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Link (The Legend of Zelda)

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Computer & Video games

   Link

   Link, seen here in a piece of Twilight Princess artwork, is a
   courageous fighter who stars in The Legend of Zelda series games.

   Game series The Legend of Zelda series
   First game The Legend of Zelda (1986)
   Creator(s) Shigeru Miyamoto
   Voice actor(s) Nobuyuki Hiyama (adult)
   Fujiko Takimoto (child)
   Sachi Matsumoto
   ( Wind Waker)
   Motion capture actor Nobuyuki Hiyama

   Link (リンク, Rinku^ ?) is the fictional protagonist of Nintendo's The
   Legend of Zelda video game series created by Shigeru Miyamoto. Link and
   The Legend of Zelda are one of Nintendo's flagship game franchises, a
   franchise which has sold over 47 million copies worldwide to date
   (2006). Their enduring popularity has led to many incarnations of the
   The Legend of Zelda story and of its Link character. The character's
   first appearance took place in the 1986 video game The Legend of Zelda,
   where he was portrayed by a two-dimensional sprite; in later releases
   Link's appearance has been conveyed by a three-dimensional
   computer-generated image. The character Link has been featured in other
   video games from Nintendo, on Nintendo's merchandising, on comic books,
   and even on a television show about the Legend of Zelda series.

   In the games, Link is described as a young boy from the fictional land
   of Hyrule, a Hylian. His age ranges from 7 to 18 depending on the game.
   He is also one of the few left-handed protagonists in video games (with
   the exception of his appearance in the Wii version of Twilight
   Princess, where he is right-handed for control purposes). Link often
   journeys through the realm of Hyrule, defeating evil forces and
   Hyrule's nemesis Ganon, also known as Ganondorf. To defeat Ganon, Link
   needs a mystical Master Sword usually obtained after many trials and
   battles using other swords and shields, as well as auxiliary weaponry
   such as boomerangs, bombs, bows and arrows. Although young, Link is
   portrayed as a great courageous warrior who has (or develops, depending
   on the game) a close relationship with Princess Zelda, whom he
   inevitably rescues. In several games in the series, Link must learn how
   to play a musical instrument that usually features in the game's plot
   and can magically unlock several spells.
   Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Conception and creation

   The character has been portrayed with almost no spoken dialog in the
   game series. Facial expressions were only available after the series
   went to the Nintendo 64. Shigeru Miyamoto has said in interviews that
   his conceptualization of The Legend of Zelda series and of Link was
   based on his childhood memories of him adventuring in the woods near
   his town, books, movies and stories. In one of the interviews, he tells
   us he tried to make people identify with Link and have the opportunity
   to be heroes like the character. The games conform to his view:
   although at the end of some games Link becomes vastly talented in
   physical and magical arts, Link always starts as a regular boy when the
   game begins. An example of this is shown by the character's presence in
   Ocarina of Time who starts as an orphaned Hylian boy and ends as the
   legendary Hero of Time.

Character creation

   The original game for the NES was worked on at the same time as Super
   Mario Bros., by the same team and had ideas borrowed from one another
   during their Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64 incarnations. Creator
   Shigeru Miyamoto developed the game and was in charge of deciding which
   concepts were "Zelda ideas" or "Mario ideas". Contrasting with Mario,
   Zelda was made non-linear and focused on thought-provoking riddles and
   puzzles.

   There have been several different "Links" in the history of Hyrule, the
   land where the Zelda series takes place. The existence of multiple
   Links is made obvious on many occasions in the games; for example, the
   introduction sequences of The Wind Waker and The Minish Cap refer to an
   ancient, legendary champion who is identical in appearance to Link, and
   Wind Waker directly mentions the "Hero of Time" (a title given to Link
   in Ocarina of Time) as a historical entity. Shigeru Miyamoto has
   stated, "For every Zelda game we tell a new story, but we actually have
   an enormous document that explains how the game relates to the others,
   and bind them together. But to be honest, they are not that important
   to us. We care more about developing the game system... give the player
   new challenges for every chapter that is born." Miyamoto has also
   confirmed that there have been multiple Links in different times in
   Hyrule. However, the exact chronology of the Zelda series and the
   lineage of the various Links, though written down by Miyamoto and his
   team, has never been released in detail. Some major fansites have
   attempted to construct a coherent Link timeline based on available
   information, but to little success. Miyamoto has stated that Ocarina of
   Time is the first story, then the original Legend of Zelda, then Zelda
   II: The Adventure of Link, and finally A Link to the Past, with Links
   Awakening falling sometime after Ocarina of Time.

