Tears of the Kingdom and Breath of the Wild are no longer part of the main Legend of Zelda timeline, as Nintendo retcons them as 'standalone' games
Sep. 1, 2024Nintendo’s confusing timeline gets a little clearer
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Nintendo has tried to convince us for years that The Legend of Zelda games fit into a larger continuity that sometimes splits off into multiple different timelines, but with Breath of the Wild andTears of the Kingdom, the company seems to have given up.
The new timeline reportedly has the usual lineup of a somewhat linear course of events leading up to Ocarina of Time, at which point the timeline split off into three different branches where things get a little unruly. But Nintendo’s been known to have tinkered with the timeline over the years, so maybe it just hasn’t made an official decision on where the newer entries land.
Either way, I think that’s the greatest indication that we shouldn’t place too much importance on the Zelda timeline. I like the idea that The Legend of Zelda games are connected in a kind of cyclical sense. Zelda, Link, and Ganon - Hyrule’s sort of Holy Trinity - are doomed to a fate of rebirth, only to repeat the same battles for the rest of time. I don’t like the idea that one Zelda game leads directly to the next, largely because the games themselves don’t usually care about such details either, unless they happen to be a rare direct sequel like Tears of the Kingdom.
Nintendo did recently announce thatThe Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Master Works, a big art and lore book, would feature a new timeline for fans to scratch their heads over, but it’s only out in Japan so far and we’ve yet to see any proper translations.
Nintendo created its own Zelda-themed social media to help it finish Tears of the Kingdom, with rupees instead of likes.
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Kaan freelances for various websites including Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer, and this one, Gamesradar. He particularly enjoys writing about spooky indies, throwback RPGs, and anything that’s vaguely silly. Also has an English Literature and Film Studies degree that he’ll soon forget.
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