In a weird and disappointing move, Nintendo has recently confirmed that both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are separate from the main Zelda timeline.
Over the years I have written about the Zelda timeline a fair amount, especially how games such as Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom fit into it.
We already know that the Temple of Time from Ocarina of Time is in both games, and that the sages as well as the Zonai are an integral part of the story in Tears of the Kingdom.
However, at a new Nintendo Live 2024 event in Sydney, Australia an updated timeline was revealed that included these games (show above). This also ties into the timeline over on the official Japanese Zelda website.
In a really strange move, neither Breath of the Wild nor Tears of the Kingdom are connected to any of the other games in the Zelda series. In fact, they are just sitting off to the end of the timeline.
Honestly, this feels like a copout and I’m not sure why this has happened.
We already knew that Breath of the Wild was meant to be at the end of the timeline, but Tears of the Kingdom has time travelling shenanigans, so that makes it more complex to include it in this way.
A great deal of effort and thought went into the stories and settings of both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. Very specific creative choices were made that reference other parts of the Zelda series.
So to eschew all of that work and just do some vague hand waving is just very odd and more than a little irritating.
Naturally, Echoes of Wisdom is not included in this updated timeline because it has yet to be released. Although, I am sure that game will be slotted in somewhere more definite once it is released.
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