   On the design of Link in The Wind Waker, Miyamoto explained, "Link was
   a young boy and trying to create a very active and very energetic young
   boy and trying to choose the right style for portraying the young boy
   in a game like that we tried many different experiments. The ultimate
   decision we came to was that the cel-shading in The Wind Waker was the
   best option for expressing that." The Wind Waker takes place with a new
   Link centuries after the victory of Link in Ocarina of Time.

   There is speculation that the movie Ladyhawke has inspired the latest
   game of the series The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Miyamoto
   denied that there was any relation, commenting that "We thought that by
   adding these animals it would help us create a larger and more
   realistic world." Twilight Princess will also incorporate a switch of
   focus from young Link growing up to a teenage Link, which lead to
   various designs and features around this idea.

Actor portrayal

   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
   dialogue, the part consists only of short phrases, grunts, battle
   cries, screams, and other sounds. In The Wind Waker, however, Link has
   been heard saying the phrase, "Come on!" when the player beckons
   certain characters to follow them in certain dungeons. Voice acting in
   the series has been limited since the gamemakers feel that players have
   their own ideas about how Link is supposed to sound and they wish to
   avoid a backlash. There was also a professional katana stunt man who
   performed motion capture for Ocarina of Time.

Characteristics

   According to the official Zelda.com Encyclopedia, Link is "humble", but
   also possesses legendary bravery, an attribute consistent with his role
   as the rightful bearer of the Triforce of Courage. The character is
   known in later Zelda games as The Hero of Time in his Ocarina of
   Time/Majora's Mask incarnation and as The Hero of Winds in The Wind
   Waker, as his heroic example has saved countless lives from evil. In
   the video games he is presented as being a stoic and polite young man,
   and in the television series as a whiny and lovesick teenager.

   He is the rightful bearer of the Master Sword, a powerful and magical
   sword he wields to defeat the forces of evil. Link does show rare
   moments of overzealous boldness, such as when he twice attempts to
   confront Ganon in The Wind Waker ill equipped to defeat him. Also, he
   inadvertently helped Ganon find the Triforce in Ocarina of Time,
   forcing Link to undo the damage he had caused, and eventually make
   things better than they were originally. Although Zelda games feature
   more interaction with friendly or neutral non-player characters (NPCs)
   than some adventure games, such as the Metroid series, these characters
   rarely take an active part in Link’s quest which he completes alone.
   Link is shown to have several family members, such as an uncle in A
   Link to the Past, an unseen mother in Ocarina of Time who died fleeing
   the ravages of war, a grandmother in The Wind Waker who raises him in
   his parents' unexplained absence, a grandfather from Minish Cap, and
   the most developed of Link's relatives, his sister Aryll who plays a
   critical role in the plot of The Wind Waker. He also has several
   friends, such as the pirate captain Tetra from The Wind Waker, Tatl the
   fairy from Majora's Mask, and the fairy Navi from Ocarina of Time. He
   also has a utilitarian relationship with Midna from Twilight Princess.
   His mother and father also appear as spirits in the Link to the Past
   manga.

   Link appears as a young member of the human-like Hylian race. He is
   renowned for his fighting skill, such as his incredible boomerang
   accuracy. It is unlikely that his age ever exceeds 19 years at any
   point in the series, though apparently, in most games he is closer to
   the age of 7 to 12. Every Link wears a green tunic, an undershirt
   (usually white, brown, or green), and a long, floppy green cap, at
   least for part of each adventure, although the shades of green vary. It
   is also a common sight to see him wearing light-colored tights (usually
   white or tan), although he has appeared barelegged in other games.
   Link’s hair color is usually a dark blond but was originally a brown
   colour. Link has long pointed ears resembling some conceptions of
   elves. These are apparently a distinctive trait of the Hylian race (and
   their descendants), which supposedly allows them to hear messages from
   the gods. Older Links usually wear small silver or blue hoop earrings,
   as is the Hylian fashion. However, in episode 4 of the Adult Saga in
   the official Ocarina of Time manga series, "Link Vs. Link", Impa is
   seen giving a Link his earrings, describing it as a "rite of passage
   for young Sheikah men". He also bears a Triforce mark on his left hand,
   marking him as the one who will find the Triforce of Courage. He is
   also well known for making use of a variety of weapons and items, such
   as bombs, hookshot, boomerang, bow and arrow and pegasus boots that
   make him run extremely fast. He also is extremely physically fit, being
   able to perform flips, and very skilled, knowing how to perform magic
   and play an ocarina. When he transforms into an animal in the twilight
   realm in Twilight Princess, he becomes a wolf, reflecting the mystical
   aspects of the transformation and his heroism.

