Recently, Nintendo has announced that it was going to realise an encyclopedia called Hyrule Historia to celebrate the 25th birthday of the Zelda Franchise. As far as it goes, it seems this encyclopedia also reveals the timeline of the Zelda games: it's not been confirmed 100% by Nintendo, but it's been revealed on several Zelda fan sites as well as Zelda Wiki.
According to what has been collected, the Zelda Timeline would go as follow:
WARNING! Spoliers ahead: don't read if you don't want to know.
Skyward Sword
The Minish Cap
The Four Swords (the one released with the remake of A Link to the Past)
Ocarina of Time
From Ocarina of time, the games are then splitted in three alternate timelines linked to how the events of Ocarina of Time end.
Timeline A : Failure Timeline
The Basic precept is that Link failed in Ocarina of Time. In other words, he didn't defeat Ganon. However, given how the games of this timeline are ordrered, some speculate that though Link was defeated, Ganon was eventually sealed. The games of this timeline go according to the following order:
A Link to the Past
Oracle of Ages & Oracle of Seasons
Link's Awakening
The Legend of Zelda
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
Timeline B : Young Link Timeline
This is the "Child Timeline" of the Adult/Child split theory of Ocarina of Time. In this scenario, Link defeated Ganon and then went back to his childhood days. Ganondorf was exposed as a traitor, and everything went as it was. The order of the games of this timeline is:
Majora's Mask
Twilight Princess
Four Swords Adventures
Timeline C : Adult Link Timeline
This one is, complementary to Timeline B, the "Adult Timeline" of the Adult/Child split theory. It follows the events after Link returned to his childhood days: Ganon escaped his dark prison and, eventually, this resulted in the three Cell-Shading Zelda Games.
The Wind Waker
Phantom Hourglass
Spirit Tracks
Now that you know the official timeline, what do you think about it?
For my part, I was never really convinced there was a Zelda timeline until recently. To me, the Zelda series worked more like the Fire Emblem and Final Fantasy franchises: games of the same genre, with the same themes, similar settings and eventually recurring characters but that did not forcibly follow each other (with exceptions naturally). Even today, I remain partially skeptical to the idea that there is a timeline going on: I tend to think that Nintendo hadn't originally planned to make a Zelda timeline.
Not counting that, I must say that this timeline does make sense to me, though I might have place Minish Cap & maybe Four Swords before Skyward Sword. However, the fact there are three separated timeline bothers me a little: especially Timeline A since it's basically telling players that they failed in one of the games. In my opinion, they might have been able of placing everything in one single timeline, though it probably was simpler the way Nintendo choose to do it in the end.
So in other words, I haven't much to say against the timeline. But I do find that Nintendo could have done a better job.
According to what has been collected, the Zelda Timeline would go as follow:
WARNING! Spoliers ahead: don't read if you don't want to know.
Skyward Sword
The Minish Cap
The Four Swords (the one released with the remake of A Link to the Past)
Ocarina of Time
From Ocarina of time, the games are then splitted in three alternate timelines linked to how the events of Ocarina of Time end.
Timeline A : Failure Timeline
The Basic precept is that Link failed in Ocarina of Time. In other words, he didn't defeat Ganon. However, given how the games of this timeline are ordrered, some speculate that though Link was defeated, Ganon was eventually sealed. The games of this timeline go according to the following order:
A Link to the Past
Oracle of Ages & Oracle of Seasons
Link's Awakening
The Legend of Zelda
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
Timeline B : Young Link Timeline
This is the "Child Timeline" of the Adult/Child split theory of Ocarina of Time. In this scenario, Link defeated Ganon and then went back to his childhood days. Ganondorf was exposed as a traitor, and everything went as it was. The order of the games of this timeline is:
Majora's Mask
Twilight Princess
Four Swords Adventures
Timeline C : Adult Link Timeline
This one is, complementary to Timeline B, the "Adult Timeline" of the Adult/Child split theory. It follows the events after Link returned to his childhood days: Ganon escaped his dark prison and, eventually, this resulted in the three Cell-Shading Zelda Games.
The Wind Waker
Phantom Hourglass
Spirit Tracks
Now that you know the official timeline, what do you think about it?
For my part, I was never really convinced there was a Zelda timeline until recently. To me, the Zelda series worked more like the Fire Emblem and Final Fantasy franchises: games of the same genre, with the same themes, similar settings and eventually recurring characters but that did not forcibly follow each other (with exceptions naturally). Even today, I remain partially skeptical to the idea that there is a timeline going on: I tend to think that Nintendo hadn't originally planned to make a Zelda timeline.
Not counting that, I must say that this timeline does make sense to me, though I might have place Minish Cap & maybe Four Swords before Skyward Sword. However, the fact there are three separated timeline bothers me a little: especially Timeline A since it's basically telling players that they failed in one of the games. In my opinion, they might have been able of placing everything in one single timeline, though it probably was simpler the way Nintendo choose to do it in the end.
So in other words, I haven't much to say against the timeline. But I do find that Nintendo could have done a better job.