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First of all the obvious way to destroy Hyrule is to have skyreal drop out of the sky. This would destroy the entire surface giving us a great landscape for breath of the wild 3. You know the one where demias is released. The one where we play as Zelda as she realizes the full strength of hylia inside of her. Imagine this game ends with sky role falling to the ground and destroying Hyrule after everything. The master sword completely breaks releasing demise. The ground cracks open and it goes to black. The very end of the game announces that breath of the wild 3 The return of demise is currently in production. The devs can continue listening to the theory crafters and build an amazing game this way. The hype train starts all over again before DLC is even released
What if there's the standard ending, and then an extra ending cutscene if you 100% the game? I think that would probably be the best way to do multiple endings in Zelda 😊
But I'm not sure if it could work on this game or at least I can't fully think of a way the closes a multiple ending in a Zelda game would be majora mask with a good and bad ending
I really love this idea, just like the Ocarina of Time timeline split - but playable. Even if a cutscene played after you die to Ganondorf showing a little teaser of a bad ending would be amazing imo :)
I thought about this game having multiple endings after we found out about Link getting his arm damaged. The first trailer shows Ganondorf being sealed by the arm and I feel like this will be a choice that can be made again as Link. You can either choose to seal Ganon again yourself the same way as before but it will cost Link his life OR you can find a way to purge the curse of Demise and Link isn't forced to make that sacrifice. The second outcome would require more effort and would reward people for staying in the game longer vs speed running it.
When you talked about multiple small changes to the ending depending on what you did in your game, I'm surprised you didn't bring up Majora's Mask and how the credits have more scenes in them depending on how many of the happy masks you collected. The very first time I beat it I had not finished the Anju/Kafei quest, for instance, so I didn't see the happy reunion in the credits until I beat it a second time.
A good way to have a "this or that" outcome is dependent on if you beat the dungeons or not. So if you go straight to the final boss you would get a bad ending and if you beat all the dungeons you get a good ending.
I've been thinking it would be amazing if TotK had multiple endings, specifically depending on your individual choices as a player. After all, the Zelda series is a role playing game, and you're meant to feel as though you actually are Link. BotW was great in the way that you could explore anywhere in any order, but it didn't truly feel like your choices mattered in the overall plot of the game. Imagine if the ending of TotK differed depending on what you choose to do with your situation. To give a specific example, which may be controversial for many Zelda fans, what if you were given the ability to choose whether or not to resurrect the original champions using new Zonai abilities? Then, if you choose to save them, you are then given more possibilities regarding interactions with them. One of these possibilities could be choosing whether Link marries Mipha or Zelda in the end (controversial, I know!). This is, of course, just an extreme example. I honestly think that this could help the game to feel more personal and immersive, while also giving all fans an opportunity to write the story in the way they imagine it. That is, after all, what the Zelda team keeps advertising this game to be. A story driven by the player's imagination. This is just a thought I've had. Great video!
What about the Age of Calamity alternate timeline? Zelda franchise producer Eiiji Aonuma did confirmed that it’s a direct spinoff to Breath of the Wild. You should have incorporated that in your video as well.
@@HyruleGamer I hope at the end of the game instead of nothing happening like in Zelda breath of the Wild you actually get to explore Hyrule after you defeat Ganondorf in a Calamity free world
I only want one ending because it would be very frustrating to get a different one from your friends. Also there would be the endless debate over which one is cannon or if both are
Usually, most communities would choose the good ending, just because that usually has the most effort put into it. There are a few exceptions, but even if the bad ending or second ending is made in a way where it is enjoyable because it is dramatic or story fun or mysterious, you will still get a large amount of the community to still like the good or first ending. Endless debates are natural in games anyways, you can see anyone arguing about anything and if they would try to decide the canon one, they could ask the creator, or if it's a bad ending, the hero could die and the legend ends in that timeline.
They (the Zelda creators) could always come out later and state the canon ending. The folks at Silent Hill had to do that when making the sequel games. All the games have multiple endings so it helped the community out.
It would be super cool if there could be multiple endings based on if you played through Zelda's story or Link's story. I know the odds of that happening now are basically 0 but still would have been cool.
A better way of going about this would be a choice between: 1. Save Gerudo town and Rito village Or 2. Save Zora's domain and Goron city. Making it so you can't save everyone.
I really like the idea of you being more of a completionist with the quests having larger stakes than just making the final battle easier. What if you don’t collect all the tears, Ganondorf has an outburst of malice so powerful during the final confrontation that it obliterates the magic keeping the sky islands afloat, and they all start falling toward Hyrule?
The example you mentioned for BotW- we save Hyrule + Zelda or we just Save Hyrule -could honestly be the split ending of TotK. If the story is Zelda falls into the Underworld and we have to do specific things to help her (that beating Ganon isn't contingent on) then that could cause a different ending 🤔
This would be so funny if after how much trouble botw caused for the timeline totk doesn't answer any questions but introduces more divergent timelines
I like the idea of them doing three canonical endings. It allows them to have multiple timelines that they can control from the start rather than having to piece them together after the fact and have to come up with such a stupid concept as the Downfall Timeline.
alternate timelines continuing forward would actually be a great way to move the franchise onward from botw and totk. i constantly wonder what is in store after we are all done with these two games and if there is a huge split in the timeline as definitive as hyrule making it through the battle vs. hyrule being totally levelled paves the way for two "types" of future zelda games. perhaps one line of zelda games goes on to be more like older games, with set dungeons and stories, while one goes forward to be more open and up to player involvement and interaction with the world.. pretty unlikely i suppose, but it could mean a more diverse release of zelda games in the future if they have two canon timelines to build new lore from.
7:52 You appear to have a major, major misunderstanding of the split there. Link does show up to face ganon, just like we see in game, and then either gets killed (1st timeline) or defeats ganon. Then zelda sends link to the past to relive his childhood where he warns the king of ganondorf and never opens the sacred realm (2nd timeline). Then, after zelda sends him back, she stays in that time alone where there's no such thing as the spirit of the hero anymore, so then no hero shows up the NEXT time ganon appears (not for the showdown at the ending of oot as you said, but for the next return of ganon). Then the gods flood hyrule to stop him and then wind waker happens where link is just a normal boy that happens to be named that. So yeah also we do see both child and adult timeline happening.
I'm thinking if a Zelda game were to have such a thing as multiple endings, they should probably all have a similar result but with different implications. * Ganon is sealed with the Master Sword * Ganon is annihilated by Zelda's magic * Ganon is sent back to the beginning of the timeline by the Sheikiah All to the same end - Ganon is defeated. Those are just examples, it could be anything and doesn't really matter. A story that results in anything other than the hero is triumphant and the villain is defeated would be unsatisfying. But *how* this happens could have tremendous impact on yet another split timeline. It gives the story somewhere to move forward, those are three future titles in the making. It seems highly unlikely, but if it comes to pass I'd expect it to be something like this.
