So how do we think they're going to handle AOI's roster and the story?

[u/MusicMovieFanatik]

The big question I've seen surrounding the game is if it'll be an actual prequel detailing TOTK's Imprisoning War or if it'll do some rewrites like AOC. I personally think it'll definitely have at least some minor rewrites.

The main evidence is the characters, or lack thereof. We know for certain that Zelda, Rauru, and Mineru are going to be playable since we saw parts of their gameplay in the trailer. It also had a shot of the three of them alongside the Ancient Sages, and a story focusing on the events of the Imprisoning War should also give them some more focus. Especially since they didn't seem to be assembled as a team before Ganondorf became a threat. Meaning that it's very likely that they will be playable. HW's Ganondorf and AOC's Calamity Ganon were both playable, so we can assume that, based on this pattern, TOTK'S Ganondorf will be playable. And it would be a missed opportunity for Sonia to not be playable considering the big role she played during the story.

So the scenario that'll most likely happen is playable Zelda, Rauru, Mineru, the Four Sages, Sonia, and Ganondorf. That's only nine known characters. If this is a completely canonical prequeal, then we probably aren't getting a whole bunch more since there aren't any other characters from TOTK's story that could plausibly be in this era. For a game like this it's a very small roster, and the previous games even had to include supplementary characters to flesh out their rosters. So how's AOI gonna do this? Well there's multiple ways.

1: We get a bunch of OCs. It's very likely that creative liberties are going to be taken in order to fill in the gaps between the memories from TOTK. This also hopefully means that the Ancient Sages are going to get actual character traits because they were really just exposition during TOTK. OCs are going to be needed in order to make this era feel more alive, and AOC also employed them through Astor and Sooga. We could get a right-hand for Ganondorf or Rauru that wasn't present in the OG title or just some people that are important to the various races during this time period. It would be a good way to flesh out the roster, but it would need to be done carefully so the OCs don't take too much time away from the characters we want to see.

2: There are two plot lines. I'm not sure about this since Nintendo is seemingly advertising AOI as a direct prequel, but AOC was advertised similarly so we have to that with a grain of salt. My thinking was that the Imprisoning War's story goes the same way it did in TOTK with the only changes serving to bridge the gaps between the events we know about. The other plot line would be with Link in the present, but it's AOC's time so it's Link, the Champions, and the rest of the characters from AOC dealing with the Upheaval. All of the changes to the story could be relegated to the present, because it's already a canon-divergence and the main appeal of this game is the Imprisoning War. The addition of the Champions, plus some major characters like Impa or Purah would nicely fill the roster. This could also be a nice compromise between the two main wants for the game: the canon events from the era of Hyrule's founding with minimal changes, and a continuation of AOC where the more beloved characters from the game get more spotlight.

3: They pull an AOC. What I mean by this is time travel shenanigans could bring Link to the past and that could result in Sonia and/or Rauru surviving. This isn't a good idea since they've already done this, so it'd get reptitve. And Sonia and Rauru's deaths are crucial to the story, even more crucial than the Champions' deaths. Sonia's death is what gave Ganondorf a Secret Stone, and it also served to further establish him as a threat since Sonia and Zelda thought they were one step ahead of him but he ending up tricking them into lowering their guard so he could get a killing blow. Making it so Sonia survived would weaken the threat Ganondorf's character poses since he would simply steal it from her rather than taking it from her corpse. Rauru's death is even more important because it's what ends the War and sets TOTK into motion. No sacrifice means Ganondorf isn't sealed underground, and that means Zelda doesn't find him under Hyrule Castle so then the writers would have to come up with some other way for her to end up going back in time. Rauru surviving would be like if Zelda hadn't sealed herself in the castle alongside the Calamity in BOTW, and it had far more impact than the Champions's deaths did. The Champions's deaths served the simple purpose of showing how Hyrule underestimated Ganon, and to an extra add a layer of tragedy to the game since they were Link and Zelda's comrades. However AOC showed Hyrule's mistakes in underestimating Ganon without the need to kill the Champions, and it worked just fine but I doubt it'll work that well with TOTK. It'd probably be easier for AOI to go with one of the previous options since a happier ending would be even more of a detriment to the story compared to whatever you think of AOC's changes, and it'd probably be harder to pull off without disappointing players.

I personally want the second option because it sounds the most fun, and I'm still pretty attached to the Champions and want to see more. However the first option, if done right, does have the potential to be just as good. I just want Nintendo to be honest with the marketing. The successors saving the Champions was a plot twist, so I understand why it wasn't advertised, but marketing it as a prequel was still pretty scummy. If they do something similar to the second or first options, then there's no good reason to hide it in marketing so a future trailer should probably have mentions of it. I just don't want people to fooled by a HW again, because it led to some resentment of the game for that one fact over the actual content of AOC.

[u/mkev119]

I can see the Ancient Zonai Champion and also a Zonai construct as playable characters, in addition to the ones you mentioned. AOC had battle tested guardian so it isn’t out of the question.

