Who is Link from the Original Legend of Zelda?

finally we explore the characters of the land of Hyrule starting with our hero of the Zelda franchise link The Legend of Zelda series has grown substantially over the last few years with the release of breath of the wild and tears of the Kingdom but in this video I tend to go back to the very beginning to tell the story of Link's Origins both within the Zelda series and in real life I think a lot of videos tend to focus on the timeline in the series and I just want to make it clear that I'll be covering things in order of game release when I discuss link because if you watch my videos prior to this you know that Nintendo doesn't really care too much about the finer details I'm the men talk YouTube's prophet and welcome to my origin Oracle series we're changing franchises yet again which would technically make this the fourth major series I've covered on this channel so if you have any interest in deep dives into Sonic Mario or Donkey Kong content be sure to check out those videos as well in the late hours he's also dabbling in some Legend of Zelda content too if you want to check his channel out grab a snack relax and let's head back in time the year is 1986. the Hyrule fantasy Zelda no den setsu hits the market in Japan as a launch game for their new famicom disc system peripheral but let's save that story for later Let's Pretend We're All Japanese kids in 1986 and we just got our hands on this brand new title the game boots up with the title screen and that iconic theme playing in the background [Music] if you manage to contain your excitement for a little bit a story starts scrolling on screen giving us the setting for the game something something Hyrule something something Gannon okay press start this little green guy on the screen is the main character link or buttface or whatever you decide to name him in the beginning I'm sure there's a character limit so you guys come up with your ideas in the comments and the game just throws you into fend for yourself I always looked at breath of the wild as a massive evolution of this formula by the way this technically is open world because if you've never played this game in your life you're most likely going to get lost or at some point and have no idea what to do but in a sense this non-linear Gameplay at the time gave the player the ability to do whatever they wanted within Hyrule and explore at their own Leisure maybe we shouldn't have skipped that title screen okay fine let's check the manual and see what the story is behind link here so we discovered that the setting of the game is the land of Hyrule a small kingdom whose citizens are going through some rough times like living in caves rough times Hyrule is revealed to have been engulfed in chaos by the prince of Darkness Ganon some evil guy that decided to invade and steal an artifact called the Triforce of power this Triforce of power can grant its owner Incredible strength but this wasn't enough for Ganon at some point he decides to attempt to acquire the Triforce of wisdom a similar artifact of great power that this manual chooses not to explain but that's not important because Princess Zelda the person that this game is named after decides to split the Triforce of wisdom into eight fragments and scatter them across Hyrule to hide them from Ganon she also sends her trusted nursemaid impa to seek out a warrior with enough courage to stand up to Ganon and his army and then right after that resulta gets kidnapped and though she escapes impa is not safe either braving forests and mountains to escape ganon's Army unable to outrun them she is surrounded by his henchmen enter link the man brave enough to jump in and save impa from ganon's army after getting rid of his minions link volunteers to restore the Triforce of wisdom take the fight to Ganon and save Princess Zelda and that's the gist of it so for those who are wondering why I didn't mention the Triforce of Courage it's completely absent from the first game but you could say it's the Kurds that link found along the way so while we let link adventure and go through his trials and tribulations and endless dungeons who was responsible for the creation of link and the first Zelda game if you've been watching my Mario videos a lot of these names will sound familiar to you but for the sake of a fresh start this title was the brainchild of Nintendo star Duo the Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi tazuka at this time they were part of a development team known as Nintendo R D4 with this being their second major famicom title after introducing the world to Super Mario but Zelda was planned as a launch title before the team began development on Mario with Miyamoto gaining inspiration from his childhood experiences in the wilderness surrounding his home I spent a lot of my time playing in the rice paddies and exploring the hillsides and having fun Outdoors when I got got into the Upper Elementary School ages that's when I really got into hiking and mountain climbing there's a place near Kobe where there's a mountain and there's a big lake near the top of it and I drew on that inspiration when we were working on the Legend of Zelda game we're creating this Grand Outdoor Adventure where you go through these narrowed confined spaces and come upon this great lake you'd also take the treasure hunting aspects from popular films like Indiana Jones and apply that to the gameplay as well meanwhile Takashi tazuka looked to none other than the Lord of the Rings novels for inspiration on fantasy and medieval settings when crafting the story while Mario is designed as a linear experience Zelda was meant to be the opposite encouraging players to talk to one another about the game and Cher's Secrets or hidden paths they may have found while exploring Hyrule which brings us to our hero link who was designed as the link between the player and the game