• I'm pretty sure Shigsy has mentioned that Nintendo keep a timeline with all the games lined up on it. He must just find it amusing to read all the fan speculation.

• Wind Waker seems to lead of from OOT, only its set several hundred years after the end of either OOT or Majoras Mask. Ganon himself directly refers to himself being born in the desert which was his origin in OOT. Then the DS games all lead on from the end of WW. Though the Links and Zeldas in those games must have REALLY short lives. The WW Links grandson(at least) is alive at the same time as one of the original crew from WW! Which is pretty squick in itself.

• ...of which officially doesn't exist at all. What was that you just heard? The sound of a thousand Dr Who fans rushing to their keyboards to write a counter argument. Poorly.

• It might be Sheik's harp from Ocarina of Time.

• Officially, I don't think its ever been stated that the different Zeldas and Links are reincarnations. According to the first two games, *all* princesses of the Hyrule royal family are named Zelda. In the games, the Links wear that green getup out of some tradition (emulation of an old hero according to Minish Cap and Wind Waker), the fact they're all blond (except in the original game) is coincidence. In the games there isn't anything to suggest they keep getting reincarnated.

• I thought I was the only one who knew about that, but then I did it intentionally....wasted so many  hours of my youth seeing how far I could get in Zelda without a sword.

• I hope not! I thought I disabled all the cameras!

• Legend Of Zelda and Adventure Of Link, at least, are chronological sequels. Then Link To The Past came along and mucked everything up despite being a good game. .... I stopped caring about Zelda after that.

• You picked out all the same sorta stuff I noticed, though to me the fishy guy, whether it's Jabu Jabu or not, popping outta the water by the tree was also very reminiscent of Wind Waker

• Wind Waker's whole plot is based on it being a sequel to Ocarina of Time.  The whole impact of the intro is that the people of Hyrule expected the Hero of Time to come bail them out of trouble.  OoT Hyrule is present under the ocean (and you *do* see it there near the end).  Link gets dressed in green because of a hero celebration thing.  The whole ending gets some of its impact from being an Ocarina sequel. And Twilight Princess is a sequel of the *other* Ocarina of Time timeline.  The Wii port messes this up a bit, because when Miyamoto decided it would be too confusing for right-handed people to control a left-handed Link with a motion control device held in your right hand, they simply mirrored the entire world and reversed left and right.  Which kind of defeated the whole point of directly basing the Twilight Princess overworld on OoT's overworld, as people playing the Wii version didn't even notice due to the reversed world. While I've mostly avoided the handheld games, I understand one is a direct sequel to Wind Waker, which had ended with Link and Zelda looking to find and settle a new land.

• Are they suddenly trying to decide to make the games interconnected to make it seem like they are more important? I mean, I love LoZ to death, but lately they've taken quite an amount of greif for their game records.

• There aRe totally 2 timelines after OoT...

• Spirit Tracks directly references Phantom Hourglass, which itself is a direct sequel of Wind Waker

• I'm still waiting for a Zelda game to be as good as Link to the Past

• Whoa, that's a high hurdle to cross there.  I think you meant "Doctor Who continuity"

• The Hecate sisters, three witches/fates triple goddess, Mother/Maiden/Crone

• I always get the feeling that there is a whole bunch of Nintendo people gathered around a computer taking notes so they can figure it out themselves.  

• This is a pretty solid theory as far as I can tell: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2g65jL3HDg

• I think I saw a theory online that was pretty spot on about how the Skyward Sword would fit as a prequel involving the creation of the Master Sword. Can't find the link for it anymore though. Dammit!

• Somewhere, locked in a secret safe in Shigeru Miyamoto's office, is half of the complete, comprehensive and logical, official timeline of the Zelda games. And somewhere on yet another secret safe, Takeshi Tezuka has hidden the other half to complete the whole. You know, just in case everybody forgot that he's also a co-creator of the whole damn thing. And they both cackle evilly. 

• Well, can't argue with that, I suppose. Not when you already don't care.

• I think it's not so much as "linked" as it is showing cameos and references to previous Zelda games, just about like any other previous Zelda games, really. I'm still a supporter of the Split-Timeline Theory, though.

• Well, people WOULD have shut up about the timeline if only the original creators didn't feed the rumor mill: http://zelda.wikia.com/wiki/Split_Timeline_Theory

•  Isn't it usually the other way around?

• First thing I thought of too. Now I cant get the windfish song out of my head.

• It's possible that that is the Sheik harp as well

• It's one of those games that make a grown man squee.

• I used to think so, but since even in Ocarina of Time/Majora's Mask, which are the two games that are most closely linked, none of the plot points that having them linked and having Link be on a journey to look for Navi were ever resolved, so for all intents and purposes, there may as well not be a link between the games.

