From its humble beginnings on the NES to the latest 3D adventure , The Legend of Zelda game are undeniably some of thebest games of all time . What began as a little adventure secret plan about a boy in a green adventitia rescuing a princess has turn into a multigenerational serial with tons of game across all of Nintendo ’s ironware . Whether you love the 2D game or monolithic 3D dangerous undertaking , it is a tough task to beak thebest Zelda game .

What ’s even harder is interpret theZeldatimeline . After the first two games , it was n’t clear if the subsequent games were unite at all . Each game has a unlike incarnation of Link , and unremarkably Zelda and Ganon as well , but everything else appeared to only have loose ties , if any . For class , fans work to try and make good sense of the timeline as games occur out , but eventually , Nintendo set the record straight with the official timeline in theThe Legend of Zelda : Hyrule Historiabook ( which has beenconverted into a handy wiki ) . However , since that book ’s publishing , we ’ve had a few new games come out that we need to find a room to spot in the subsist timeline … or should we say timelines .

This is by far the most complex timeline of any Nintendo franchise , so take note if you need to as we draw our Master Swords and izzard - quarry the trueZeldatimeline .

All Zelda games in release order

Beginning in 1987 1986 in Japan ) as one of thebest NES gamesand showing no signs of stopping , there are almost too manyZeldagames to play if you ’re just start up now . However , playing them in the purchase order they came out is never a bad way to go since that ’s how everyone else first experience them , and you will get a prissy upward trend in quality ( for the most part ) .

That say , we do have to cut out game that have no place in the real timeline , are pure spinoffs , or are otherwise non - canon ( sorry CDI game ) . Here ’s every majorZeldagame in release parliamentary procedure .

All Zelda games in chronological order

This is where we get into the real meat of the Zelda dealership . Back before it was prescribed , most fan had already work out there there were multiple timelines going on . That ’s true , but there are technically three of them . There ’s the Child Timeline , Adult Timeline , and Fallen Hero Timeline . Each of these stem fromOcarinaof Time , which urinate sensory faculty as that game so heavily focuses on time travel .

The timeline begins simply enough , but we will pause to explicate where each schism occurs and why and tackle each branch one at a time . We wo n’t corrupt the event of each single game , but will have to spoil some aspects of the games where timelines split .

The Legend of the Goddesses and the Hero

There are three potential outcomes based on the possible waysOcarinacould end . These are the aforementioned Child Timeline , Adult Timeline , and Fallen Hero Timeline .

The Child Timeline

This timeline is the one players will see by beat the game and occurs in the upshot that Link shoot down Ganon inOcarina of Timeand is returned to the yesteryear as a child by Zelda . He then warn Zelda and Hyrule about Ganondorf , stopping his plot before it can begin . Link then after leaves Hyrule .

The Adult Timeline

For the Adult Timeline , thing go mostly the same as the Child Timeline , except after being sent back in clip , Link did n’t warn Zelda or anyone about Ganondorf . rather , he just disappears and no one is there to pit Ganondorf ’s rule .

The Fallen Hero Timeline

By far the most interesting and sullen timeline is the Fallen Hero Timeline . In this scenario , Link simply lose to Ganon duringOcarina of Time . This allows the latter to claim all three firearm of the Triforce . Somehow , Zelda and the people of Hyrule care to snare Ganon and the Triforce within the Sacred Realm before he can take over the entire creation .

Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom

That just leaves us with the two most recentZeldagames as of now : Breath of the WildandTears of the Kingdom . The unfortunate truth is that Nintendo has once again leave it equivocal , but not completely . In aninterview with Famitsu , manufacturer Eiji Aunuma and theatre director Hidemaro Fujibayashi were postulate where these titles fell in the timeline .

Aunuma started off by posit : “ Well of course of instruction it ’s at the very oddment . But , I get what you ’re expect , it ’s which timeline is it the last of ? ” Fujibayashi added , “ That ’s … up to the player ’s imagination , is n’t it ? ”

The two endure mentation are that these games either take place at the destruction of the Child Timeline or somehow reunify all the timelines back into one . However , there is grounds to support and contradict it falling at the closing of any or all of the timelines .

Unless some young information comes out , you could simply decide for yourself where these game fall in the Zelda traditional knowledge .