One thing ive very rarely seen mention is that we only get a fade to black in older games when transitioning between areas. In actuality many locations could be very far from each other or around a number of corners, with those long walks just cut for convenience and saving resources. just the existence of Hyrule field in original OoT was a huge feat, im sure they didnt have space to give every zone a huge area like that

The implication that the Gorons can make any mountain into a volcano seems very very interesting.

I just think that botw map is a reimagining of the other map. Its them spacing the areas how they wanted to

Actual reason: when they make the games they try to place things in a generally similar way to the other games, if possible, but sometimes they have to move things around. The temple location and plateau being moved to the south during development is the most known case of this in BotW. The time scale is made ambiguous to hand wave details. Fan rationalizations can be numerous though, which lends itself quite well to immersing yourself in the world.

Y'know, knowing that the Great Plateau and Korok Forest were originally switched, the maps actually line up pretty nicely as is. That'd put the Temple of Time right in front of Death Mountain.

Been playing BotW recently and I'm completely convinced that the Great Plateau really is the Hyrule Castle Town, Hyrule Castle and Temple of Time from Ocarina of Time. The gate/bridge you use to sneak past the guards that leads to a clearing right in front of the castle, the fountain in the middle of the town, the Temple of Time leading back to the town. It's all there, in ruins.

I know this video is old but Tears of the Kingdom has stimulated my desire to compare maps. the Great Plateau actually looks like the original Hyrule Castle + town picked up and dropped in a random location to me. The "new" Lake Hylia is too perfect of a copy of the OoT lake Hylia and Zora's domain and Death Mountain generally haven't moved too much in relation to each other. Tears of the Kingdom's flashbacks showing Death Mountain with the OoT smoke ring is the smoking gun (no pun intended) to me indicating it is indeed the same death mountain. Among all games the Lost Woods/Korok Forest/Kokiri Forest moves the most, but the lost woods being at least somewhat north of Hyrule Castle is consistent with Link to the Past, as is the original forest area to the east being turned into a more civilized-type area.

This, this is great. This needs more veiws. This might be my favorite map theory yet.

I think what you said about the dueling peaks is hilarious. Consider: In Wind Waker, it turned out that Ganon's motivation was originally to conquer Hyrule so that his people wouldn't be stuck living in a barren wasteland. And now you're saying that eons afterwards a dragon broke a mountain in half that led to the area getting irrigated and becoming a lush, fertile river valley. And what's even better, is that a similarly lush area could have been waiting on the other side of that mountain, the entire freaking time!

It wouldn't surprise me if they drew inspiration for the plateau from previous games and started building their map out from there. They clearly had to move the castle as that was supposed to be the final showdown location with lots of dangerous enemies surrounding it, so it couldn't be too close to the Temple anymore. Plus, you know - as the kingdom expanded its borders, got richer, suffered various attacks and calamities, they probably had to rebuild at some point and would have wanted to make it a grand, impressive structure with enough space for all the necessary government workers and soldiers. I've always viewed the series as "the legend" being told throughout time and in different cultures and being adapted to their technology, surroundings, etc just like oral stories are adapted and changed in cultures across the world. And I felt that explained not only the differences, but the similarities and how the characters always have the same names or slightly different names. Humans love retelling stories and reinventing them. We do it all the time with story lines, themes, characters, etc.

I think since they wanted to base the tutorial area on ocarina of time they used the map as you rotated it to add familiar features around it.

I love the theory of the Great Plateau being OoT's map, I love how a lot of the ruins next to the ToT look like Castle Town too which is nice, its a cool little nod to the game, but I also really like the idea behind it, where the tutorial of this game keeps you in a semi familiar place, going through something that while in ruins, feels like you've experienced, before taking the chains off and letting you explore the entirly new Hyrule

Gerudo canyon already had a river flowing through it. That's what created the canyon. It also, already flowed into OoT's Lake Hylia.

Great! In reality, Nintendo wanted to add as much as possible from all games in Breath of the Wild. Still they didn't add any Majora's Mask area.

so this is three years late but zoras river actually does flow through gerudo canyon in ocarina of time, maybe theres a larger gap in between hyrule field and the canyon that links up with the river and as for botw's lake hylia it could have formed later as for everything else it all lines up pretty well especially oot's lake hylia as there is an island which lines up pretty well with the island in oot and te other island could have disappeared or turned into the large outcropping in botw the lake would have lost water do to the ground around gradually getting flatter turning lake hyia in the now much shallower lake kolomo.

