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[BlackTron]

I think the reason people care is because they have an emotional reaction to assertions of the timeline (such as OOT Link needing to be defeated to get some of the best games in the series), and on top of that it was kind of unnecessary to put out. But IMO "the timeline doesn't exist, fans made it, it doesn't count because Nintendo just caved to pressure" etc etc is all bargaining around the fact that this IS the official timeline and it has one now.

Just acknowledge that the timeline both exists and is silly. I never really cared about it for same reason...I remember laughing at some of the details of it way back when first revealed, and completely forgot all about it ever since. There's a part of me that would respect it despite not liking certain ideas, but it's honestly just too branching and convoluted to care. Yes, obviously MM is a sequel to OOT, as is TOTK/BOTW, and I'm interested in high-level theory like: which game took place an eternity before the other one, OOT or BOTW? But when they need 3 timelines to explain the story in games where story was never that important anyway, you just kinda throw your arms up and play the damn games

 

[BlackTron]

It's just some elf kid bashing shit with a sword. It doesn't need to be more complex than that.

If you find Zelda boring, it might be that you have this impression that they're just about an elf kid bashing shit with a sword, that is, playing it like a bad action/brawler game for kids that goes nowhere. I don't know how to tell you this gently, but, Zelda isn't about sword bashing, it's about puzzle solving.

 

[Scotty W]

People will waste hours learning the ins and outs of the nonsensical Zelda timeline, and reject out of hand my brilliant and correct Chrono Trigger analysis.

The creative logic of Chrono Trigger.

Chrono Trigger is built around a few simple, powerful ideas. What I want to do is show the logic of these ideas running through the game. There are quite a lot of fan theories, where people treat the characters and world as if they were real and try to spell out the meaning and resolve...

www.neogaf.com

 

[Woopah]

Aonuma basically echoes what I said already in his recent interview that people are all in an uproar about. But essentially he confirms what I said, which we all already know anyway, basically that Nintendo‘s design teams when they make Zelda care more about new gameplay ideas than they do about where things fit in a timeline, and that’s generally how they approach the games. Which is also how they approach games in all of their series.

They do indeed care more about gameplay than story. I fully agree with that.

You can count on one hand the amount of Zelda games that are directly connected to another game in the series. They're all mostly standalone so it doesn't really matter which timeline they're in or what order they occur.

There are more than a dozen titles with at least one connection to another game.

 

[IDKFA]

True, but it matters for some games

Knowing it's actually supposed to be the same rather than just some reference (see all the stuff in BotW) carries a lot of weight. You're already emotionally embedded, there is built-in context and weight to things. Obviously not the same roller-coaster ride of emotions that you encounter when revisiting your old home or school or running into your old teacher (rather than just a person reminding you of them), but it's that principle. Dark Souls 3 tried enacting the same feeling with Anor Londo

The timeline and how he is that one constant in a (literal) sea of ever-changing variables is also what makes Ganondorf a special villain and what made many people fall in love with the character for the first time in Wind Waker, coveting a place and people the game doesn't even show in cutscenes because he's self-evidently talking about OoT


Denying something so obvious about the Zelda games is actually a rather new phenomenon, and I believe it's mostly either a) Zelda fans who fear they have to play all the games to understand everything (you obviously don't), and b) Zelda haters who believe the timeline is this "complex" thing that they don't feel comfortable ascribing to Zelda. There are many prime examples of the latter in this very thread. This post

reads like, "ZELDA IS SIMPLE. STOP SAYING ZELDA ISN'T DUMB AND SIMPLE. YOU ARE A STUPID CHILD IF YOU DO. AAAAAAAAAHHH!" And it takes 10 seconds to find that this user doesn't like Zelda and Nintendo very much

Not saying these aren't 100% acceptable opinions, but it would be silly to deny this context when asking where the hate for the timeline comes from

Steady on there. I didn't mean to set anybody off. Zelda isn't for me. If people like it then great for them. I tired it and felt bored. Clearly I'm not the target audience.

I also don't dislike Nintendo. My first console was as a NES. I've just outgrown their games.

, Zelda isn't about sword bashing, it's about puzzle solving.

Is Zelda a puzzle game? No. It's an action-adventure game.

I rest my case. Checkmate!

 

[ÆMNE22A!C]

Are you sarcastic? Folks are bothered by this? Like REALLY bothered?

Btw fine if you do. I didn't mean it in.a derogatory way fwiw.

 

[BlackTron]

Is Zelda a puzzle game? No. It's an action-adventure game.

I rest my case. Checkmate!

You haven't played enough Zelda to recognize how dumb this sounds.