Breath of the Wild Zelda U Timeline Placement

[Violet Link]

Seeing how the Nintendo gave us some news for the new game, we should still know where it takes place.

There was the sailcloth, hinted that it could have been from Skyward Sword, or from the Deku Leaf in Wind Waker. Nintendo also implied that the technology is advanced, and the overworld is quite big.

What are your thoughts about the timeline placement? What do you think on where it's place? Would it be in between some games, or could this actually be after Skyward Sword?

 

[Djinn]

I'm thinking the best we can tell at this point with the fragment of a teaser we have going is after SS at best but not much else to go by. Obviously someone is living on the ground but I did not see any signs of technology or robots. So ancient Hylia is out. That's about it.

 

[Locke]

pre-flood. Lots of tall mountains. Lots of WW references (WW-style moblins, lookout towers, blue tunic).

 

[AncientPoe]

I think it would be good if the game was taking place just after Skyward Sword. Essentially what you have in terms of scenario is this new humanity (Hyliamanity?) that has just touched down on this truly enormous world they know nothing about. Once they get over the shock of it, they'd need to start building their homes and expanding. With that comes exploring their new surroundings. And who better to take on that adventurous task than their already established champion? And of all the zelda worlds, that one probably has the best reason to be very open world and untamed. This would be a world where no real true civilization has dwelt in ages.

 

[27ジョーカーソン]

The only reason i have to disagree with your SS theory is in the first trailer we were shown people working in a field, with no other people or buildings in sight. Since skyloft had a pretty small population, you would think they would stay closer together in a single place for awhile, probably where skyloft came down. They would probably send people out to explore very early on, so why would there already be people way out there farming? And anyway, it couldn't be that soon after because I don't believe that could be Link from SS, he looks too young, plus you would think he would still wear his knights clothes. And if it was his son or something, it would be too long after SS, people would have already explored. Sorry if that's a dumb argument anyway. Not saying i wouldn't want a post-ss world, i just doubt it is.

I would think it would be in the earlier parts of the timeline, since there is still a lot of empty space.

 

[VitaTempusN92]

I believe this game might take place 1000 years after SS and 2000 years before OoT, at least in my current belief anyways. Reasons:

1) SS references such as the return of the sailcloth and Link's Shield being similar to the wooden shield upgrades from SS

2) By looking at the first teaser, Hyrule looks like how it would post SS and pre OoT as it bears resemblances to both SS's surface and OoT's Hyrule.

3) Looking at the second footage, it's officially confirmed that Link really is still right-handed (another SS reference) in this point of the timeline confirming that it is canon fact that SS Link really was right-handed and not just because of Wii controls unlike with TP Link was only right-handed in the Wii version due to control setup.

Also, since Link is right-handed in this, it's possible it may pay homage to Zelda 1 where you press A to swing Link's sword.

 

[Dio]

There are lookout towers like in WW and also the Bokoblin design is similar, plus the tall mountains make me think this is pre flood Hyrule.
The presence of Bokoblins indicate the involvement of the Demon King, since Demise is gone and Malladus is in a different land, I'm gonna guess Ganondorf. and since he would have been involved pre flood then it points more towards my theory.
I'm loving the bokoblins, they don't look stupid like the SS ones and the game is looking fantastic, the size, the anime style, everything...I'm excited!!!

 

[VitaTempusN92]

There are lookout towers like in WW and also the Bokoblin design is similar, plus the tall mountains make me think this is pre flood Hyrule.
The presence of Bokoblins indicate the involvement of the Demon King, since Demise is gone and Malladus is in a different land, I'm gonna guess Ganondorf. and since he would have been involved pre flood then it points more towards my theory.
I'm loving the bokoblins, they don't look stupid like the SS ones and the game is looking fantastic, the size, the anime style, everything...I'm excited!!!

1) Hyrule is too underdeveloped to take any place after OoT

2) I don't think we should the Demon King in the Zelda U, we've seen enough of him for now, maybe in the next handheld Zelda or the console Zelda after Zelda U.

3) Just because bokoblins are in the game, doesn't instantly mean the Demon King will as well. Think MC and FS here for example, they both had moblins in them but no demon king. Same goes for Zelda 2, moblins were present but no Demon King (except for the game over screen). You know, the other villains involved in the worlds of Zelda than just the Demon King.

Even if the Demon King does make some kind presence in Zelda U, I think it would be more of a cameo presence kinda like in Zelda 2. It has been rumored that Zelda U will follow/take after Zelda 2 in some kind of way, maybe the person who spread that rumor was onto something. Also we already that the Demon King doesn't have to be the main villain of the game to have to role/presence in the game.

