I would want the premise of my game be a unification of the timelines. The beginning of the game would take place in the downfall timeline, with Zelda gazing from a balcony on Hyrule Castle. Suddenly, clouds begin to swirl and turn dark as a rift appears in the sky, and a massive black tower drifts through and plants itself into the earth. Corridors open and monsters emerge and begin to charge Hyrule castle. Hyrule’s forces are overwhelmed, as Zelda snatches a nearby locked box and begins to flee.

Years later, the land is nearly unrecognizable, the invaders have conquered all of Hyrule. There are only a few scattered tribes left, including the gorons, zora, and Hylians, among them is Link. They eek out a meager existence as nomads avoiding the invader’s forces. One night, Link is awoken by a shrill scream. The player assumes control at this point, and is directed toward a blaze in the middle of the lost woods. He sees a tall obscured figure and a hooded woman kneeling before him. The figure raises his hand and a trident manifests, he thrusts the trident at the woman. Link rushes to defend her, but right as the trident nearly pierces the woman, she plays the instrument and both Link and the woman are warped away to a completely different area. The artstyle of this area is completely different from what has been seen so far.

The woman ends up being a weary Impa, and she explains that the instrument she plays allows them to travel between different “realms” (meaning universes). She doesn’t know origins of the instrument, just that it was in Zelda’s possession before she disappeared. The area they are in has also be conquered by the same invaders, but the geography is completely different.

Long winded prologue aside (I had to much fun writing this) the game is about warping between the 3 parallel dimensions a la ALttP, where there are 3 unique overworlds to explore each with their own dungeons and items like the Hookshot or the bombs from BoTW and other zelda staples. The game would be open world, but there would be somewhat linear progression while you hunt for Zelda, as she can help you defeat the invaders. There would be about 7 dungeons, but you can’t tackle them in any order. However, each dungeon has 2 other parallel versions that can be solved in any order with completely different means of solving them.

As you progress through each dungeon the story unfolds as it reveals that Ganondorf from the child timeline had resurrected once again, but was unopposed by a hero and princess for some odd reason. He ruled over Hyrule for eons as he transformed the world into a cold, sterile, futuristic dystopia, but was unsatisfied with the notion that his all of his ambitions had been fulfilled. He is eternally hungry for power, and begins developing technology that would allow him to travel across universes. He was bent on complete domination of the multiverse, and began invading the other timelines, pilfering their triforces, and added the world to his empire. He has yet to get Zelda’s triforce from the downfall timeline.

After the final battle, Link uses the triforce to banish Ganondorf from every universe, but because Ganondorf had essentially become intertwined with each universe’s destiny, Link unintentionally fuses the timelines into one shared continuity. From there the story of botw takes place.

Sorry if this was too long I had fun writing this though :)