.
friggin amazing
saw the whole thing
time to play some zelda games.
So where does TP fit in? If the skills sessions(the wolf statue training grounds) were being taught by the Hero of Time, then TP has to come after Ocarina of Time. TP and ALttP have to be close together on the timeline. If you substitute Zant for Aghanim, the games are virtually the same. Light/dark world, sacred realm with the sages, a wizard as Gannon’s puppet, big golden pyramid over the castle… the similarities go on…
David, I agree. That video is sick! Tice, as soon as I saw the golden pyramid over the castle in TP, I thought of ALttP right away. I find TP to be a hybrid of ALttp and OoT. It is really hard to fit TP and ALttp in the timeline for this reason.
I always understood that ALttP Imprisoning War depicted OoT, and prior to the events of OoT was the war of the Triforce, which ALttP also alludes to. OoT made it seem to me that everything was very tribal prior to the War for the Triforce, and Hyrule was united for the first time soon afterward (these events took place ten years before OoT, it was what Link’s mother was fleeing, according to the Deku tree). I don’t know when TMC fits in, but it does seem that it could be before hand, Perhaps the War for the Triforce (featuring the Dark Interloppers (DI) of TP) caused the world to fall into chaos again, and the King had to reunite Hyrule and banish the DI to the Twilight Realm.
So I guess it would be
TMC
TP (backstory)
OoT
MM
etc
Great observations Sheik. It can be deduced that before TP, the sages sealed Gannon as OoT and ALttP suggests. I remember the cut scene when Gannon breaks free and kills on of the 7 sages. This proves TP took place after ALttP and OoT because there were 7 sages in both games. It is really hard to tie TP into the timeline.
I was thinking about what you wrote and I would have to say there actually would be a continuation problem. Since they banish Ganondorf before ALttP in TP (I think Eiji stated that this is in the parallel universe after Link Defeats Ganon in OoT, he goes back as a kid, and capture him and banish him before Link grows up, and WW is after Adult Link is sent back, and why the Hero of Time doesn’t return, since Zelda sent him back), that means they would be short 1 sage in that game, or they would actually have to be the descendants of the sages. I thought the sages were either another race or like the Blue-ghosts that Jedi turn into when they die.
when are they going to write a bad-ass script to a zelda movie. i’m getting tired of watching lord of the rings. we need some zelda with a touch of peter jackson and a 3 part movie. think about it? wouldn’t that just blow all of these ridiculous playstation movies away?
and it’s got to be way better than that crap IGN pulled.
use the harp of ages and stop the wizard from putting the first zelda asleep and start a whole new timeline. that would be wierd.
where do i go in the undre water temple in twilght princess?
this is mmy theory
TIMELINE 1
1.ocarina of time(shows origin of ganon)
2.wind waker(says last link was “hero of time”)
3.phantom hourglass(has same link and zelda)
4.spirit tracks(same link & zelda….i think)
5.minish cap(1st game of new hyrule)
6.four swords(shows vatii escaping four sword)
7.four sword adventure(says in booklet)
8.a link to the past(ganon has staff from fsa)
9.legend of zelda(confirmed by nintendo)
10.zelda II(says in booklet)
TIMELINE 2
1.ocarina of time(shows origin of ganon)
2.majora’s mask(same link)
3.twilight princess(hero’s shade is last link)
4.oracle of seasons(has agahnim & dead ganon)
5.link’s awakening(has dream agahnim)
6.oracle of ages(dead ganon)
Quentin, have you tried looking into some of the great Zelda websites out there like Zelda Dungeon?
ithinkimright….the only problem with WindWaker being so early in your first timeline is that hyrule is flooded and therefore has to occur towards the end of the timeline.
You wrote, “9.legend of zelda(confirmed by nintendo)” Where exactly did you hear this? I have never found anything that says this game is near the end the timeline.