History of the Zelda Timeline/Timeline Quotes

Part of a series of articles on the Zelda Timeline

History of the Zelda Timeline Community Timelines Research: Canonical Material Developer Quotes Game Grouping and Plot Arcs Ocarina of Time's Ending Glossary Timeline Abbreviations Interpretation: Deku Tree's Success Ganon Conflicts Hylian Cosmology Split Timeline Disciplines

Creator quotes can be useful for studying the Zelda Timeline and attempting to interpret the Nintendo-intended path of the storyline, and how it may have changed. The precise meanings and relevancies of these quotes are commonly debated, and often raise more questions than they answer.

On Ocarina of Time and earlier games

Nintendo Power Interview with Mr. Miyamoto

After Ocarina of Time was released, Shigeru Miyamoto was asked by Nintendo Power, "Where do all the Zelda games fall into place when arranged chronologically by their stories?" and gave the following chronology:

“

Ocarina of Time is the first story, then the original Legend of Zelda, then Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, and finally A Link to the Past. It's not very clear where Link's Awakening fits in—it could be anytime after Ocarina of Time.

”

— Shigeru Miyamoto

Hobonichi Ocarina of Time interview

At the time of Ocarina of Time's release, interview, Japanese website Hobonichi conducted an interview with the game's creators, published in a 21-part series released every three days as part of their Nintendo-focused series of articles Ki no ue no Himitsu kichi (樹の上の秘密基地, meaning "Treetop Secret Base"). (Translation by Zethar-II, bolding present in original)

In Part 6, character designer Satoru Takizawa referred to how when designing Ganon, he kept in mind that this was depicting the events of the Imprisoning War referenced as past events in A Link to the Past:

In past, when you thought about Ganon in Zelda, he was a pig. This time, when were collaborating ideas, we thought "He wouldn't be a pig, would he?" There were even some who thought "I don't want him to be a pig." But I still thought that at least the end should have Ganon as a pig. The whole time I wanted to know what Mr. Miyamoto thought, but in the end, I realized that Mr. Miyamoto didn't have an opinion on the matter, so I decided to do it the way I wanted.

This time, the story really wasn't an original. We were dealing with the "The Imprisoning War of the Seven Sages" from the SNES edition Zelda. To give that game a little "secret" recognition, I thought that keeping the "pigness" in Ganon would be the correct course. So we made him a beast "with the feeling of a pig."

In part 12, script director Toru Osawa explained how the names of the sages were the same as those of towns in The Adventure of Link on the Famicom Disk System. In real life, this is intended as a reference for players to notice (as are Talon and Malon to Link's Awakening's Tarin and Marin), while the in-universe intention was that the towns are named after the sages of the Imprisoning War from the past (again indicating that Ocarina of Time was in the past of The Adventure of Link).

Could you please find how this game connects with the previous ones?

Though in this game Zelda is now included in the Seven Sages, the other six have the names of the town names from the Disk System edition "The Adventure of Link."

In the SNES edition game, the story "Long ago, there was a war called the Imprisoning War" was passed along. A name in the Imprisoning War era is the name of a Town later. They were like "pseudo-secrets." We wanted to throw these out through the entirety of the game. That thing from then is now this.

Tarin and Marin, a father and girl who appeared in "Link's Awakening" (GB) were used as the base for a different parent and child who comes out in this game. These are the things that when they are seen by a person who has played Zelda before they will understand. If people begin to think "Do you think that this could be that thing from then?" then I will be happy.

These quotes, in addition to Miyamoto's above, demonstrate that, at least for its own release, Ocarina of Time was intended to depict the Seal War in A Link to the Past's backstory, and thus shared a connection with the older games. However, as the later releases of The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess both contradict the Ocarina of Time-A Link to the Past connection in their own ways in order to tell their stories, whether the developers still considered this backstory to be the case at the times of those games is unclear.

On the Four Sword Series

On May 17, 2004, an "embargo" Nintendo had placed on information from the Game Developer's Conference (early March 2004) was lifted and a wealth of new Nintendo information flooded the internet.

