Stop Panicking! Zelda: Echoes Of Wisdom Is On Nintendo's Official Timeline

God, seriously, calm down. It’s OK. Listen to me: it’s ooooooh-kayyyyyy. Shhhhhhh. After the recent absolute horror of learning that Breath of the Wild does not exist on the official timeline of Zelda games, we can all rest easy in the knowledge that Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom has been given its place in the holy records.

It was only September of this year that Nintendo representatives stood up at Australia’s Nintendo Live 2024 to declare that the two open-world Zelda games—Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom—exist on neither the Hero Is Defeated nor Hero Is Triumphant timelines. Yes, those are things. Instead, they just float madly on their own, outside of all known reality.

But thank the good, sweet baby Jesus that this same enormity does not apply to the first mainline outing for the RPG franchise to feature Zelda as its playable character. Echoes of Wisdom, we now know, is set between the events of Tri-Force Heroes and The Legend of Zelda.

As much as occurring before the very first game to be released might suggest it’s way back at the start of this chronology, just thinking that has made you look quite the fool! As any cool person knows, The Legend of Zelda is in fact the penultimate tale, only followed by 1987's Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. At least you won’t make that mistake again.

So, in fact, this means Echoes of Wisdom is practically recent, taking place moments before what the Nintendo site calls the “Decline of Hyrule Kingdom” that leads into the “first” two games. You know, if you’re talking about the Hero is Defeated fork of the timeline, which of course we were, because obviously it doesn’t take place on the Hero Is Triumphant fork in reality that followed Ocarina of Time, which itself then splits into Child Era and Adult Era timelines. But that was obvious, right? Look, why are you not getting this? What’s WRONG with you? Can’t you see the patterns? The PATTERNS! It’s all so clear, so perfectly clear, you just have to be willing to see. WHY AREN’T YOU WILLING TO SEE?

So there it is. It’s settled, and now it all makes perfect sense, and the story of the same things happening to the same people occurring over and over in different versions of the same place but at different times on different branches of the same reality all slot neatly into place. You may now return to your previously scheduled plans.

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