Thursday, January 19, 2017

Breath of the Wild: Aonuma Talks Timeline

In an interview with waypoint Eiji Aonuma gets asked, where the game fits in the timeline. Of course Aonuma doesn't reveal this yet, but he had the following to say:

I wouldn't say that it obviously fits into any one part of the timeline, but if you play the game, you'll be able to work out where it fits. As you probably saw in the trailer, the most recent trailer, there's a woman's voice, and she says: "The history of the royal family of Hyrule is also the history of the Calamity Ganon." And as you know, the Zelda series, up until now, is a history of repeated attacks by Ganon. So, there's food for thought there. I don't want to say anything more as I'd like players to work it out for themselves, to play the game and see what they think.

This is interesting and still supports my timeline merge theory. He basically says that it seemingly doesn't fit anywhere in the timeline at first, but you'll figure it out while playing! This is huge, because the timeline placement isn't usually something that's revealed throughout the game.

Games like the Wind Waker, Spirit Tracks or A Link Between Worlds, where the events of past games are referred to as a legend, did so early on. And with direct sequels like Majora's Mask or Phantom Hourglass it's also clear right from the beginning. The only Zelda games, where the timeline placement sort of was revealed as a surprise at the end, were Oracle of Ages & Seasons.

But with Breath of the Wild things aren't obvious right now, because there seem to be references all over the timelines. Ruins from Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess, the Deku Tree and the Koroks from the Wind Waker surrounding the Master Sword pedestal from A Link to the Past, Zora and Rito existing together, and much more. It doesn't really add up. And Aonuma makes it sound like we will be able to understand while playing the game, so the timeline placement is probably something that's revealed during the game (and not just some afterthought that gets released by Nintendo on Twitter). So, in the very least the development team put some real thought into it and Aonuma is even interested in the reactions from the people, so it must be something unusual.

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