Link (The Legend of Zelda)
is a character and the protagonist of Nintendo's video game franchise The Legend of Zelda. He was created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. Link was introduced as the hero of the original The Legend of Zelda video game in 1986 and has appeared in a total of 21 entries in the series, as well as a number of spin-offs. Common elements in the series include Link travelling through Hyrule whilst exploring dungeons, battling creatures, and solving puzzles until he eventually defeats the series' primary antagonist, Ganon, and saves Princess Zelda.
Throughout the series, Link has made multiple appearances in a variety of incarnations, but has been traditionally depicted in his signature green cap and tunic wielding a sword and shield. He has appeared as both a child and young adult of the elf-like Hylian race. Within Zelda mythology, Link is the soul of a legendary hero that throughout history is reincarnated within a seemingly ordinary boy or young man whenever evil arises. To defeat Ganon, Link usually obtains the mystical Master Sword or a similar legendary weapon obtained after completing many trials.
In addition to the main series, Link has appeared in other Nintendo media, including merchandise, comics and manga, and an animated television series. He is a prominent character in various spin-off games, including Hyrule Warriors, Cadence of Hyrule and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. He has appeared in several other game franchises, including the Super Smash Bros. series, SoulCalibur II and Mario Kart 8, and has also been referenced in other games, such as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
Alongside fellow Nintendo character Mario, Link is one of the most recognisable characters in the video game industry. He has been instrumental in the establishment of the role-playing video game genre as the protagonist of the series, which has influenced numerous other video games with its concepts of open world and nonlinear gameplay. According to Guinness World Records, Link is the most critically acclaimed video game playable character and the most ubiquitous action-adventure video game character. He was recognised by the Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition as the second best video game character after Mario. Critics have named him as one of the greatest and most influential video game characters of all time.
Concept and creation
Characterisation
Link's creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, said that his concept of The Legend of Zelda was based on his childhood memories as well as books and movies that he and video game designer Takashi Tezuka had enjoyed, notably J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Miyamoto wanted people to have the opportunity to be heroes and created Link as a normal boy, with "a destiny to fight great evil". On the origin of the character's name, Miyamoto said: "Link's name comes from the fact that originally, the fragments of the Triforce were supposed to be electronic chips. The game was to be set in both the past and the future and as the main character would travel between both and be the link between them, they called him Link". In the Nintendo book Hyrule Historia he said that the character is named Link because he, "connects people together" and, "he was supposed to spread the scattered energy of the world through the ages".Link is the playable character who appears in every installment of The Legend of Zelda series. Although there are many iterations of Link, each with a similar role and appearance, they are not the same individual. The series spans thousands of years in Hyrule's history across The Legend of Zelda fictional timeline, so that each version of the character is a different Link, sometimes being a descendant of earlier incarnations or a spiritual reincarnation. In some games, such as Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, the same version appears in both, continuing that character's individual story. Skyward Sword, which was released in 2011, explained Link's incarnations by creating an origin story, in which the antagonist Demon King Demise curses the hero to be caught in an endless cycle of defeating evil in the form of Ganon.
As no canonical game in The Legend of Zelda series to date has contained substantial spoken dialogue for Link, he is mostly a silent protagonist, but not a mute character. His voice acting consists only of grunts, battle cries, and other sounds, although in The Wind Waker, he can be heard saying, "Come on!" Despite lacking spoken dialogue, Link interacts with other characters through visual responses, such as nodding or shaking his head, reactions from side characters, or game text that expresses his dialogue. Series producer, Eiji Aonuma explained that a core aspect of Link's design is that players need to relate to him and put themselves in his shoes, while still playing as themselves. Link is silent to allow the player to interpret how he sounds, make decisions for the character and become the hero.