I agree with you on this. I was also thinking to myself maybe Tears of the Kingdom could utilize the multiple endings the way The Witcher 3 did. For example, all the choices you make effect the outcome of the ending you receive. But with so many variables it would be hard to do this.
i think you repair the master sword 7 times with the 7 tears in the 7 dungeon (that’s a lot of 7) to kill easily ganondorf. If not, a different battle appears. Much harder, much devastating (the BAD ending). Or even better, you Fuze the master sword with a weird blade to create the logo master sword. It looks fused, isn’t it? And bang, there’s my theory about the entire process of the game
One of my favorite games, the forest, has two endings, one where you let your dead son go and move one, and one where you shoot a plane out of the sky to sacrifice a child and bring your son back to life, the latter of which is canon.
i think we're onto smth here. I think the main quest could be split into 2 parts. The first, and only mandatory, part is repairing the master sword, through things similar to the divine beasts, which would probably be exclusive to the sky. The second part is trying to actively resist Ganondorf's malice in more traditional dungeons, that might be underground or in the sky, etc. One for each region on tbe surface in the previous game, giving a total of 8 dungeon. If you only do the first part fully and only partly do the second part you get the "that" ending described here but if you do both parts full, you get the "this" ending.
Nintendo has mentioned multiple times they don't like the whole "there's 3 timelines" thing and even designed BotW to have elements of all 3. I HIGHLY doubt they'll suddenly want alternate endings.
I like the ideas of faction like in the game mercenaries. You get task from gerudo that would harm Zoras so you loose affinities with zora but gain it with gerudo people but you can regain their trust by doing zora missions and ending change based on who’s on your side in the end
Ending 1, the simple ending Link defeats Ganon by sacrificing himself to keep sealed Ganon. Maybe that’s what the hand in the first trailer did. Basically just feeding the loop, keeping the peace for some generations until Ganon breaks free and a new hero needs to step up. This ending happens if you don’t recruit Zelda before fighting Ganon Ending 2, the true ending You fight Ganon as usual. But near the ending of the battle, Zelda chimes in to help. You fight a little bit helped by her and eventually she is able to restrain Ganon with the triforce while shouting “GIT GUD”. Link then does his sword flurry and finishes Ganon once and for all thus breaking the cycle of the calamity and peace returns to Hyrule Ending 3, the ??? Ending Same stuff happens as in ending 2. But instead of initiating the sword flurry at Ganon after Zelda shouts “GIT GUD” and tries to seal him, Link instead decides to wait for some reason which eventually makes Zelda lose consciousness due to exerting too much power. Then it would be similar to ending 1. But with the twist that Zelda’s holy magic leaking out and acting like a force field that prevents any future person to enter the arena. But that means when Ganon awakens once again, nobody is able to get near him which basically makes this the bad ending as nobody would be able to fight him after
6:56 or ganondorf could rise the castle or the plateau more and more, and the more it takes you to defeat him the more destruction it will cause on the kingdom, once the castle or the plateau stops high into the upper atmosphere and falls back to earth, basically a colony drop from Gundam
Good idea for the this or that theory: I’m pretty sure this was shown in the trailers. Always was confused about these two different recounts of the trailer events This - in the opening cave theme link catches Zelda from falling and she is more incorporated in the story and helps link (normal mode/canon) That - Link doesn’t catch Zelda and she falls, link is mostly on his own and doesn’t have any contact with Zelda (harder mode/non canon)
they should also add some End-game section where you can just go over hyrule, fixing old or destroyed buildings, rebuilding hyrule to its former glory, every game always ends with the final battle and you can't do anything after that, not even receive special dialogues and scenes, it would also be a nice change
That would be a great way to let players face off Ganondorf in the beginning of the game without sacrificing the main story they have in mind. (Or maybe in the final battle Ganondorf has a move that 1-hit kills Link if he doesnt have the reformed master sword. Would be interesting)
In Ocarina of Time, we actually do see both the child and adult timelines during the credits, so only the downfall ending isn't shown. For instance, we see adult Malon in the credits, even though if we're following Link's perspective, the game follows the child timeline. It's not as much as if there had been a story cutscene with weight to it that took place in the adult timeline after Link left, but it does technically end by showing both timelines.
There NEEDS to be a speedrunning ending like Metroid had. An ending where Link and Zelda kiss would make both a public outcry and a massive emotional moment for players
2 means of having “multiple endings” while committing to one canon ending ive seen in games that i think zelda could absolutely do is like in Kingdom Hearts 3, where there’s a bad ending which is then followed by some time travel stuff to change the outcome, and in Ender Lilies in which you get a premature ending from making the choice to end your quest before completion and a true ending where you finish your quest and beat the game’s boss
My idea: THIS particular Ganondorf was born in a time of peace. His mother took him away because she knew "Male Child = evil" and tried to raise him as good as possible. At some time the shiekah/zonai found him, however, and sealed him as precaution. The malice that escaped from him then was demises curse, that esily swayed the hearts of the gerudo male, but since he was sealed and he was actually a pretty nice guy, the malice just did its own thing, becoming the actual calamity. Now after he´s freed the control of malice still lingers for some time, using him, however link manages to wake up the nice ganon (body) and, after realizing how much pain and destruction demise malice did, maybe even after Demise reincarnated into a physical body once more, Zelda, Ganon and Link band together to defeat him once and for all. With the combined power of all 3 pieces of the triforce finally working together, they can cleanse demise and the demons from the world finally once and for all. After that, the triforce just vanishes forever, leaving Hyrule finally in a state of peace, since the cycle of hatred was broken. Thats at lest what i think will maybe happen
I'd like to propose a way for BOTH endings to be cannon WITHOUT a timelines split... With the good ending defeat Gannon and rebuild the kingdom in prosperity With the bad ending make the game go back to the first game to start the never ending cycle until broken free in this same game's good ending This basically means that the bad ending is cannon UNTIL you get the good ending
If Link really will travel through the time to prevent the downfall of the Kingdom of Hyrule, we automatically might get a typical time travel paradox here, like we've had since Oot and the timeline split. Time travel only can change the future but never the present. When a person travels to the past and kill your grandfather, the family bloodline remains still the same in the present, because if the grandfathers child would never have been born, you also couldn’t have lived to travel through time. Like Terrako once did before traveling through time, another timesplit appears and an alternate ending after the events of Age of Calamity was created, which hasn’t changed the present of Breath of the Wild at all. That means, if in Breath of the Wild the Kingdom falls, and whatever the adventure leads us to in Tears of the Kingdom; After the time travel, another line will be created and regardless of how often we travel back and forth (like in Ocarina of Time), Link won’t have access to the actual mainline ever again, a parallel Breath of the Wild Universe will be caused. So, considering the Line of Age of Calamity (the glorious one), Breath of the Wild (the new Downfall Line) and Tears of the Kingdom (however the Story will end), interestingly we will end with three timelines again. Just imagine…💭
Breath of the Wild did have multiple endings where you could either get an ending or the true ending depending on whether or not you have retrieved all of Links major memories in the story of Breath of the Wild.
I could see multiple endings with you having to complete some extra things for one ending while if you don't you get a different endings. But it we are able to get all in one run with reloading and continuing to do more maybe. Like Kirby and the crystal star, which I played as a kid. If you got all the crystals you get the true ending which also gives more content which you just get an ending if you collected some but not all.