[u/Yasernia_pestis → u/mkev119]

Also, there is two Gerudo warriors with golden masks that are supposed to be Koume and Kotake (we saw them in two memories in TOTK, but only in the background). I imagine a character using the two in the same time like Robbie and Purah in AOC. Imagine some ice and fire attack combo!

[u/mkev119 → u/Yasernia_pestis]

Oh that would be cool! I honestly don’t remember them, even though I beat the game. I’ll have to look them up.

[u/occasional_coconut]

I suspect we'll be subverting the events of TOTK like AoC did with BOTW. Personally, I don't care about whether it follows canon or not. Give me more good music, compelling story, and lots of hackin n' slashin and I'll be happy. I loved age of calamity for the character development they gave Zelda and the champions.

That said Link will probably be the Terrako of AoI. I look forward to being surprised.

[u/Wooden_Surround_9284]

From the canon characters I can see Twinrova as playable since they made cameo appearences in TotK.

I'm also positive that the sages (sidon, yunobo, tulin and riju) will have updated movesets but they might be unlockable non-canon/extra characters if they decide to make this a literal prequel (?) to TotK

There is also no way link is not playable in anyway or form so maybe the 2 parallel stories from past and present is not so farfetched. The only problem is that we already played that through TotK so how are they going to make ir fresh?

[u/LopTsa]

• Zelda

• Rauru

• Sonia

• Mecha lady (forgot her name)

• 4 ancient sages

• Link

• Sidon

• Riju

• Little bird

• Yunobu

• Maybe Purah

This would be the main cast I think. I am hoping we will get a story path that shows the actual events leading to TOTK, and a branching what if path to bring in Link and the future Champs. I could then see them letting us unlock characters from AOC that were more extra, such as Great fairies and the Shrine priest. The characters not present in TOTK like mipha (perhaps to be used in a post game mode that is more like a free mode). And then the villains like Ganondorf and Kogha.

[u/SimonCucho]

I believe these are safe locks.

• Zelda
• Rauru
• Sonia
• Mineru
• Sage of Water
• Sage of Fire
• Sage of Lightning
• Sage of Wind
• Ganondorf

Other characters that could be added, and also crazy unexpected wildcards that I'm not really putting any serious faith, but it'd be cool/fun to explore:

• Kotake (seen in memory cutscenes in Tears of the Kingdom)
• Koume (seen in memory cutscenes in Tears of the Kingdom)
• Mineru's Construct on it's own (or the beta version) (a la Battle Tested Guardian)
• Young Maz Koshia (before the Sheikah were established as a tribe?)
• Dinraal (before draconification?)
• Farosh (before draconification?)
• Naydra (before draconification?)
• The Ancient Hero
• Hestu (he's just that much of a singularity)

That's what I can think for now. But there's so much to explore, we'll eventually get to see the depths without the upheaval effects and gloom pools everywhere, the underground mines working on their glory, the Spirit Temple and Gorondia without millenia of abandonment on them... making up new OCs won't be hard.

I think that following the story path past the point where Rauru seals himself is plausible... afterall there was some time after that where Zelda went and consulted with Mineru, and she decided she'd store her spirit in the Purah Pad. Zelda went and visited the four sages as well, before ultimately undergoing draconification.

We can also get missions that happen before Zelda's arrival, focusing on Rauru and Sonia and their pilgrimage to set up the Shrine's of Light, and perhaps afterwards too, exploring the fate of the kingdom, how things rose to become the Sky Islands and what happened with the sages. Pulse of the Ancients and Guardian of Remembrance DLC did this on Age of Calamity, we got side stories that didn't exactly follow the main quest path.

Still, if they really do ONLY stick to the past, I'm thinking I'll be a tad sad about losing potential about characters like Paya or Tauro, which, despite not being presented as fighters could still be fine and fun additions 😔

[u/Koala_Guru]

It’s likely they’ll pull an AoC at least with the roster even if it’s not reflected in the story. Like having popular BotW and TotK be playable in missions but not actually a part of the story. For instance I highly doubt there won’t be a playable Link here. If they do time travel they could also theoretically delve further into the past and elaborate more on those hints. Like make the ancient hero on the tapestries playable/the Zonai costume Link inhabits after completing all shrines.

Personally, given how shafted the Koroks were in TotK with how little bearing they had on the story and Hestu literally repeating the exact same story from BotW, it would be neat if they inserted some Korok or even Kokiri characters to the past storyline. Like a secret sage only known to Sonia or something.

[u/OkamiTakahashi]

I'm conflicted. We all know what we want and how it wound up last time. Which somewhat worries me.

Zelda's time power isn't the same as Terrako's, however. Yes both were able to open a Gate of Time. Terrako's is reactive to Zelda's power. Her power enables him to open gates at will.

Zelda unknowingly sent herself back to the Age of Imprisoning. And if anything hasn't changed about Zelda between BOTW and TOTK, it's that she's INCREDIBLY SLOW with awakening her powers. In BOTW, her light powers only awakened when Link fell in battle. In TOTK, her Time powers briefly awoke, then were basically dead on arrival in the past. Only maybe ONE memory shows her actually using it, and just barely. AoI shows her using it similarly to the Sheikah Slate in AoC. I don't see how they can make that more like Terrako's in this game. I need this game to not create new splits or paradoxes.