Character design
Link's character design has been consistent, but it has evolved across the series. His sprite design was created by Tezuka. In an interview with Gamekult, Miyamoto said that Tezuka used the Disney character Peter Pan as a source of inspiration when creating Link in order to make the character recognisable. Due to the limited capabilities of the technology at the time, the development team was only able to use three colours and chose green as Link's signature colour, as the first game was mainly set within a forest environment. Link's sword and shield, long hat and ears were all created to make the character easily distinguishable. For Ocarina of Time, Miyamoto said that the team started by designing a grown-up model followed by a child model, but realised that both could be used in the game, "to tell the story of a boy growing up". Link's teenage appearance in Ocarina of Time was designed with the aim of making him more handsome, influenced by developer Yoshiaki Koizumi's wife declaring, "all of Nintendo's characters have funny noses; don't you have any handsome ones?" Nintendo illustrator Yusuke Nakano said that Link's design in Ocarina of Time was based on a well-known American actor at the time of the game's development.Prior to The Wind Waker a cartoon version of Link was created by graphic designer Yoshiki Haruhana as a way to evolve the series, which was well received by the development team. According to designer Satoru Takizawa, this oversized anime-inspired design with huge eyes offered a richer variety of expression and provided a better way of representing the puzzles and mechanisms than a more photorealistic design. After many experiments, the development team had decided that cel-shading was the best option for expressing a young, energetic boy. Although the team loved the idea of basing the next Zelda game on a cartoon Link, Aonuma held off presenting it to Miyamoto until later in the game's development. When he did view it, Miyamoto reportedly cringed, believing that the game would not sell, but the team insisted that there was not enough time to develop a realistic art style. Toon Link eventually carved his own identity into the franchise by appearing in multiple entries in the series and being introduced as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Aonuma said that despite some initial outrage, gamers began to accept Toon Link, so Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks were created with a similar artwork style.
Following the response to The Wind Waker, Nintendo reversed the art style for Twilight Princess in 2006, by depicting Link in a more realistic style with a darker, grittier tone. Nakano and Takizawa stated in The Legend of Zelda: Art and Artifacts that they had planned to design him aged mid-to-late twenties and that he would be well built, but this was rejected because the team expected that fans wanted to see Link as he appeared in Ocarina of Time. Aonuma explained that the design team wanted to express Link as an older teenager: "The fact that we're seeing Link on horseback and swinging a sword, I think that's one more way in which Link has matured". In Twilight Princess, Link has the ability to transform into a wolf. Aonuma said that the design team considered the animal to be the best representation of a hero and that this function gave the adult version of Link limited human abilities, allowing him to mature over the course of the game.
Link's signature green tunic and cap have evolved over the course of the series. At a Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Takizawa described the subtle changes made to Link's outfit. For Twilight Princess he, "made the hat long, so it would flap in the wind and move around", but for Skyward Sword, he made it more diminutive and gave it less motion. The release of Breath of the Wild in 2017 broke the conventions of Link's design, notably by the absence of his signature green outfit. Takizawa explained that "as the graphic fidelity has increased it becomes more difficult to make that hat look cool". For Breath of the Wild nearly 100 designs were considered to ensure that Link remained a neutral character. Aonuma commented: "We thought that the iconic green tunic and hat had become expected, so we wanted to mix things up and update his look. Interestingly, though, nobody on the team said, 'Let's make him blue!' It just organically ended up that way".
Link's physical features have also evolved, influenced by trends in masculinity. His handsomeness has been defined by soft, androgynous facial features, a sharp nose and a slight build. His hair has been inspired by the fashion of the era, beginning with a mullet in the 1980s, then followed by blond curtain bangs and pierced ears in the 1990s, moving to choppy, layered side-swept bangs by the release of Twilight Princess. His look was updated in Breath of the Wild to include a ponytail and a wide variety of outfits. Although Link is a male character, Aonuma said that he wanted him to be gender neutral in Ocarina of Time: "I wanted the player to think 'Maybe Link is a boy or a girl'. If you saw Link as a guy, he'd have more of a feminine touch. Or vice versa, if you related to Link as a girl, it was with more of a masculine aspect". For Twilight Princess, he created a more masculine Link, but later decided to return him to a more gender neutral character. He said that Link is definitely male in Breath of the Wild, but wanted to create a character to which anyone could relate.
In multiple entries, Link has a counterpart character called either Shadow Link or Dark Link. This version has different designs; in Zelda II, he has a shadowy appearance, while in Ocarina of Time, he also has red eyes.