• Thank you! This guy gets it!

• Am I alone in just wishing that people would stop harping on about the Zelda timeline? Does it REALLY add anything to the individual games? There's direct sequels like Majora's Mask and Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks, but outside of that it gets really vague. It's similar to the Zenithia Trilogy in Dragon Quest in that there's shared elements between each game, but outside of opaque references and recurrent themes there's no other overlap. Half of a Legend is in the telling after all, in the face of myth things like history are meaningless.

• I honestly don't care, all that matters is if the game is good.

• The blonde lady/man/person had the markings of the Sheikah from Ocarina of time. Also it looks pretty obvious the Skyward sword becomes the Master Sword. Possibly a brief glimpse of Volvagia. No real definitive details though.

• As I said above I don't have a problem with them relating to each other.  I also really never made a claim that they couldn't.  I just stated I don't need them too.   Besides I love a good easer egg in a game.  A way to say hi to an old player or someone who knows.  Like a secret not everyone will know.  Heck, my wife never understood the power of a good easter egg until Arnold Palmer showed up in the ESPN commercial mixing Ice Tea and Lemonade. 

• . .  Exactly.  

• I see it has 1,2,3,and Awakening being connected in 3,4,1,2 timeline wise. Then the others being reboots/standalones.

• Just fan theory of course, but I did really like the angry video game nerds video trying to show what was linked to what.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHIP9UtkQDQ

• Is it just me or when the desertic field turns green ... it looks a lot like Lake Hylia ... ??

• Ocarina of Time already explained Ganon's origin

• I always like to play with my wii when going to my favorite topless site! 

• Agreed. Majora's Mask and Wind Waker are up there, too.

• I also thought that the harp like thing link holds looks like one of the eight instruments from Links awakening. But thats just me. 

• WInd waker directly referenced OOT with the stain glass windows in hyrule castle, AND it could be said the prolouge directly referenced it as well.

• I too noticed the wind fish! O_o

• Thats what I was thinking too. If thats the case. It goes down the side with Link's Awakening. I have heard there are two time lines. My little brother showed it to me one time on Youtube somewhere.

• I always thought LTTP was a fairly obvious prequel to the NES games, but OOT and its progenitors then came along and screwed with the entire thing, leading to the whole "two timelines" mess.

• As is the original, as is Zelda III. As is Link's Awakening in the handheld sphere. Saying "one of the best games of all time" doesn't exactly narrow it down with the Zelda series.

• I don't *think* the Four Sword and the Master Sword were ever explicitly linked in the (criminally underrated) Minish Cap; all that explained, long-term, is why Link wears a green hat. You know, aside from the fact he always wears green over the rest of his body.

• Please tell me this wasn't unintentional. Because... that would both be a work of genius and a tragedy.

• True, and Legend of Zelda 2 does state it happens many generations after the original however there is nothing there that needs to be.  In this case they can connect a few games but not all need to be as one.  These stories do have a stand alone quality to them.  To put in different terms, Darth Vader cuts Luke's hand off at end of ESB.  Now if in RofJ he has 2 human hands again (especially if this somehow leads to his victory), we would demand explanations.  Many of these stories just reconnect, or retell a version of Links hero journey.  Like the many re-tellings of Batman, Superman, Spiderman and Hulk.  Updated for the times.   It not too worry some to me though.  If Nintendo or someone can or needs to connect them all I'm fascinated and excited, but I can handle the Infinite universe just fine.  Now if they directly reference one and then change facts like the Temple of Time doesn't do time travel, or the Master Sword is now the magic Golf Club then I will bulk.  (still play it though)

• The sword isn't really optional. You can use bombs and then the bow/book/wand to clear everything up to Ganon. But then you can't actually beat him without the use of a sword. I found this out in the worst possible way. Never played the game again.

• I'm pretty sure it was already announced that Skyward Sword is set before Ocarina. Starting with Ocarina, the timeline isn't so bad anyway.  Sometimes you have to rely on developer comments, sometimes there are hints, and sometimes the games spell it out for you (like Wind Waker's introduction).  But it is there. The only real contentions are where the NES and SNES games fit.  Adventure of Link is a direct sequel to Legend of Zelda, and I think the Gameboy game was a sequel to the Link to the Past, but people argue where Legend of Zelda and Link to the Past fit in the big scheme. Supposedly there was some kind of localization mistake that helped lead to the timeline confusion, as well.

• I was just going to say that guy looks a lot like Rauru. I would like to know why he had such massive eyebrows in his younger days, almost makes him look like Ganondorf. Maybe to look more like the owl from OoT?

• But at this point wouldn't it still be the Four Sword?  Didn't that go on to become the Master Sword in one of the handhelds? I swear this happened but I could just be a bad nerd right now.

• What about Majora's Mask? It's implied (heavily) that it takes place right after OoT.