I’ve been thinking this for years! Thanks for making a video, awesome work dude lovin it

I think it's a little far fetched. A lot of "what ifs" and the scaling makes no sense. Sure, the Oot map is small, but that's because it was an n64 title with very limited resources. I have no doubt that, had they made it today, they would have made that map a lot bigger, more akin to BOTW. I don't think we are intended to read too much into it and Nintendo just kind of reimagines the world of hyrule every time because of better hardware and such.

Personally I believe the Lon Lon Ranch alignment is the way to go, and that the Temple of time should be ignored. I understand that the likelihood that the ranch survived everything is low, however I believe it's a simple matter that it's been constantly rebuilt over the ages. As for why I believe the Temple of Time should be ignored, well that's because we've had more than one throughout the series. The temple in botw isn't necessarily THE OoT temple. Another thing is that using this method while also accounting for land slides and tectonic shifts, Oot's lost woods aligns with what is now Faron woods. Now you may be thinking "what about the deku tree though he's nowhere near there?". Well the deku tree being a plant, his sapling can simply be planted somewhere else. When a new Great Deku Tree grows, he retains his memories. This easily explains how the lost woods "move" between games. In fact, the current location of the lost woods in botw, is similar to the lost woods location in ALTTP. Both are northwest of Hyrule castle and both take place after OoT.

this deserves more views

That’s pretty genius, and you start the game wanting to get out and explore the other regions because that’s where your nostalgia wants to take you~and instead you’ve been literally starting and running around a nostalgia graveyard at the start of the game without even knowing it.

Now with the explanation of the Zonai raising certain islands and things into the sky, I feel one could justify the temple being moved in the past at some point for some reason

I like how well this links to the size of oot overworld too.

This is an amazing analysis thank you so much gives me something to think about

Huh, this is pretty neat. Showing the scaled Hyrules (and Skyrim) from the games is pretty cool and sells the theory a lot to me as well. I'll note that Link is probably closer to 5 foot than 6 foot, meaning Skyrim is probably bigger than that scale, but it definitely shows that OOT's Hyrule could fit most anywhere.

Btw the zelda map size comparison at 7:22 was updated showing the wind waker map 2/3 or more of breath of the wild's map in size

5:39, all great research.👍 compelling.

Neat alaysis video! Thanks for uploading!

It makes since because where to ancient tree stump is lines up in the direction of the Deku tree in OoT

Hylia was done after the first calamity which led to skyward sword much later. She wasn’t in the flesh during any other calamities that official Nintendo history

Your voice is very soothing I wouldn't mind more map stuff

I know this video is old and found OoT location a long time ago and don't know if anyone found it yet. Death Mountain is the key since Death Mountain hasn't ever moved in most zelda games and always found in the north east corner of Hyrule. Now those who are true Zelda fans will know this fact that there are Two Hyrule castles and two Temple of times ever built in the Zelda timeliness. There are only two locations to pull the master sword out and that is in both temple of time that held the master sword. The temple of time we see in the beginning is actually from skyward sword. Also the scale we are use too for map scale is very small compared to BotW. Increase the scale size to match BotW map. You'll notice a connection of alot of Zelda games and don't forget that time has passed for over 10,000 years that would have a major change on landscaping. Here are the clues. 1.OoT Hyrule castle was very close to death Mountain to the east and covered in darkness. 2.Master sword is in the OoT temple of time. 3.The water fall dried up. 4. Hyrule lake is now populated and has civilization 5.There are Guedo statues In the snow parts of the mountains. Hope this helps to find the location.

The way I worked it out is that the temple of time is a new build, the interior is vastly different and not much matches up to the world layout. I see OOT castle town and temple of time in the location of the great deku tree, since thats where the masterswords pedestal is placed. that region is surrounded by a river that connects to Zora's domain and its next to death mountain. central Hyrule has been broken up by rivers throughout the centuries and hyrule lake is in the same location. tangar canyon is an expansion to that large canyon that needed a bridge built in oot, that whole region beyond is similar to where the original gerudo village resided. faron forest is the old site of the lost woods and the great deku tree. we know from past games that the deku tree can move with its people. I also think that the 10000 years ago its not referring to Gannon but when demise is first imprisoned. since that's when the sheika had technology and resources similar to the divine beasts.

there's a fallen Deku tree in the forest of spirits.