I dunno how multiple endings could work out, but there is something I realized a few days ago involving Age of Calamity. Yeah I know it’s a spinoff, and officially an Alternate Universe to where the Calamity doesn’t happen (or at least not in full), and if the Calamity doesn’t happen, there’s no Tears of the Kingdom. But here’s the thing- even when they stop the Calamity in AoC, Ganondorf’s corpse is still deep below Hyrule Castle. Perhaps not leaking as much malice as we saw in the first trailer, but he’s still down there. I can’t help but wonder what that would mean for the timeline where the calamity is avoided, and as such Link and Zelda very likely have no reason to go exploring under the castle, and no indication that not all is well. Imagine everything is calm after sealing Calamity Ganon away, and everyone can go back to living their lives happily, and nothing happens until 100 years later when that universe catches up to Botw. 100 years of peace have been enjoyed, Zelda and Link are very likely either already passed or are extremely old like Impa, and somehow Ganondorf breaks the seal all on his own, and attacks. Heck, who’s to say it couldn’t happen within that same century since Dorf clearly would not be happy about this second defeat of his Malice incarnation. Imagine if he were to break free before Link and Zelda pass on, but when he does they’re too old to fight? Or if 100 years does pass, he breaks free before they’re reincarnated again? It could be another Era Without A Hero, like before Wind Waker. I know that’s just my imagination going wild and we’ll never see anything more from that alternate universe again so it doesn’t matter what would happen with Ganondorf in it, but the thought popped into my mind the other day and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. I’d love to hear what ideas other people could come up with for TotK in the Age of Calamity universe if anyone has any!
I like it, I had been thinking about the games lately and been wondering, this might be Ganondorfs body. But with the broken sword, what if in the end we are fighting demise? Ganon has ceased to exist after all these years. I have felt that the game might be an "end" to the timeline, not that the games will be done, but that this is what all the games will always lead too. So, for multiple endings and if time travel is probably what they might use again. Perhaps if Link wins the cycle is finally over, Hyrule will no longer have to deal with the curse Demise had. Perhaps another option is that Link wins but the curse isnt broken, leaving a space open for more games, while the third ending is that Tears of the kingdom is the hyrule mentioned in skyward sword, Link looses and after perhaps a few more years of fighting, the Goddess steps in, Demise is at his fullest power and everything starts over, a new world has to be remade and the events of Skyward Sword begin.
Do you have any thoughts on the future of Zelda games being in the open world style of botw and totk or would you think they could go back to a smaller more linear game and still get good reviews?
Wow, good question factoring in the gauntlet of reviews. It'd be tricky following the open world so they'd have to really impress the audience with the first dungeon and its lead-up/exposition. Initial reviews are so dependent on first impressions and they would have to hit the ground running if they had any chance of drumming up great overall scores.
Do you think that recall has anything to do with the discrepancy as to what happens to Zelda? Falling or link saving her.. do you think there is a fast forward ability that caused gannondorf to age? I’m the trailer we see he isn’t a withered man. Or maybe it was a form of statis used… so many questions
(flashbacks of shooting down birds, throwing bombs at groups of fish, accidentally running over small creatures, getting horses killed, blowing up insufferable npc’s with bomb arrows, launching giant metal objects towards enemies, drowning bokoblins and moblins, befriending enemies and then electrocuting them all) …yeah.. maybe it’s best link doesn’t have a karma meter💀
Majoras Mask definatly has two endings that you can influence. The first being that you finish the game and defeat Majora and leave Termina. The second is you let the moon fall and witness the destruction of Termina. The only difference with that is that you will be transported back to day 1 of the cycle, it is not a final conclusion to the game.
BOTW kind of had multiple endings. If you completed all the divine beasts you got special cutscenes compared to just going right to Calamity Ganon. Also different boss fights.
Here's my thinking for how they could handle something like this: Basic Ending: Ganondorf is defeated and sealed away. Secret Ending: If Link (and Zelda) perform optional tasks to learn about Demise and the curse he laid on their bloodlines, and then optionally recover the Triforce in Skyrule/Sacred Realm, they can use the Triforce to wish to end Demise's curse at the end of the battle. Regardless of the ending, for the next few new releases Nintendo take a break from Ganon(dorf) and use other demons/villains (in the vein of Vaati, Majora, Bellum, and Malladus) as their antagonists. And then IF they want to bring Ganon back they deal with figuring out continuity then.
Hmm. Maybe this or that can pivot on that damaged Master Sword. That definitely would be an easy way to implement this kind of multiple endings thing. Think of it, Link restores the master sword can easily cause the good ending because you have the all powerful magic stabby object that's designed to destroy evil. Link not restoring the Master Sword can cause a bad or worse ending... he still wins the fight against Ganon using his magic arm but Hyrule suffers because Ganon isn't gonna be nice and Link doesn't have the best possible weapon to deal with Ganon.
Crono Trigger dependent on when you decide to beat the boss and with its new game+ system a great way to farm for rare gear because you feel like it lol I remember it having 20ish endings and being one of my favorite RPGs
Bad ending: link fails to save hyrule thus it is plunged into a dark decent nature reclaiming the land and the timeline starts again from skyward sword, some what of a do over. Neutral ending: link saves hyrule however in doing so the hero dies as his arm infects the rest of his body. Cutscene plays of mourning and loss however events continue down the timeline as usual. Good ending: link saves hyrule and amputation of his arm saves him. Cutscene plays of him living a full life and events continue down the timeline as usual
I’d LOVE multiple endings. I’d choose for Link to end up with Zelda (it’s about damn time.) Lol. 😂 Maybe multiple endings can satisfy people like Aonuma (Zelda creator) and half the fans who do like Link + Zelda together while the non-shippers can do whatever the heck they want.
I have a small theory that I came up with: what if the ancient tech labs were able to combine shieka and zonai technology to create even more powerful weapons for link, but then again Fuze would probably make that irrelevant... what are your thoughts Sir?
I really hope the endings lead to sequels of tears of the kingdom exclusive to the ending, for instance a ocarina of time type game or a twilight princess one Edit: thinking more into it, all three bad endings, one with the twilight realm seeping through, one where hyrule is destroyed and you go back in time, and one where a massive ocean floods all of hyrule. Very far fetched but it would be cool
Hyrule Gamer: "What if there were multiple endings in a Zelda game?" Spirit Tracks: "Am I a joke to you?" While not perhaps having them in the way most people think, Spirit Tracks does indeed have multiple endings based on your answer to a question. Right before the final battle, Princess Zelda asks you what you're going to do after it's all over. You are given three options to choose from being "Warrior!", "Engineer!", and "Dunno!" (I don't know). The outcome of your answer is reflected in a post credits scene. Each one starts with Zelda in her room reminiscing about your adventure together while doing paperwork. Choosing "I don't know" leaves her sitting in her chair while glancing towards the window wondering what happened to you. If "Engineer" is chosen, a train whistle is heard and she will get up, run to the window, and wave. If you chose "Warrior" (which is my favorite as well the funniest), sounds of combat will be heard, then she will go to the window and wave at the courtyard down below. Shortly thereafter are sounds of you getting your butt kicked during training. Although Malladus is defeated no matter what, it is to my knowledge the only glimpse of Link's life after his adventure is over. This is of course not counting immediate sequels like Phantom Hourglass that are their own game. It also still raises the question of what truly became of Link afterwards. Much like Breath of the Wild's timeline placement, this is an "up to the player" moment, meaning that whatever you decide is canon. I suppose this is why Nintendo included "Dunno!" as an option for the players who weren't sure what to choose or perhaps didn't want to choose between the other two. It is an interesting thought to be sure, and if Nintendo were to go this route in this or any future Zelda game I believe the "canon" ending would fall into the "up to the player" category. It is not an outlandish approach considering some inconsistencies that already exist within the official timeline (for example how it's impossible for A Link to the Past to be a prequel to the first two games despite being designed as such). I don't think this will happen with Tears of the Kingdom, however I feel we're possibly in for a very difficult final boss fight.
