Games - Link

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Link is the protagonist of Nintendo's Legend of Zelda
video game series. Link was created by Shigeru Miyamoto, and first appeared in the 1986 game The Legend of Zelda. Introduced as a generic sword-fighting hero, the character was typical of fantasy-adventure games. However, later Legend of Zelda titles revealed significantly more details about him. The game's success—over 6.5 million copies sold worldwide—and that of its numerous sequels made Link one of Nintendo's best-known characters. Link is named for the "link" the player shares with the hero of each game, and in every game, the player can name the character according to his or her wishes.

A peculiarity of the character is that there are several different incarnations of Link throughout the series, although they share a number of distinctive characteristics. The existence of multiple Links is made obvious on many occasions in the games; for example, the introduction sequences of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap refer to an ancient, legendary champion, identical in appearance to Link, and TWW directly mentions the "Hero of Time" as a historical entity. Because of this unique situation, Link may be referred to both singularly and plurally throughout this article. Miyamoto confirmed that there were multiple Links in late 2003; however, the exact chronology of the Legend of Zelda series is subject to debate among fans, and apart from a few fairly clear pairings (see Link's incarnations section) it is uncertain which of Link's incarnations appears in each of the games. Even "official" timelines tend to contradict previous "official" timelines. (See Legend of Zelda series
for a discussion of the controversy surrounding the chronology of the games.)

Contents

1 Common attributes of all Links
*1.1 Appearance
*1.2 Abilities and weaponry
**1.2.1 Swords and shields
**1.2.2 Other weapons
**1.2.3 Physical abilities
**1.2.4 Magic
2 Relationships with other characters
*2.1 Family
*2.2 Companions and allies
3 Link's incarnations
*3.1 The Legend of Zelda & The Adventure of Link
*3.2 A Link to the Past & Link's Awakening
*3.3 Ocarina of Time & Majora's Mask
*3.4 Oracle Series
*3.5 Four Swords
*3.6 The Wind Waker
*3.7 Four Swords Adventures
*3.8 The Minish Cap
*3.9 Twilight Princess
4 Link in other media - TV, comics, and more
5 Appearances in other games
*5.1 CD-i
*5.2 Super Smash Bros. series
*5.3 Soul Calibur II
*5.4 Minor cameos
6 Trivia
7 References

Common attributes of all Links

Link is a courageous boy or young man; it is unlikely that his age ever exceeds 17 years at any point in the series. In the Legend of Zelda (LoZ) games, he usually leaves his home and relatives at an early age to pursue his destiny and fight Ganon, his archenemy, or other servants of evil. In almost all LoZ games, (exceptions being Zelda II: The Adventure of Link and the upcoming The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess) Link is a child or a young adolescent when he begins his quest. This is made clear through Link's body dimensions in the 3D games and by his lack of sexual awareness: when certain characters exhibit sexual behavior in parts of some games, Link is often taken aback, rather than tantalized.

Link's adventures mostly take place in the kingdom of Hyrule, although The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons, and The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages are set in other locales (and so, to some extent, is The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker—although all of these games at least mention Hyrule). Link is closely associated with the Triforce of Courage and thus with the goddess Farore and her color, green. Recovering the Triforce of Courage is a key part of some LoZ games like The Adventure of Link and The Wind Waker.

The Legend of Zelda titles give few hints at Link's personality; ellipses ("..." and variations thereof) are sometimes used to replace Link's speech and can be interpreted in various ways, but his actual words are almost never given. He speaks (or thinks) a few sentences in Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, but he is usually silent. Moreover, the top-down 2D view in many of the games is not well-suited to depict his facial expressions.
In the 3D games, beginning with Ocarina of Time, Link has been voiced by three actors; Nobuyuki Hiyama for adult Link, Fujiko Takimoto for young Link and Sachi Matsumoto as Link in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, but because no Zelda game to date contains substantial spoken dialog, the part merely consists of short phrases, grunts and other sounds.

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Games - Link

Common attributes of all Links

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