• They just did. Over the summer, for 3DS.

• What are you talking about? OOT is one of the best games of all time!

• *Puts on Link hat* The part right at the beginning where we see grass spreading over the plains looks a lot like it's straight out of the creation cut-scene where they explain the Goddesses in OoT. The part where we see Link standing on a bit of stone in lava with something swimming around him, Volvagia, anyone? You know, the boss fights from the fire temple, the ancient beast that the Gorons had to lock away with the help of the sages because he kept enslaving and eating them? Also fairly sure the dude with the epic eye brows was Raru, the light sage. In Oot they repeatedly reference another tale that happened in Hyrule once upon a time. The first time (or at least, the time before Oot) the sages were needed. I think that's what this game is.

• I never let it worry me if they were connected.  No game directly references another, or at least that makes me think one needs to exist for the other to exist.  They all stay pretty consistent characters, link never is a thief, knight, king or alcoholic; Zelda is never evil, trampish, greedy, or trailer trash, and so on. To me this is a case where familiar friends get together that I know who joined me in a role playing game. NOT THAT ROLE PLAYING!! Those are other people. ;)   I will sit, play, enjoy the show and move on.  

• The only Zelda game that matters is the original.

• Well its been said before and I think it is time to say it again, "The only thing more convoluted than comic book continuity is video game continuity."

• The NES ones ARE pretty malleable though as far as fitting them into lore goes. And I imagine nay lore is going to use the Japanese manuals - I understand there are differences.

• That made a scary amount of sense.

• I know it's been tempered and modified into being the master sword, but it could be argued it was the master sword all along, just damaged. At this point, I think the only thing sane to do is ignore most of  the games in terms of continuity (especially older ones) which I think is what they have been doing.

• I see what you did there...

• I thought it was the wind fish as well.

• I don't think it's been forged in the games themselves though - it's only ever DISCOVERED. And legend is hardly fact.

• They've also said though that the game is going to explain to a certain extent Ganon's origin, if memory serves. Though supposedly he himself isn't in it. I assume this is related to how the Gerudo only have a male once in a blue moon, and that one tends to be pretty powerful?

• That's not a very good connecting point because the "master sword" has been found and even made in so many different ways in different games that it just confuses things.

• I like the Windfish.

• The "Skyward Sword" is what will eventually be known/become the Master Sword or something along those lines.  It means this game is a direct predecessor in some way to Ocarina of Time. 

• They've been saying for some time the Skyward Sword becomes the Master Sword or something like that.

• Look out! There's a fish/serpent/monster in the water/lava/sky! Oh, and there's a giant spider. And something about a sword? I like that Nintendo "kind-of" links the games, but I can't help wondering if they're really just trying to reincarnate Ocarina of Time under a different name for marketing purposes.  If so, I don't really see why.  They could just update the old one.  People would still buy it.

• What I saw: Creation of the Master Sword Volvagia (sp?) The Wind Fish ( I hope. Though it is most likely just Lord Jabu Jabu) The temple of time.

• Let's see, some kind of giant proto-Zora looking woman, greenery spreading across the land like Farore (Farore, right?) was said to cause, a bunch of locales that look vaguely like old temples, and a few other things to boot.

• Yeah I don't see anything  that connects to OOT more than the normal Zelda patterns.

• Is that the windfish at 0:55?

• An unruined forest temple, Jabu Jabu, What may be Gerudo Village, That scorpion thing is familiar but I can't place my finger on it, What may be the Deku tree. ...and is just me or do they show Impa at 3 different ages in this thing? Teens, Elderly, and Adult? Is skyward sword some sorta time travel affair?

• Yeah, I thought it was familiar. Listen to the music played backwards. Then you'll get it.

• Gametrailers.com had a 6 part retrospective on the Zelda Games and part 6 had their theory on how all the games are connected: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/zelda-retrospective-the-legend/15194

• IIRC, it's been verified by the creators that they take place in the same universe qnd have an official timeline. They just won't share it with the fans.

• Didn't someone from Nintendo actually say that it was an absolute fact that the Link and Zelda are constantly re-incarnated? It was a few years ago but I'm sure I read that somewhere.

• Was that a younger impa?

• I'm playing with mine right now!

• The woman protecting Zelda was Clearly Impa from Ocarina of time. But just because they reused a character doesn't really link them.

• This is one of those days i'm very happy I have a Wii

• What are the connections? There's an elf-looking-guy in green. There's usually a princess. There's usually a sword (although that's optional in the original, heh) At some point, it's very likely that a giant pig is going to annoy you. Other than that, there's not much connecting them.  Any attempt to rationalise otherwise will just result in massive, painful headaches.

• Creation of the Master Sword?

• A Wizzrobe did it.

TotalComments: 88