I've never thought of Link as six feet tall, I've always thought of him as a short guy. But I suppose that makes sense, I've only ever seen him really compared to taller people and creatures lol

BOTW isn't 10,000 years apart from OoT, it's 10,000 years after *the first Calamity*. All the Zelda games take place within a few generations of each other, which is how there are still legends of heroes and villains past. Think of it this way: "A few generations" is enough to have distant folklore, like the King Arthur legends. 10,000 years is literally longer than human civilization has existed on Earth.

whats crazy, is that lakes and rivers and any thing with water will change over decades. So when lakes line up I can't help but to question ... you sure? Mountains take much longer to move and change so those are your solid landmarks.

I like the find, it makes sense

I think it would have actually cleared things up if they made Hyrule Warriors canon and said that all the timelines and eras merged into one at the end, explaining a lot of the inconsistency.

This is fun. So nerdy in a good way!

can you make a video on how all of the maps in zelda connect together?

FINALLY someone says something about that massive hole in hebra mountain!!!

Came to this three years late apparently so someone probably already said it but the Great Plateau got its shape because the divine beasts and guardians were buried inside of it. The efforts to remove them all chipped away at the Great Plateau and the artificial barriers were probably constructed simultaneously to prevent landslides.

Yeah I remember when I saw Mount Hylia behind the Temple and I assumed it was the old Death Mountain.

"Ocariner" cracks me up every time

I love the idea of the zora river just never thawing. It's said in oot that the waters would eventually return to their orginal temperatures, but it didn't happen then or in any subsequent game. Even now the water is still cursed

I definitely agree with this theory here. Just decided to get back into playing OOT and BOTW for fun. And I was looking at it all and decided to go and research to see what others think.

In Ocarina of Time, there is actually a cliff dividing Hyrule Field roughly in between Lon Lon Ranch and Kokiri Forest with a stone wall on top.

the hebra mountain chunk missing is canonically due to a divine beast's laser beam! zeltik has a video on this which provides the proof; i can't remember where it is though. probably in creating a champion.

Looking at the botw map for almost 2 years!? Amazing patience, Buddhist master.

fun video x

Я тоже много размышлял над географией Хайрул. Я всё списывал на геологическую активность и смена ландшафта после затопления. Странно, что храм времени выстоял, а замок уничтожен, хотя те же развалины пригорода замка остались (если это действительно они) Была кстати у меня теория, что небесные жители из Minish Cap - это предки Герудо, но, если события TotK были до Minish Cap, моя теория рушится, хотя можно предположить, что это родственные народы из за похожей культуры и цвета волос

It is widely believed that the OoT Fire temple was inside “spectacle rock” which was inside death mountain crater in OoT. In ToTK, spectacle rock is located just south west of mt. Hylia, right where your theory suggests.

I know im a little bit late but dude only 625 views?? Im surprised i was thinking you were some big yt channel cause your work here was pretty well done. Keep it up dude you have the potential for much more.

What songs did you use in this video? I really liked them specifically the song at 2:08

another factor could be the shifting of tectonic plates. keep in mind, botw doesn't state how far after the normal timeline it sits, giving hyrule ample time to change its geography.

This theory makes sense with the new lore of totk. I want to think the foundation of hyrule mentioned by rauru is a 2nd hyrule. Maybe after the flood of wind waker (considering he met orni).

While this does match up pretty well, I think that the Great Plateau is actually the remnants of Skyloft. The landscape matches up very well for that too. Buildings can be moved, but mountains are a bit harder.

Your scale makes a lot more sense than the other people's scales that you showed at the end! You have to remember that a lot of the map-size stuff that people talk about just simply isn't true. These are virtual locations. Therefore, the only measurement that is accurate is a measurement relative to the walking speeds of the varying characters. Given that you could probably cross BoTW with a slow walk (and no enemy encounters) in about 2 hours... well, even Breath of the Wild is only a few miles across, by real-person walking speeds. But anyway, if you compare a walk across Ocarina's hyrule field with a walk across the plateau... it'd probably take you a very similar time (if you're barely pushing the joystick and walking slow). That means that your comparison is far more accurate than the other map size comparisons you showed at the end!!! And I personally never thought about lining things up the way you did until your video... so bravo!!! This is brilliant! I subscribed due to this video alone!