The first recognized timeline relevant quote was found in a Game Informer interview with producer Eiji Aonuma:

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 seemed to be a concrete, uncontroversial placement of how Nintendo viewed the game's placement. However, another interview made things more unclear:

Aonuma: In an example with Four Swords Adventures, I was the producer.. I didn’t actually put the story for that game together... Mr. Miyamoto then came in and upended the tea table... we changed the story around quite a bit... storyline shouldn’t be something complicated that confuses the player... and the storyline changed all the way up until the very end

This quote suggested that the development of the story for Four Swords was not always as concrete, especially to Aonuma, making his earlier quote potentially less indicative of serious intention.

Further discussion was initiated by an interview by Nintendo Power with Eiji Aonuma and Hidemaro Fujibayashi of Capcom, who collaborated with the former in the creation of Four Swords and The Minish Cap.

Nintendo Power: "This title is the third game in the Four Sword series. Did you plan it as a trilogy from the beginning?"

HF (Capcom): "We did not think to develop a trilogy from the beginning. When we developed the first Four Swords game for GBA, we created a new Hyrule legend that said that a long time ago, evil Vaati brought crisis to Hyrule and people sealed that evil. We had some thought that we wanted to carry over that story into future titles some way."

On The Wind Waker

With the release of The Wind Waker, the idea of a "split timeline" after Ocarina of Time was first discussed (though not exactly worded as such). This idea would strongly influence later timeline discussion.

The first mention came in a summer 2002 Game Pro interview:

Q: Where does The Wind Waker fit into the overall Zelda series timeline?

Aonuma: You can think of this game as taking place over a hundred years after Ocarina of Time. You can tell this from the opening story, and there are references to things from Ocarina located throughout the game as well.

Miyamoto: Well, wait, which point does the hundred years start from?

Aonuma: From the end.

Miyamoto: No, I mean, as a child or as a...

Aonuma: Oh, right, let me elaborate on that. Ocarina of Time basically has two endings of sorts; one has Link as a child and the other has him as an adult. This game, The Wind Waker, takes place a hundred years after the adult Link defeats Ganon at the end of Ocarina.

Miyamoto: This is pretty confusing for us, too. (laughs) So be careful.

This was followed by a similar explanation in an interview published on Nintendo's website sometime in 2003. While this interview was unfortunately not completely archived (at least on the Nintendo website, though it may also have been published in Nintendo Power), the first page contains a question about The Wind Waker's place in the timeline:

Where does The Wind Waker fit into the overall timeline of the Legend of Zelda?

Mr. Aonuma: In terms of the storyline, we've decided that this takes place 100 years after the events in The Ocarina of Time. We think that as you play through the game, you'll notice that in the beginning the storyline explains some of the events in The Ocarina of Time. You'll also find hints of things from The Ocarina of Time that exist in The Wind Waker.

There's also a more complicated explanation. If you think back to the end of The Ocarina of Time, there were two endings to that game in different time periods. First Link defeated Ganon as an adult, and then he actually went back to being a child. You could say that The Wind Waker takes place 100 years after the ending in which Link was an adult.

On Twilight Princess

In early 2007, official Japanese magazine Nintendo DREAM (also known as Nindori for short) conducted an interview with Eiji Aonuma. (Translation via The Hylia)

–When does Twilight Princess take place?

Aonuma: In the world of Ocarina of Time, a hundred and something years later.

–And the Wind Waker?

Aonuma: The Wind Waker is parallel. In Ocarina of Time, Link flew seven years in time, he beat Ganon and went back to being a kid, remember? Twilight Princess takes place in the world of Ocarina of Time, a hundred and something years after the peace returned to kid Link’s time. In the last scene of Ocarina of Time, kids Link and Zelda have a little talk, and as a consequence of that talk, their relationship with Ganon takes a whole new direction. In the middle of this game [Twilight Princess], there's a scene showing Ganon's execution. It was decided that Ganon be executed because he'd do something outrageous if they left him be. That scene takes place several years after Ocarina of Time. Ganon was sent to another world and now he wants to obtain the power...

