Daily Debate: What Should the Current Era of the Zelda Series Be Called?

The Legend of Zelda boasts 20 mainline series games and a few well-regarded spin-offs. Each game is unique to its own system, year it was published, and the particular gimmick or gameplay feature that makes it stand out among the rest. Fans often group the games together if they are similar in style or gameplay. They can also be grouped according to the official timeline, which has its own separate chronological eras. However, in recent interviews with series producer Eiji Aonuma and Tears of the Kingdom director Hidemaro Fujibayashi, they pretty much admitted the “official timeline” is not their first consideration when developing a game. For a long time, Breath of the Wild‘s placement was kept secret until it was placed well into the future, but it was never given a specific name.

Now, there are three games that take place in the exact same version Hyrule: Breath of the Wild, Age of Calamity, and Tears of the Kingdom. There hasn’t been another era of Zelda games that all took place within the same version of Hyrule. The only era on the official timeline that comes close is the Era of Light and Dark, with five games: A Link to the Past, Link’s Awakening, the Oracle games, A Link Between Worlds, and Tri Force Heroes. The only two that are direct sequels are A Link to the Past and A Link Between Worlds. The current era of Zelda games is possibly the most unique in the series, and therefore, it should have its own unique name to mark this era.

It is likely that this era will simply be known as “The Switch Era” of games. There’s a couple of caveats to this name:

1. Breath of the Wild may have been used as a system launch title for the Switch, but it was originally developed for the Wii U.
2. Link’s Awakening (2019) and Cadence of Hyrule are also Switch-era games but each has different gameplay from Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. That means there’s actually a lot more variety to the Zelda games for the Switch than may be first realized.

Perhaps this is the open-world era for Zelda. Breath of the Wild was a large departure from the traditional linear gameplay and storytelling. Tears of the Kingdom kept the same open-world style, but other than different Runes to play with, the game is the most similar in gameplay than any other two Zelda titles. Of course, Age of Calamity throws in a wrench because it is not entirely open-world gameplay. Different scenarios are set up across Hyrule for you to complete, but each is a stage that you go into and exit from, rather than being able to smoothly explore on your own. Then again, Age of Calamity may not be officially canon since it does some odd things with time travel and is considered a Warriors game more than a true Zelda game.

One portmanteau I’ve seen for this particular duo (trio?) of games is the “Wild Kingdom Era.” I like this because “Wild Kingdom” just sounds cool, but I think it also marks how similar the games are to each other. “Wild Kingdom” certainly speaks to the open-world nature aspect of the two games. Knowing how to survive the wild in both games is vital for your journey. The environment is not just a quick path with a few monsters thrown in between quest markers. It’s a living, breathing world that continues on even after Link has left the picture. The “Kingdom” part of the title speaks to what the Princess and her Hero work so hard for, defeating not only the threat to Hyrule in Breath of the Wild, but directly confronting its source in Tears of the Kingdom.

What do you think? What should this “era” of Zelda games be called? Is this a unique era for the series? Do these games deserve their own distinctive title? Let us know in the comments!

Leslie Jacobson

Leslie is a mom, a cosplayer, an educator, and a fervent fan of The Legend of Zelda series.  She lives in an area of the United States that reminds her of the Akkala region in the fall and Hebra the other 11 months of the year.  She owns The Legend of Zelda t-shirts older than most of her students.