There are certain franchises across media that have some confusion with how things work with their convoluted timelines. Typically, this is because of things like time travel, numerous spinoffs and other things that make it difficult for things to get pinned down at times. In the case of a certain Nintendo franchise, things are so confusing that The Big N had to reveal that there were actually three different timelines going on with it. So, when The Legend of Zelda Echoes of Wisdom came out, the immediate question was, “Where does this fit in the timeline?” Thankfully, Nintendo only waited a little while before answering that.
The answer came from the official Nintendo website covering the franchises’ gaming history. However, before we reveal the “answer,” some backstory is required. This all starts at the beginning, where the demon Demise cursed the “blood of the goddess” and the “spirit of the hero” to be forever haunted by a dark avatar of his. That was what would forever bind Zelda, Link, and Ganon together throughout the many games that would follow. The timeline would be fairly straightforward until Ocarina of Time. If you forgot, there are a lot of “time-traveling shenanigans” going on there, including the seven-year gap between Link taking the Master Sword and arriving at the Post-Ganondorf-ruled version of Hyrule.
Due to that one game, there are three timelines, one of them is “The Hero is Defeated.” As in, Link actually loses to Ganondorf, and that sets off a massive change of events that determines Hyrule’s fate in many ways.
Apparently, The Legend of Zelda Echoes of Wisdom is in that timeline, which many feel is fair because of how Hyrule is within this timeline and the relationship it has to other games within the series. For example, there are numerous top-down titles from the franchise within this timeline, including some of the earliest games in the series. In fact, because of its placement within this timeline, the newest game actually comes BEFORE the original title in the franchise. Isn’t that something?
While that may be confusing, that’s kind of the point. Nintendo did make a big deal out of this timeline reveal at first, including having it be fully revealed and “approved” by them via a certain book release, but they never really find themselves “beholding” to it in any meaningful way.
Case in point, the newest title gave a new origin story to Hyrule and didn’t even use the word “Tri-Force” for certain story reasons, even though it “should’ve been known” by that point in the timeline.
Either way, it’s good to know where it stands.
