When Does Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Take Place? Hyrule Timeline Explained

One thing Zelda fans are more than used to at this point (beyond the long waits for new games) is the messiness of the series timeline. The Zelda franchise is home to one of the most hotly debated chronologies in gaming, and with The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom finally arriving soon, people are surely wondering where the game takes place in the canon. Here’s everything we know about The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s timeline placing.

The Timeline of Zelda, and Tears of the Kingdom’s Placing

As of right now, there’s no clear answer as to where The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is placed on the timeline. Nintendo itself has been extremely coy about many of the game’s details, so much so that it hid the title of the game for three years out of fear that it would give away elements of the plot.

Elements of the early Tears of the Kingdom trailers, including Ganondorf’s rotting corpse and the corrupted Master Sword, indicate that the new game will take place after Breath of the Wild. It’s unclear how long after it will take place, though, and its placing will surely be cause for debate given Breath of the Wild’s contentious timeline placing.

To help understand the chronology a bit, Zelda starts off simply with Skyward Sword before continuing with The Minish Cap, Four Swords, and Ocarina of Time. However, that game led to the timeline splitting off into three separate paths. One path sees The Hero (Link) defeated, another sees The Hero victorious as a child, and the final sees The Hero victorious as an adult.

The timeline where The Hero is defeated consists of a combination of A Link to the Past (and its pseudo-successors Link’s Awakening and A Link Between Worlds), the Oracle games, Tri-Force Heroes, and the original two NES titles. The timeline where Child Link defeats Ganon consists of Majora’s Mask, Twilight Princess, and Four Swords Adventures. Lastly, the timeline where Adult Link is successful consists of The Wind Waker and the DS titles, Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks.

In the case of Breath of the Wild, series producer Eiji Aonuma confirmed that the game takes place “at the very end” of the timeline. That said, when discussing which timeline they’re referring to, director Hidemaro Fujibayashi stated that this would be up to the player’s interpretation. Thus, it’s unclear whether Breath of the Wild takes place at the end of a specific branch of the canon, or if this game unified the timeline and takes place at the end of all three sectors.

Circling back to Tears of the Kingdom, prepare yourself for even more confusion. Nintendo’s intentional coyness regarding the series timeline, and the new game as a whole, means that we hardly know anything, and it’s the follow-up to a game whose timeline placement is already hotly contested. Expect plenty more debates about where Tears of the Kingdom lands in the timeline.

That’s everything we know about The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s timeline placing. If you’re looking for more Zelda goodness, check out Twinfinite’s look at the latest gameplay showing for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.