If we do get multiple endings, I think Hollow Knight's and Splatoon 3's ways of doing it would work best for Zelda. Spoilers for Hollow Knight ahead (I highly recommend playing it first) (no Splatoon spoilers). Regarding Hollow Knight, in the ending that most players would see, which is after destroying the dreamers and fighting the Hollow Knight, the player is sealed away and used as the next Hollow Knight. This is the neutral ending. The next ending is if you awaken the dream nail, but don't use it on the Hollow Knight when Hornet ties it down. This results in what is considered the bad ending, which is similar to the first, but with Hornet sealed away with you. The true ending, or "good" ending is when you dream nail the Hollow Knight and fight The Radiance. You die but the infection has no chance of resurfacing. We could have an ending where Link defeats Ganondorf and that's that, and two endings where somewhere along the way you found Zelda and she dies or doesn't die based on events within the fight. Regarding Splatoon, if you die in the final phase of the final boss, there's a cutscene showing the bad guy winning and laughing and then just throws you back into it. So two ways to finish the boss, one that is a cutscene following you dying and the other following your victory (this also happened in the Splatoon 2 DLC).
I really love this idea. I would say that if Nintendo did this though they WOULD consider all endings to be canon specifically to create alternative timelines. Nintendo knows that we love our timeline stuff, but they love their freedom to create stories they want. This would be the perfect combination of both. Do I think its likely? No. Of course not. But I would love if it were true.
Since im still a huge Linkle fan i just hope they add her in. Maybe do some parallel universe stuff like in link to the past but they find that in that universe there’s another chosen hero (Linkle) that teams up with Link. Maybe utilizing special access features with her special cross bow or something iunno. But a Linkle and Shiek would be cool to do with that mechanic
I like it as a choice between completely defeating Ganon and Hyrule being destroyed, or the traditional ending of putting Ganon down for Hyrule to rebuild just for it to happen in another 1000 years. Not really into it as a "Bad Ending" where you didn't do enough quests. That would just mean that no one would ever do that ending, since it is objectively worse. I do like the idea of a tough choice requiring sacrifice for a greater good , which lets be honest they would do never do, they barely like putting a story at all in these games. "Keep it simple and focus on gameplay" is Nintendo's bread and butter
They could just give us multiple versions of the same ending and we'd be happy. Imagine if you could repair the master sword in different ways, or perhaps if there are dungeons, you can only complete 3 out of 4 or something and then you have to fight ganondorf, with the fight being in a different location and with differing ways of having to kill him or something. Minimal impact to the story that way, but helps with replayability.
At first I was gonna say that it is completely zelda-like to have multiple endings, but I guess it's technically not. OoT had a timeline split but technically that was after the ending. Only the fallen timeline actually changes the ending of OoT and we never see that in game. And none of the other games have any meaningful variations for their endings, so yeah I guess it is unzelda to have multiple endings.
I just thought of a crazy theory/hope… what if in tears of the kingdom… Navi comes back!!! Like here me out, ever since Ocarina when she left us and we searched for her at the start of Majoras…. She’s been forgotten. Wouldn’t it be a crazy fan moment if all of a sudden… Navi makes an appearance? That would be insane!!!!
I don’t think there will be multiple endings in TotK but I do think there will be an expanded ending (for lack of a better term). So it would be something like if you defeat Ganon then Hyrule is ready to start rebuilding vs if you defeat Ganon with all the side quests finished then Hyrule is in a much better place to start rebuilding or the rebuilding process has already started and now just needs to be continued with the latter events being the “true” ending. That being said, it would be interesting for there to be a Zelda game that explores multiple endings (even if it would f*ck up the timeline). Perhaps a 2D Zelda game could set up some story/mechanic that revolves around that idea? (Or maybe I just really want the pixel art 2D Zeldas to come back.)
One ending: Link is defeated and killed, Zelda must continue the battle by sealing the entire Hyrule alongside Ganondorf (like Ocarina of Time alternate timeline, and Wind Waker when there's no hero). A hollow victory.
How do you think this could work? 👀
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Alternative beginnings to the story that lead to different endings
First of all the obvious way to destroy Hyrule is to have skyreal drop out of the sky. This would destroy the entire surface giving us a great landscape for breath of the wild 3. You know the one where demias is released. The one where we play as Zelda as she realizes the full strength of hylia inside of her.
Imagine this game ends with sky role falling to the ground and destroying Hyrule after everything. The master sword completely breaks releasing demise. The ground cracks open and it goes to black.
The very end of the game announces that breath of the wild 3 The return of demise is currently in production.
The devs can continue listening to the theory crafters and build an amazing game this way.
The hype train starts all over again before DLC is even released
What if there's the standard ending, and then an extra ending cutscene if you 100% the game? I think that would probably be the best way to do multiple endings in Zelda 😊
There could be a possibility that there could be a multiple ending since totk is the ending of a trilogy or at least I believe it is
But I'm not sure if it could work on this game or at least I can't fully think of a way the closes a multiple ending in a Zelda game would be majora mask with a good and bad ending
I really love this idea, just like the Ocarina of Time timeline split - but playable. Even if a cutscene played after you die to Ganondorf showing a little teaser of a bad ending would be amazing imo :)
Basically, kinda yeah!
What if thats what we saw in the recent trailer with Ganondorf's voice. What if it was a game over sequence....
@@kNOwYouAndMe OMG THAT WOULD BE SO COOL
@@kNOwYouAndMe OMG never thought about that!
I thought about this game having multiple endings after we found out about Link getting his arm damaged. The first trailer shows Ganondorf being sealed by the arm and I feel like this will be a choice that can be made again as Link. You can either choose to seal Ganon again yourself the same way as before but it will cost Link his life OR you can find a way to purge the curse of Demise and Link isn't forced to make that sacrifice. The second outcome would require more effort and would reward people for staying in the game longer vs speed running it.
When you talked about multiple small changes to the ending depending on what you did in your game, I'm surprised you didn't bring up Majora's Mask and how the credits have more scenes in them depending on how many of the happy masks you collected. The very first time I beat it I had not finished the Anju/Kafei quest, for instance, so I didn't see the happy reunion in the credits until I beat it a second time.
Botw had two endings, they were subtle though. It might effect how Totk plays, it's whether or not Link remembers Zelda.
It had a true ending scene, which didn't change the outcome
@@HyruleGamer what I was thinking
From what I remember, majora’s mask technically did too whether you completed all the side quests or not.
