The Zelda Timeline Gold – Skyward Sword Supplement

“My advice for making sense of temporal paradoxes is simple; don’t even try.” —Captain Kathryn Janeway

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Well I’m trying. What else would a Tolkien and Zelda nerd who writes tedious user manuals for a living do other than try to document in insane detail the timeline of The Legend of Zelda series? I think organizing the series’ events in chronological order in this way can lead to new literary and academic perspectives on it and its creators.

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What you’re reading now is only the first chunk of that timeline from the creation of the world up through the end of Skyward Sword. It’s included as a supplement to the Skyward Sword Temporal-Sequential Timeline, which exists on this website as a large chart.

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The temporal-sequential timeline contains brief one or two-sentence summaries of events, but this companion document is intended to provide in detail those same events in the form of a chronological game summary and conjecture about surrounding events so you and other Zelda fans can better understand the temporal-sequential timeline document. And if you don’t know what a temporal-sequential timeline is, go read the other introduction in the other document.

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Immediately below is information on how to read this supplement, so if you have questions please refer to that. I don’t claim that this timeline is in any way authoritative. It’s interpretive, and I really look forward to hearing what new insights even this tiny sliver of the project yielded for you, so I hope you will email me and let me know.

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I’m going to keep working on the full Zelda Timeline Gold although who knows when I’ll finish it, so if you like what you see here and you wish to be notified of any updates, please sign up for my email list. I’ll only send you an update once or twice a year at most and I won’t sell your information. You can do so here: https://www.swchris.com/zelda-mailing-list

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Thanks for reading!

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SWChris

—swchrismc@gmail.com

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HOW TO READ ENTRIES
Specific events are separated by year and are listed in approximate order of occurrence. If a game’s story is one unit, not divided into chapters or timelines, it is almost always listed by when the beginning of the story proper occurs. Those that are broken into multiple sections have their individual sections in more exact locations.

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On Dating
There is simply no official dating system within the Zelda canon of games and stories. As such, most event summaries will be dated in relation to the game they are nearest to in time. The order of games has been largely determined by The Legend of Zelda Encyclopedia. For games published after the publication of The Legend of Zelda Encyclopedia such as Breath of the Wild, context clues scattered throughout valid canonical sources are used to place these games and events within the timeline.

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Entries are formatted as follows:

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YEAR/PERIOD RELATIVE TO THE CLOSEST GAME IN TIME

*If there is a note attached to the event, it will be included here with the comment “*NOTE:”.

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Title of Source, Part # [continued?] [main/side quest?] (format: Author/Editor/Publisher)

Title of story part, such as a region or section of a reference book [continued?] [game part?] [sidebar?]

Story chapter [continued?] [main/side quest?] [sidebar?]

Subsection [continued?] [main/side quest?] [sidebar?]

*If there is a note attached to the event, it will be included here with the comment “*NOTE:”.

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Part numbers will only be appended to titles whose summary is split into multiple entries [e.g. (Ocarina of Time, Part 2)]. This helps the reader follow the internal chronology of games where the narrative traverses back and forth through time or where conjecture has been added that splits up the narrative. However, the [Part #] tag is not used for events that happen concurrently with the main narrative, such as side quests.

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“Title of Source” listings are shown at the end of each “Year/Period” section for each game summary within that section. Game summaries are those events with bolded and italicized sources [e.g. (Skyward Sword)]. In the final version I’m leaning toward removing “Title of Source” listings in favor of footnotes like those used for the conjecture entries. Do let me know if this format is useful for you in some way.

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For video games, the story part titles used in the “Title of Source” listings are derived from their officially licensed strategy guides.

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Only games and narrative sources will use the [continued] tag in “Title of Source” listings. Reference books such as Hyrule Historia will not since they are works of reference rather than narratives.

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Conjecture will not have “Title of Source” listings.* However, if there is information about why a conjecture has been placed where it is, that information will be included as a note.

*NOTE: See “On Conjecture” for a fuller explanation of this.

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On Side Quests

Side quests that happen concurrent with part of a game’s main summary will be placed in a new concurrent year category just after the end of the main year category that contains that part of the game’s main summary [e.g. Concurrent to 1-0 Months Before the Sacred Realm is Reopened]. Side quests are treated as if they were completed.

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If a side quest has multiple endings, the most positive ending is documented. If the endings are neutral, then each ending is described and a note is appended to the entry indicating that it has multiple neutral outcomes. However, side quests that lack story content such as most mini-games, those that open paths to nonessential treasures, or those that only ask Link to perform a simple action in exchange for treasure are not included in this document.