   Link is left-handed, although this detail has changed over time, with
   his sword hand being different between games. The Adventure of Link
   instruction booklet describes Link setting off “with a magical sword in
   his left hand and a magical shield in his right”. In the Super Nintendo
   release, he alternates hands, but this is due to sprite mirroring.
   Starting with The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, Link holds his
   sword in his left hand and his shield in his right, no matter what
   direction he is facing. This occurs in the left and right-looking
   sprites. In The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, however, Link returns
   to alternately holding his weapon in the right or the left hand,
   depending on his orientation. At the beginning of the Four Swords Plus
   (Four Swords Adventures) manga, Link is referred to as the “left-handed
   hero” after defeating pirates that were raiding a Hylian town. In
   addition, Link's figurine description in Wind Waker lists his "manual
   preference" as left. However, in the animated TV series, Link is
   right-handed. In the Wii version of Twilight Princess, Link is
   right-handed to better fit the game's control scheme. Because of this,
   the maps in the Wii version have also been mirrored. Due to a normal
   control scheme, the GameCube version Link remained left-handed.

Appearances

Video games

1986—1996

   Link debuted with the February 21, 1986 release of the video game The
   Legend of Zelda in Japan. Described as a "young lad" who saved Princess
   Zelda’s elderly nursemaid Impa from Ganon's henchmen, Link assumes the
   role of the generic hero attempting to rescue the princess Zelda (and
   the kingdom of Hyrule) from the evil wizard Ganon, who has stolen the
   Triforce of Power.

   In Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, Link approaches his 16th birthday,
   Impa takes him to North Castle in Hyrule, alarmed by the sudden
   appearance of a Triforce crest on the boy’s left hand. She shows him
   the true heiress of Hyrule, an older incarnation of Princess Zelda,
   trapped out of time in an eternal sleep, lying on an altar in the
   castle. The old woman also tells Link the Legend of Zelda, an ancient
   tale about the division of the Triforce and the curse that was put upon
   the princess. Impa then gives Link six crystals, and a scroll written
   in an ancient Hylian tongue, which Link understands despite having
   never learned it. He reads that the mark on his hand is the sign that
   he was chosen to seek the third Triforce, Courage, in the Great Palace
   in the Valley of Death. Link then begins a quest to place a crystal in
   each of six palaces in Hyrule, so that he can later penetrate
   unhindered into the magically protected Great Palace, claim the
   Triforce of Courage, reunite the three pieces of the Triforce, and
   awaken Zelda.

   In The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, centuries before the events
   of The Legend of Zelda, Ganon and his army of evil were banished into
   the Golden Land, the realm of the Triforce, by the Hylians, at the
   price of countless lives. The portal to this world was magically
   blocked by seven sages, and the lands behind that seal, which Hylians
   hoped would never be broken again, became known as the Dark World, as
   they were corrupted by Ganon’s malice. One day, when the Imprisoning
   War is all but forgotten, the land is plagued by sudden disaster, until
   the wizard Agahnim appears at the court of the king of Hyrule and
   quells the upheaval. Named chief advisor to the throne, he soon seizes
   power from the king and kidnaps six maidens, descendants of the wise
   men who had sealed the entrance of the Dark World. The maidens are
   taken to the castle tower, and never seen again. Agahnim then begins a
   dark ritual to break the seal on the Dark World and unleash Ganon’s
   fury upon Hyrule. Princess Zelda herself descends from the seventh
   sage, and manages to send out a telepathic call for help before being
   taken away. Link’s uncle heads for the royal castle first, but he is
   quickly dispatched. He leaves Link his sword and with his last breath
   imparts the sword-spin technique. The young hero then begins a journey
   to collect three magical Pendants of Virtue, and claim the Master Sword
   as his before facing Agahnim.

