Though we have been blessed with the official Zelda timeline to make sense of the chronology between the games within the Zelda Series, it is actually pretty difficult to make definitive connections between the different games. For example, though Twilight Princess technically takes place directly after Ocarina of Time, landmarks like Death Mountain and Lake Hylia have significantly different surrounding geography despite existing in both games. Typically, it’s assumed that there’s a pretty massive time period that occurs between entries in the series, which can generally explain inconsistencies. It’s actually quite rare for official Zelda media to even imply a relationship between areas or characters between separate games that are not very significant. The only definitive connections made are with things such as Hyrule Castle or Link and Zelda as characters. In the Legend of Zelda: Encyclopedia, one of the Zelda novels that expand on the lore of the series, a connection is loosely drawn between two unexpected candidates: Triforce Heroes and The Adventure of Link.
The game of Triforce Heroes takes place in a land called Hytopia, which exists to the north of Hyrule, where Link explores an area called the Drablands to save the land from it’s distress. While Hytopia and the major areas of the Drablands bear some generic resemblance to Hyrule and it’s associated landmarks, they are too generic to make any direct connections. The biggest notable difference in the geography is the large difference in how many temples and ruins there are in Hytopia, but that isn’t very uncommon for the Zelda series. Despite Triforce Heroes being stylistically closest to A Link Between Worlds and A Link to the Past, the Legend of Zelda: Encyclopedia draws a very specific connection to a lesser acknowledged entry to the series, The Adventure of Link.
On the official Zelda timeline, Triforce Heroes takes place right before the very first Legend of Zelda, which is a direct prequel to The Adventure of Link. The Legend of Zelda: Encyclopedia makes a specific point to compare the existence of magic in The Adventure of Link to the existance of magic in Triforce Heroes. There’s even some spells in Adventure of Link, like Shield, that change Link’s outfit, similar to how some magic in Triforce Heroes works. The book also mentions the people of Northern Hyrule in Adventure of Link are fashionable, even going so far as to draw a specific connection between the abundance of temples and ruins in the Drablands of Triforce Heroes to the Valley of Death in Adventure of Link. The book deliberatly does not confirm anything, but it does seem to confidently make a connection between the two areas.
This connection between the Triforce Heroes and Adventure of Link was one I would have never considered before reading Legend of Zelda: Encyclopedia. It’s incredibly interesting to me, so I was really glad to learn about it. I’m not sure why, but I have always found connections with the classic 2D Zelda games very cool. Maybe it’s because the lack of detail in the old games makes me want to know more about specific areas. In any case, I hope for more newer Zelda games to connect with the classics in similar ways.