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On Conjecture

Only the events that happen in the “present” perspective of the player character in each video game narrative will be appended with the title of the source directly [e.g. (Skyward Sword)]. All other entries will be appended with “conjecture based upon….”

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That means that conjecture entries are not reserved only for events whose timeline placement is controversial. Most conjecture within this document is mundane.

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All conjecture events are dated in relation to events that occur in the “present” of each video game, and so each involves some level of conjecture on my part as to when exactly a given event happened, even though it will typically be uncontroversial that such events happened within the time periods (which are the bold faced headings) that I place them in.

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For the most part, that means that the exact chronological order of most conjecture can shift around within a narrow range of surrounding conjectural events and it is up to your interpretation as to how it precisely fits together. If information is available about why I placed a conjecture event in a certain spot, I will include that information as a note.

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Additionally, events in reference works that are suppositional in nature (e.g. that the thoroughness of the destruction of Breath of the Wild’s Hyrule Field’s research lab feels intentional [see Creating a Champion p. 396]) are treated as if they are true (e.g. the research lab was intentionally thoroughly destroyed) until a later source is found to contradict it. I treat them this way because one of the ways creators do worldbuilding without painting themselves into a narrative corner is with suppositional statements. They are intended to be understood by the audience to be true, at least until the creator discovers a better way of telling her story, at which point the creator is free to change the story without contradicting themselves since they never concretely said that this was the way things were.

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Finally, adaptation priority is respected within the listing of conjecture sources, with the original game version (if any) being listed first and other adaptations following.

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On Spoilers

This timeline does not withhold spoiler material. If someone is reading the events in this timeline, then I assume that they are not concerned with spoilers.

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What Constitutes Canon?

Each of the remaining subsections in this “How to Read Entries” section touches on this question in some way. So I will only say here that this document aims to be fairly conservative on what it includes as a canonical source. I generally follow the canon policy created by the Gamepedia Zelda wiki team, where each of the Nintendo–published Zelda titles are considered canon along with their instruction manuals, Nintendo and Nintendo Power Player’s Guides, and the Dark–Horse–translated reference books. Sources that the contributors at Gamepedia have marked as “ambiguously canon” are not currently included as sources in this timeline*. But interviews from various game developers involved with the series are treated as primary sources.

*NOTE: The section titles and headings from several officially licensed Prima strategy guides are used as Title of Source listings. This as well as the order in which such information is presented (see ‘On the Internal Continuity of Games’) is the only material from these guides that are used. To learn how they are used, read the “On Dating” subsection above.

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On Approximation and Fan Theories

This timeline takes the view that a thing cannot be considered canon without a primary source directly indicating that such things may have been the case. Primary sources are things like game text, dialogue, visual design, and interviews with creators.

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For events and game summaries, I’ve tried to be as thorough and accurate as the source material allows. The Legend of Zelda series was not initially conceived as a single cohesive multiverse where games placed early on in the timeline were considered to have happened in the pasts of the games considered to be further along in the timeline. Instead, the games and stories being treated as connected in time was a later development that was codified by the publication of The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia in Japan in 2011. Additionally, the game producers in The Legend of Zelda series have typically been hesitant to lock things into the timeline in much detail. Therefore there will be many instances where things will be vague, and a few instances that are incorrect or perhaps even contradictory with other events.

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When there have been inconsistencies or gaps of information, fans have provided theories to explain away these perceived problems. The tendency to rely on these theories as de facto canon can be frustrating to some (including myself), and this timeline makes an effort to avoid doing so. This effort is of course fraught with difficulty, especially when it comes to where I place things in the timeline. The vagueness of most backstory in The Legend of Zelda series creates this conundrum and there will always be some level of interpretation involved. But to the extent that conjecture happens, it is clearly marked and will always be based upon source material (e.g. you will not find any timeline merge theories here).

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However, I do not promise to avoid controversy altogether. There will always be places where a vocal segment of Zelda fans will interpret the way a set of facts derived from the source material fit together a certain way, whereas my interpretation of the way they fit together will be different. That is simply how information transmission to human minds works; the information or set of facts must be interpreted by the human mind in order to make sense of them. So even though the facts may be commonly agreed upon by all parties, this does not mean we will all conclude the same thing. That’s because the way one sees the world will alter how one interprets these facts and fits them together. And there is always at least some way in which our view of the world is mistaken, meaning we are duty-bound to be humble about our conclusions. When these differences in interpretation appear, our goals should be to examine which interpretation makes better sense of the facts and to constantly strive for awareness of how our own experiences and view of the way the Zelda world works influences our decision. This is how to maintain intellectual honesty.

