A few days ago, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – Creating a Champion launched across North America. Filled with sketches and official artwork from last year’s brilliant adventure, it’s sure to keep plenty of coffee tables warm over the holidays.
That said, there’s one intriguing quote from series producer Eiji Aonuma pulled from its pages that’s sure to get theorists speculating.
Breath of the Wild’s position in the timeline, which was canonized a few years ago with the Hyrule Historia, has been under scrutiny ever since it released. Aspects from every branch are referenced – the Rito of the Great Sea were abundant, you find the ruins of Lon Lon Ranch, there are references to the “embers of twilight”… The list goes on. According to Aonuma, the game’s time placement was deliberately kept vague, stating the following:
“We realised that people were enjoying imagining the story that emerged from the fragmental imagery we were providing. If we defined a restricted timeline, then there would be a definitive story, and it would eliminate the room for imagination, which wouldn’t be as fun.
We want players to be able to continue having fun imagining this world even after they are finished with the game, so, this time, we decided that we would avoid making clarifications. I hope that everyone can find their own answer, in their own way.”
We’ll have to wait and see if the Zelda team ever changes its mind about placing it in the timeline, it’s always been a malleable part of the lore after all, but for now we’ll just have to keep imagining!
Written by Tom Brown
Whether it’s an exciting new entry in a series long established or a weird experiment meant only for the dedicated, Tom is eager to report on it. Rest assured, if Nintendo ever announces Elite Beat Agents 2, he’ll be there.
