Shigeru Miyamoto's Zelda timeline craziness

This interview with Miyamoto explains a lot about why he often disregards the timeline in the Zelda games.

Iwata Asks: Ocarina of Time 3D with Shigeru Miyamoto

In regards to why there are so many inconsistent plot connections between Zelda games that don't always make sense:

The stories in The Legend of Zelda may not match up as the series progresses. We actually expend a lot of time trying to make them match up, though. It would make things a lot easier if the players said, "Oh, that doesn't really matter."

He also goes on to say this:

But the moment I say Yoshi lays eggs so Yoshi must be a girl, they'll say, "Then Yoshi's voice needs to sound more like a girl's!" But I want to make video games without having to worry about such background info. Take the animated series Popeye, for example. In old cartoons like those, the roles of the characters were different every time.

Even though the setting was different each time, the characters you knew and loved would come out and perform. Well, the Mario games are set up like that. It would be much easier if we could use any setting in The Legend of Zelda while preserving the essential relationship between Link, Ganon and Zelda.

Heh, I think I'm beginning to understand Miyamoto's insanity a little now. This kind of reasoning

Spirit Tracks high playthrough comments, part 3

Sand Temple... this is the most "Zelda 1" looking dungeon in the game yet so far. It's much more non-linear right from the beginning... I don't even know if I'm going the right way or not at first.

Pirate Stalfos! Sand Wand! epic...

Did the temple shift around after I got the sand wand? or am I just way too high?
These puzzles are really something... need to get sand onto the floor... took me a while to realize I could walk on those rolling spike things... sand boulder catapult thing...
oh cool, got a pirate necklace... the trading items from WW return in this..
wow, I like how this uses 3d height perspectives in a mostly 2d game..

This game has some messages on the wall with cryptic hints, similar to Link's awakening or the old man hints in Zelda 1... it doesn't spell it out for you at all.

and the puzzles involving marking stuff on the map with the touch screen, something that Phantom Hourglass did really well, are expanded upon further in this game too...

The King of Hyrule is a jerk

This comic shows who the true villain of The Wind Waker was all along.

Source: http://hiimdaisy.livejournal.com/

Wind Waker in a nutshell: An angry boat uses Link to do his bidding and restore the triforce so he can use it to flood an ancient kingdom.

Spirit Tracks high playthrough comments, part 2

This game actually makes you literally TALK to the game characters using the DS's microphone... how embarrassing...
That moblin pirate battle was some epic stuff... I wasn't expecting that at all.
Locomo... I wonder if they're related to the old Hyrule somehow...

Wait, so the land of Spirit Tracks is divided into 4 regions.. Forest, Snow, Ocean, and Canyon... that sounds very similar to the 4 regions of Termina.

oh wow... in the Ocean section the train tracks actually go beneath the ocean... there are underwater octoroks shooting at you and stuff... this is amazing...
running backwards away from a demon train to get to the temple...
woah, the Ocean Temple looks like a giant crystal switch... like the ones from LttP... that's really neat.
The inside of this Ocean temple looks a lot like OoT's Water Temple.

Back to the Spirit Tower... the next floor ramps up in difficulty a bit... this actually feels comparable to the early game of LttP or LA.

I love the puzzles in this dungeon... using Phantom Zelda to lure the other phantoms away from Link with her cuteness...

Spirit Tracks high playthrough comments, part 1

This was my first playthrough of Spirit Tracks. I played through it mostly entirely while high and wrote some notes on it. I was surprised at how good this game was after Phantom Hourglass being a bit of a disappointment.

From wind conductor to train conductor... the next incarnation of Link is the hero of... trains!

This New Hyrule looks sweet, kinda gives me classic LttP vibes.
Princess Zelda calling Link up to her room... giggity

I noticed there's no moat at this new Hyrule Castle... I guess this continent is very dry...

The tower of the Spirit Tracks... an entrance to the Spirit Realm... this is interesting... it's like there's a world of darkness looming over Hyrule in the sky... the environment around this Spirit Tower area is incredibly powerful... reminds me of OoT kinda.

Niko is this Link's grandfather... so he's not blood related to WW Link, but instead is related to one of the pirate characters in WW... and Tetra is this Zelda's grandmother...

Zelda entered the Spirit Realm and became a ghost... she's now this game's navi. I'm okay with this...

Wow, I'm having a ton of fun with this game and I haven't even picked up a sword yet... o_O

Why Skyward Sword is doing everything right

Just like the Dark World/Light World system in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Skyward Sword also takes place in 2 separate worlds.

The Sky

The sky world is just like the sea in Wind Waker, in that it's a huge free roaming area with many islands. Instead of a boat or a horse, you travel by bird. The sky world is a heavenly realm that some speculate to be the Sacred Realm, the resting place of the Triforce. That could be the case...

Other sailing/ocean exploration games worth playing

Wind Waker's vast ocean overworld had such a great atmosphere, it really gets you into the mood of sailing the open seas. The wind carries you across the bobbing waves, as you roam the camera around looking for islands off in the distance, and filling out your sea chart. This game was sailing done right.

In case Wind Waker leaves you thirsty for more epic maritime adventures, here's a list of other epic games involving seafaring exploration.