This quote contains various statements with multiple interpretations.

It should be noted that the section where Aonuma mentions that it takes place "a hundred and something years later" was erroneously translated by the popularly referenced translation referenced here. The original text said "百数年", which literally means "several hundred years", rather than "a hundred and something years".

On Skyward Sword

During a 2010 interview for the Official Nintendo Magazine, as part of a feature on Skyward Sword, Aonuma made a comment about not just the existence of a "confidential timeline document", but the confirmation as far as the developers are concerned in regards to Skyward Sword's placement in the timeline:

Yes, there is a master timeline, but it is a confidential document!" explains Aonuma-san. "The only people that have access to the document are myself, Mr. Miyamoto, and the director of the title. We can't share it with anyone else! I have already talked with Mr. Miyamoto about this so I am comfortable with releasing this information — this title [Skyward Sword] takes place before Ocarina of Time. If I said a certain title was the 'first Zelda game' then that means we can't ever make a title that comes before that! So for us to be able to add titles to the series, we have to have a way of putting titles before and after each other.

Aonuma's latter quote hints at the possibility of a future title that precedes even Skyward Sword, the title known to be the origin story of the Master Sword.

Hyrule Historia

2011 also brought the 25th anniversary of the series, which included the publication of Hyrule Historia and with it the first official, explicit timeline including all mainline games. While Eiji Aonuma was credited as "Supervising Editor" and no doubt was involved with the book and the chronology (as he acknowledged below), it is worth noting that most of the book's actual contents were written by editors at Shogakukan, the Japanese publishing company licensed for the book. This has resulted in some (likely unintentional) inconsistencies between the contents of the book and the games it references.

Aonuma also wrote a note for the end of the book, which included the following on the chronology introduced by Hyrule Historia. This would be the first of several times that when referencing the timeline, Aonuma would emphasize the developers' "gameplay-first" approach.

"The History of Hyrule" allows players to determine where each Zelda game is positioned in the chronology of the series. One thing to bear in mind, however, is that the question the developers of the Legend of Zelda series asked themselves before starting on a game was, "What kind of game play should we focus on?" rather than "What kind of story should we write?" For example, the theme of Ocarina of Time, the first Zelda game I was involved with, was, "What kind of responsive game play will we be able to create in a 3-D environment?" The theme of Phantom Hourglass, which I helped develop for the Nintendo DS, was, "How can we make the game comfortable to control using the stylus?" Lastly, the theme of Skyward Sword, the latest entry in the series, was, "How can we use the Wii Remote Plus to allow players to freely manipulate the sword?"

Because the games were developed in such a manner, it could be said that Zelda's story lines were afterthoughts. As a result, I feel that even the story of "The Legend Begins" in Skyward Sword was something that simply came about by chance.

Flipping through the pages of "The History of Hyrule", you may even find a few inconsistencies. However, peoples such as the Mogma tribe and items such as the Beetle that appear in Skyward Sword may show up again in other eras. Thus, it is my hope that the fans will be broad minded enough to take into consideration that this was simply how Zelda is made.”

Patrick Thorpe, the head editor of the book's translation at Dark Horse, said on whether the series "needed" a timeline, "I think that every single game in the Zelda series can stand on its own and be a delightful adventure. What the timeline does is enrich the experience. Once you start seeing the links between the different games, you get a fuller experience." Thorpe also said Nintendo provided a lot of help and material as well as letting Dark Horse "do [their] own thing."

On Hyrule Warriors

In 2014, Kyle Hilliard of Game Informer asked Mr. Aonuma about how Hyrule Warriors fits in the timeline.

Is Hyrule Warriors canon? Does it fit in the Zelda timeline?

Aonuma: Within the Zelda canon, there is the timeline, but there has always been the sense of the main story and kind of a side story. Like, Majora's Mask might be considered part of that, though it does exist as part of the timeline. With Hyrule Warriors, there is a link between the two, but it exists as a separate dimension, so it doesn't exist as part of the main canon. Lately I have been thinking of it similar to The Avengers.

