Long-standing video game franchises can often have expansive, convoluted plots, but none of them come close to The Legend of Zelda. With 19 games in the main series, the history of Hyrule is a lengthy tapestry that remains unfinished. The story of The Legend of Zelda is almost like a giant puzzle players have to figure out with each new piece, and while the overarching story of the games have mostly been figured out, the newest entries in the Zelda series have created more questions than answers.
Although it may not be the first game in the franchise, the story of The Legend of Zelda starts with Skyward Sword, the 16th entry in the series. This game marks the first incarnations of Zelda and Link. Skyward Sword also explains the origins of the Goddesses, the creation of Hyrule, the Hylian people, the Master Sword, and teases Ganon's eventual coming. Next in the series is The Minish Cap, featuring the evil Vaati, who is transformed into a wing demon and defeated by Link. Vaati returns in Four Swords, but is defeated once again and sealed away. After Four Swords is Ocarina of Time, which marks the first appearance of Ganondorf while also making things very confusing by splitting up the timeline and creating three different storylines.
After the Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.
Breath of the Wild Has No Clear Connection To Other Zelda Games
The latest entry in the Zelda series, Breath of the Wild, has a clear place in the history of Hyrule, but its roots in the story are very much unclear. Breath of the Wild is set thousands of years in the future and is the last game in The Legend of Zelda's timeline. What makes things confusing is that the game is set so far in the future it's nearly impossible to figure out which timeline the game actually exists in. The game fits perfectly at the end of all the timelines, but lacks a connection to any of the three. Breath of the Wild is set so far in the future that the events of previous Zelda games are considered to be myths and fairy tails.
Even with the help of Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, it's still nearly impossible to find which timeline Breath of the Wild belongs in. The game takes places hundreds of years before the events of BOTW and provides some context from the time, but it's still set too far in the future to understand where it belongs in the timeline. The games feature Shiekah technology much more advanced than anything previously seen in a Zelda game, but they're referred to as "relics." In the time between the previous last Zelda game in the timeline and BOTW, this state-of-the-art technology was invented, buried away, and then discovered once again. There's really no telling how much time has ed or what events occurred between BOTW and its storyline predecessor.
To make things even more complicated, Age of Calamity has split The Legend of Zelda's timeline once again. There are now two different Zelda timelines attached to Breath of the Wild - one where Ganon was defeated in the past, and one where he was not. Right now, it's currently unclear how or if this affects the rest of the games in the series. While Breath of the Wild may not provide the cleanest ending to this timeline, it is clearly the last known entry at this time. Hopefully the eventual Breath of the Wild 2 will help provide a better idea of how the game fits into the overarching Legend of Zelda timeline.
