Nintendo finally adds Echoes of Wisdom to the official Legend of Zelda timeline

After 3 months, we finally got a concrete answer!

Ever since The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom came out this past September, fans began wondering where exactly it fits on the franchise’s infamously convoluted timeline. After monthš’…Œs of theories and speculation, Nintendo finally gave us a defš’…Œinitive answer out of nowhere.

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Echoes of Wisdom's placement in the official Legend of Zelda timeline.
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A few hours ago, on its website in order to add Echoes of Wisdom. The most recent installment in the franchise is part of the “Fallen Hero” Timeline, a branched subsection that takes place in a hypothetical scenario in which Ganondorf defeated Link at the end of Ocarina of Time.

To be more specific, Echoes of Wisdom takes place after the 3DS co-op game, Tri Force Heroes, and right before the events of the original The Legend of Zelda for NES. Although, like most other entries in this franchise, there doesn’t seem to be any direct connections between all three games and the plot of each one takes place thousands of years apart from the others.

Does the placement of Echoes of Wisdom in the Zelda timeline make sense?

Official artwork of Zelda and Tri in the Dark World.
Image via

The Legend of Zelda’s timeline is infamous for its complexity and branched paths, so it’s important to point out whether the brand-new addition of Echoes of Wisdom makes sense or not, and fortunately, it does. For starters, the “Fallen Hero” Timeline has most of the 2D Legend of Zelda titles in it, from the original NES title to Link to the Past and even A Link Between Words. While Echoes of Wisdom does feature 3D graphics, Niš’Ŗntendo and Grezzo still built it as a 2D game wšŸ¦¹ith a top-view perspective, so it still fits perfectly.

On the other hand, this placement isn’t much of a surprise because Link’s Awakening is also on the “Fallen Hero” timeline. Satoshi Terada and EišŸ°ji Aonuma recently revealed in an interview that Grezzo’s Nintendo Switch remake of Link’s Awakening was a huge influence on the development of Echoes of Wisdom, so many fans theorized that both games belonged to the same part of the timeline. In case you were wondering about the placement of the other two recent mainline entries, Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, you should know that Nintendo keeps them out of the main Legend of Zelda timeline, on their own separate timeline.


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JuliƔn F.L.
Freelance Contributor: JuliĆ”n has been a passionate fan of video games, anime & manga for as long as he can remember. He has over 10 years of experience writing about these topics on the internet, and has collaborated with many outlets, and now he's ecstatic to join Destructoid. He greatly enjoys Hack & Slash games, 2D & 3D platformers, action Shōnen manga and kaiju films.