With the recent release of the incredible\u00a0Hyrule Historia<\/em><\/a>, Nintendo has finally presented an (almost) cohesive narrative that ties together all games in the Legend of Zelda series.<\/p>\n
First of all, you’re not fooling anybody Nintendo.<\/p>\n
\u00a0FULL STORY SPOILERS BELOW<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n
Twilight Princess<\/em> is in a different timeline entirely, the one in which the Hero succeeds in Ocarina of Time<\/em> and goes back to his childhood to warn Zelda and prevent any of it from happening in the first place. He then goes through the trials contained in Majora’s Mask<\/em>, again wiping the trail of time clean behind him.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Twilight Princess\u00a0<\/em>takes place a long time afterwards. Ganondorf has been executed but is about to return, and so a new descendant of the Hero of Time is also born, in the form of the game’s playable character. He is helped along by the shade of an ancient warrior, who it is hinted is a previous descendant of the bloodline but who Hyrule Historia<\/em> confirms to actually be the original Hero you play as in Ocarina<\/em>.<\/p>\n
<\/a>The Four Sword is the most obvious case of an aspect of Zelda lore making for a much better gameplay mechanic than a story device. This didn’t stop Nintendo featuring the sword\u00a0heavily\u00a0in the\u00a0chronology\u00a0though, as the original GBA Four Swords\u00a0<\/em>serves as a very important lead-in to Ocarina of Time, and GameCube’s Four Swords Adventures\u00a0<\/em>caps off the events of Twilight Princess\u00a0<\/em>to bring one timeline full-circle.<\/p>\n
4. Wind Waker<\/em> is very closely tied to Ocarina of Time<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n
Finishing up with a little bit more Wind Waker<\/em> talk, it’s interesting to notice that the game delivers the conclusive ending that was missing from Ocarina of Time<\/em>. During the final battle, as recounted in Hyrule Historia<\/em>, Hyrule’s king grabs the Triforce and is deemed worthy. He wishes the kingdom away in its\u00a0entirety so that future generations can be free of the cycle that was set in motion during Skyward Sword<\/em>, the very first game chronologically.<\/p>\n
Directly after his wish is granted, Link stabs Ganondorf right through the head and turns him to stone. With Ganondorf gone and no hope for a future reincarnation of the same evil, the book declares: “The curtain thus fell on the cyclical history of the sacred realm of Hyrule and the struggle for the Triforce”. The only games that take place after this in the same timeline are the two adventures that apeared on DS – Phantom Hourglass<\/em> and Spirit Tracks<\/em> – although the games involved no direct reincarnations, Triforce or Ganon.<\/p>\n
If you’ve seen the timeline in the book you know that the first two games that were released actually make up the conclusion of one of the three Legend of Zelda timelines. Assuming the Hero fails to defeat Ganon during Ocarina of Time<\/em>, the world is split between light and dark in A Link to the Past\u00a0<\/em>and ends with\u00a0The<\/em>\u00a0Legend of Zelda<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Zelda II: Adventure of Link.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n