Link (The Legend of Zelda) - Concept and Creation

Concept and Creation

Link has almost no spoken dialogue in the game series outside the CD-i series of games from The Legend of Zelda. Prominent facial expression has only been visible since the series appeared on the Nintendo 64. Miyamoto has said in interviews that his conceptualization of The Legend of Zelda, and of Link, was based on his childhood memories of books, movies, stories and personal experiences. He tried to make people identify with Link and have the opportunity to be heroes like the character. Although at the end of some games Link becomes vastly talented in physical and magical arts, he usually starts off the game as a regular boy. The name Link refers to how in the original Legend of Zelda, the Triforce was going to be electronic chips that the main character was linked to that the player had to traverse through time to retrieve.

There have been several iterations of Link in the history of Hyrule. The existence of multiple Links is made obvious on many occasions in the games; for example, the introduction sequence of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker refers to an ancient, legendary champion who is identical in appearance to Link, and directly mentions the "Hero of Time" (a title given to Link in Ocarina of Time) as a historical entity. 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." However, the exact chronology of the Zelda series and the lineage of the various Links, though written down by Miyamoto and his team, has long been kept secret. In lieu of an official history, some major fansites have attempted to construct a coherent Zelda timeline based on available data. After the release of Ocarina of Time, Miyamoto stated it was the first story in the timeline, then The Legend of Zelda, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, and finally The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, with The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening occurring sometime after A Link to the Past. However, back in late 2011, Miyamoto confirmed that his new game to be released, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, would come before Ocarina of Time in the series' timeline. Additionally, Nintendo released an anthology titled Hyrule Historia in celebration of Zelda's 25th anniversary. Released in Japan in December 2011 and due for a North American release in early 2013, the anthology details the long-sought-after official Zelda timeline.

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. Twilight Princess does not incorporate the idea of young Link growing up to a teenage Link.