My idea is that the game would take place in the 1000 after SS, 2000 years before OoT as I said in my previous post. Nintendo could have it where Demise's minions and ally's (potentially including some form of corrupt royalty in the mix) are trying to bring back the Demon King similar to how Zelda 2 did this. They could have it where if whenever Link dies in the game, it shows Demise's being overshadow Link's corpse and you hear his wicked laugh in the background thus giving nods to Zelda 2.

 

[Dio]

1) Hyrule is too underdeveloped to take any place after OoT

2) I don't think we should the Demon King in the Zelda U, we've seen enough of him for now, maybe in the next handheld Zelda or the console Zelda after Zelda U.

3) Just because bokoblins are in the game, doesn't instantly mean the Demon King will as well. Think MC and FS here for example, they both had moblins in them but no demon king. Same goes for Zelda 2, moblins were present but no Demon King (except for the game over screen). You know, the other villains involved in the worlds of Zelda than just the Demon King.

Even if the Demon King does make some kind presence in Zelda U, I think it would be more of a cameo presence kinda like in Zelda 2. It has been rumored that Zelda U will follow/take after Zelda 2 in some kind of way, maybe the person who spread that rumor was onto something. Also we already that the Demon King doesn't have to be the main villain of the game to have to role/presence in the game.

My idea is that the game would take place in the 1000 after SS, 2000 years before OoT as I said in my previous post. Nintendo could have it where Demise's minions and ally's (potentially including some form of corrupt royalty in the mix) are trying to bring back the Demon King similar to how Zelda 2 did this. They could have it where if whenever Link dies in the game, it shows Demise's being overshadow Link's corpse and you hear his wicked laugh in the background thus giving nods to Zelda 2.

1) we have not seen all of hyrule, it's frikin' massive. We can't jump to conclusions there yet about its population

2) That is your opinion which you are entitled to, it may not reflect the opinions of the developers of the game however or even the community, people love Ganondorf. I for one think the return of Ganondorf in Zelda is long overdue. HW does not count as it is a spinoff title. It will have been 9 years since Ganondorf in his human form made an official appearance in a Zelda game when Zelda U comes out, which as i am 20 is just a bit less than half my life. I yearn for his return in the main series, when TP came out there were those who said we needed a break from Ganondorf. We've had it, I just can't understand the viewpoint of 'we need a longer break'.

3)Bokoblins are the primary foot soldiers in the Demon King's army. FS and MC were made by capcom so he presence of moblins can be excused there, I expect they just wanted to use familiar foes. With the exception of those two the presence of Bokoblin and Moblin forces indicate the Demon King's involvement. In Zelda 2 it was Ganon's forces seeking to revive him so of course there are Moblins, it's still his army.
The reason I think these are Ganondorf's moblins in Zelda U is their piglike appearance. Before SS came along the Moblin was a creature Ganon made in his own image. We now know they were originally created by Demise but had a significantly different appearance. This is down to the Creator. Demise created moblins and bokoblins his way and Ganon's moblins and bokoblins are created taking on a piglike form.

I imagine in the first half of the game an ancient technological foe will be the immediate threat, requiring link to draw the master sword from its pedestal and unknowingly release Ganon from the sacred realm in the process, setting off the events leading to the great flood.

 

[Locke]

Link really is still right-handed (another SS reference) in this point of the timeline confirming that it is canon fact that SS Link really was right-handed and not just because of Wii controls unlike with TP Link was only right-handed in the Wii version due to control setup.

Are you really using handedness to argue timeline placement? It's not the same Link, and handedness isn't something that evolves from everyone being right-handed to everyone being left-handed; it's completely random.

1) Hyrule is too underdeveloped to take any place after OoT

1) we have not seen all of hyrule, it's frikin' massive. We can't jump to conclusions there yet about its population

This is a good point. Both the trailer and the demo show what appears to be Hyrule Castle, for one thing.

 

[VitaTempusN92]

1) we have not seen all of hyrule, it's frikin' massive. We can't jump to conclusions there yet about its population

2) That is your opinion which you are entitled to, it may not reflect the opinions of the developers of the game however or even the community, people love Ganondorf. I for one think the return of Ganondorf in Zelda is long overdue. HW does not count as it is a spinoff title. It will have been 9 years since Ganondorf in his human form made an official appearance in a Zelda game when Zelda U comes out, which as i am 20 is just a bit less than half my life. I yearn for his return in the main series, when TP came out there were those who said we needed a break from Ganondorf. We've had it, I just can't understand the viewpoint of 'we need a longer break'.

3)Bokoblins are the primary foot soldiers in the Demon King's army. FS and MC were made by capcom so he presence of moblins can be excused there, I expect they just wanted to use familiar foes. With the exception of those two the presence of Bokoblin and Moblin forces indicate the Demon King's involvement. In Zelda 2 it was Ganon's forces seeking to revive him so of course there are Moblins, it's still his army.
The reason I think these are Ganondorf's moblins in Zelda U is their piglike appearance. Before SS came along the Moblin was a creature Ganon made in his own image. We now know they were originally created by Demise but had a significantly different appearance. This is down to the Creator. Demise created moblins and bokoblins his way and Ganon's moblins and bokoblins are created taking on a piglike form.

