25th June 2008, 7:32 PM
Well if that's true, that settles that! I tend not to want to invoke alternate realities without good reason, but this would be it. It neatly ties up all those loose ends.
So then that explains a lot. It explains how Ganon broke free in that flashback (he didn't, he was captured immediatly and executed by... some guys we never once saw in OOT but okay). For a second it made me wonder where LTTP and onward take place but that's easy. LTTP specifically has to do with Ganon breaking free after being sealed by seven sages during the imprisoning war of OOT. With the Twilight Princess world clearly taking place where no one would remember an imprisoning war and Ganon being sent to the Twilight Realm instead of the Sacred Realm, nothing adds up. So, the timeline has one official split now (and Majora's Mask takes place in another alternate reality but this really isn't a split reality from Hyrule so much as just another reality).
Also, your quote more or less confirms they DO think about story a lot there. Combined with previous quotes I have to conclude their method is that they care about making a good story, but tend to write the story after determining gameplay elements (story to make the gameplay work) and that it's secondary to making a fun game.
So...
Timeline Link leaves behind where Ganon was sealed into the Sacred Realm and the world suffered under his rule for 7 years:
Minish Cap
Four Swords
Four Swords Adventures
Ocarina of Time -- Here reality splits.
Wind Waker
Phantom Hourglass
Link to the Past
The Legend of Zelda (Hyrule Fantasy if you like)
Adventure of Link
Timeline where Link is sent to relive his past, prevents the cataclysm and Ganondorf is executed (er, banished to Twilight Realm) before he can gain the triforce:
Minish Cap
Four Swords
Four Swords Adventures
Ocarina of Time -- Here reality splits.
Majora's Mask
Twilight Princess
Ganondorf's enmity must be far worse in the split reality... It must not seem fair to be punished for a crime you haven't even committed, for time itself to judge you. I need to replay this game with that in mind.
Here's why I place Zelda 1 and 2 after LTTP. It was stated a long time ago when that game first came out that LTTP was meant as a prequil to the events in those two as an explanation for how the kingdom gained the triforce. Twilight Princess's events do nothing to explain this and the intervension of OOT Link in that reality would very likely have strengthened the seal of the sacred realm rather than convinced them to gain it.
That still leaves the Oracle games. As I just explained there's no place in the split reality for those games to take place if Hyrule does not possess the triforce. Alternate reality is still the only good explanation of that game. I know of no official statements for where that game took place in the continuity myself, but really the only gap it could fit would be just after LTTP. The only issue is just like after Adventure of Link, LTTP Link is portrayed as a teen (in the manual artwork and illustrations in the official player's guide). However, in the remake he's been given the voice of young Link instead of old Link so perhaps officially he's now supposed to be a kid.
So then that explains a lot. It explains how Ganon broke free in that flashback (he didn't, he was captured immediatly and executed by... some guys we never once saw in OOT but okay). For a second it made me wonder where LTTP and onward take place but that's easy. LTTP specifically has to do with Ganon breaking free after being sealed by seven sages during the imprisoning war of OOT. With the Twilight Princess world clearly taking place where no one would remember an imprisoning war and Ganon being sent to the Twilight Realm instead of the Sacred Realm, nothing adds up. So, the timeline has one official split now (and Majora's Mask takes place in another alternate reality but this really isn't a split reality from Hyrule so much as just another reality).
Also, your quote more or less confirms they DO think about story a lot there. Combined with previous quotes I have to conclude their method is that they care about making a good story, but tend to write the story after determining gameplay elements (story to make the gameplay work) and that it's secondary to making a fun game.
So...
Timeline Link leaves behind where Ganon was sealed into the Sacred Realm and the world suffered under his rule for 7 years:
Minish Cap
Four Swords
Four Swords Adventures
Ocarina of Time -- Here reality splits.
Wind Waker
Phantom Hourglass
Link to the Past
The Legend of Zelda (Hyrule Fantasy if you like)
Adventure of Link
Timeline where Link is sent to relive his past, prevents the cataclysm and Ganondorf is executed (er, banished to Twilight Realm) before he can gain the triforce:
Minish Cap
Four Swords
Four Swords Adventures
Ocarina of Time -- Here reality splits.
Majora's Mask
Twilight Princess
Ganondorf's enmity must be far worse in the split reality... It must not seem fair to be punished for a crime you haven't even committed, for time itself to judge you. I need to replay this game with that in mind.
Here's why I place Zelda 1 and 2 after LTTP. It was stated a long time ago when that game first came out that LTTP was meant as a prequil to the events in those two as an explanation for how the kingdom gained the triforce. Twilight Princess's events do nothing to explain this and the intervension of OOT Link in that reality would very likely have strengthened the seal of the sacred realm rather than convinced them to gain it.
That still leaves the Oracle games. As I just explained there's no place in the split reality for those games to take place if Hyrule does not possess the triforce. Alternate reality is still the only good explanation of that game. I know of no official statements for where that game took place in the continuity myself, but really the only gap it could fit would be just after LTTP. The only issue is just like after Adventure of Link, LTTP Link is portrayed as a teen (in the manual artwork and illustrations in the official player's guide). However, in the remake he's been given the voice of young Link instead of old Link so perhaps officially he's now supposed to be a kid.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)