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With The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword’s Nintendo Switch remaster launching, here’s where the game falls in the epic franchise’s chronology.
With The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword receiving a gorgeous HD remaster for the Nintendo Switch, both old fans and new players can experience the 2011 title updated for modern sensibilities while retaining what made it great. And as gamers prepare for a return to Skyloft and revisit Link’s divine mission to stop the villainous Demise, the game’s placement in the overall Legend of Zelda timeline is an important factor to remember going into the game.
While the Zelda timeline splinters into three branching paths with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time based on how the Hero of Time and Princess Zelda fared against the evil Ganondorf in the 1998 video game, Skyward Sword takes place centuries before these events. The 2004 video game The Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap provided something of an origin story for Link’s familiar green hat, but Skyward Sword went back even further to the kingdom that preceded the franchise’s iconic setting of Hyrule.
Serving as a major narrative point for Skyward Sword, the story turned to previously-told legend of goddesses bestowing life on the land that would become Hyrule, making Skyward Sword the earliest game in the timeline. The time-traveling Demon King Demise ravaged the land in search for the Triforce, prompting the goddess Hylia to send survivors to a sky-based kingdom in the clouds, aptly dubbed Skyloft.
Skyward Sword‘s iteration of Link is a knight-in-training, while Zelda is a childhood friend instead of a privileged regent. Fi, the spirit created by Hylia linked to the mythical Goddess Sword, guides Link into accepting his destiny as the hero prophesied in destroying Demise once and for all by claiming the Goddess Sword. Link then prepares for the epic battle by journeying across the land, strengthening the sword through trials and finding Sacred Flame to reactivate the Time Gate to initiate the final showdown.
Over the course of Skyward Sword, Link learns that Zelda is actually the mortal reincarnation of Hylia, the goddess from which The Legend of Zelda‘s humanoid race take their name. This also implies that all subsequent Zeldas are similarly reincarnations of the defending goddess. While not explicitly said, Ganondorf is heavily implied to be the mortal reincarnation of Demise, destined to battle generations of Link and Zelda reincarnations for centuries. After Fi bonds with the Goddess Sword to make it the Master Sword, capable of defeating Demise, Link and Zelda settle on the surface world, intent on creating the Kingdom of Hyrule together.
Skyward Sword established the origins of Zelda, Ganondorf, the Master Sword and Hyrule all in one tidy package over the course of the game’s story, explaining the cyclical nature behind the video game series and its main characters. While Ocarina of Time concluded with Ganondorf promising to combat different generations of Link and Zelda analogues, Skyward Sword shows that this conflict is tied to the creation of Hyrule itself, a defining cycle in the medieval kingdom destined to constantly repeat itself. Remastered for a new generation, gamers can now immerse themselves in the beginnings of The Legend of Zelda and the origins of its iconic characters in an impressive revisit.
Developed and published by Nintendo, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD launches on July 16 for the Nintendo Switch.
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