   In The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, which follows Link to the
   Past, Link decides to travel the world, so he might be prepared if a
   threat like Ganon ever comes to Hyrule again. Returning to Hyrule,
   Link’s ship is caught in a storm and wrecked. He washes up on the shore
   of a mysterious island called Koholint. A girl named Marin, who
   strongly resembles Zelda, finds Link lying unconscious on the beach and
   brings him to her home. He awakes on a beach and meets a strange
   talking owl who tells him that the only way he can escape Koholint
   Island is by awakening the “Wind Fish”, a giant creature slumbering in
   a colossal egg in the centre of the island.

1997—2001

   In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, a young Link has been raised
   as one of the Kokiri, the “children of the forest”. Unlike the other
   Kokiri, Link does not have a fairy companion, and is thus shunned by
   their leader, Mido. Link's life changes one day when the Great Deku
   Tree, the forest's guardian, sends Navi the fairy to Link with
   instructions to bring him immediately. A curse has been cast on the
   Deku Tree, and he asks Link to break it; while Link is successful in
   defeating the monsters inside the Tree, the Tree was doomed before Link
   started. Dying, the Deku Tree tells Link of the Triforce and directs
   Link to Hyrule Castle, where he encounters Princess Zelda. She sends
   him on a mission to collect three Spiritual Stones and save Hyrule.
   Once Link obtains the Stones, he travels to the Temple of Time and
   opens the Door of Time with the Stones and the Ocarina of Time. He then
   draws the Master Sword from the Pedestal of Time. This action imprisons
   Link in the Temple of Light in the Sacred Realm for seven years, while
   Ganondorf takes control of Hyrule and seizes the Triforce of Power.
   Seven years after drawing the sword from the pedestal, Link is awakened
   as the Hero of Time by Rauru, Sage of Light. Link finds that much time
   has passed, and he has grown up. He sets off on a quest to cleanse the
   land of Ganondorf’s evil by awakening the Sages, who can seal Ganondorf
   in what used to be the Sacred Realm. Returning to the Kokiri Forest, he
   finds that none of his friends have grown up, and most now no longer
   recognize him. After the player completes the first dungeon in this
   phase of the game, the Deku Tree's successor, the Deku Sprout, reveals
   the hidden story of Link's past to him. The Kokiri never grow up; the
   reason Link has grown, while his Kokiri friends have not, is that he is
   actually a Hylian, orphaned in the wars that raged before Hyrule was
   united. When Link was a baby, his mother fled with him to Kokiri
   Forest, and, mortally wounded, left him under the Deku Tree’s
   protection. He was brought up as one of the Kokiri, and knew no
   differently. Through the rest of the game, Link travels back and forth
   between the two time periods and his two ages using the Master Sword.
   At the end of the game, he is returned to his youth by Princess Zelda,
   and Navi leaves him.

   The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask occurs after defeating Ganon(dorf)
   and being sent back in time to his childhood, Link leaves Hyrule to
   search for a lost friend (declared by the manga to be his old fairy
   companion, Navi, which is a reasonable assumption in the game as well).
   While riding deep in the Lost Woods, he is ambushed by a Skull Kid who
   is possessed by an evil artifact, Majora’s Mask, and his horse, Epona,
   is stolen. Chasing the Skull Kid, Link falls into a crevasse and
   arrives in a country called Termina. He must save this land from the
   evil of Majora’s Mask, which has drawn the moon into a decaying orbit,
   causing it to crash into Termina’s capital city in just three days.
   Link uses the Ocarina of Time and the Song of Time, which sends him
   back in time and saves the game when he plays it, to relive these three
   days again and again in order to prevent the disaster. Along the way
   Link finds many magical masks of his own, a handful of which allow him
   to transform. Those masks can turn him into a rock-like Goron; a
   petite, plant-like Deku Scrub; a graceful aquatic Zora; or the Fierce
   Deity. In this game, Link never grows up in the traditional sense, but
   the dark power of the Fierce Deity’s Mask allows Link to assume a
   powerful adult form, “Fierce Deity Link”, also known by some fans as by
   the Japanese name “ Oni-Link”. This form is easily his largest,
   standing at least twice as tall as adult Link in Ocarina of Time.
   Miyamoto mentioned that "we wanted Link to get inside of a wonderland,
   to experience the adventures and think hard about what he should do."

