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The Legend of Zelda timeline was a matter of intense debate in the forums I frequented as a young Nintendo fan, but by the time it was ultimately revealed in the 2011 Hyrule Historia book, I had moved on to caring about topics other than whether there were multiple Links and Zeldas. But Nintendo had a secret document detailing the whole thing all along – even if Shigeru Miyamoto himself didn't care about it all that much.
"For every Zelda game we tell a new story," Miyamoto explained in a 2003 interview with the Swedish Superplay Magazine, which was translated and hosted on various corners of the old internet. "But we actually have an enormous document that explains how the game relates to the others, and bind them together. But to be honest, they are not that important to us. We care more about developing the game system."
I'm one of those skeptics who found the 2011 Hyrule Historia timeline, which split the series into three separate lines that branch from the ending of Ocarina of Time, a little ridiculous. I'm not sure knowing Nintendo had planned its timeline this far back improves my impression of it here in 2026, but I guess I'm glad to know Nintendo had a plan in the first place. Even if, as Miyamoto puts it, it doesn't actually feel "that important."
But that's always been Miyamoto's take on story in games. "The most important thing for me," he said in the same interview, "is that the player get sucked into the game. I want the games to be easy to understand, and that the people appreciate the games content, its core. I will never deny the importance of a great story, but the plot should never get that important that it becomes unclear."
Nintendo would allude to the existence of the Zelda timeline a few times between 2003 and its eventual release. Maybe the most notable example is this 2010 interview with series producer Eiji Aunuma, who said that "the only people to have access to that document are myself, Mr. Miyamoto and the director of that title."
I still feel like the mystery of not knowing how the games connected was more compelling than the answer we eventually got, but I recognize that might be a fringe opinion these days – at least judging by the cottage industry of Zelda lore breakdowns on YouTube, which I do admittedly like to check out from time to time.
What can I say? Even something unimportant can start to feel important if you pay enough attention to it.
These are the best Zelda games of all time.
