The Legend of Zelda Open-Air Saga

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Breath of the Wild takes place at the end of the Zelda timeline in the kingdom of Hyrule. An amnesiac warrior named Link awakens in a chamber called the Shrine of Resurrection, located on the Great Plateau overlooking Hyrule. He encounters an old man who eventually reveals himself as the lingering spirit of Rhoam, the last king of Hyrule. He explains that Link has been slumbering in the Shrine of Resurrection for a century, and narrates the history of the kingdom and Link's own past.
In ancient times, the Sheikah race had developed Hyrule into an advanced civilization, protected by four enormous animalistic machines called the Divine Beasts and an army of autonomous weapons called Guardians. When an ancient evil known as Calamity Ganon appeared and threatened Hyrule, four great warriors were given the title of Champion, and each piloted one of the Divine Beasts to weaken Ganon. Meanwhile, the princess of Hyrule, who possessed the blood of the Goddess Hylia, sealed Ganon away while being protected by her appointed knight.
Ten millennia later, the kingdom of Hyrule had regressed to a medieval state. Reading their ancestors' prophecies, Hyrule's peoples recognized the signs of Ganon's return and excavated surrounding areas to uncover the Divine Beasts and Guardians. During this time, Princess Zelda trained vigorously to awaken the sealing magic needed to defeat Ganon while trying to maintain her personal research into the Divine Beasts. A knight was appointed to protect her: Link, who was chosen due to his ability to wield the Master Sword. After being sought out by Zelda, the Champions—Mipha, princess of the aquatic Zora; Revali, archer of the birdlike Rito; Daruk, warrior of the mountainous Gorons; and Urbosa, chief of the desert-dwelling Gerudo—assembled to pilot the Divine Beasts while Zelda and Link would face Ganon directly.
When Ganon appeared on Zelda's seventeenth birthday, he possessed the Guardians and Divine Beasts, turning them against Hyrule. King Rhoam and the Champions were killed, and Link was gravely wounded protecting Zelda. Zelda unlocked her sealing powers, using them to save Link. Zelda had Link taken to the Shrine of Resurrection for him to heal, hid the Master Sword in Korok Forest under the protection of the Great Deku Tree, and used her light magic to seal herself and Ganon in Hyrule Castle. Rhoam finishes his story by explaining that Ganon has grown stronger while sealed in Hyrule Castle, and pleads for Link to defeat Ganon before he regains his strength and destroys the world.
Link leaves the plateau and reunites with Impa, a Sheikah elder who previously served the royal family, and she instructs him to free the Divine Beasts. Link travels across Hyrule, returning to locations from his past and regaining his memories. At the behest of Hyrule's peoples, he boards the four Divine Beasts and severs them from Ganon's control, freeing the spirits of Hyrule's fallen Champions and allowing them to pilot the Divine Beasts. In this endeavor, Link is assisted by Sidon, the Zora prince and Mipha's younger brother; Yunobo, Daruk's cowardly descendant; Teba, a Rito warrior; and Riju, the young chief of the Gerudo. After obtaining the Master Sword from Korok Forest, Link enters Hyrule Castle and confronts Ganon. The Divine Beasts weaken him, and after Link defeats him, he transforms into Dark Beast Ganon. Zelda gives Link the Bow of Light, which allows him to weaken Ganon enough for Zelda to seal him away, restoring peace and allowing the spirits of King Rhoam and the Champions to depart to the afterlife. If the player completes an optional quest that involves Link regaining all of his memories, they unlock a post-credits cutscene in which Zelda declares that Hyrule must be rebuilt and that she and Link must begin the process by themselves. As Link and Zelda survey Hyrule, the princess confides in him that although her powers may have dwindled over time, she has come to terms with it.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Tears of the Kingdom takes place a number of years after Breath of the Wild, at the end of the Zelda timeline. Link and Zelda explore a cavern beneath Hyrule Castle, from which a poisonous substance called "gloom" has been seeping out and causing people to fall ill. There, they find murals depicting the founding of Hyrule and a subsequent conflict known as the Imprisoning War—an ancient battle against a being referred to as the "Demon King"—which Zelda believes to be related to the mysterious Zonai race. Upon venturing deeper, they discover a mummy being restrained by a disembodied arm. The mummy awakens and attacks Link and Zelda; in the aftermath, Link's right arm is wounded and the Master Sword is shattered. Hyrule Castle is raised into the sky, and Zelda falls into the depths below; as Link tries to catch her, she vanishes along with a mysterious artifact. Link is rescued by the arm, awakening later on the Great Sky Island to find that it has replaced his damaged limb. He meets the spirit of Rauru, a Zonai and the source of his new arm, who helps him traverse the island. Once Link reaches his destination, the shattered Master Sword vanishes and he returns to the surface below.
Link learns that the event in the cavern, known as the Upheaval, has wrought chaos upon Hyrule, and he sets out to investigate reports of strange phenomena throughout the kingdom. He ventures into ancient Zonai temples after reuniting with his allies: Sidon, the prince and, later, king of the Zora; Tulin, a young Rito archer and son of Teba, a past ally of Link's; Yunobo, a Goron, now the president of the YunoboCo mining company; and Riju, the young chief of the Gerudo. After defeating the monsters that have taken over the temples, Link and his allies find artifacts called secret stones and meet the spirits of ancient sages, who appoint Link's allies as their successors and pass down their secret stones. After numerous sightings of Zelda throughout Hyrule, Link finds her at Hyrule Castle, where she reveals herself to be an illusion created by Phantom Ganon, a servant of the Demon King Ganondorf, the mummy whom Link previously encountered. After defeating Phantom Ganon, Link sets out to find Mineru, the last of the ancient sages, who remains in the physical world via spiritual projection. He assembles a mechanical body for her spirit to inhabit.
Through Mineru, the ancient sages, and items called Dragon's Tears scattered across Hyrule, Link learns of Zelda's fate. The artifact she found was a secret stone that transported her to the distant past, where she met Rauru, Hyrule's first king, and Sonia, its first queen. After Ganondorf killed Sonia and used her secret stone to become the Demon King, Rauru appointed his older sister Mineru, Zelda, and the leaders of the Zora, Rito, Gorons, and Gerudo as sages. With their help, Rauru fought Ganondorf and sacrificed himself to seal him away. Later, Zelda received the shattered Master Sword from the future and tasked the sages with aiding Link once Ganondorf reawakened. To repair the Master Sword and bring it to Link in the present, she swallowed her secret stone and underwent "draconification", becoming the immortal Light Dragon and losing her sense of self.
In the present, after ridding the Great Deku Tree of gloom in Korok Forest, Link retrieves the repaired Master Sword from the Light Dragon and heads below Hyrule Castle to confront Ganondorf. With aid from Sidon, Tulin, Yunobo, Riju, and Mineru, Link battles an army of monsters before engaging Ganondorf himself. Nearing defeat, Ganondorf swallows his secret stone, becoming the Demon Dragon in a final attempt to kill Link. With help from the Light Dragon, Link uses the Master Sword to shatter the Demon Dragon's secret stone, killing it. The spirits of Rauru and Sonia help Link return Zelda to normal and restore his right arm before fading away; he and Zelda fall to the surface, where they reunite. Some time later, on the Great Sky Island, Mineru bids farewell to Zelda and Link before fading away, while the new sages vow to protect Hyrule.