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We all love a good legend. It wraps us up in its grand adventures, even if it doesn’t all make sense. The details twist and turn with each retelling, but the core details remain the same. As a result of that,The Legend of Zeldais pretty true to its name.
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Ever since the games were released, fans have been trying to establish a formal timeline for the whole series, the Hyrule Historia book giving us our closest look at an official timeline yet. Even still, details don’t always seem to match up, making the games very much seem like nothing but legends, stories passed through time.
Games Definitely Considered Canon
Many of the Zelda games establish their own story with more references to other games than direct connections, though still end up finding a way to appear canon. As such, the majority of mainline games end up being canon.
If you’re looking to know which games are canon so you can follow the story, it’s really not relevant for any entry.
The only games that strictly follow on with their sequels areBreath of the WildandThe Wind Waker.
Games Of Dubious Canon
The diverging timelines of Zelda makes the games hard enough to connect as is, though many that exist within the timeline of Ganon’s success or those that are sequels to previous games tend to eschew a bit too far from the established lore.
How Many Spin-off Games Are Canon?
Unlike most other Nintendo properties (looking at you, Mario), Zelda doesn’t tend to get a large amount of spin-offs, and the ones we do get often end up being partly considered mainlinebecauseof how rare they are. All that said, spin-off games tend to be much looser with the lore.
Link’s Awakening, for example, takes place on Koholint Island and shares basically nothing with any other aspect of the series. It features Kirby himself and Mario enemies, which doesn’t feel strictly like something you’d call canon.
Meanwhile, something likeCadence of Hyrulefollows the structure of a Zelda story pretty closely, paying great homage to the games. Though it doesn’t do much history-making and as such makes it hard to place in the timeline, it’s impossible to say it’snotcanon either.
Then there’s bothHyrule Warriorsgames. The original feels more like a fun fantasy, not something that could be considered in any way canon. On the other hand,Age of Calamityshows us the world of Breath of the Wild 100 years ago, yet is also itself a slight retelling ofthatspecific history, as it uses time travel, which doesn’t occur in Breath of the Wild.
How Many Games Are Actually Canon?
It’s a question that’s a bit more difficult to answer than you might imagine. It’s safe to sayevery mainline game is canon, though not their sequels.
When it comes to spin-offs, it’s safe to saynone of themare definitely canon, though there are some exceptions. The most important part of Zelda, really, is to just not focus on the timeline too much. Nintendo sure doesn’t.
