Nintendo Finally Places Echoes of Wisdom on Its Official Zelda Timeline

The official Zelda timeline is the focus of much debate among the series’ hardcore fans, with rumblings over Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom’s place in all this recently settled when Nintendo popped both in a time and place all their own. But where does Echoes of Wisdom fit in? After a recent update from Nintendo itself, fans finally know.

Echoes of Wisdom, which flips the franchise's famous formula on its head by having Zelda as the playable character, is part of the ‘Hero is defeated’ timeline, a fork generated by the seminal Ocarina of Time if Ganon defeats Link. From there, Echoes of Wisdom takes place after the 2015 3DS game Tri Force Heroes, but before the very first Zelda game, released in 1986 for the NES.

Ominously, Nintendo notes the “Decline of Hyrule Kingdom” that followed the events of Echoes of Wisdom, but came before the first Zelda. Here’s Nintendo’s official blurb on the game’s entry:

The hero Link sets out to rescue Princess Zelda, who was captured by Ganon. Following a fierce battle, Link defeats Ganon, only to be swallowed up by an eerie rift. It was as if he'd been stolen away... All across Hyrule, more mysterious rifts are forming and taking the people of Hyrule away. Nobody is safe — not even the king himself and his advisers, who have also gone missing. Princess Zelda must set out on an adventure to save her father — the king of Hyrule — the people, and Link.

Echoes of Wisdom's place on the Zelda timeline is now official. Image credit: Nintendo.

This particular timeline fork ends with 1987’s side-scrolling The Adventure of Link, the direct sequel to the first Zelda game. The ‘Hero is Triumphant’ fork includes two timelines of its own: Link’s child and adult eras. The child era continues with the likes of Ocarina of Time follow-up Majora’s Mask, whereas the adult era includes Game Cube masterpiece Wind Waker. Still with us?

So, that’s where we’re at for now. But does any of this matter? One person who doesn’t care about the Zelda chronology is producer Eiji Aonuma, who last year told IGN that overthinking the Zelda chronology could limit the development team's creativity and vision.

Of course there will be new Zelda games released, no doubt for Nintendo’s Switch successor, and we’ll have this timeline debate all over again. The question is, what’s the next Zelda game?

In September last year, Nintendo said it had no plans to release DLC for Tears of the Kingdom, and confirmed it had moved on to a brand new game in the series. In an interview with Famitsu, Aonuma left the door open to a return to the Hyrule of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, potentially setting up a third game.

“In the first place, the reason I decided to make this a sequel to the previous work was because I thought there was value in experiencing a new game in that Hyrule place,” Aonuma said. “If that's the case, if a new reason arises, we might return to the same world again. Whether it's a sequel or a new work, I think it's going to be a completely new game, so I hope you're looking forward to it.”

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].