Nintendo on its approach to the Zelda timeline, understands fans’ appreciation for it
The Zelda timeline has always been something of great interest for fans of the series. On the other hand, Nintendo tends to be a bit timid when talking about it. Although the series has been around since the late 80’s, it wasn’t until just a few years ago that Nintendo published an official timeline in Hyrule Historia.
With the arrival of the latest Zelda game in March, fans are curious as to where Breath of the Wild officially stands. You won’t get much of a concrete answer out of Nintendo concerning timeline placement, but its developers are aware of interest from fans.
Breath of the Wild director Hideomaro Fujibayashi told GamesRadar:
“I wouldn’t say that we’re not concerned with the timeline. It’s obviously something that we know is very important to people, and they do a lot of research on. But I think at this point, we’re not really at the stage where we want to talk about where Breath of the Wild is in the timeline. I think, as with the pixelated food, it’s something that at this point we want to leave up to people’s imaginations.”
Series producer Eiji Aonuma also spoke about the Zelda timeline as well. He explained that Nintendo doesn’t create games and then start thinking about where it fits in the timeline, and prefers “to leave things to the imagination most of the time.”
“We published a book with the timeline, but we definitely got comments from users saying, ‘Is this really accurate? I think this should be this way. It’s different.’ And history is always kind of imaginative. It’s left to the person who writes the book. So that’s how we approach it as well. It’s not necessarily that we come up with a game and think, ‘Oh, this is where it fits in the timeline.’ Honestly, lately, we’re kind of scared to say exactly where things are in the timeline for that reason. But we like to leave things to the imagination most of the time.”