   In The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons, the Triforce sends Link on a
   mission to another land, Holodrum, to stop the disruption of the
   seasons by the General of Darkness, Onox. While there, it is his duty
   to protect the Oracle of Seasons (in disguise as a dancer), named Din.
   After Onox takes her by force and the seasons are thrown into chaos,
   Link sets out to rescue her with the aid of the Rod of Seasons, a
   magical staff which allows Link to control the four seasons.

   In The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages, Link awakens one day in another
   land, Labrynna, where he has been sent by the magic of the Triforce.
   Upon his arrival he is tricked by Veran, the Sorceress of Shadows, into
   opening the seal protecting the Oracle of Ages, a singer named Nayru.
   Veran, possessing Nayru’s body and time-traveling powers, goes back in
   time to change the past and command the present. Link rushes to follow
   them to the past and save Nayru using the power of the Harp of Ages,
   which, when played correctly, grants its user the ability to move back
   and forth through time. After exorcising Veran’s spirit from Nayru’s
   body, Link ascends her citadel to defeat the Spectre of Sorrow.

2002—present

   In The Legend of Zelda: The Four Swords, a Zelda goes to the Sanctuary
   of the Four Sword with her friend Link to check on the seal containing
   the Wind Mage, Vaati. The seal has weakened, however, and Vaati emerges
   and kidnaps Zelda. Drawing the Four Sword from the pedestal where it
   had imprisoned Vaati, Link gets a splitting headache and passes out,
   awakening to find that the magical Four Sword has divided him into 2-4
   identical Links (depending on the number of players). The first Link
   wears his traditional green outfit; the second, a red version; the
   third, blue; and the fourth purple. (In The Minish Cap, it is revealed
   that these colors reflect the four elements with which the sword is
   imbued: wind, fire, water, and earth, respectively.) The Links must
   cooperate to overcome obstacles, collect keys, and storm Vaati’s Palace
   so they can rescue Zelda and seal the mage away again.

   In The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, set hundreds of years after
   Ocarina of Time, the gods have flooded Hyrule. A new country has been
   formed, encompassing the islands of the Great Sea, which were once the
   highest mountaintops of Hyrule. The kingdom of old, lying dormant under
   the sea, is now a half-forgotten dream, barely surviving in ancient
   scrolls and dusty memories. In the beginning of the game, Link’s
   younger sister Aryll is captured by the Helmaroc King (a giant masked
   bird), mistaken for someone else with golden hair and pointy ears. Link
   travels to all corners of the Great Sea to retrieve his sister and
   defeat the shadowy power in control of the bird. He finds his quest
   intertwines with another, and Link becomes, after many trials, the
   “Hero of Winds”. Using the Wind Waker, a magical conductor’s baton, he
   borrows the power of the gods to aid him in his quest. The wand’s user
   interface is similar to that used for the Ocarina of Time, but adds
   tempo as well as pitch to form tunes.

   In The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures, Zelda, who is worried
   about the seal on Vaati, goes with six other mystical maidens to check
   on the Sanctuary of the Four Sword, and Link accompanies her. But
   something goes horribly wrong, and a dark shadowy copy of Link attacks.
   Link is forced to draw the Four Sword to fight Dark Link, but when he
   does, he once again splits into copies of himself, and Vaati escapes.

   In The Minish Cap, Link is a young boy living with his grandfather, the
   Master Smith of Hyrule. Link is a childhood friend of Princess Zelda,
   and on the day of Hyrule’s yearly fair to celebrate the coming of the
   Picori, they go to join in the festivities. A mysterious stranger,
   Vaati, shows up and wins the sword-fighting competition; each year the
   victor of this tournament has the honour of touching the sacred Picori
   Blade. This sword was a gift to the Hylians from the tiny Picori and
   was used long ago by a legendary hero (suggested to be a Link in the
   game's opening sequence) to defeat the forces of darkness and seal them
   away in the Bound Chest.

   In The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, released November 19, 2006
   (Americas), for Wii and a month later on Nintendo Gamecube, Link is a
   16-year-old rancher leading a fairly normal life until two of his
   friends, Colin and Ilia, are kidnapped by monsters. Link’s rescue
   mission leads him into the Twilight Realm, a dark place that changes
   him into a wolf. While in this form, he is aided and ridden by Midna,
   an imp-like creature with a strange helmet on her head. In his attempt
   to save his friends, Link discovers an even greater evil that only he
   can stop.

