History of the Zelda Timeline/Timeline Quotes: Difference between revisions

The current trends in timeline theory began on March 6th, when a two month old inerview with [[Eiji Aonuma]] on the Japanese Nintendo-owned website nindori.com was translated into English. The Hylia has provided the most recognised translation<ref>[http://www.thehylia.com/index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1173582355&archive=&start_from=&ucat=19& The Hylia]Nintendo Dream: Eiji Aonuma Interview 1</ref> thus far:

:''Aonuma: The GBA Four Swords Zelda is what we’re thinking as the oldest tale in the Zelda timeline.  With this one on the GameCube [([[FSA]])] being a sequel to that, and taking place sometime after that.''   

This was excellent! A concrete Nintendo placement with no argument against made timeline theorising that much easier.  

Problems quickly arose with the release of FSA, which, simultaneously, was quite obviously the sequel to FS, and almost certainly could not take place before OOT. Once again, it seemed game Canon was challenging developer quotes.

A deeper look at the May 17th interview pack revealed the Aonuma's statement may have had little credibility in the first place.

This suggests that the development of the FS arc's storyline was a chaotic process which Mr. Aonuma was barely involved with. Opinion was suddenly split; some saw fit to completely disregard the frst interview and allow FS to occur elsewhere in the timeline, while others stuck by Aonuma's original words and kept FS pre-OOT.

Further discussion was initiated by a much ignored interview<ref>[http://www.landofthelegend.net/Hyrule/?grab=int-z14-np-eahf]Hidemaro Fujibayashi of Capcom interview</ref>, by Nintendo Power with Eiji Aonuma and Hidemaro Fujibayashi of Capcom, who colaberated with the former in the creation of FS and TMC.

The implications of which shortly become fairly obvious, since Nintendo rereleased AlttP for the GBA, and added FSA as a playable game, this game, headed by Nintendo was obviously placed in the timeline fairly close to its 2d counterpart.

When Capcom took over the FS series, this interview suggests that they "created a new Hyrule legend that said that a long time ago, evil Vaati brought crisis to Hyrule and people sealed that evil" and that they were taking off with the idea of the four sword saga.

While nothing timeline-specific besides the confirmed connections to [[The Wind Waker]] has been stated thus far, Mr. Aonuma has stated that the development team for [[Four Swords Adventures]] is the same team he employed for [[Phantom Hourglass]] in a GameInformer interview from GDC 2007<ref name="GameInformer>[http://www.gameinformer.com/News/Story/200703/N07.0309.1142.57468.htm?Page=2]:Zelda's Link to the Past and Future: The Eiji Aonuma Interview</ref>:

This seems to be a continuation of a previous trend between ALttP and FSA; most of the FSA developers had an extensive background with ALttP, and ALttP is widely believed to be connected to FSA, so the speculated connections between PH and the FS saga may possibly bear fruit. Some may note that Aonuma denies that Nintendo is creating a Four Swords Adventure game for the DS (more accurately, that he ever said it; he claims he was mistranslated), but one must consider that the question to which he was responding seems to have been intended to refer to the multiplayer Four Swords franchise, not FS spin-offs like TMC.

Below are comments from two staff members of the OoT development team; one from the Character Designer, Satoru Takizawa, and one from the Script Director, Toru Osawa. In this interview, conducted at the time of OoT's release by the Japanese website Ki no ue no Himitsu kichi and translated by Zethar-II<ref>[http://www.angelfire.com/games5/makzelda/interviews/kiootcomments.html Ki no ue no Himitsu kichi]Ocarina of Time interview - Osawa and Takizawa comments</ref>, Takizawa confirms that they were dealing with ALttP's Imprisoning War (also known as the Seal War) when designing OoT's story, and thus was meant to be the account of the seven Sages' seal on the Sacred Realm in that backstory.

Osawa then states that the Sages' names in OoT later become the basis for the town names in AoL (though in reality, the Sages were actually named in reference to the towns themselves as a throwback to that game, as was the case with Talon and Malon, and their similarity to Tarin and Marin from LA).

For some time, this was regarded as undeniable proof that OoT was meant to be the Seal War in ALttP's backstory, and thus shared a connection with the older games. Of course, after the release of TWW, and even more so after TP's, many increasingly felt this connection breaking so as to give way to newer games in the series, as both games contradict the OoT-ALttP connection in their own ways. Nevertheless, the intent to connect these games seems to have been there since OoT's release. What is debatable is the extent to which they were willing to preserve that connection.