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What is not intellectually honest is to take a preferred fan theory and impose it on the games or text and then criticize this work for not adopting the same theory. However, I welcome any criticism of this document based on differing interpretations of facts that are derived from the source material. This is fair game in my book. Such “fair game” criticism will help me make future revisions better. Please send it in!

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On Contradictions and the Abrogation of Older Sources
Hyrule Historia’s section “Weaving History” on page 68 sets the precedent of abrogation, which is that future tales and games released will modify the information presented in previous stories and games. This timeline takes this precedent and applies it across the entire series as well as the various canon reference works that have been published.

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For example, should a contradiction between The Legend of Zelda and Skyward Sword be found, the contradictory information from The Legend of Zelda would be discounted and its Skyward Sword counterpart would be considered canon since Skyward Sword was published after The Legend of Zelda. However, the non-contradictory the information in The Legend of Zelda will continue to be considered canon.

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But there are various complications between how one determines the canonicity between updated translations of previously released games, those previously released games themselves, the instruction booklets for both updated translations and their previous releases, and all the related reference works. I tried to eliminate most of this confusion by creating this table outlining each category’s exceptions that modify the principle of abrogation for one reason or another. The reasons for each exception and how these categories are defined are explained in detail below.

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All Categories
.		PRINCIPLE OF ABROGATION: –WORKS WITH NEWER PUBLICATION DATES HAVE CANON PRIORITY OVER WORKS WITH OLDER PUBLICATION DATES, EXCEPT WHERE SPECIFIED BELOW
.	Original Game Versions
.			EXCEPTIONS: –EACH HAS CANON PRIORITY OVER ITS CORRESPONDING USER DOCUMENTATION, BUT NOT NEWER USER DOCUMENTATION
.	Updated Game Versions
.			EXCEPTIONS: –CANON PRIORITY FOLLOWS ORIGINAL GAME VERSIONS’ PUBLICATION DATE ORDER, NOT THE UPDATED GAME VERSIONS’ PUBLICATION DATE ORDER –EACH HAS PRIORITY OVER ITS CORRESPONDING ORIGINAL GAME VERSION –EACH HAS PRIORITY OVER ITS CORRESPONDING USER DOCUMENTATION
.	User Documentation
.			EXCEPTIONS: –CANON PRIORITY FOLLOWS ORIGINAL GAME VERSIONS’ PUBLICATION DATE ORDER, NOT THE UPDATED GAME VERSIONS’ PUBLICATION DATE ORDER –EACH DOES NOT HAVE PRIORITY OVER ITS PARENT GAME(S) –UPDATED GAME VERSION DOCUMENTATION HAS PRIORITY OVER ORIGINAL GAME DOCUMENTATION
.	Reference Works
.			EXCEPTIONS: –NONE

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Games have priority over their corresponding user documentation because the Zelda series is built on these games and not on their companion material, and because the game and user documentation for it are published on the same day. For example, if contradictory information is found between A Link to the Past and its instruction booklet, then the information within the game itself will be considered canon. However, if an instruction booklet for a newer published game contradicts information presented in A Link to the Past, then the newer published game’s instruction booklet will be considered canon in keeping with the principle of abrogation.

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The term “Original Game Version” refers to the initial release of a game.

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The term “Updated Game Version” defines games that have newer translations or updated original language text than the original release of the game. Re-releases and official save states (such as 2018’s The Legend of Zelda SP, which is called The Legend of Zelda: Living the life of luxury! in some regions) are not considered to be updated game versions because they lack updated text or translations. Likewise, remakes that do not have updated textual or presentational information (e.g. updated boss fights or cutscenes visually giving new story details) are also not considered to be updated game versions. Updated game versions like Ocarina of Time 3D have canon priority over their original releases, in this case Ocarina of Time.

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Furthermore, each updated game version is to be listed directly above its original game version. So Ocarina of Time 3D is listed directly above Ocarina of Time in the canon priority list rather than higher up on the list where it would be if it were sorted according to its publication date. For example, while NES Classics: The Legend of Zelda was published after the GBA version of A Link to the Past, the GBA version of A Link to the Past is what maintains canon priority over NES Classics: The Legend of Zelda since the story of A Link to the Past is newer. Allowing The Legend of Zelda to have canon priority over A Link to the Past in this way seems to violate the general principle of abrogation, so I created this exception to prevent potentially abrogated information from being reintroduced into the canon after it was abrogated by a newer entry in the Zelda series. This rule also applies to each game’s user documentation.