@@HyruleGamer Yeah I'm pretty sure Link will have a canon botw state. Has the master sword, fully remembers zelda, etc
@@kit76149 aww so we don’t get the any% speed run link? :((
A good way to have a "this or that" outcome is dependent on if you beat the dungeons or not. So if you go straight to the final boss you would get a bad ending and if you beat all the dungeons you get a good ending.
I've been thinking it would be amazing if TotK had multiple endings, specifically depending on your individual choices as a player. After all, the Zelda series is a role playing game, and you're meant to feel as though you actually are Link. BotW was great in the way that you could explore anywhere in any order, but it didn't truly feel like your choices mattered in the overall plot of the game. Imagine if the ending of TotK differed depending on what you choose to do with your situation.
To give a specific example, which may be controversial for many Zelda fans, what if you were given the ability to choose whether or not to resurrect the original champions using new Zonai abilities? Then, if you choose to save them, you are then given more possibilities regarding interactions with them. One of these possibilities could be choosing whether Link marries Mipha or Zelda in the end (controversial, I know!). This is, of course, just an extreme example. I honestly think that this could help the game to feel more personal and immersive, while also giving all fans an opportunity to write the story in the way they imagine it. That is, after all, what the Zelda team keeps advertising this game to be. A story driven by the player's imagination.
This is just a thought I've had. Great video!
What about the Age of Calamity alternate timeline?
Zelda franchise producer Eiiji Aonuma did confirmed that it’s a direct spinoff to Breath of the Wild.
You should have incorporated that in your video as well.
Dude! You must be working so hard on these vids. I appreciate it!
Glad you like them!
@@HyruleGamer I hope at the end of the game instead of nothing happening like in Zelda breath of the Wild you actually get to explore Hyrule after you defeat Ganondorf in a Calamity free world
I only want one ending because it would be very frustrating to get a different one from your friends. Also there would be the endless debate over which one is cannon or if both are
If it's a zelda game then most likely all endings are canon is some way. The problem with that though would be creating even more timelines.
Usually, most communities would choose the good ending, just because that usually has the most effort put into it. There are a few exceptions, but even if the bad ending or second ending is made in a way where it is enjoyable because it is dramatic or story fun or mysterious, you will still get a large amount of the community to still like the good or first ending. Endless debates are natural in games anyways, you can see anyone arguing about anything and if they would try to decide the canon one, they could ask the creator, or if it's a bad ending, the hero could die and the legend ends in that timeline.
They (the Zelda creators) could always come out later and state the canon ending. The folks at Silent Hill had to do that when making the sequel games. All the games have multiple endings so it helped the community out.
All endings would be Canon
one ending means no sales so like
It would be super cool if there could be multiple endings based on if you played through Zelda's story or Link's story. I know the odds of that happening now are basically 0 but still would have been cool.
Indeed!
A better way of going about this would be a choice between:
1. Save Gerudo town and Rito village
Or
2. Save Zora's domain and Goron city.
Making it so you can't save everyone.
Ohhhhh damn... :0
I would choose goron
Nah that is evil, I love it 😭
Since my favorite races are the Rito and Zora, I would be weeping the rest of the game if this were to happen
But why can't I save the Rito and the Gorons :((((((
I really like the idea of you being more of a completionist with the quests having larger stakes than just making the final battle easier. What if you don’t collect all the tears, Ganondorf has an outburst of malice so powerful during the final confrontation that it obliterates the magic keeping the sky islands afloat, and they all start falling toward Hyrule?
The example you mentioned for BotW- we save Hyrule + Zelda or we just Save Hyrule -could honestly be the split ending of TotK. If the story is Zelda falls into the Underworld and we have to do specific things to help her (that beating Ganon isn't contingent on) then that could cause a different ending 🤔
This would be so funny if after how much trouble botw caused for the timeline totk doesn't answer any questions but introduces more divergent timelines
Its a perfect day when Hyrule Gamer uploads and discusses interesting ideas!! I enjoy it lol :)
Glad to hear it!
I would love this, it would boost replayablity so much
I like the idea of them doing three canonical endings. It allows them to have multiple timelines that they can control from the start rather than having to piece them together after the fact and have to come up with such a stupid concept as the Downfall Timeline.
8:46
"The timeline... It's always the *HEYYY* timeline...."
Made my day
>
alternate timelines continuing forward would actually be a great way to move the franchise onward from botw and totk. i constantly wonder what is in store after we are all done with these two games and if there is a huge split in the timeline as definitive as hyrule making it through the battle vs. hyrule being totally levelled paves the way for two "types" of future zelda games. perhaps one line of zelda games goes on to be more like older games, with set dungeons and stories, while one goes forward to be more open and up to player involvement and interaction with the world.. pretty unlikely i suppose, but it could mean a more diverse release of zelda games in the future if they have two canon timelines to build new lore from.
I really want to see this, having different endings would give a lot of theories, or something like Elden Ring and The Witcher 3 with the side quest
7:52 You appear to have a major, major misunderstanding of the split there. Link does show up to face ganon, just like we see in game, and then either gets killed (1st timeline) or defeats ganon. Then zelda sends link to the past to relive his childhood where he warns the king of ganondorf and never opens the sacred realm (2nd timeline). Then, after zelda sends him back, she stays in that time alone where there's no such thing as the spirit of the hero anymore, so then no hero shows up the NEXT time ganon appears (not for the showdown at the ending of oot as you said, but for the next return of ganon). Then the gods flood hyrule to stop him and then wind waker happens where link is just a normal boy that happens to be named that. So yeah also we do see both child and adult timeline happening.
I'm thinking if a Zelda game were to have such a thing as multiple endings, they should probably all have a similar result but with different implications.
* Ganon is sealed with the Master Sword
* Ganon is annihilated by Zelda's magic
* Ganon is sent back to the beginning of the timeline by the Sheikiah
All to the same end - Ganon is defeated. Those are just examples, it could be anything and doesn't really matter. A story that results in anything other than the hero is triumphant and the villain is defeated would be unsatisfying. But *how* this happens could have tremendous impact on yet another split timeline. It gives the story somewhere to move forward, those are three future titles in the making.
It seems highly unlikely, but if it comes to pass I'd expect it to be something like this.
I agree with you on this. I was also thinking to myself maybe Tears of the Kingdom could utilize the multiple endings the way The Witcher 3 did.
For example, all the choices you make effect the outcome of the ending you receive. But with so many variables it would be hard to do this.
i think you repair the master sword 7 times with the 7 tears in the 7 dungeon (that’s a lot of 7) to kill easily ganondorf. If not, a different battle appears. Much harder, much devastating (the BAD ending). Or even better, you Fuze the master sword with a weird blade to create the logo master sword. It looks fused, isn’t it? And bang, there’s my theory about the entire process of the game
man as a huge witcher fan i'd love to have multiple endings!!! But yeah the timeline debacle it would create would be a nightmare haha
Yup xD
One of my favorite games, the forest, has two endings, one where you let your dead son go and move one, and one where you shoot a plane out of the sky to sacrifice a child and bring your son back to life, the latter of which is canon.
i think we're onto smth here.
