Hyrule Historia: Zelda Timeline To Potentially Be Revealed?

A few days back we reported on a book entitled Hyrule Historia that is set for release on December 21st. The book is being published by Shogakukan, the official publisher for Nintendo of Japan. Recently, a member over at the GameFAQs Forums has translated the table of contents of this book and has discovered somewhat of a secret. Deciphering the translation, it appears that the long sought out Legend of Zelda Timeline will be revealed. You can find the translated table of contents below.

Judging strictly based on this table of contents, some bloggers online have speculated that this will be a full reveal of the Legend of Zelda Timeline. Roger DiLuigi III over at VGTribune.com is one of these folks and claims to have known about this publications release for some time now. Here is what he had to say.

From the research that I’ve done, all of this speculation goes back to the translation at the GameFAQs forum. There doesn’t seem to be anymore additional evidence, but just a whole lot of speculation. Just looking at the table of contents shown in that upcoming book, it seems clearly that there is going to be some chronological story being told. However, I feel that it’s jumping the gun to take what is given in that translation and make the step towards a Zelda Timeline being revealed. What I personally think this is, is a textual storyline collection of some of the stories in the Legend of Zelda series. It certainly is set in a chronological order of games that have long since been confirmed. Let’s break it up by chapter.

The Timeline of Hyrule, Kingdom of the Gods
Considering this section is all of two pages, I’m under the presumption that this is going to be a very brief introduction to the Zelda storyline as a whole.

The Legend of Gods and the Hero of Time
At first glance, I thought The Legend of Gods was referring to the creation stories that we know from both A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time. Given this book is released in such close proximity to the release of Skyward Sword, I wasn’t sure if Skyward Sword’s storyline was even going to be included. However, after realizing that Skyward Sword artwork is going to be featured in this booklet, the storyline of Skyward Sword should surely be found in here as well. Looking at it from this angle, The Legend of Gods could certainly be referring to the Goddess story of the long struggle between Hylia and Demise. The Hero of Time is clearly a reference to Link from Ocarina of Time, so this chapter will certainly cover both the back-story and in-game story from Ocarina of Time. I imagine the events of Majora’s Mask could be told just after Ocarina of Time, as that is a confirmed sequel to one of the two endings in Ocarina of Time.

The Downfall of Hyrule and the Last Hero
This one isn’t as crystal clear as the rest of the chapters, but my hunch is that this relates to the events of the first three Zelda titles. The Downfall of Hyrule to me is in reference to the crumbling of Hyrule during the events of A Link to the Past. Aghanim cons his way into power, dethrones the King of Hyrule, and banishes the seven maidens to the Dark World. The Dark World in turn is the corrupted form of Light World, which is also known as The Golden Land. To me, the title Downfall of Hyrule makes sense to talk about the events of A Link to the Past.

The Last Hero is also a tadbit unclear, but I feel that this is in reference to the original Link from The Legend of Zelda and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. A Link to the Past was a confirmed prequel to the original two Legend of Zelda titles from the NES when it first released. Subsequently, we currently have no confirmed knowledge of any connected game that takes place after the events of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. Since it was the same Link in the first two Zelda titles and since there is no known game that takes place after these titles, The Last Hero seems to be a fitting title for this chapter.

The Twilight Realm and the Hero’s Descendant
This section clearly refers to Twilight Princess, so I imagine this chapter will talk extensively about the back-story, the in-game, cut-scenes, and how it connects with Ocarina of Time. The Hero’s Descendant could potentially mean that the Link from Twilight Princess is a descendant of the Link from Ocarina of Time. It could also refer to a Link from a Zelda title that occurs AFTER Twilight Princess. This is a bit unclear, but perhaps I’m just reading too far into it.

The Hero of Wind and the New World
This clearly refers to the events of The Wind Waker, as Link becomes known as the Hero of Wind by the games conclusion. The New World refers to the events of Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks, where Link and Zelda set off to search for a new Hyrule, and in Spirit Tracks that new land is featured extensively.

So that’s a breakdown of the chapters, at least in my opinion. However, even my breakdown leaves out a number of titles. Most notably, The Minish Cap, Four Swords, and Four Swords Adventures are not mentioned at all. While I also didn’t mention Link’s Awakening, Oracle of Seasons, and Oracle of Ages, it very likely could be true that those particular titles fall in the Downfall of Hyrule chapter, given their established connections to A Link to the Past. However, even those games could be left out entirely as well.

However, the main point I want to drive home here… is that nothing in my breakdown would be new at all. I feel I’ve connected most the dots and while obviously there is tons of speculation here, I just don’t see any reason to think that a complete timeline is going to be revealed. In fact, I don’t think anything new at all is going to be revealed in this book. It’s just going to be a restating of the Zelda history that we already know.

Eiji Aonuma has been adamant about NOT revealing a completed Zelda Timeline and many Nintendo representatives have echoed this viewpoint over the years. To me this would be way out of character and would be a complete 180 of what they’ve repeatedly said. It just doesn’t seem like something Nintendo would do and I have confidence that this won’t happen.

So what are your thoughts on the Hyrule Historia book coming out in just a few days? Do you think the Zelda Timeline is going to be revealed? Is this just a collection of the stories from the Zelda series? Perhaps something I’m completely missing. Sound off in the comments below.