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Serving as the main setting for the majority of the games inThe Legend of Zelda, fans are well acquainted with the Kingdom of Hyrule, after almost 40 years of questing through, above, and below it. And now that there are a double-digit number of games set there, who can blame them?
But Hyrule’s not the only setting we get to explore throughout The Legend of Zelda series – there have been plenty of other exterior kingdoms, alternate worlds, and fantasy lands that have kept us enraptured for decades. Here’s a look at all the Zelda games not set in Hyrule.
This article contains some spoilers for the Zelda games that don’t take place in Hyrule.
The Kingdom Of Hyrule
The Primary Kingdom
The majority of games in the Legend of Zelda series take place in the central realm ofHyrule. Ruled over by the Royal Family for centuries, we get to seemultiple iterations of Hyrule throughout the series.
Home to the most iconic life forms in the series - Hylians, Zoras, Gorons, Kokiri, and more - Hyrule is theprimary setting for The Legend of Zelda games.
In order of release, the games set in Hyrule in The Legend of Zelda series include:
ThoughTri Force Heroes(2015)takes place in the fashion-focused realm ofHytopiajust north of Hyrule proper, the Hyrule Historia describes Hytopia merging with Hyrule after the events of the game, so it won’t be getting its own entry in this article.
The Dark World And Lorule: A Link To The Past And A Link Between Worlds
A Kind Of Anti-Hyrule
ThoughA Link Between Worldsin 2013 was the mostrecenttime we’ve gotten to visit a dark iteration of the Kingdom of Hyrule, it’s far from the first - that was inA Link to the Past, back in 1991.
This is also the first time we hear mention ofThe Imprisoning War, a now longstanding major historical event in the Zelda timeline.
In the original A Link to the Past, you learn for the first time that there’s a creepycounter-world to Hyrule, known as “The Dark World.“When you see thesame region again in A Link Between Worlds, it’s known as Lorule.
Link is responsible fortraversing through time and space between the realmsin order to complete everything he’ll need to do before he can handle the games' big bads:Agahnimin A Link to the Past andYuga, who is stylistically similar, in A Link Between Worlds.
Regardless of whether you’re dealing with the Dark World or Lorule, you’ll find both to beundersaturated, decaying mirrors of the same regions in the Light World or Hyrule, respectively.
Labryana And Holodrum: Oracle Of Ages And Oracle Of Seasons
Colorful Sister Kingdoms
Though technically separate games, Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons work in tandem toexplain the same event across two different games, with Ages set in Labryana and Seasons set in its sister realm of Holodrum.
And in both of these new realms, Link will need to use either the Rod of Seasons or Harp of Ages to navigate each game’s respective gameplay limitations, with Seasons changing the weather and Ages requiring time travel to complete.
Which game you choose to play, if you’re only going for one, is truly up toplayer preferencein which game mechanic you prefer to emphasize in Zelda titles -Agesis primarily apuzzle-based game, while you’ll do far morebattlingthan anything else inSeasons.
The Oracle games were also the first time fans got to enjoy alinked game whose two plots merge to form one cohesive plotbetween the two games, requiring the completion of both titles to see the whole picture.
Originally launched on Game Boy in 1993, reissued on the Game Boy Color in 1998, and fully remastered for the Nintendo Switch in 2019,Link’s Awakeningis not only one of the games to take place outside Hyrule, but it also notablydoesn’t feature Princess Zelda, either.
After defeating Ganon, Link sets sail across the sea on a personal journey but is struck by lightning on his way home, eventually washing up instead onKoholint Island.
As he searches forthe Master Sword, Link learns he mustawaken the Wind Fish, who sleeps inside a massive egg atop the highest mountainsin the region before he can hope to be returned to Hyrule.
The actualexistence of Koholint Island and the Wind Fishthe residents of it so revere isrevealed to bea dreamthroughout the course of the game, with Link waking up adrift at sea back in the real world after he awakens the Wind Fish.
Giving birth to one of the more iconic phrases in the Zelda series,Majora’s Maskis renowned for being one of thedarker stories in the Zelda timeline.
The game takes place inTermina, a counter-world where Linkfalls as he’s chasing after Navi. His plunge takes quite a while, and when he lands, he finds himself in the new world of Termina.
With the central settlement of Clock Town in the middle andfour individual areasin the cardinal compass directions, Link must completea dungeon in each of the game’s four regionswithin a strictthree-day time limitto save the realm from being destroyed.
Along the way, you’ll complete plenty of intriguing side quests, meet fascinating counter-versions of the iconic Zelda races combating their natural habitat (like the Gorons dealing with ice, for example), and eventuallytake on Majora yourself up on the Moon’s Surface.
Technically speaking, in terms of the official Zelda timeline, the Great SeaisHyrule - it’s just beenflooded over on purposein an attempt tosave the realmfrom Ganondorfemerging yet again.
After praying to the gods, the Three Goddesses instructed the citizens of the Kingdom of Hyrule toflee to the highest mountaintopsof the region to keep them safe beforethe Goddesses flooded Hyrulein an attempt to lock Ganondorf below the Great Sea.
We get to see the Great Sea a handful of times in The Legend of Zelda series, namely inWind Waker, Phantom Hourglass,and, to a lesser degree,Spirit Tracks.
For the most part, your navigation of the Great Sea will require atrustworthy vessel, with the adventures in these games primarily seafaring in nature.
Finally, the most recent time in The Legend of Zelda in which we’ve left the Kingdom of Hyrule took us to some prettyloftyheights -Skyloft, a small city that existsentirely in the sky, is the primary setting inSkyward Sword.
With so much chaos breaking out down on earth, the Goddess Hylia sent some of the few survivors up onto anisland in the skyfar, far above the decaying region below, before resigning her godhood and beingreborn as a human, who you learn by the endto be Zelda herself.
At the very beginning of Skyward Sword, Zelda issucked down to the Surface worldby a colossal tornado, and Link is tasked withdescending to the Surface multiple times in search of her.
Working with Impa, the assorted races that remain on the Surface, and (begrudgingly at first) his schoolyard bully, Groose, Link is tasked withdefeating dungeons and challenges in order to maintain the sealthe Goddess had placed on the evil consuming the Surface.