I think the main quest could be split into 2 parts. The first, and only mandatory, part is repairing the master sword, through things similar to the divine beasts, which would probably be exclusive to the sky. The second part is trying to actively resist Ganondorf's malice in more traditional dungeons, that might be underground or in the sky, etc. One for each region on tbe surface in the previous game, giving a total of 8 dungeon. If you only do the first part fully and only partly do the second part you get the "that" ending described here but if you do both parts full, you get the "this" ending.
Nintendo has mentioned multiple times they don't like the whole "there's 3 timelines" thing and even designed BotW to have elements of all 3.
I HIGHLY doubt they'll suddenly want alternate endings.
I'm not saying they would or should, as clarified in the video lol. I just wanted to discuss the idea.
I like the ideas of faction like in the game mercenaries. You get task from gerudo that would harm Zoras so you loose affinities with zora but gain it with gerudo people but you can regain their trust by doing zora missions and ending change based on who’s on your side in the end
Ending 1, the simple ending
Link defeats Ganon by sacrificing himself to keep sealed Ganon. Maybe that’s what the hand in the first trailer did. Basically just feeding the loop, keeping the peace for some generations until Ganon breaks free and a new hero needs to step up. This ending happens if you don’t recruit Zelda before fighting Ganon
Ending 2, the true ending
You fight Ganon as usual. But near the ending of the battle, Zelda chimes in to help. You fight a little bit helped by her and eventually she is able to restrain Ganon with the triforce while shouting “GIT GUD”. Link then does his sword flurry and finishes Ganon once and for all thus breaking the cycle of the calamity and peace returns to Hyrule
Ending 3, the ??? Ending
Same stuff happens as in ending 2. But instead of initiating the sword flurry at Ganon after Zelda shouts “GIT GUD” and tries to seal him, Link instead decides to wait for some reason which eventually makes Zelda lose consciousness due to exerting too much power. Then it would be similar to ending 1. But with the twist that Zelda’s holy magic leaking out and acting like a force field that prevents any future person to enter the arena. But that means when Ganon awakens once again, nobody is able to get near him which basically makes this the bad ending as nobody would be able to fight him after
Loveee the idea, but this is going to make a true 100% even more of a pain than 900 koroks!!!
One ending is beedle becomes the new villain of the series
Ohhhh damn xD
I would love this. It would make a new play through so fresh
6:56
or ganondorf could rise the castle or the plateau more and more, and the more it takes you to defeat him the more destruction it will cause on the kingdom, once the castle or the plateau stops high into the upper atmosphere and falls back to earth,
basically a colony drop from Gundam
Good idea for the this or that theory: I’m pretty sure this was shown in the trailers. Always was confused about these two different recounts of the trailer events
This - in the opening cave theme link catches Zelda from falling and she is more incorporated in the story and helps link (normal mode/canon)
That - Link doesn’t catch Zelda and she falls, link is mostly on his own and doesn’t have any contact with Zelda (harder mode/non canon)
Great video once again! But can we just take a second to appreciate the awesome new intro?
I appreciate that!
they should also add some End-game section where you can just go over hyrule, fixing old or destroyed buildings, rebuilding hyrule to its former glory,
every game always ends with the final battle and you can't do anything after that, not even receive special dialogues and scenes, it would also be a nice change
There’s only one solution I can think of as a way to deal with multiple endings. Dragon break.
That would be a great way to let players face off Ganondorf in the beginning of the game without sacrificing the main story they have in mind.
(Or maybe in the final battle Ganondorf has a move that 1-hit kills Link if he doesnt have the reformed master sword. Would be interesting)
In Ocarina of Time, we actually do see both the child and adult timelines during the credits, so only the downfall ending isn't shown. For instance, we see adult Malon in the credits, even though if we're following Link's perspective, the game follows the child timeline. It's not as much as if there had been a story cutscene with weight to it that took place in the adult timeline after Link left, but it does technically end by showing both timelines.
There NEEDS to be a speedrunning ending like Metroid had. An ending where Link and Zelda kiss would make both a public outcry and a massive emotional moment for players
2 means of having “multiple endings” while committing to one canon ending ive seen in games that i think zelda could absolutely do is like in Kingdom Hearts 3, where there’s a bad ending which is then followed by some time travel stuff to change the outcome, and in Ender Lilies in which you get a premature ending from making the choice to end your quest before completion and a true ending where you finish your quest and beat the game’s boss
My idea: THIS particular Ganondorf was born in a time of peace. His mother took him away because she knew "Male Child = evil" and tried to raise him as good as possible. At some time the shiekah/zonai found him, however, and sealed him as precaution. The malice that escaped from him then was demises curse, that esily swayed the hearts of the gerudo male, but since he was sealed and he was actually a pretty nice guy, the malice just did its own thing, becoming the actual calamity.
Now after he´s freed the control of malice still lingers for some time, using him, however link manages to wake up the nice ganon (body) and, after realizing how much pain and destruction demise malice did, maybe even after Demise reincarnated into a physical body once more, Zelda, Ganon and Link band together to defeat him once and for all. With the combined power of all 3 pieces of the triforce finally working together, they can cleanse demise and the demons from the world finally once and for all. After that, the triforce just vanishes forever, leaving Hyrule finally in a state of peace, since the cycle of hatred was broken.
Thats at lest what i think will maybe happen
At 2:34 we see a "???"? What does that means? Is it a hint, that this gameplay is shortly after the beginning?
we already knew that this gameplay was shortly after the beginning becuase Link only has 4 hearts
I'd like to propose a way for BOTH endings to be cannon WITHOUT a timelines split...
With the good ending defeat Gannon and rebuild the kingdom in prosperity
With the bad ending make the game go back to the first game to start the never ending cycle until broken free in this same game's good ending
This basically means that the bad ending is cannon UNTIL you get the good ending
Nintendo making the timeline: "This TH-camr, Hyrule Gamer, is the first one to realize how we came up with the timeline!"
If there are multiple endings then i wan't the ending where we die and win like fire emblem engage.
If Link really will travel through the time to prevent the downfall of the Kingdom of Hyrule, we automatically might get a typical time travel paradox here, like we've had since Oot and the timeline split.
Time travel only can change the future but never the present. When a person travels to the past and kill your grandfather, the family bloodline remains still the same in the present, because if the grandfathers child would never have been born, you also couldn’t have lived to travel through time.
Like Terrako once did before traveling through time, another timesplit appears and an alternate ending after the events of Age of Calamity was created, which hasn’t changed the present of Breath of the Wild at all. That means, if in Breath of the Wild the Kingdom falls, and whatever the adventure leads us to in Tears of the Kingdom; After the time travel, another line will be created and regardless of how often we travel back and forth (like in Ocarina of Time), Link won’t have access to the actual mainline ever again, a parallel Breath of the Wild Universe will be caused.
So, considering the Line of Age of Calamity (the glorious one), Breath of the Wild (the new Downfall Line) and Tears of the Kingdom (however the Story will end), interestingly we will end with three timelines again. Just imagine…💭
The red, green, and blue endings on the thumbnail is giving me PTSD
I love your theories and have been a loyal viewer for years
Breath of the Wild did have multiple endings where you could either get an ending or the true ending depending on whether or not you have retrieved all of Links major memories in the story of Breath of the Wild.
