Ever sinceThe Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdomcame out this past September, fans began wondering where exactlyit fits on the franchise’s infamously convoluted timeline.After months of theories and speculation, Nintendo finally gave us a definitive answer out of nowhere.
A few hours ago,Nintendo updated the officialLegend of Zeldatimelineon its website to addEchoes of Wisdom. The most recent installment in the franchise is part of the “Fallen Hero” Timeline, a branched subsection that takes place in a hypothetical scenario in which Ganondorf defeated Link at the end ofOcarina of Time.
To be more specific,Echoes of Wisdomtakes place after the 3DS co-op game,Tri Force Heroes, and right before the events of the originalThe Legend of Zeldafor NES. Although, like most other entries in this franchise, there doesn’t seem to be any direct connections between all three games and the plot of each one takes place thousands of years apart from the others.
Does the placement of Echoes of Wisdom in the Zelda timeline make sense?
The Legend of Zelda’stimeline is infamous for its complexity and branched paths, so it’s important to point out whether the brand-new addition ofEchoes ofWisdommakes sense or not, and fortunately, it does. For starters, the “Fallen Hero” Timeline has most of the 2DLegend of Zeldatitles in it, from the original NES title toLink to the Pastand evenA Link Between Words. WhileEchoes of Wisdomdoes feature 3D graphics, Nintendo and Grezzo still built it as a 2D game with a top-view perspective, so it still fits perfectly.
On the other hand, this placement isn’t much of a surprise becauseLink’s Awakeningis also on the “Fallen Hero” timeline.Satoshi Terada and Eiji Aonuma recently revealed in an interviewthat Grezzo’s Nintendo Switch remake ofLink’s Awakeningwas a huge influence on the development ofEchoes of Wisdom, so many fans theorized that both games belonged to the same part of the timeline. In case you were wondering about the placement of the other two recent mainline entries,Breath of the WildandTears of the Kingdom, you should know that Nintendo keeps them out of the mainLegend of Zeldatimeline, on their own separate timeline.