Each of the characters has their own timeline, so there shouldn't be any crossover there, but maybe they've been brought together as part of that story?

So it doesn't slot anywhere in the timeline that we know of?

Aonuma: Maybe if you force it in somewhere, but that's not something we want to do. The universe of Hyrule Warriors really is sort of a different universe and it is connected to the timeline of the Zelda series, but it is connected to several different games throughout the series. If you try and force this into it here [Aonuma places his hands in the air indicating different levels of the timeline], then…that information might not be complete. We really don't want to put it in the timeline because it has links to the different parts of the timeline.

Aonuma's response here has several elements up for interpretation:

• Aonuma's mention of the "Zelda canon" can be interpreted in multiple ways, in particularly whether he meant the more classic "body of works" sense, or the terminology popular among fandoms of "official continuity" (which the interviewer very likely meant).
• Aonuma mentions that this canon has a "sense of the main story and kind of a side story", using Majora's Mask as an example (as it is set the alternate world of Termina), but it is still part of the timeline. Hyrule Warriors also exists as a separate dimension, but not as part of the timeline or canon.
• Additionally, Aonuma's analogy using the Marvel film The Avengers is not quite straightforward, as although it can be said to be a crossover between the "personal timelines" of superheroes, they nonetheless have always lived in the same "universe"; whereas the branches of the Zelda timeline can be said to "exist separately" from a continuity standpoint.

In any case, it can be gleaned that while Hyrule Warriors connects the three "branches" of the timeline, it is not itself placed in any one of them. Whether the game is even continuous with the actual timeline at all remains unclear.

On Breath of the Wild

In a "rapid-fire" interview with Game Informer shortly before the game's release, Aonuma stated that Breath of the Wild was set after Ocarina of Time.

However, after this, Aonuma would make it clear that any more specific placement for Breath of the Wild was left intentionally vague. In an interview with French YouTuber Siphano, Aonuma was asked whether he thought the timeline was "important", or if it was better left to fans. Aonuma expressed that while the developers still kept the timeline in mind, it could be constraining for developers and he preferred to leave it to players' imaginations: (Translation via Reddit post by u/Jepacor)

Siphano: Here's a last question that you have probably been asked a lot of times. So I'll ask another one instead. A lot of fans wonder where BotW fits in the timeline. Do you think this timeline is all that important? Or is it more for the fans?

Aonuma: When we start to work on a new Zelda, we of course think about all this timeline stuff. Nintendo has a lot of IPs today. And Shigeru Miyamoto asks that we do our best to keep the timeline coherent. So we do it. But honestly, when we start to think of a new Zelda, respecting the timeline is a constraint for us. We would like to be free to imagine whatever we want without having to worry about the timeline. Being able to create while still keeping Zelda's essence, and bring new things to the table. Except now when we think of a new idea, we have to wonder "OK, but where does it fit in the timeline?" and it instantly becomes very complicated! And sometimes, we can't do these new ideas because it wouldn't fit in the timeline! So, for the creative teams, it's an hindrance. Yeah, we published a timeline in a book but among our staff, we would like to be able to stop thinking about it... What's funny is to see the fans debate where BotW fits in the timeline. But history has been written by historians that have been able to establish an order of events. Except no one is really sure everything happened in this exact order! Anyways, when it comes to the Zelda timeline, I'm of the opinion that it's for the players to debate, and to imagine themselves the order of events!

Siphano: I can confirm that there's been endless debates among where BotW fits in the timeline.

Aonuma: I find that funny!

The book Breath of the Wild – Creating a Champion contained interviews with several developers, including one with Aonuma. While discussing the genesis of Breath of the Wild, he stated:

In books like the recently released The Legend of Zelda: Encyclopedia, we revealed where each Zelda game fell on a timeline and how their stories related, but we didn't do that for Breath of the Wild. There is a reason for that. With this game, we saw just how many players were playing in their own way and had those reactions I just mentioned. We realized that people were enjoying imagining the story that emerged from the fragmental imagery we were providing. If we defined a restricted timeline, then there would be a definitive story, and it would eliminate the room for imagination, which wouldn't be as fun. We want players to be able to continue having fun imagining this world even after they are finished with the game, so, this time, we decided that we would avoid making clarifications. I hope that everyone can find their own answer, in their own way.

