Eiji Aonuma Explains Ambiguity of Breath of the Wild’s Timeline Placement in Creating a Champion Book
Posted on November 22 2018 by Rod Lloyd
Breath of the Wild — Creating a Champion was recently brought to the US by Dark Horse Books, giving American fans the chance to learn more about the making of the latest Zelda adventure. Featuring hundreds of pages exclusive art and developer insights, Creating a Champion is perhaps the ultimate behind-the-scenes guide to Breath of the Wild. While the book has been available in Japan, titled Master Works, for almost a year already, this new release is the first time many of its developer interviews have been widely available in English, including an extremely interesting discussion by Eiji Aonuma about Breath of the Wild‘s placement in the official timeline.
In an interview for Breath of the Wild — Creating a Champion, Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma further clarifies Breath‘s placement in the official timeline:
“The final thing I’d like to convey to all of our players is that video games, not just Zelda, can go much, much farther! We got a lot of responses from adult players who said they felt the same way playing this game as they did when they used to be hooked on video games when they were younger.”
“We made this game with the intention of returning to our roots, so the response from players about feeling the same as they had when they were young is promising. Since Nintendo Switch is portable, I hope that they will be able to engage deeply with the game in a fresh, new way too.”
“In books like the recently released The Legend of Zelda Encyclopedia, we revealed where each Zelda game fell on a timeline and how their stories related, but we didn’t do that for Breath of the Wild. There is a reason for that. With this game, we saw just how many players were playing in their own way and had those reactions I just mentioned.”
“We realised that people were enjoying imagining the story that emerged from the fragmental imagery we were providing. If we defined a restricted timeline, then there would be a definitive story, and it would eliminate the room for imagination, which wouldn’t be as fun.”
“We want players to be able to continue having fun imagining this world even after they are finished with the game, so, this time, we decided that we would avoid making clarifications. I hope that everyone can find their own answer, in their own way.”
Earlier this year, Breath of the Wild was added to the timeline section of the official Japanese Zelda website. The game was placed at the end of all three of the series’ branching timelines, making it clear that Nintendo was treating the game’s placement in the overall timeline with a high degree of ambiguity. With Aonuma’s explanation now widely available in English, it’s nice to better understand the reasoning behind that ambiguity.
Breath of the Wild — Creating a Champion is now available from Dark Horse Books.
Do you buy Aonuma’s reasoning behind Breath of the Wild‘s timeline placement? Where in the timeline does Breath of the Wild land for you? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Source: Breath of the Wild — Creating a Champion (via Nintendo Insider)
Rod Lloyd is the Editor-In-Chief at Zelda Dungeon, overseeing the news and feature content for the site. Rod is considered the veteran of the writing team, having started writing for Zelda Informer in 2014 as a Junior Editor. After ZD and ZI officially merged in 2017, he stepped into the Managing Editor role and has helped steer the ship ever since. He stepped up to lead the writing team as Editor-In-Chief in 2023.
You can reach Rod at: rod.lloyd@zeldadungeon.net
