I think we disagree on the level of forethought in some of these story seeds. For example, although OoT was clearly designed around LttP's prologue, I don't think Nintendo wrote LttP's prologue intending for it to be used in later games. And while OoT's ending in fact led directly to the plots of Majora's Mask, Wind Waker, and Twilight Princess, I kind of doubt that anyone at the time thought that they were setting up future games. But I'm not working from any development sources here, so I could very well be mistaken.
As for the appropriateness of the Fallen Hero timeline, I will defer to your knowledge of the timelines. My intuition is that Nintendo is plenty willing to retcon timelines or place games in uncertain relation to the rest of the continuity (after all, any newly-created hole is a chance for another game to close the gap) but as I said, I don't go in for timeline theory. Maybe they've been more serious about the timeline stuff than I realized.
You misunderstand. I'm in no way implying that they created ALttP's prologue with the thought of making OoT. I'm saying that they were very open during OoT's development that they were designing OoT around ALttP's prologue. Ultimately that ended up being a failure, but that's what they were trying to do.
As for setting up future games with OoT, that is certain. They may not have known EXACTLY what stories they wanted to tell after OoT, but what they did know was that they wanted to have two timelines. They explicitly set this up with a detail that most people don't notice because it's very subtle but has huge plot implications that they expounded upon in sequels.
This is the very last scene in OoT. After being sent back in time by Zelda, Link meets with Zelda in the past for the first time again, but this time things are different. If you look at his left hand, he has the triforce of courage. This ending purposely set up the split timeline for future games.
The two indirect sequels to follow OoT immediately made use of the things that OoT set up. Wind Waker made use of the idea that being sent back in time erased the Hero from the timeline he left, create a world without a Hero that was doomed. Twilight Princess made use of the idea that Link having the triforce of courage in the new timeline also meant that Ganon got the triforce of power.
The flood seemed magical from the start. Hyrule Castle and everything was chilling nicely underwater in Wind Waker. So if they want the Temple of Time there it's not that much of a stretch for them to plop it down there.
Why would anyone have to go back? People would still be living on the islands over the hundreds or thousands of years it took for the land to be restored.
And the game seems to be based on exploring a wild world, so a low population makes sense.
Well I mean, OoT is the most popular Zelda and Skyward is the most recent, so yeah of course they'll get references.
Uhhh yeah. That's kind of his thing.
-Hyrule was protected from the flood by a barrier until the end of WW. At the end Daphnes wished for Hyrule to be swept away and the magical barrier went away and Hyrule was destroyed by the ocean.
-Hyrule Castle is definitely in this game and it's very safe to assume Zelda is there. The royal family would have had to move the kingdom back there because Zelda is a specific bloodline.
-The references aren't just throwaway. This game seems deeply tied to those 2 games specifically and not as long after them as a game set after Spirit Tracks. Especially with all of the references to ancient technology and the sheikah, who pretty much disappeared in TWW's timeline.
-Reincarnating is not Ganon's thing. He has only been killed twice, once in each timeline. In the others he was simply sealed. Only once has Ganon reincarnated, and that was in FSA, which had a throwaway plot. Oracles and Zelda 2 had his followers try to revive him, but ALBW shows that he wasn't killed in ALttP, just sealed in darkness.
AGITΩ;207291051 said:
That's really the biggest mystery, who is the Link? Possibly WW Link but I doubt it, Maybe an Incarnation of the Hero's Spirit who was just born too Late or Too Early and the Sheikah or the Hylian Royal Family/both just raised him of Age and kept him suspended until the proper time. Or it could be possible that yes, this is the Hero's Spirit/Hero of Time, gone from the Era of Wind and needing a proper vessel, since they were lost to a parallel universe, they created the prime vessel for him. With the Lack of a Hero after OoT Adult timeline, Zelda[OoT/Sheik] was forced to revive or rather, re-emerge the Sheikah tribe to take care of Hyrule, so as Hyrule was Flooded, the Sheikah elders protected the artifacts and legacy of the Original Hyrule.
His being awakened in a tub called a "care unit" and having amnesia implies that he is a Link who got his ass kicked really really hard 100 years ago.