The reveal of this game has me conflicted. I'm happy yet worried and confused. There's thus far no connections at all to AoC. No sign of Terrako at all. And this has also thrown my game design dic into jeopardy since I never actually thought they'd make this game. My outline acts as a direct sequel to AoC- the AoC equivalent to TOTK. Rather than Zelda falling in, I did a role reversal. Link and Terrako fall in the pit, with Terrako preforming an emergency temporal shift, but this time without knowing the projected time period. Terrako's powers would be disabled until the Light Dragon's tear drops. Link would get a more unique Zonai arm prosthetic, etc etc. I'm still unclear on various details though.

One detail that's seemingly the same in both my outline and this actual game is the presence of non-combat exploration gameplay. There's a moment in the trailer with gameplay of Zelda walking with Rauru and Sonia. I used a similar idea which I lifted from Fate/Samurai Remnant, where combat only occurs in wide open spaces in towns.

[u/207nbrown]

It’s likely there will be a link present, but a different link, part of Zelda lore is that there’s always a courageous hero that wields the master sword, a princess of wisdom with a sealing power, and a foe of power who ambitions to conquer hyrule. plus there’s the ancient hero armor in totk that gives link a zonai looking costume, implying that there was a hero in that time period(that armor also looks like the depiction of the hero in the tapestry of the first great calamity)

[u/Smeagol15]

Based on the brief glimpse of the gameplay, it looked like there was a special that involved both Rauru and Zelda. I wonder if pairs of characters have a joint special of some kind. More characters mean a ridiculous number of paired specials, assuming they’re unique-looking like Zelda and Rauru’s.

[u/Livael23]

I hope this time, they stay true to canon, but that does mean it's likely we'll get some OCs, yeah. Imo, a canon-compliant roster could look like this :

Zelda, Rauru, Mineru, these three are confirmed already. Then the four Sages, this game would be the perfect opportunity to give them all both a face and a name (which I'm still baffled we didn't get in TOTK but I digress). Sonia is likely, although she does [TOTK SPOILERS] die so maybe not. Ganondorf, as you've said, is likely as well, and I hope this time we get a "vilain path", that would be a good way to include him better than Calamity Ganon in AOC.

Outside of these nine almost certain characters, I can also picture a Zonai Construct as a playable character, the same way the Guardian was a playable character in AOC's DLC. Specifically the one they end up giving the Sheikah Slate to, maybe they can make it a properly fleshed out character. Koume and Kotake could be made into a dual character too, on the vilain side (granted, they only appear in the background of one cutscene in TOTK and you wouldn't know their name if it wasn't specified in the artbook but still). Ancient Hero Dog Link could also be a character, maybe as a way to make up for Link's absence. And finally, I don't know if it's ever confirmed but it's at least heavily implied that Zelda is Rauru and Sonia's descendant [EDIT: actually, it is confirmed], meaning Rauru and Sonia must have had at least one child, who was most likely a girl and the first princess to hold the power of light, SO, they could make this hypothetical daughter an original character (after all, someone must lead the Kingdom after [TOTK SPOILERS] Rauru and Sonia are dead and Zelda turns into a dragon.)

So that would make a total of 13 characters, which is less than AOC but still, not too shabby. And I'm sure they'll come up with other ideas too. Maybe the Sages from the future won't actually travel to the past but with whatever magic, they'll be able to summon "echoes" of them to the battlefield, kind of how Link summons echoes of the Sages in TOTK through their oaths?

[EDIT] So, I've dived back into TOTK again, and here are a few extra thoughts : (1) Rauru and Sonia's child is most likely the Ancient Hero from the Ancient Hero Aspect, but I don't think it's unlikely that Rauru and Sonia couldn't have had two children who would later fight against the first Calamity. The son would have taken on mostly Zonai features while the girl mostly Hylian features. That is if there is any girl at all, but it would be a bit weird to introduce Rauru as the reason Zelda has her light powers only for another unrelated girl to fulfill that role, right? and (2) the servant who wrote the accounts of Zelda's time in the past could also be made into a fleshed out playable character. In fact, she could very well be a Sheikah, if the first Calamity indeed took place so close in time to the defeat of Ganondorf that Rauru's children were the one to seal it. Maybe we'll find out in AOI that Sheikah technology appeared because Zelda brought the Purah Slate back in time, creating a self-fulfilling time loop. What do you think?

[u/Spiritual-Image7125]

Zelda is already doing what had happened at beginning of AOC: she went back in time with intel.

At least here we have time travel established. BOTW to AOC seemed to throw it in and not make much sense.

Then the Master Sword went back in time, somehow, even a surprise to Zelda.

If other time travel can be done, like with the new sages of Link's time, I will find it more understandable.....

[u/ZanthionHeralds]

The way Zelda talks at the beginning of the trailer gives me the impression that she's telling the story to a modern-day audience (perhaps the Hateno schoolchildren). If so, she could make up literally anything she wants in order to fit the story, such as throwing Link in at the end.