I’d be more than willing believe that botw is all of Hyrule and it’s all been here this whole time but due to limitations of hardware we could never fully explore hyrule in previous games. Which would mean that it’s the same accoss all 3 timelines besides landmarks moving or species moving due to events causing them to move. And the Rito are just Zora tribe that left and evolved over time

This makes a lot of sense actually because when you first speak with the old man on the plateau he says it's the birthplace of Hyrule, so the great plateau is OoT's map and over the 10,000 years between games Hyrule expanded it's territories a lot.

i assume that the oot map size is not properly scaled with botw's?

The Badlands down to the Grand Canyon were underwater at one point in time. These things happen naturally.

just one thing, have you considered that, in the lore of the game, they relocated the entire castle and citadel, leaving behind the Temple of Time? the OoT map is only interpretive, figurative and is not at a 1:1 scale, like the rest of the Zelda games, compared to the BotW map, which is at 1:1. but, by reference to where the Temple of Time is located in BotW, it can give you an idea of where all the OoT sites are on the BotW map.

Death Mountain is a name given to different Volcanoes that sprout out of a Hotspot.

Brutal

We know from the BotW 2 trailer that landmasses can be arisen considerably. I hypothesize that the Great Plateau was where the Deku Forest is now: the basin that contains it is the scar of that much land being removed. Unfortunately this goes _against_ the theory you posit here, as it was only Old Hyrule Castle/Town that moved, thus the changed orientation. As for Lon Lon ruins: unfortunately Malon and Cremia/Romani are not divine in nature, so her appearance in Minish Cap is just a "coincidence" of genetics down her family tree, but for a near 1-to-1 reconstruction of the Ranch to _be,_ it could only have been Link, the one from 10 millennia ago who first fought Calamity Ganon, who happened to remember such detail and either built it himself or commissioned it so, with standing instructions to maintain it over the centuries, given Age of Calamity's information about the ranch and Link's station in life at the time. I can only imagine that Zelda's reaction to Link making a long-lived tribute to another woman that Link, even after countless years and reincarnations, _still_ wants to dick down.

Think about it too King Roam did say this was the birthplace of highrule when you think about it. The ruins near the temple of time would be highrule castle town In other words Highrule got bigger this was like the First piece of highrule

I think that the ocarina of time map shifted during the great flood before ww, that would explain why some areas are at different spots

This is what I've thought since I stared playing BOTW.

This seems like an awful lot of changes for just 10,000 years of passing

2023: *There are TWO Temples Of Time, checkmate atheists*

i love how you tossed a LITERAL deus ex machina to explain the plateau lifting, either way i liked this theory, i don't know if i agree 100% with it, but it was cool

I made a map comparison and I found this. BOTW's Temple of Time and Kakariko Village's locations doesn't match their OoT counterparts. More suitable locations for them are Hyrule Castle Town and Crenel Hills. Road north od Great Plateau is the OoT's road going from Lake Hylia to Gerudo Valley. Digdogg Suspension Bridge is the OoT bridge/chasm over the river in Gerudo Valley. That''s the River of the Dead, but unfortunately, in BOTW it doesn't have the connection with Lake Hylia anymore. Also, OoT's Fishing Pond is Deya Lake/Village Ruins and Kokiri Forest is not Korok Forest, but Hickaly Woods. Everything else seems to match.

I like to imagine that over thousands of years people forgot where each location was, only knowing of them from legend. Using the descriptions from said legends they tried to match up the locations and got them very wrong as the landscape has changed

I liked to think that nabi lake is a larger version of that pond in hyrule field in OoT

There’s also a theory that the woodland region swapped spots with the great plateau since the king says it’s the birth place of the kingdom so some geography could be different

Just remember geografy class, botw is on the past, and the land changes every time irl because erosions and tectonic plates, so the time on game passes and the land changes as well, that is y some things seems "displaced" or moved to fit, they were at other location in the past

I found the pit where they put the imprisoned in the wasteland.

