The never-ending Zelda timeline argument
If you’ve ever been knee-deep in fan forums trying to pin down when every Zelda game happens, welcome to the club. Nintendo handed fans a roadmap years ago with Hyrule Historia, and more recently clarified that Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom sit outside the series’ main timeline. Still, players keep poking at connections and hunting for Easter egg-level answers.
Fun fact: there actually was (and maybe still is) a giant internal document spelling out how the games line up. It’s the kind of nerdy archive that would make timeline detectives salivate — but it didn’t change how Nintendo makes games.
Why Miyamoto doesn’t care about chronology (and neither should you… much)
Shigeru Miyamoto has said he oversaw a “massive document” mapping the Zelda saga, yet he’s pretty chill about it. For him, every new Zelda is its own story and, more importantly, a chance to tinker with gameplay systems. If something makes the experience feel fresh and fun, that gets top billing.
He’s blunt: games should be easy to jump into and enjoy, and story shouldn’t get in the way of play. That doesn’t mean narrative doesn’t matter — just that it shouldn’t overcomplicate things or make the game harder to grasp.
These days Miyamoto’s moving away from hands-on development and helping expand Nintendo’s franchises into other media, like the recent Super Mario Galaxy film project mentioned in reports. Even so, his old-school focus on player experience still shapes how Nintendo thinks about Zelda.
Takeaway: yes, timelines are neat and fan theories are delightful, but for Nintendo — and especially Miyamoto — the priority is giving players an engaging, clear, and fun game. The lore is the cherry on top, not the whole cake.