I imagine in the first half of the game an ancient technological foe will be the immediate threat, requiring link to draw the master sword from its pedestal and unknowingly release Ganon from the sacred realm in the process, setting off the events leading to the great flood.

1) I know Hyrule is massive in this new game but we did have fairly good enough look at this Hyrule to know that it's too underdeveloped exist any time after OoT.

2) I know HW is just a spinoff but it's still Zelda game, sure it may not be mainline like the other games but it's still a part of Zelda in general.

3) Then how are they canon? If FS and MC is canon, then so are the enemies, including moblins. Also, forgot mention that miniblins (which were also created by the Demon King) appear in PH and there was no sign of the Demon King at all in that game.

4) Are you ignoring the fact that the Hyrule is underdeveloped in this new game or are you just trying to force the game into the adult timeline?

5) How is the Zelda 2 inspired idea bad? I was saying that if Nintendo were going for that idea, the Demon King will be present in the game, just not as the final boss. Zelda U needs to be distant from the usual traditional narrative of "Triforce, fight the Demon King, save the princess", we got something like that with ALBW (I know from what most believe it really didn't have Ganon but his presence was there and the did involve the usual "Triforce and princess" narrative).

6) Aonuma said this game is supposed to break away from the usual tradition for both gameplay and narrative. Having Ganon/Demise play his usual same old role, trying to seize the Triforce for himself would be saying that Aonuma lied. Like I said, Ganon/Demise can be in the game just not with the same old role he's had countless times already.

Are you really using handedness to argue timeline placement? It's not the same Link, and handedness isn't something that evolves from everyone being right-handed to everyone being left-handed; it's completely random.

This is a good point. Both the trailer and the demo show what appears to be Hyrule Castle, for one thing.

1) I didn't say it was same Link, I said that he is right-handed like SS Link and that the fact that Zelda U uses the gamepad instead of the Wiimote plus and nunchuk signifies that SS Link being right handed is canon. Not only but since Zelda U Link is also right-handed, this indicates it's not too far from SS seeing as since SS Link was right-handed, so would his descendants. I would say that Zelda U would likely set place at most, 1000 years after SS like I've already said and explained twice.

2) You say that like you think Hyrule Castle can't exist before OoT.

 

[Locke]

The heritability of handedness is only 24%. Even if both parents are left-handed, there's still only a 26% chance that their child is left-handed. You can't attribute handedness to genetic drift. It can go either way for each new generation. I'm right-handed, my mother is left-handed, and my grandfather was right-handed. That doesn't mean I must be older than my mother.

Furthermore, there's no evidence that any Link bar maybe TP and LttP (huge stretch) share lineage with any other Link. The curse affects the bloodline of the goddess, but only the spirit of the hero.

As for Hyrule Castle, I was merely pointing out an example showing that this Hyrule isn't really as barren as we've seen. I'd also argue that, like handedness, this isn't a good factor to use in determining time period. Look at LoZ, currently the penultimate game in the series. NES technology aside, that game didn't even attempt to convey any sort of civilization. People live in caves. It's more about how the game conveys the tone than what life in that world would actually be like if it was real.

 

[Djinn]

Well from a development standpoint you could also go to the other extreme end and say around LoZ/AoL when a huge part of Hyrule was abandoned and empty. But I did not think the developers are even interested in that period.

However looking at this

What I see here, a large coastline on the east, which is something we have not seen since LoZ/AoL. Now with an ocean on the eastern border and a river moving through the land generating two lakes and a mountain range at the north creating the northern border.

 

[Justac00lguy]

Too early to tell.

- Sailcloth doesn't really mean anything beyond its usefulness. It could easily be passed down to another Link.

- Technology isn't progressive in the Zelda universe. It fluctuates from different eras depending on how long that era was left to prosper without danger (Ganon and Co.) to set Hyrule back a few centuries in terms of development.

- Size of the overworld isn't exactly the best indicator of timeline placement as it changes from game to game. Though I do think this map is quite akin to the LoZ post era like Djinn said.

- Landscape is another iffy one. It's not like the devs base the landscape on a game beforehand.

 

[Locke]

- Landscape is another iffy one. It's not like the devs base the landscape on a game beforehand.

But the converse is true. During WW's development they created the flooded world, and then developed the story and setting to suit. This world has many tall mountains. Yes, this was most likely, as Aonuma explained, just so we could get those vistas. But it's also likely that it'll factor into the story somehow (e.g. WW had tall mountains before they became islands).