The Legend of Zelda series has been kicking around since the primordial days of year 1986, beginning on Nintendo’s legendary Famicom. The franchise has gone through a dozen platforms over more than three decades of existence, and now it features over twenty games, many of which have attained legendary status of their own.
But much as the Arthurian legends of old, making sense of the conflicting stories and evolving ideas of the Legend of Zelda series has engaged the imaginations of many, and invited many an hour spent pondering the nuances of the divergent timelines, nuanced chronological order, and Links persistently absent ability to speak in sentences.
This surely can’t be that complex, can it? Well, since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is on everybody’s minds, it’s a perfect opportunity to take up the Master Sword and cut through this Gordian knot of story-thread together, at least a little bit.
Excuse, who is Link?
To begin understanding the LoZ timeline, one thing must be set straight. Link isn’t a single person. He’s more of an incarnation of a divinely chosen hero brought to Hyrule in time to prevent some terrible calamity. So, in a way, there are many Links, with different stories hitting many of familiar beats (for reasons which will be made clear soon), as the Hero of Time’s fate is apparently to be cyclical across the many ages and possible strands of time.
How old is Link, then?
It varies a lot, but he’s generally in the range between 10 and <18, depending on the era and sequel.
The key source
Most of the current understanding of the Legend of Zelda timeline comes from a 2011 book Hyrule Historia. It presented the official take on the series’ overarching story, putting it in chronological order and officially splitting the games into three distinct timelines, satisfying many fans’ cravings for specifics.
As the Historia came out quite a few years before Nintendo exposed the world to the glories of Breath of the Wild, any clarification about its placement in the split chronology had to be delivered through the official series’ website. (https://www.nintendo.co.jp/character/zelda/history/index.html)
With the identity of Link and the sources established, let’s take a quick look at the branches of Hyrule’s fate.
The Hero of Multiple Times
Before we get to the divergent eras, we should probably mention the four games which happened before the calamity.
Skyward Sword is officially the first, timeline-wise, appearance of Link, and it provides context for why the reincarnations are happening at all, and for all the future troubles plaguing Hyrule. After Skyward Sword follows The Minish Cap and its sequel, Four Swords, but they are not as essential as the all-time classic, Ocarina of Time.
OoT is where Link first gets the moniker “Hero of Time”, and, appropriately, there is a lot of time-manipulation shenaniganery involved. Which only makes sense for this game to be the point of divergence: the three timelines are based entirely on Link’s ability to defeat Ganon in the finale.
With that established, let’s talk about these fabled timelines.
The Child Era
*Majora’s Mask, Twilight Princess, and Four Sword Adventures
This era happens after Link goes back in time after Ocarina… to prevent Ganon’s rise to power.
The first game in this timeline, Majora’s Mask, takes place but a few months after Ocarina… and has Link dragged into a parallel world created by a Skull Kid who used the titular mask to conjure an entire parallel world, populated by reflection of people from Hyrule, twisted by his perceptions.
Twilight Princess is removed from both its predecessors by a century or so. It starts in a pretty rude way, with the new Link, a descendant of the Ocarina… and Majora’s… ones, being kidnapped and turned into a wolf. Things only go downhill from there, but at least Link gets some guidance from beyond the grave, so that’s nice.
The era ends with Four Swords Adventures, set centuries after MM and TP, and involved Shadow Link messing things up.
The Adult Era
*The Wind Waker; Phantom Hourglass; Spirit Tracks
This era happens if Link disappears from Hyrule altogether after being sent back in time at the end of Ocarina…
This era starts with The Wind Waker, centuries after Link’s glorious victory over Ganon in Ocarina… . So glorious, in fact, that the story of a green-clad hero has been passed as an aspirational legend from generation to generation.
The call to adventure of this era’s first Link literally fell from the sky in the shape of a pirate captain Tetra, dropped by a bird who subsequently kidnapped Link’s sister in the lad’s middle of a coming-of-age celebration. Of course, there are issues involving ancient history (Ocarina’s Link clearly didn’t do a thorough enough job), but this Link’s story is completed in the direct sequel, The Phantom Hourglass.
The last game in the timeline is Spirit Tracks, picking up the world a century later, and this Link for once decided to train for a day job as a train engineer. Of course, a protagonist’s fate isn’t compatible with a steady employment, so he’s dragged into adventure by Princess Zelda enlisting him to help her figure out why the titular Spirit Tracks are disappearing. Things spiral out of control FAST from there.
The Darkest Timeline
*A Link to the Past; Link’s Awakening; Oracle of Seasons & Ages; A Link Between Worlds; Tri Force Heroes; The Legend of Zelda; The Adventure of Link
The previous two branches were all nice and cozy (until they weren’t), but this one is the result of Link beefing it in a battle against Ganon in Ocarina of Time. The reality was so shocked by the idea that the Hero of Time can’t do it that it made a whole another timeline just to contain the fallout from that mess.
Curiously, the original Legend of Zelda is in this timeline, and not particularly early, either, towards the tail end of it. The era begins with A Link to the Past, which is set in an already way darker version of the Sacred Realm, on account of, you know, Ganon winning and getting all pieces of the all-powerful Triforce. Link’s Awakening follows soon after the previous game concludes, and has the green hero traveling outside of Hyrule to improve his abilities, which is also a great way to find new threats.
After Oracle of… , A Link Between Worlds, and Tri Force Heroes follows the original Legend of Zelda, set so far into the “defeat” timeline that it has its own era described as Era of Decline, and it revolves around this era’s Link being entrusted with a quest to reassemble the shattered Triforce of Wisdom and defeat Ganon, who’s up to his tricks again.
This plotline concludes in The Adventure of Link, set just a few years later, starring a 16 years old Link. Yes, he was a 10 years old boy in hist first outing. Wildly irresponsible from everyone involved to send a kid to save a kingdom.
Breath of the new
Where does this leave Breath of the Wild? Officially, it’s the furthest down of all the timelines. There’s no solid declaration of WHICH timeline it’s a part of, however. It could fit anywhere, with enough time having passed, and the official answer is that it’s down to players’ interpretation.
At least we know that Tears of the Kingdom, the newest and hottest release in the series, is set sometime after BotW, and features much of the same cast returning, more mature, and faced with a world changed significantly from the previous game.
Does all of that actually matter?
But where does all of this leave us? Do you need to know all the games to enjoy others?
Hell no. The games are full of clever references and recurring motifs, but the connections are spice, not the meal. Most of the Legend of Zelda games aren’t story-oriented, the plot is there to provide an engaging context for exploring dungeons, collecting gear, and smashing pots to collect money. So no, you don’t have to play anything in the series to have fun.
You might still want to, however! There are a lot (a lot!) of Zelda games you can still play, and they don’t need to cost much at all.
Where to next?
This is the end of our exceedingly brief look (yes, that was brief!) at the grand scheme of The Legend of Zelda timelines. Tears of the Kingdom have only just fallen to revitalize the fanbase, so it’s way too early to think where the future of the series will go. Instead, we can only recommend that you get BotW, TotK, and go on open-world adventures you’re never going to forget.
Or to get the older games with Switch Online and experience smaller games much more committed to puzzles and cool-as-heck dungeons!
Both are good!
For now, in the immortal words of Link: HYAA! (and have fun!)