itself when discussing the creation of Link miyamoda stated that it has always been important that the gamers grow together with link that there's a strong relationship between the one who holds the controller and the person screen while all of that sounds poetic Link's name actually came from something else entirely Miyamoto would come up with the name from the fact that the Triforce was initially going to be electronic chips since the setting would take place in both past and future the main character would have had the ability to travel between both settings and serve as the link between them hence his name get it a link with that in mind they developed link as just a normal boy so players could better relate and follow him on his journey to eventually grow into The Talented Warrior that we see defeat Ganon at the end of the game his actual design was inspired by the Walt Disney version of Peter Pan who also Sports the green garments hat in pointy ears Miyamoto and tazuka also put a lot of work into making sure link would be easily recognizable part of this was making his sword and shield easily seen and distinguishable during gameplay I'm not sure how many of you have played trash NES games over the years but I recall so many instances of games where I could barely tell what the main character's weapon is much less random items floating on screen so good on Miyamoto and tazuka for killing it with when designing link Sprite so the game would first be released on a floppy disk serving as a launch title for the famicoms this system in Japan for those who've never heard of the famicom it's short for a family computer this would be the same Tech that would be marketed overseas as the Nintendo Entertainment System but the disc system peripheral I mentioned was exclusive to Japanese audiences so the original version of The Legend of Zelda Sports improved audio and sound effects that are missing from the eventual us cartridge release Alex played the NES version of The Legend of Zelda theme the one that we got in the US [Music] and then follow up with the original Japanese version that they got for the disc peripheral the differences are pretty obvious not only that the famicom controllers had built-in microphones a feature that was excluded from the NES so in the Japanese version of the game players could blow or shout into the microphones on their controllers to defeat an enemy called Pole's Voice or is sensitive to sound ashamed by the way if you're curious of Link's age when he originally went to defeat Ganon Miyamoto mentioned in an Iwata ask interview that link is a boy in the first game Legend of Zelda he's about 12 years old growing up he always felt so much older and now look at me I can barely operate an iPhone these days this age was somewhat disputed by the official Nintendo's player guide Hyrule Historia where they have his age listed as 10. what were you all doing at age 10. [Music] Koji kondo would be the musical composer for the game also known for his work on Mario in an interview with electronic gaming monthly he reflects on how the music of Zelda came to be saying in the very first Legend of Zelda in the very opening title screen we used to use the classical music of Bolero because that Tempo is perfectly matched with the speed of the opening screen rolling when we had to complete the final ROM for reproduction they told me that unfortunately the copyright of that music hadn't expired yet so I had to compose a completely new piece of music that night I recall that I did it within one day so there you have it the famous theme of Zelda was knocked out in one day even in the 80s people were trying to avoid copyright strikes Alex put in a Taylor Swift song that will jeopardize this entire video all right so let's head back into Hyrule and check on link ah he's defeated the final Guardian monster and cleared the 8th dungeon so with the Triforce of wisdom in his possession he can now head off to Death Mountain to defeat gen according to the manual though one does not just defeat Ganon you need more than your sword and the Triforce but some other object as it states he needs a Silver Arrow so I wonder how long it took people to figure that one out speaking of the manual though going through it I have this urge to sit here and just read it to you guys it's so detailed and has a diverse art of not just the characters but most of the enemies too and there's these little hints at the bottom of some of these pages I would have been way too excited reading this on the car on the way home from buying this game even these little pictures depicting some of the events of the story are such a nice touch and as you can imagine the game was both a critical and Commercial Success selling around a million copies on the first day in Japan which for the 80s was a pretty insane number the us would get the cartridge version for the NES in 1987 as The Legend of Zelda managing to push over 2 million cartridges sold within a year our friend link was going places and not too long after Miyamoto and tezuka would regroup for a sequel The Legend of Zelda 2 Rinku noboken first release in Japan for the famicom disc system in 1987. followed by Zelda 2 The Adventure of link for the NES in the West in 1988. even though this game was very well received many see this one as the black sheep of the series since Miyamoto and tazuka decided to go with something completely new our link from the first Legend of Zelda returns as the hero a few years have passed after he vanquished gaming but his influence Still Remains with his minions still lurking across Hyrule attempting to hunt down link and use his blood to revive their lord link is now a 16 year old who continues to help out impa and the princess as they attempt to restore Hyrule but one day a mysterious Mark appears on the back of his hand which has input bring link to a location called the north castle and with his