How do you guys feel about the timeline? If you haven't seen the timeline, here's a link to it: http://kotaku.com/5871215/the-official-zelda-timeline-now-with-added-detail
I personally like that they added a timeline to try to tie the games together, I just think I would of preferred if it would of been a linear timeline instead of one that has alternate timelines. Although I guess it is kind of neat to see what happens if you do fail to beat Ganon. What I'm really excited about is to see where they take this series next, like another prequel or will they add on to one of the alternate timelines and if so which one. There's a lot of potential out there and I can't wait to see which direction they take.

I liked it but was there a specific order it was in.

Am I the only one that thinks it's weird that the time line from where the hero loses comes from the easiest game? OoT is by far the easiest Zelda game - the one you're least likely to lose. I still think it would make more sense to have that branch from Zelda II or one of the games you can actually lose.

I like the idea of a time line. But the games really never did have anything to do with the other. In a branched out way maybe for some of them but Zelda has never been a story that has a squeal. For the most part Zelda is the same game every time. You collect three things then find out in doing that you have now caused more chaos and you have to collect more things! Don't get me wrong I love all the Zelda games and I have always being trying to find the connection of them all. I'm glad there is now some sort of time line but as for how accurate it is due to the story's not really being related (some cases) I don't know if I'm sold on the idea

katie.rae : I agree with you for the most part but there's references to other games in Skyward Sword like here's one I found on this site:
http://www.neoseeker.com/forums/44654/t1701411-references-to-previous-zelda-games/
It reads:
Once the Isle of the Goodess has fallen into the Sealed Grounds, if you stand under the ceiling that connects the Sealed Temple and the Isle of the Goddess and look up you will see this reference. In the centre of the ceiling will be a painting of the triforce with the six medallions of the six sages, from Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time along the top portion of the wall. The entire image also bears a striking resemblance to the image of the Chamber of Sages also found in Ocarina of Time.

I'm sure there's more but that's what I found in like 5 minutes of researching and I hope we can found many more clues linking the games some what together.

RealBrickz : I don't know if that's a reference that it is the same place or one like it or if it is an Easter egg. I have seen over the games quite a few references their predecessors but in my opinion I think they are just Easter eggs.

katie.rae : I'm hoping it's not, I'd love that there would be hidden secrets like that but you're probably right with it being a easter egg. Just like there's a bunny statue in Links room that references to Link to the Past

I'm glad they made a timeline its cool to see the series progress with events actually leading up to the next point

I think the timeline is ok, but link failing in destroying Ganon creating a third timeline seems a little to far out. By the way, the games are not just blind repeats of each other. The get three things and then get 5 things is a little over used but I think I like it that way so I don't have to read a bunch of text to enjoy the game. Zelda 1 and 2 have much different settings than latter games, LTTP and OOT both had you get three things to get the Master sword. But LTTP has a dark world and a light world, OOT has the past and the future, both are similar, but a future version of the world is much different than the dark world in some ways. Maybe the pendants were once connected to the spiritual stones. In Twilight Princess you get three of
the four fused shadows before getting the Master sword, again, repetitive, but the fused shadows are much different than sacred keys meant for the Master sword. The second half of each game vary greatly from each other, so I don't think that each game is mostly the same.

The timeline could work out. I like it except for the third branch. . . well, maybe.

Toad 004 : And what do you mean that Ocarina of Time is the easiest Zelda game!? Have you never played Twilight Princess?

Sword legion : Clearly, you haven't played Ocarina of Time recently. You are likely going from memories when you played it back when you had much less experience as a gamer and thus remember it being harder. But if you play the two games back to back, you'll see Twilight Princess has much longer dungeons, trickier puzzles, and much harder bosses, especially in the earlier dungeons.

Toad 004 : That may be true, let's compare the two.

     Damage amounts:

     TP: Most enemies deal a quarter heart of damage. The FINAL BOSS deals a half heart of damage.
          The most powerful enemy in the game deals one heart of damage. (the Darknut)

     OOT: Half a heart is the standard amount of damage in this game *
          In this Game the final boss deals four hearts of damage, as do Iron Knuckles

Enemies deal 2x to 4x as much in Ocarina of time as in Twilight Princess.

     Dungeon size and content:

     TP: The dungeons are huge, although somewhat lacking in (hard) puzzles.

     OOT: The dungeons are a little more barren, and seem to have better puzzles.

In my opinion Twilight Princess had better dungeons, dungeons should be more focused on enemies than puzzles.

     Enemy AI:

     TP: The enemies seem much more cautious in this game, they have gotten better at blocking, but are less aggressive.

     OOT: The enemies are more aggressive in this game, but sometimes the enemies can be manipulated , or beaten with a repetitive strategy.
          
I think that Ocarina of Time wins because the enemies actually attack you instead of just sitting there as you hammer on their buddies.
Not to mention that almost all of Twilight princess's bosses are terribly easy.

And I have been playing Ocarina of Time lately (taking a difficulty challenge). I have beaten the normal quest three times and I have beaten
Twilight Princess twice (the second playthrough being a difficulty run).

Ocarina of time was my first Zelda game, Twilight Princess was my fourth.

I don't expect you to change your mind, this is just what I thought about the two games.


     

Personally, I believe the alternate timelines were an awesome thing to add to the series. The way everything branched out from ocarina of time was really cool.

The timelines were always a fun thing to ponder when I was young with allot of people.
I was more interested in how the maps fitted together. Is the Island in Link's Awakening to the East of Hyrule or the West? Are All the Hyrules in the same place, or did the capital city migrate to different locations? I always had a fascination with the "Over World Maps" from all the games and did a few tasks to piece them together some how. Sometimes I was able to do it well. Other times not. What do the rest of you think? Can all the maps be gelled perfectly to make an unbelievibly long zelda game if we wanted a modern translation of all to make one big MEGA QUEST?

I do like how Skyward Sword starts the thing... but man is that timeline system WAY too messy. I don't even like the fact that the timeline split in two for child Link and adult Link... but I'm willing to overlook that and instead take my issue with the much more glaring convoluted fact that they created a THIRD timeline branch that technically doesn't even EXIST. How do you have a timeline that only happens when the hero loses if the hero isn't supposed to ever lose canonically? It basically invalidates itself.

Crazy Li : While I agree with you that the Hero should never fail but I do like the fact they have it so they can create darker games. They tend to create the darker themed games either in the child link timeline or the Heros defeat (which has my favorite Zelda title in that path, Link to the Past). To be honest they could of just found some way t tie it into the child links timeline because it already seems full of random evil anyway. I just want to see darker themed games created right now, and I'm excited to see where they put the newest addition.

I'll give you that. The darker games are more interesting. I think it's hard to make a "light and airy" game have a good plot or any real depth to it. It seems going the darker route allows them to be more imaginative.

I think it is quite cool how there are multiple timelines in the game. It is one of the most confusing timelines in any media ever though. I'm still quite confused by it.

At first, I had no problem with the timeline.  But then I realized that it means Vaati, Bellum, and Malladus are still alive in two timelines.  It's a very annoying loose end, but on the other hand, I'd hate to see near-identical boss battles like the FSA Vaati.