"my wii u was stolen" who dafuq would want to steal a wii u

If I had to venture a guess, I think the developers probably started by testing gameplay mechanics and physics using existing 3D assets, like the Ocarina of Time map. As the game grew, they decided to turn the demo area into a playable tutorial for the final game. It also helps the player that the first area that they spend a lot of time in is full of recognizable things. So by basically dropping Ocarina of Time’s Hyrule into Breath of the Wild, players not only get to explore a new-yet-familiar land, but also get to see just how much bigger the new world is or will be.

Great, another zelda fact to share with... oh wait i have no one to share this things 😢 Great video tho!

How I always considered this, is that this is the OoT map, but because how tech have grown? That this is what Hyrule field would’ve looked. After so many thousands of years earth landscape can changed and buildings can be rebuilt elsewhere.

I would love to see a comparison of all the main Zelda game's maps overlayed based on different landmarks. Like keeping the master sword pedestal (temple of time, lost woods, hyrule castle) in the centre and placing the other maps over for comparison. I'm aware that the pedestal could be moved but I think it would be interesting. Same goes for death mountain, lake Hylia, temple of time etc

I think i still prefer the interpretation that loading screens are allowed to represent a larger distance traveled than is necessarily shown on the in-game map unless the entrance to the loading screen specifically shows some part of the destination. Like how you can see the owl statue in Clock Town through one of the loading screens. That would imply that that those two areas really are directly next to one another. Not only is there a non-descript loading screen between Hyrule Field and Gerudo Valley there's a similarly non-descript one between Gerudo Valley and Gerudo Fortress. There could be a lot more space there than what the game lets us play in. Showing all that space between would be pointless even on the in-game map, there's nothing there. This is actually a common problem with real historical maps, areas with lots of points of interest take up more space since it's hard to keep track of distance when there are no good landmarks in sight.

This is brilliant only issue I find is that because the great plateau is so high up and exact same shape as the lost woods up north I believe they moved and as we've seen now that the castle can lift above the ground it's pretty much a given that the great plateau is supposed to be up north

Looking so hard for historical reasons for differences when the answer is, the designers don't give AF iits just a coincidence.

I enjoyed the theory, but it seems highly unlikely. For example: I recall reading somewhere (probably one of the monoliths) that the Zora have bee living in the same spot from the times of Ruto (OoT). The development of Zelda games is not constricted by geography or even chronology most of the time.

They just wanted to recontextualize the map for next gen. If they kept the locations at the same spot, there would be no mystery, which is a thing you want to avoid when building scenarios. A plot without mystery is no plot at all. Mystery is the thing that makes you intrigue and wonder what happens next. That's why they built the map this way.

Main problem I have with this is that buildings have a way more likely change to move, unlike mountains. It doesnt make a lot of sense to try and match the map with the temple of time because it could have easily been moved, and it isnt the same as the one in oot too. Death mountain is the only volcano in the entire map, and mt hylia doesnt even have the hole.

The Zelda series is sorta like the Pokemon series; The creators don't seem to care too much for the lore across games. It's like they try and 'patch it in' as the games go by but ends up being too convoluted.

The mountain names aren't very consistent anyway. Like, Hebra and Death are the same mountain. In A Link to the Past, Hebra becomes Death in the Dark World version, but here, they're two separate mountains, in the same dimension.

It takes more than a river to turn a desert into a lush environment. Desert soil is typically extremely poor for plant growing and often enough that's why the place is a desert in the first place.

tectonic plates do funni shit, and the rito village could have appeared *after* everything moved. so everything here makes sense except for kokiri Forest.

If I’ve learned anything from the current Zelda team, EVERYTHING IS PLACED PURPOSELY

what if, now be calm what if it’s just TECTONIC PLATES

Take the great plateau and your overlay of ocarina of Time, turn it 180°, and place the whole thing over top of the Lost woods in the north of Breath of the Wild's map. That's the only thing you're missing! the great plateau and the Lost woods have swapped places and rotated.

The Temple of Time part hinges on one Death Mountain going dormant and turning into Mount Hylia, and then a new volcano showing up and them naming that Death Mountain... also? There can't be two Death Mountains, can there?

Happy

Fun fact: BotW Hyrule is the size of the Vatican City. _THE GAME'S MAP IS 44 SQUARE KILOMETERS!!!!!_

This makes sense, except the scale is all messed up. It also doesn’t take into account how half the map is on a plateau, so there should be a large drop off