There are many reasons why the Nintendo Switch got off to a great start. But one of the more accepted reasons by far is that of having The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild as its launch title. The highly-anticipated game from the beloved franchise was a very long time coming, originally meant to arrive on Wii U, but its dev time and desire to be perfect pushed it back to be a dual release, and now, it’s one of the best-selling games on Switch.
And for good reason, Breath of the Wild is a masterstroke on how to make a game from a long-standing franchise different, yet the same. One thing that fans are curious about though is where it finds its “place” in the timeline of the series. Well, according to producer Eiji Aonuma, you’re not going to find out:
In books like the recently released The Legend of Zelda Encyclopedia, we revealed where each Zelda game fell on a timeline and how their stories related, but we didn’t do that for Breath of the Wild. There is a reason for that. With this game, we saw just how many players were playing in their own way and had those reactions I just mentioned.
The “reactions” were that of playing a game as an adult and recalling the memories of playing other Zelda titles as a child. So if they put a “timeline placement” with the story, it would ruin the feeling:
We realized that people were enjoying imagining the story that emerged from the fragmental imagery we were providing. If we defined a restricted timeline, then there would be a definitive story, and it would eliminate the room for imagination, which wouldn’t be as fun. We want players to be able to continue having fun imagining this world even after they are finished with the game, so, this time, we decided that we would avoid making clarifications.
Regardless of where it takes place in the timeline, the world can’t wait for the next Zelda title to be born.