The bad ending could be where link is transformed into dark link by ganondorf and a alternate timeline is created
Remember what happened last time they tried this. We dont need 3 timelines leading back into one and then diverging out again
I want one ending but with variations based on your actions. Like how in Majora where you got more scenes based on how of the game you completed.
I could see multiple endings with you having to complete some extra things for one ending while if you don't you get a different endings. But it we are able to get all in one run with reloading and continuing to do more maybe. Like Kirby and the crystal star, which I played as a kid. If you got all the crystals you get the true ending which also gives more content which you just get an ending if you collected some but not all.
I dunno how multiple endings could work out, but there is something I realized a few days ago involving Age of Calamity. Yeah I know it’s a spinoff, and officially an Alternate Universe to where the Calamity doesn’t happen (or at least not in full), and if the Calamity doesn’t happen, there’s no Tears of the Kingdom. But here’s the thing- even when they stop the Calamity in AoC, Ganondorf’s corpse is still deep below Hyrule Castle. Perhaps not leaking as much malice as we saw in the first trailer, but he’s still down there. I can’t help but wonder what that would mean for the timeline where the calamity is avoided, and as such Link and Zelda very likely have no reason to go exploring under the castle, and no indication that not all is well.
Imagine everything is calm after sealing Calamity Ganon away, and everyone can go back to living their lives happily, and nothing happens until 100 years later when that universe catches up to Botw. 100 years of peace have been enjoyed, Zelda and Link are very likely either already passed or are extremely old like Impa, and somehow Ganondorf breaks the seal all on his own, and attacks. Heck, who’s to say it couldn’t happen within that same century since Dorf clearly would not be happy about this second defeat of his Malice incarnation. Imagine if he were to break free before Link and Zelda pass on, but when he does they’re too old to fight? Or if 100 years does pass, he breaks free before they’re reincarnated again? It could be another Era Without A Hero, like before Wind Waker.
I know that’s just my imagination going wild and we’ll never see anything more from that alternate universe again so it doesn’t matter what would happen with Ganondorf in it, but the thought popped into my mind the other day and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. I’d love to hear what ideas other people could come up with for TotK in the Age of Calamity universe if anyone has any!
i mean it would be sick imo but three or even just two splits in the time line would be CHAOS
I like it, I had been thinking about the games lately and been wondering, this might be Ganondorfs body. But with the broken sword, what if in the end we are fighting demise? Ganon has ceased to exist after all these years. I have felt that the game might be an "end" to the timeline, not that the games will be done, but that this is what all the games will always lead too. So, for multiple endings and if time travel is probably what they might use again. Perhaps if Link wins the cycle is finally over, Hyrule will no longer have to deal with the curse Demise had. Perhaps another option is that Link wins but the curse isnt broken, leaving a space open for more games, while the third ending is that Tears of the kingdom is the hyrule mentioned in skyward sword, Link looses and after perhaps a few more years of fighting, the Goddess steps in, Demise is at his fullest power and everything starts over, a new world has to be remade and the events of Skyward Sword begin.
On a technical point, wouldn't that turn it from an action-adventure into an action-rpg?
It technically already is one I think.
Timeline Theorists: "Aw, s***. Here we go again."
🤣
Do you have any thoughts on the future of Zelda games being in the open world style of botw and totk or would you think they could go back to a smaller more linear game and still get good reviews?
Wow, good question factoring in the gauntlet of reviews. It'd be tricky following the open world so they'd have to really impress the audience with the first dungeon and its lead-up/exposition. Initial reviews are so dependent on first impressions and they would have to hit the ground running if they had any chance of drumming up great overall scores.
Do you think that recall has anything to do with the discrepancy as to what happens to Zelda? Falling or link saving her.. do you think there is a fast forward ability that caused gannondorf to age? I’m the trailer we see he isn’t a withered man. Or maybe it was a form of statis used… so many questions
(flashbacks of shooting down birds, throwing bombs at groups of fish, accidentally running over small creatures, getting horses killed, blowing up insufferable npc’s with bomb arrows, launching giant metal objects towards enemies, drowning bokoblins and moblins, befriending enemies and then electrocuting them all) …yeah.. maybe it’s best link doesn’t have a karma meter💀
I think the Zelda team will do this. I didn't even think of this before
Majoras Mask definatly has two endings that you can influence. The first being that you finish the game and defeat Majora and leave Termina. The second is you let the moon fall and witness the destruction of Termina. The only difference with that is that you will be transported back to day 1 of the cycle, it is not a final conclusion to the game.
I should love a giant cinematic ending with a giant battle but I’m probably asking for too much
What if Ganondorf drew so much power from the blood moon that he Majora's Mask's Hyrule and brings the moon to Hyrule?
I feel like a hollow knight sorta ending could also work. It would be a bit weird and hard to do but I could see it working.
BOTW kind of had multiple endings. If you completed all the divine beasts you got special cutscenes compared to just going right to Calamity Ganon. Also different boss fights.
I think multiple endings would be cool and increase the overall playtime
Here's my thinking for how they could handle something like this:
Basic Ending: Ganondorf is defeated and sealed away.
Secret Ending: If Link (and Zelda) perform optional tasks to learn about Demise and the curse he laid on their bloodlines, and then optionally recover the Triforce in Skyrule/Sacred Realm, they can use the Triforce to wish to end Demise's curse at the end of the battle.
Regardless of the ending, for the next few new releases Nintendo take a break from Ganon(dorf) and use other demons/villains (in the vein of Vaati, Majora, Bellum, and Malladus) as their antagonists. And then IF they want to bring Ganon back they deal with figuring out continuity then.
It could work if the player at the end gets informed if you got the true or false ending
Hmm. Maybe this or that can pivot on that damaged Master Sword. That definitely would be an easy way to implement this kind of multiple endings thing.
Think of it, Link restores the master sword can easily cause the good ending because you have the all powerful magic stabby object that's designed to destroy evil.
Link not restoring the Master Sword can cause a bad or worse ending... he still wins the fight against Ganon using his magic arm but Hyrule suffers because Ganon isn't gonna be nice and Link doesn't have the best possible weapon to deal with Ganon.
Crono Trigger dependent on when you decide to beat the boss and with its new game+ system a great way to farm for rare gear because you feel like it lol I remember it having 20ish endings and being one of my favorite RPGs
Bad ending: link fails to save hyrule thus it is plunged into a dark decent nature reclaiming the land and the timeline starts again from skyward sword, some what of a do over.
Neutral ending: link saves hyrule however in doing so the hero dies as his arm infects the rest of his body. Cutscene plays of mourning and loss however events continue down the timeline as usual.
Good ending: link saves hyrule and amputation of his arm saves him. Cutscene plays of him living a full life and events continue down the timeline as usual
I’d LOVE multiple endings. I’d choose for Link to end up with Zelda (it’s about damn time.) Lol. 😂 Maybe multiple endings can satisfy people like Aonuma (Zelda creator) and half the fans who do like Link + Zelda together while the non-shippers can do whatever the heck they want.