   The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass is said to be aiming for a
   release in late 2006. It seems to revive the idea of a fairy companion
   as in Ocarina of Time. A sequel to The Wind Waker, it involves Link’s
   quest to reunite with Tetra after both are lost at sea in a mysterious
   fog.

Non-Zelda appearances

   Link is present in a number of games outside of the Legend of Zelda
   series. While varying in their regard within the gaming community, none
   of these games contributes anything to the series which would be
   considered LoZ canon.

   Link: The Faces of Evil, released in 1993 for Philips’ CD-i system, is
   the only one of the three Zelda games for the CD-i system in which Link
   is the protagonist. At the beginning of the game Link is visited by a
   wizard who tells him that Ganon and his servants have seized the
   peaceful island of Koridai and captured Zelda. After being informed
   that only he can defeat Ganon, Link travels to Koridai to find the
   magical artifact known as the Book of Koridai. Using the Book, he
   defeats Ganon and frees Zelda. Although it features Zelda characters,
   this game was not produced by Nintendo, with supervision from Nintendo,
   or even for a Nintendo system. It has earned disfavorable reviews,
   particularly from Zelda fans, who do not consider it part of the Zelda
   series.

   There were two other Legend of Zelda games released for the CD-i;
   Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon and Zelda’s Adventure. However, in both
   games Princess Zelda was the protagonist, as in both games the plot
   involves Link’s kidnapping.

   Link is one of eight characters available at the beginning of
   Nintendo’s 1999 fighting game, Super Smash Bros. Link sports his
   traditional green Kokiri tunic. (The player can also choose from two
   alternate tunic colors inspired by Link's Ocarina of Time tunics: the
   red Goron Tunic and blue Zora Tunic; a purplish-white tunic inspired by
   the effect of the Blue Ring from the original Legend of Zelda; and a
   black Gameshark Tunic representing Shadow Link.) He also has some of
   his usual arsenal from the Legend of Zelda series at his disposal,
   including bombs, his boomerang and a hookshot.

   Link is also one of the 14 playable characters available from the start
   in Super Smash Bros. Melee, the 2001 sequel to Super Smash Bros. In
   Melee, he has his bow in addition to the equipment he brought with him
   to the original Super Smash Bros. Also playable in the game, as a
   secret unlockable character, is Young Link, the youthful Link from most
   of the games in the series. Modeled after the Ocarina of Time/Majora’s
   Mask version of the hero, Young Link is more agile but weaker than the
   older Link.

   On May 10, 2006, at an after-hours press conference during E³, Link
   became one of the first confirmed fighters in the Wii installment of
   the franchise, Super Smash Bros. Brawl. His appearance seems to be
   influenced by his character model from Twilight Princess. It is still
   unknown if Young Link will return in Super Smash Bros Brawl.

   In the GameCube version of Namco’s Soul Calibur II, the adult-style
   Link is a playable fighter. Not much is revealed about the incarnation
   of Link in this game, but it is known that, after saving Hyrule from an
   evil wizard who was being controlled by a fragment of Soul Edge, he
   went on a quest to destroy the evil sword. Quickly pulling the Master
   Sword out of its pedestal, he set out to travel to this world to
   destroy Soul Edge, on a secret mission arranged by Princess Zelda.
   Miyamoto did not see a problem with Link appearing in what some had
   thought to be a "violent fighting game", since he had already been
   established as a fighter in the Super Smash Brothers games. The more
   realistic Link in this game was also used to help develop Link's
   Twilight Princess look. In Soul Calibur II, Link is the only character
   to use ranged weapons and the only guest character to have his own
   theme and more than two costumes (he starts with his traditional green
   Kokiri tunic and the red Goron Tunic; the blue Zora Tunic and
   purplish-white tunic are unlockable) His weapons are a number of
   weapons from the Zelda games.

Cameo appearances

   Among SNES games, Link made a notable appearance in Super Mario RPG:
   Legend of the Seven Stars, where he is sleeping in a bed at one of the
   Inns. He also appears in Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest and
   Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong’s Double Trouble!, with a reference
   to Link's collection of seashells in Link's Awakening. Also, some of
   Link's weapons and items have shown up in different games, such as the
   Master Sword appearing in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and Animal
   Crossing. The Legend of Zelda has been parodied in the WarioWare
   series.
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   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
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