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The term “User Documentation” refers to instruction booklets and digital manuals included with each game release, and as is the case with updated game versions themselves, updated game version user documentation is prioritized over the original games’ user documentation.

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The term “Reference Works” refers to all other licensed works found within the canon priority list below, including Nintendo and Nintendo Power Player’s Guides and the Dark-Horse-translated reference books, as well as official comments from Zelda game developers.

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For Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages, which were released on the same day, this timeline treats them in the order that The Legend of Zelda Encyclopedia uses, which is to place Oracle of Seasons as having happened first.

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If information from a newer source omits information from an older source, the omission does not de-canonize the information presented in the older source. An actual contradiction must be present. For example, the instruction manual from A Link to the Past’s Game Boy Advance re-release omits information about the Imprisoning War that the original Super Nintendo instruction booklet includes, and its omission from the Game Boy Advance manual does not de-canonize the Super Nintendo version’s booklet’s back story.

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Finally, Title of Source listings are usually original game versions with the updated game version (if any) listed directly under the title listing but indented over from the original version. Reference works and user documentation will also be listed underneath these listings (grouped together as ‘adaptations’ below) and also indented over from the original game version. Each adaptation is stacked upon each other in order of canon priority, from highest priority to lowest priority, like so:

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Original Game Version (format: author)

Updated Game Version Section

Updated Game Version (format: author)

Original Game Version Section

Adaptation #1 (format: author)

  Adaptation #1 Section

Adaptation #2 (format: author)

Adaptation #2 Section

Adaptation #3 (format: author)

Adaptation #3 Section

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I’ve chosen to list them this way because even though newer sources like Hyrule Historia which summarize game narratives into a timeline both take precedence over the original source material in the order of abrogation, the original/updated game versions are still the primary means through which the story is told.

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Additionally, if any information has been abrogated I will include a note below the entry explaining what story points have been eliminated by newer sources.

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On Unreliable Witnesses

An unreliable witness for the purposes of this timeline is a character that gives incorrect speculation or reasoning about the history of the world he or she lives in, and that this info is intended to be incorrect by the writer.

Because we’re dealing with legends, it can be argued that a large amount of the lore given in each game is incorrect. And in the real world this would be true. But since we’re also studying a created secondary world (a made-up world), it’s not a given that the creators of the Zelda series intended all the past lore known by the characters in that world to be apocryphal. It’s a common video game trope to have characters give legendary lore that turns out to be completely true. For example, the Uncharted series’ Nathan Drake speculates about events from the past in each game and most of the time he turns out to be correct.

The first example I’ve been able to find where Zelda writers use an unreliable witness on purpose is in Breath of the Wild, in the character known as Celessa who can be found on the path between Fort Hateno and Hateno Village. Celessa tells us that the fort may have been constructed to protect Hateno and stop the Guardian onslaught that befell Hyrule one hundred years in the game’s past.

However, we know from Breath of the Wild’s cutscenes as well as Age of Calamity that this is not the case, that the fortress was constructed well before the Guardians turned evil, that the Guardians were intended to be used as protectors against the Calamity Ganon rather than as its army, and that it was only after the Calamity emerged from its sleep that it took over the Guardians and used them to attack. From this it’s clear that Fort Hateno was not constructed to protect against a Guardian attack. In fact, no one had conceived that the Calamity could possibly even take the Guardians over until it happened.

So this timeline considers all lore given about the past by an in-world character or signage to be factually true unless it becomes clear otherwise via retcon or other information given by the game in which that character or signage appears. I use the same principle of “it’s true until it’s not” for events described in reference works (see On Conjecture above). Likewise, I think it’s reasonable to conclude that the use of unreliable witnesses as characters is a very recent innovation in the Zelda storytelling toolkit, beginning with Breath of the Wild.

Canon Priority List

The list below contains all the sources that this timeline currently considers to be authoritative, in the above established order of canon priority. Where there are contradictions between sources, information in sources farther up the list are considered canon over any contradictory information found in sources nearer the bottom of the list.