Final ending Hestu 1v1 Ganon
Hestu solos
I kinda wanna see Hestu pummel the crap out of Ganon now
Assuming they even want to continue the timeline, if there lies enough time between TotK and the next game, any ending could be canon.
I have a small theory that I came up with: what if the ancient tech labs were able to combine shieka and zonai technology to create even more powerful weapons for link, but then again Fuze would probably make that irrelevant... what are your thoughts Sir?
Bro, I'd love another timeline split personally.
I really hope the endings lead to sequels of tears of the kingdom exclusive to the ending, for instance a ocarina of time type game or a twilight princess one
Edit: thinking more into it, all three bad endings, one with the twilight realm seeping through, one where hyrule is destroyed and you go back in time, and one where a massive ocean floods all of hyrule. Very far fetched but it would be cool
Hyrule Gamer: "What if there were multiple endings in a Zelda game?"
Spirit Tracks: "Am I a joke to you?"
While not perhaps having them in the way most people think, Spirit Tracks does indeed have multiple endings based on your answer to a question. Right before the final battle, Princess Zelda asks you what you're going to do after it's all over. You are given three options to choose from being "Warrior!", "Engineer!", and "Dunno!" (I don't know). The outcome of your answer is reflected in a post credits scene. Each one starts with Zelda in her room reminiscing about your adventure together while doing paperwork. Choosing "I don't know" leaves her sitting in her chair while glancing towards the window wondering what happened to you. If "Engineer" is chosen, a train whistle is heard and she will get up, run to the window, and wave. If you chose "Warrior" (which is my favorite as well the funniest), sounds of combat will be heard, then she will go to the window and wave at the courtyard down below. Shortly thereafter are sounds of you getting your butt kicked during training.
Although Malladus is defeated no matter what, it is to my knowledge the only glimpse of Link's life after his adventure is over. This is of course not counting immediate sequels like Phantom Hourglass that are their own game. It also still raises the question of what truly became of Link afterwards. Much like Breath of the Wild's timeline placement, this is an "up to the player" moment, meaning that whatever you decide is canon. I suppose this is why Nintendo included "Dunno!" as an option for the players who weren't sure what to choose or perhaps didn't want to choose between the other two.
It is an interesting thought to be sure, and if Nintendo were to go this route in this or any future Zelda game I believe the "canon" ending would fall into the "up to the player" category. It is not an outlandish approach considering some inconsistencies that already exist within the official timeline (for example how it's impossible for A Link to the Past to be a prequel to the first two games despite being designed as such). I don't think this will happen with Tears of the Kingdom, however I feel we're possibly in for a very difficult final boss fight.
Three endings, one for each timeline and they are all cannon. Take it or leave it
If we do get multiple endings, I think Hollow Knight's and Splatoon 3's ways of doing it would work best for Zelda. Spoilers for Hollow Knight ahead (I highly recommend playing it first) (no Splatoon spoilers).
Regarding Hollow Knight, in the ending that most players would see, which is after destroying the dreamers and fighting the Hollow Knight, the player is sealed away and used as the next Hollow Knight. This is the neutral ending. The next ending is if you awaken the dream nail, but don't use it on the Hollow Knight when Hornet ties it down. This results in what is considered the bad ending, which is similar to the first, but with Hornet sealed away with you. The true ending, or "good" ending is when you dream nail the Hollow Knight and fight The Radiance. You die but the infection has no chance of resurfacing. We could have an ending where Link defeats Ganondorf and that's that, and two endings where somewhere along the way you found Zelda and she dies or doesn't die based on events within the fight.
Regarding Splatoon, if you die in the final phase of the final boss, there's a cutscene showing the bad guy winning and laughing and then just throws you back into it. So two ways to finish the boss, one that is a cutscene following you dying and the other following your victory (this also happened in the Splatoon 2 DLC).
The thing that you need to do or not do could be repairing the master sword
I really love this idea. I would say that if Nintendo did this though they WOULD consider all endings to be canon specifically to create alternative timelines. Nintendo knows that we love our timeline stuff, but they love their freedom to create stories they want. This would be the perfect combination of both.
Do I think its likely? No. Of course not.
But I would love if it were true.
Since im still a huge Linkle fan i just hope they add her in. Maybe do some parallel universe stuff like in link to the past but they find that in that universe there’s another chosen hero (Linkle) that teams up with Link. Maybe utilizing special access features with her special cross bow or something iunno. But a Linkle and Shiek would be cool to do with that mechanic
I like it as a choice between completely defeating Ganon and Hyrule being destroyed, or the traditional ending of putting Ganon down for Hyrule to rebuild just for it to happen in another 1000 years. Not really into it as a "Bad Ending" where you didn't do enough quests. That would just mean that no one would ever do that ending, since it is objectively worse. I do like the idea of a tough choice requiring sacrifice for a greater good , which lets be honest they would do never do, they barely like putting a story at all in these games. "Keep it simple and focus on gameplay" is Nintendo's bread and butter
They could just give us multiple versions of the same ending and we'd be happy. Imagine if you could repair the master sword in different ways, or perhaps if there are dungeons, you can only complete 3 out of 4 or something and then you have to fight ganondorf, with the fight being in a different location and with differing ways of having to kill him or something. Minimal impact to the story that way, but helps with replayability.
At first I was gonna say that it is completely zelda-like to have multiple endings, but I guess it's technically not. OoT had a timeline split but technically that was after the ending. Only the fallen timeline actually changes the ending of OoT and we never see that in game. And none of the other games have any meaningful variations for their endings, so yeah I guess it is unzelda to have multiple endings.
I think this could be cool as someone who loves RPG's and Zelda I think this could be cool
I just thought of a crazy theory/hope… what if in tears of the kingdom… Navi comes back!!! Like here me out, ever since Ocarina when she left us and we searched for her at the start of Majoras…. She’s been forgotten. Wouldn’t it be a crazy fan moment if all of a sudden… Navi makes an appearance? That would be insane!!!!
YAY!
(but all the TOTK collector's are out of stock in the uk 😢)
Chrono Trigger was a game that had really good multiple endings
I don’t think there will be multiple endings in TotK but I do think there will be an expanded ending (for lack of a better term). So it would be something like if you defeat Ganon then Hyrule is ready to start rebuilding vs if you defeat Ganon with all the side quests finished then Hyrule is in a much better place to start rebuilding or the rebuilding process has already started and now just needs to be continued with the latter events being the “true” ending. That being said, it would be interesting for there to be a Zelda game that explores multiple endings (even if it would f*ck up the timeline). Perhaps a 2D Zelda game could set up some story/mechanic that revolves around that idea? (Or maybe I just really want the pixel art 2D Zeldas to come back.)
they better make sure they bring back multiple save files
The only sure fire way to end the cycle of the curse is to end the Royal bloodline
One ending: Link is defeated and killed, Zelda must continue the battle by sealing the entire Hyrule alongside Ganondorf (like Ocarina of Time alternate timeline, and Wind Waker when there's no hero). A hollow victory.
Shoutout to the Discord Family 🎉
Wth 47 minutes ago?
Shout-out to Mother Hyrule 🎉
💜
Zelda only has split Canon because designers thought the alternat ones had a great concept to continue from.