[Afrobean]

Why complicate things?

I just think of them all as standalones unless expressly implied in the game itself. There are a few games in which obvious ties are made, but beyond that, the only common element is the characters and world in which they live.

And after all, in each game, you have to start over from the beginning. It's not like in nondirect sequals you get to keep your items you gained in a previous chronological episode (only justified thing I can see is him being shipwrecked in his Link's Awakening adventure; besides that, none of the sequals starting out with nothing make sense in a chronological system).

EDIT: And by the way, one of the reasons that the series is so popular is that the ames can function quite well as a standalone (barring certain obvious exceptions).