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See On Contradictions and the Abrogation of Older Sources for a detailed explanation on how I determined the order of this list. The listed publication dates for games and reference works are for the first region the source was released in. However, the original language versions of the games are what is considered canon! The earliest regional release date merely helps to determine the work’s canon priority. Please also note that unless otherwise indicated, the official English translations have been used for this timeline (see On Japanese Translations). Finally, please additionally note that instruction booklets share publication dates with their counterpart game releases since in every case the instruction booklet for a game was published concurrently with that game.

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Source	Category	Publication Date	First Released
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity	Original Game	2020/11/20	Worldwide
Breath of the Wild: Creating a Champion	Reference	2017/12/15	Japan
Breath of the Wild	Original Game	2017/03/03	Worldwide
The Legend of Zelda Encyclopedia	Reference	2017/03/01	Japan
Art and Artifacts	Reference	2016/08/26	Japan
Tri Force Heroes	Original Game	2015/10/22	Japan
A Link Between Worlds	Original Game	2013/11/22	North America/Europe
Hyrule Historia	Reference	2011/12/21	Japan
Skyward Sword HD	Updated Game	2021/07/16	Worldwide
Skyward Sword	Original Game	2011/11/18	Europe
Spirit Tracks	Original Game	2009/12/07	Japan
Spirit Tracks Instruction Booklet	User Doc	2009/12/07	Japan
Phantom Hourglass	Original Game	2007/06/23	Japan
Phantom Hourglass Instruction Booklet	User Doc	2007/06/23	Japan
Twilight Princess: The Official Nintendo Player’s Guide	Reference	2006/11/19	North America
Twilight Princess HD	Updated Game	2016/03/04	North America/Europe
Twilight Princess	Original Game	2006/11/19	North America
Twilight Princess Instruction Booklet	User Doc	2006/11/19	North America
The Minish Cap: The Official Nintendo Player’s Guide	Reference	2004/12/22	North America
The Minish Cap	Original Game	2004/11/04	Japan
The Minish Cap Instruction Booklet	User Doc	2004/11/04	Japan
Four Swords Adventures: The Official Nintendo Player’s Guide	Reference	2004/06	North America
Four Swords Adventures	Original Game	2004/03/18	Japan
Four Swords Adventures Instruction Booklet	User Doc	2004/03/18	Japan
The Wind Waker: The Official Nintendo Player’s Guide	Reference	2004/03	North America
The Wind Waker HD	Updated Game	2013/09/20	North America
The Wind Waker	Original Game	2002/12/13	Japan
The Wind Waker Instruction Booklet	User Doc	2002/12/13	Japan
Four Swords Anniversary Edition	Updated Game	2011/09/28	Worldwide
Four Swords	Original Game	2002/12/02	North America
A Link to the Past and Four Swords Instruction Booklet (Four Swords section only)	User Doc	2002/12/02	North America
A Link to the Past: The Official Nintendo Player’s Guide	Reference	2002	North America
Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages: The Official Nintendo Player’s Guide	Reference	2001/05	North America
Oracle of Ages	Original Game	2001/02/27	Japan
Oracle of Ages Instruction Booklet	User Doc	2001/02/27	Japan
Oracle of Seasons	Original Game	2001/02/27	Japan
Oracle of Seasons Instruction Booklet	User Doc	2001/02/27	Japan
Majora’s Mask Official Nintendo Player’s Guide	Reference	2000/10/01	North America
Majora’s Mask 3D	Updated Game	2015/02/13	North America/Europe
Majora’s Mask 3D Manual (in-game user guide)	User Doc	2015/02/13	North America/Europe
Majora’s Mask	Original Game	2000/04/27	Japan
Majora’s Mask Instruction Booklet	User Doc	2000/04/27	Japan
Ocarina of Time Official Nintendo Player’s Guide	Reference	1998	North America
Ocarina of Time 3D	Updated Game	2011/06/16	Japan
Ocarina of Time	Original Game	1998/11/21	Japan
Ocarina of Time Instruction Booklet	User Doc	1998/11/21	Japan
Link’s Awakening (2019)	Updated Game	2019/09/20	Worldwide
Link’s Awakening Nintendo Player’s Guide	Reference	1992	North America
Link’s Awakening DX	Updated Game	1998/12/12	Japan
Link’s Awakening DX Instruction Booklet	User Doc	1998/12/12	Japan
Link’s Awakening (1993)	Original Game	1993/06/06	Japan
Link’s Awakening Instruction Booklet	User Doc	1993/06/06	Japan
A Link to the Past Nintendo Player’s Guide	Reference	1992	North America
Super NES Nintendo Player’s Guide	Reference	1992	North America
A Link to the Past (GBA Version)	Updated Game	2002/12/02	North America
A Link to the Past and Four Swords Instruction Booklet (A Link to the Past section only)	User Doc	2002/12/02	North America
A Link to the Past (SNES Version)	Original Game	1991/11/21	Japan
A Link to the Past Instruction Booklet (SNES Version)	User Doc	1991/11/21	Japan
Hyrule Overworld Lore/Dungeon Lore Map	Reference	1992/04/13	North America
NES Game Atlas	Reference	1991	North America
Nintendo Fun Club News, Volume 2, Issue 3	Reference	Fall 1987	North America
Nintendo Fun Club News, Volume 1, Issue 2	Reference	Summer 1987	North America
The Legend of Zelda: Maps and Strategies	Reference	circa Spring 1987	North America
The Official Nintendo Player’s Guide	Reference	June 1987	North America
Classic NES Series: Zelda II: The Adventure of Link	Updated Game	2004/08/10	Japan
Classic NES Series: Zelda II: The Adventure of Link Instruction Booklet	User Doc	2004/08/10	Japan
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link	Original Game	1987/01/14	Japan
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link Instruction Booklet	User Doc	1987/01/14	Japan
Tips & Tricks: The Legend of Zelda Instruction Booklet	Reference	1986	Japan
Classic NES Series: The Legend of Zelda	Updated Game	2004/02/14	Japan
Classic NES Series: The Legend of Zelda Instruction Booklet	User Doc	2004/02/14	Japan
The Legend of Zelda	Original Game	1986/02/21	Japan
The Legend of Zelda Instruction Booklet	User Doc	1986/02/21	Japan