newly marked Hand link manages to open a sealed door revealing a Sleeping Princess Zelda yeah not the one from the last game but a different Zelda born in a distant age this plot is a little complex and ballsy for a game from the 80s in my opinion but in this story we find out that this sleeping Zelda is the origin of the Legend of Zelda yes there's an actual Legend of Zelda it's not just the name of this game so I know this video is about link but I'll talk about Zelda just this once I have a feeling I'm going to reveal everything about her before it's time for her video but let's let's see what we can do here The Legend of Zelda tells the story of a great ruler of Hyrule from the Past who use the Triforce to maintain Prosperity within the kingdom when this ruler died the kingdom was passed on to his son a power-hungry prince that wasn't satisfied with the idea that he inherited only a piece of the Triforce with the help of a random totally not evil magician the prince finds out that his younger sister Princess Zelda not that one the sleeping one inherited another part of the Triforce which we assume is the Triforce of wisdom but since she doesn't reveal any information about the Triforce to her brother this completely trustworthy magician casts a spell and places her into Eternal sleep I also found it hilarious that this magician dies after casting the spell like what was your plan here anyway the prince regrets how he treated her and Grieves for his sister vowing to awaken her someday and orders every female child born into the royal family be given the name Zelda from this point on just as a side note there's a lot of similar themes from this story and tears of the Kingdom but we'll talk about that game some other time we fast forward Back to the Future and impa hands link a scroll with ancient texts from the old King convinced that since link has the crest on his hand he'll be able to read it it's revealed that in addition to the Triforce of power and wisdom there was a hidden third piece known as the Triforce of Courage the king hit it away long ago since it required a strong character with no evil thoughts to wield it which allegedly he couldn't find during his lifetime this King was full of himself apparently so the crest on Link's hand was caused by a spell that the King cast on Hyrule causing it to appear unquote a young man that had been brought up correctly has gained many kinds of experiences and reached a certain age and it took hundreds of years for somebody to meet these qualifications not only that the king decided to hide the Triforce of Courage within the great palace in the valley of death I take a look at my life and realize there's nothing left link will have to Brave the depths of six different palaces in Hyrule and defeat the Guardians within that the king Left Behind to test whoever was ready to wield the Triforce of Courage apparently and once he sets a crystal in the forehead of each statue and all the Palaces he can undo the binding force in the Greek palace and take on the final Guardian then and only then will he finally be rewarded the Triforce of Courage which input suggests can be used to awaken Princess Zelda I love how this King went to Such Great Lengths to protect the Triforce of Courage while Gannon is here in the last game slinging his dick all over Hyrule with a completely unprotected Triforce of power somebody explained that to me anyway with all that out of the way the developers decided to make this title a side-scrolling adventure game giving link a little more versatility with his combat moves and even though there are a few side-scrolling moments within the first Legend of Zelda it was used exclusively for a select secret passages this game in comparison went fully side view and attempted to add more action-oriented elements but there is honestly a lot of cool stuff that was implemented in this sequel like the ability to explore towns like raru town and Ruto Town within Hyrule you even get to speak with the Villagers like my guy error here the names of all the towns in Hyrule will become pretty important later on in the series so look forward to when I discuss that for my smash Fanatics out there someone Link's moveset is heavily influenced by his fighting mechanics from Adventure of link with the famous downward thrust and jump thrust being implemented to cover his ass from all directions there's also an RPG influence experience system within this game allowing link to level up and raise his stats and attack magic or Life Link will be exploring not just towns and palaces though an Overworld is included as well with Pathways that link will have to take to get from place to place and on this map you're gonna get attacked a lot there are even enemies that will disguise themselves as friendly citizens of Hyrule only to transform and attack link which would later be applied to the yiga clan from breath of the wild and this game doesn't mess around famous among fans for its grueling difficulty Tadashi sugiyama the director of the title would say in an interview later on that the foundation of action games at the time was to feel difficult for everyone games didn't have a ton of content at that time so in order to have them played for as long as possible we felt like we couldn't make them easily clearable so there you have it these guys made these games with the intention to have kids cry and throw their controllers at home I'm looking at you Lion King so after link gets through this grueling set of chores that the Ancient King gave to him on the back of his shopping list he heads into the great palace to battle The Last Guardian Thunderbird we come to find out that the king alive though because link is tested yet again by taking on his own shadow named darklink I'd be so pissed but our hero is Victorious and finally retrieves the Triforce of Courage which allows him to unite the three relics once more