The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998)Ĭhronologically speaking, the earliest game in the Zelda series is The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, where we learn that Zelda is a reincarnated goddess - the goddess Hylia, original protector of the Triforce.

The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords (2002).

The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap (2004).

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (2011).

And then there’s the matter of the three branching paths. Still, even working off of this official timeline, there’s a lot of wiggle room and confusion as to where exactly Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom belong. Here, according to most primary sources - including the definitive tome that is Hyrule Historia - is the timeline for the Legend of Zelda: Graphic: Jeffrey Parkin/Polygon But there’s still a generally accepted chronology. So, yeah, the Legend of Zelda timeline: Pretty complicated, and certainly up for some debate.

The Legend of Zelda series in chronological order Myths and fairy tales don’t have to be perfectly consistent, after all.

This is made explicit in the book The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – Creating a Champion: “Hyrule’s recurring periods of prosperity and decline have made it impossible to tell which legends are historical fact and which are mere fairy tale.” That doesn’t negate the previous timeline as established in Hyrule Historia, but it gives room to explain any inconsistencies with the wave of a hand. (The creative team behind the Zelda series had an eyes-only, confidential version of the timeline sometime before 2003.) That official version rearranges the games into a cohesive-ish timeline that branches into three possible outcomes.īut things get complicated when we get to Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. Thankfully, in 2011, we got the first officially published timeline in The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia.

Kingdom of the cursed series order