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On the Internal Continuity of Games

There are sections in most Zelda games where the player can choose from one of several actions to complete first. For example, just after arriving in the future in Ocarina of Time, it is possible to learn the Bolero of Fire before defeating the Forest Temple dungeon even though most players will defeat the Forest Temple dungeon before learning the Bolero of Fire.

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To nail down the internal continuity of such games into a cohesive narrative, the order in which the narrative unfolds in each game’s strategy guide is the order in which the narrative will be presented in this timeline. Note that while the lore of Prima strategy guides is not considered canon, I do make a small exception and use them to determine the order of narrative for each open-ended section of a game when such a game has no official Nintendo Player’s Guide or Nintendo Power strategy guide.

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To apply this principle to the Ocarina of Time example above, this timeline presents the scene were Link learns the Bolero of Fire after the completion of the Forest Temple, which corresponds to the order that the Ocarina of Time Official Nintendo Player’s Guide presents these events.

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On Japanese Translations

For those games that were first written in Japanese, my philosophy is to consider the original Japanese sources as authoritative versus my native English wherever obvious differences in the texts are concerned. However, I don’t know Japanese and so I am left with trying to sift through various translations to uncover what the original Japanese actually says. The chief problem I run into here is that I typically must rely on fan-translated Japanese, which often contains mistakes or lacks detailed linguistic or cultural nuance in what a particular sentence is supposed to mean, which is the kind of detail that is essential for this kind of work to be done right. Therefore, I cannot just take a fan-made translation at its word and cannot consider one authoritative, although I do consider such translations helpful pointers to what the original Japanese text might mean. If there are no better translations available, I do consider two or more independently-derived fan-made translations that communicate the same concept as acceptable sources. The more there are, the higher the confidence I have as to their accuracy.

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We also have two other sources that can help shed light on the meaning of a particular text. Google Translate can be of some limited help in verifying the accuracy of fan-made Japanese translations, but it is also well known to make mistakes. Secondly, translations made by the Nintendo Treehouse group and Patrick Thorpe and company who did the translation work for the Dark Horse reference books have typically been done carefully. Furthermore, both Thorpe’s and the Treehouse group’s translations are essentially the official translations of the text into English from Japanese, and so it is their work I primarily rely upon in this document*.

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However, even though I rely upon these English translations the most, individual fan-made translations and Google Translate translations are both used to contextualize a given text whenever I have those sources available to me, and I do attempt to take each source’s advantages and deficiencies into account. For example, if a Japanese translation comes from a translator who is known for his or her accuracy, I will value that above the Treehouse’s English translation which will sometimes alter a text to make it more culturally appropriate to Western audiences.

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A note will be appended to the entries where I have relied on fan-made and/or Google Translate translations stating as such.

*NOTE: For the earliest games, the Treehouse was not involved in translation work and this is taken into account.

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