On Tears of the Kingdom and the future

With Tears of the Kingdom depicting an ostensible founding of Hyrule involving the Zonai in the distant past, it was not immediately apparent where this fit in the timeline. Producer Aonuma and director Hidemaro Fujibayashi have provided possible answers while continuing their line of thinking from Breath of the Wild that the timeline is best left to players' interpretation.

Nintendo "Ask the Developer" roundtable

A few days before the release of Tears of the Kingdom, an "Ask the Developer" roundtable interview was published on Nintendo's website. In this interview, Aonuma laid a potential hint with the mention of "the Imprisoning War":

Aonuma: Well, simply put, "hands" expresses the idea of "connecting." This applies to the story too, which connects to Hyrule's past. It also talks about a major struggle called "The Imprisoning War," which until now was considered a myth even in Hyrule.

Without further context, this potentially seemed to place Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom in the "Fallen Hero"/"Downfall" timeline. However, the actual game and further developer comments would make clear that this "placement" was not necessarily the intention of Aonuma's comment. Given the timing of the interview, it is possible it was merely a teaser for the upcoming game.

Washington Post interview

About a week after the game's release, Fujibayashi and Aonuma spoke to the Washington Post. After Aonuma discussed how the gameplay fit with the "ethos of Zelda", Fujibayashi said on the prioritization of story:

The “ethos of Zelda” focuses on such new, unexpected concepts of play — even as many other modern games prioritize story, like TV and film do. With “Tears,” at “the beginning of development, there really isn’t a story,” Fujibayashi said. “Once we got to the point where we felt confident in the gameplay experience, that’s when the story starts to emerge.”

Following on this, the article brought up the timeline and that Breath of the Wild's place in it was vague, acknowledging that "Aonuma has been historically evasive about this answer, and that hasn’t changed today." Aonuma said:

“I guess I would leave it to the fans and hope they will continue to discuss this among themselves,” Aonuma said, “and I’ll be looking forward to see where those discussions lead.”

Famitsu interview

In an interview with Japanese magazine Famitsu published in September 2023, Fujibayashi said: (Translation via Nintendo Everything)

“It is definitely a story after Breath of the Wild. After that, basically, we are thinking about how not to break the story and world of The Legend of Zelda. Those are the two points I can say at this point in time.

I think if it doesn’t collapse, fans can have the space to wonder various things like “So that means that is possible?”. If we only speak of the possibilities, if there is the story of Hyrule’s founding, it is also possible that Hyrule has collapsed in its history once before. I don’t randomly make things by saying “Isn’t it interesting if we did this here?”, so even for the parts we did not tell, I hope you enjoy imagining it.”

It is notable here that while Fujibayashi posits the idea that Hyrule was "refounded", he is explicit in that this is only one possibility, not his definitive answer.

Game Informer interview

In December 2023, Game Informer's Brian Shea conducted an interview with Aonuma and Fujibayashi where they reiterated their gameplay-first approach and intentional vagueness on the timeline placement of the newest games.

When you're developing a new Zelda title, obviously your primary focus is on core gameplay, but the timeline placement discussion has become more important and prevalent among the fans of the series. How much consideration and importance does the development team put into those discussions?
HF: As you mentioned, we realized that fans have a great time theorizing and enjoy thinking about where things fit on the timeline. That's something that the development team recognizes and it considers, but to an extent. And I say, "to an extent" because if we get too into the weeds or too detailed in that placement, it results in kind of creating restraints for our creativity; the process of creating new ideas becomes restricted because we're so tied up and trying to make this fit into a very specific spot in the timeline. We do consider it, but not to an extent where we feel that our development process feels restricted or constrained.