to make the complete Triforce and by Wishing Upon it he awakens Princess Zelda who Awards him with an all-out makeout sesh whoa wow and it's still anyone's guess what happened to the other Zelda walking around this time period this would be the last title where we'd see this version of Link but shortly after Zelda 2 Nintendo decided it was time to cook up the next Zelda game yes Zelda for the gamut watch not to be confused with Zelda game watch I hope you guys are still watching I've talked about these a lot before but the Game and Watch were a series of popular electronic handheld games released by Nintendo in the 80s Nintendo would start incorporating versions of their growing franchises like Donkey Kong and Mario into these tiny LCD screens and Zelda was no exception the series would get its own game and watch titles simply known as Zelda released exclusively in the United States in August 1989 developed by Nintendo R D1 headed by gunpeo koi creator of The Game and Watch and later on the Game Boy they took elements from the first two Zelda games to make this unique multi-screened experience an adventure to say that this is probably the most elaborate and ambitious Game and Watch title I've seen so far it even has its own uni unique story The Havoc caused by eight Fierce dragons is increasing day by day these dragons have refused to live in peace with men and are fighting against him to rule the world now that your sweetheart Princess Zelda has been kidnapped by the evil dragons you have resolved to destroy the dragons okay first off zelders are sweetheart and second it's interesting to see just eight dragons as the main enemies this time around I guess recycling Dragon animations would have been easier than having Ganon as the final boss on the screen anyway just like the original Legend of Zelda Link has to venture through eight Dungeons and get the eight shards of the Triforce of wisdom to rescue Princess Zelda slaying these dragons in the process interestingly enough the gameplay resembles the side-scrolling action of Zelda 2. the top screen is used to provide the player with valuable info like the dungeon map and items and you'll also fight the dragons on the upper screen when you get to the end of the dungeon the lower screen has Link's hearts and where a majority of the gameplay is taking place also in this game link wields a tomahawk which is kind of badass and again guesses on where this game falls in the timeline though this version did get a few re-releases by the way the first time as one of the Nintendo mini classic devices from 1988 and again in 2016 for the Wii U Virtual Console Library where it would reach Japan for the very first time since it was released a still find it a huge shame that all of these archive games from the Wii and Wii U Virtual Console libraries are lost to time outside of emulation of course but we've had the Nintendo switch for almost six years and they're barely drip feeding us some of these classic titles Nintendo gripes aside there's one last thing we should discuss in this video and that's the Legend of Zelda TV series I know this one is popular for the hey but what was it actually about this series aired during the Super Mario Bros Super Show screened weekly on Fridays but originally there was an hour-long block that was going to be planned including animated versions of other games like Castlevania Metroid Double Dragon but this idea was scrapped and only Mario and Zelda would make it through the planning phase Geek Entertainment was responsible for the production of boat shows and this was in late 1989 so as you can imagine it was heavily based on some of the lore established within the Legend of Zelda and the adventure of Link each episode is about 15 minutes in star's link alongside Zelda who actually gets quite a bit of screen time in comparison to the games where she's mostly kidnapped or in distress much like what they did with Mario each episode is self-contained with Ganon and his minions making attempts to get the Triforce of wisdom to take over Hyrule Link and Zelda are also joined by a fairy named Sprite who has a huge crush on link but link decides to stick her in the friend zone because this version of link is constantly trying to find new ways to kiss Princess Zelda they decided this would be a great running gag in the show by the way but most of the time Zelda's too preoccupied or just not interested and doesn't care but she does reciprocate randomly from time to time Believe It or Not link never gets his kiss as the show was canceled after 13 episodes and I would say better luck next game but link already had his moment at the end of Adventure we'll continue our dive through the origins of Link in the next part as we go into the Legend of Zelda Comics which kind of serve as somewhat of a sequel to The Adventure of Link it's the best we got since Nintendo hasn't picked up from this moment in the timeline but of course Nintendo would follow up with one of the game changers in the Zelda franchise a link to the past so you won't want to miss it be sure to hop over to Twitter or X or whatever the hell it's called now and give me a follow and for those wondering if I have a Discord you'll find it in the description below until next time thank you all for tuning in and be safe profit I spoke it

Channel: TheMentok

Views: 22,162

Keywords: adventure of link, analysis, botw, breath of the wild, ganon, ganondorf, legend of zelda, link, link legend of zelda, link legend of zelda cartoon, master sword, nintendo, original legend of zelda story, spirit of the hero, tears of the kingdom, the legend of zelda, who is link in legend of zelda, zelda, zelda breath of the wild, zelda comic, zelda lore, zelda theme, zelda theory, zelda timeline, zelda timeline explained, zelda tears of the kingdom

Id: 85852oaWSbE

Length: 20min 51sec (1251 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 05 2023