On the influence of Japanese archaeological heritage on The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – Journal of Geek Studies
In the realm of Nintendo’s Zelda franchise, time is more than a narrative tool: it shapes the player’s experience and connection to its expansive worlds. In Ocarina of Time (1998), time is an effective gameplay element, and the player can travel through two different timelines, separated by seven years during which crucial events occur, but out of the player’s sight. As a result, the player alternates between embodying young Link and adult Link, each with a distinct perspective. The world of Hyrule mirrors this transformation: lush and innocent for the young, grim and desolate for the adult. In Majora’s Mask (2000), time travel is restricted to three critical days, which you can relive as many times as necessary to prevent the moon from crashing into the Earth at the end of the third day.
In Breath of the Wild (2017), time no longer plays a central role in gameplay mechanics, except for brief interruptions like the Stasis rune. Instead, it serves as a backdrop, with constant references to events from the distant past, from the very beginning of the game when you wake up from a hundred-year artificial sleep, with little information about what happened during this gap. This century-long time span focuses on personal memories and political events: Link can’t remember what happened before his sleep, creating a tension between personal memory and collective history, pushing the player to explore the remnants of a world that has moved on without them. Fragments of the past are in fact materially dispersed in Hyrule, and the player seeks to find them to understand both Link’s and Hyrule’s fate. Fortunately, Impa the old Sheikah lady of the Kakarico village witnessed the disastrous events and will help him to recover memories from that time.