EA: Another point kind of related to this is that as we've been able to realize more fully a real, working world because of technology, you are also able to fine-tune all the details of that world. But, we don't always want to do that just because we now can. Instead, as people play the game, we want to give them the ability to exist in that world and a world that they can interpret in their own way. And, so, that's also something that we really keep in mind as we're continuing to develop games.

Also of note is Aonuma expressing unfamiliarity with the idea of different games being retellings of the same in-universe events (at least in the case of Ocarina of Time and Tears of the Kingdom; he instead brings up the idea of reincarnation— though whether he meant this from a diegetic perspective is not clear:

Have you heard the theory that some scenes in Tears of the Kingdom are perhaps loose retellings of some events from Ocarina of Time?
EA: Oh, no. I'm hearing that for the first time.

Well, there's Rauru, there's the Imprisoning War, and there are some scenes in Tears of the Kingdom that resemble scenes in Ocarina of Time, particularly in the flashbacks. For example, you have the scene where Ganondorf is kneeling before the king of Hyrule before he betrays him.

HF: We understand that fans have theories and that's a fun thing to do for fans. We also think about what kinds of theories fans may come up with given what we create. It's not like we're trying to plan ahead for those theories, but in the series, there's this idea of reincarnation in that Zelda and Link, as they appear in the different titles, they are not the same person per se, but there's sort of this fundamental soul that carries on. Because of that, certain scenes may turn out similar, like you were saying, the antagonist kneeling before the king, those scenes might turn out because they are sort of like glimpses or representations of the soul of the series. For people to kind of pick up on that and see that, it's something that we enjoy also and it kind of helps create this myth of The Legend of Zelda.

Lastly, upon being explicitly asked about the timeline placement of Hyrule's past in Tears of the Kingdom, Fujibayashi indicated that the developers had their own ideas on this, but didn't want to share them because even so, they were not necessarily definitive. He and Aonuma both encouraged fans to try to define a history based on the evidence provided.

Does the Hyrule we saw in the flashback scenes in Tears of the Kingdom predate Skyward Sword or does it come after the other games in the timeline?
HF: Obviously, there's something a little bit clearer in our minds, but of course, it could be that we're wrong as well! [Laughs] I kind of want to pose the idea that, like in real-life history, you define by the artifacts and by the data that you currently have. So within what we have, there might be a correct answer, but it could be a different answer. So, I guess my answer would be that it could be both. Both could be correct.

EA: I mean, the Legend of Zelda is a series of games that focus on puzzle solving, so this is just another sort of puzzle that the users will have to see if they can solve and think about. [Laughs]

IGN interview

A few days later, an interview with IGN was published speaking on the future of the series. Aonuma continued his previous ideas that he did not want there to be a prescriptivist idea of what Zelda games are from the developers, as the games themselves serve that purpose alone, and the rest is left to players' imaginations. He also reiterated that the series' chronology was not as important to him when creating the stories of new games from a design perspective.

I think a lot of people are curious: are Link and Zelda in a romantic relationship in this game?

Aonuma: I will leave it to everyone's imagination [whether Link and Zelda are in a relationship]. I don't think that Zelda is a type of game where the development team says, "This is what Zelda is, this is what the story is, this is what the game is." Everything that the development team wants to convey has already been placed into the game. And the rest is up to the player's imagination, and their reflection on how they feel… what they've experienced in the game.”

When I was playing Tears of the Kingdom, I was struggling a little to connect Ganondorf to Calamity Ganon, to Breath of the Wild, to the rest of the series. And the way that I've come to understand Zelda is that it is a series of legends maybe being told. It's myth, it's stories. And so it doesn't necessarily need to connect together. It feels like an oral tradition. And I'm wondering how that fits into your understanding of Zelda's storytelling?

Aonuma: 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.

External Links

• Translations of various in-game quotes and some manuals
• Translation of The Legend of Zelda manual
• Translation of The Adventure of Link manual
• Translation of the A Link to the Past manual
• Translation of the quotes in A Link to the Past