Link is kind of a funny character to me, because
you go on his Wikipedia page and it's like "here is Link the character". But then if you actually read more closely,
it turns out that Link is actually 7 or 8 different guys who all just happen to be called
Link. And each time Nintendo makes a new Link, they
change his voice too. Which has added up to a lot of changes in
this one character’s voice. I figured that might be too much for one YouTube
video, but people kept suggesting I cover this topic anyway, so I spent literally hours
reading interviews, watching convention panels, and then typing this script. I am so tired. But, I can at least present to you the definitive
answer to the question “Why has Link’s voice changed so much?” It all started in 1996, with the game Ocarina- Okay, wait a second! I know I don't normally include the semi-official
things like the cartoons and the anime, but there's one voice that is so iconic it NEEDS
to be talked about: "Oh boy! I'm so hungry I could eat an octorok!" The critically panned Zelda duology produced
not by Nintendo, but by Phillips, for their short lived console, the CDi. These games have become things of legend as
time has gone by, in no small part due to their very memorable voice performances. “I’m sure… he’s alright. Yeah!” And the person chosen to voice Link in these
games was Jeffry Rath. At the time, Rath had zero voice acting experience. He wasn’t even sure who Link was, I don’t
think he’d played a single Zelda game before! But he showed up to the auditions, and he
gave a good enough performance that he got the part! Here’s what he said about the whole experience. “The voice acting was unprofessional. We were not professionals and the tech was
super experimental. It was still fun to do and I didn’t expect
it to even make it to the public.” But, nevertheless, it did make it to the public,
something which I for one am grateful for. “What happened? Hahaha, nothing Link, we were just about to
have a feast. Great! Ahahahaha!” But now, let’s move on to games that were
overseen by and developed within Nintendo. And for that, things start in the year 1996,
with the icon that is Ocarina of Time. Now, if you’ve not played the game, there’s
actually two different Links within Ocarina: There’s Young Link, and Adult Link, and
you switch between the two during your adventure. For most of the time that Ocarina of Time
was in development, the two characters shared a single voice actress. Here’s her voice as Young Link… “Huh, yah, yah!” And then here she is voicing Adult Link… “Huh, huh, yah, huh!” Now, as for who this mystery woman was, we’ll
almost certainly never know. She might have been a developer on the team
- that’s my personal theory. But anyway, close to the game’s release,
Link was recast. Nintendo decided to separate the Links, and
give each one a separate voice. And both the actors picked were working in
the anime industry at the time. That is something we will definitely come
back to later in the video. Anyway, let’s start with Adult Link. For him, Nintendo picked the voice actor Noboyuki
Hiyama. Hiyama was known for often playing young energetic
teenage boys, so his casting as the very energetic Link makes a lot of sense. Interestingly, when Hiyama entered the recording
booth, Nintendo told him this: "We’re planning on selling this game overseas, so when you
are recording your voice lines, please don’t make them sound Japanese". He wasn’t really sure how best to react
to that, or even what it really meant, but he gave the performance his best shot nonetheless. Take a listen. As for Young Link, he was played by the voice
actress Fujiko Takimoto. Now, Fujiko Takimoto is kinda the opposite
of Noboyuki Hiyama - she was well known for playing young male characters. Zooming out a little, in American and British
media, young male characters are usually voiced by men, or boys. Not always! But usually. In Japan though, it’s the other way round. In almost every case, a young male character
will be voiced by a woman. "Hehehe!" Hence Fujiko Takimoto, and her portrayal of
Young Link! Now, Ocarina of Time’s voice clips were
re-used in the game’s sequel, Majora’s Mask. Nobuyuki’s Adult Link voice clips are also
heard in Smash Bros 64, and again in Smash Bros Melee, alongside Fujiko Takimoto who
now appears Young Link. In fact, Takimoto’s Link voice clips are
still found in even the newest Super Smash Bros games - something which she herself seems
verypleased about, so much so that she bought herself a Young Link amiibo! Very cool... However, a few years later, everything changed. After the two N64 Zelda games, Nintendo decided
to take a wildly different direction for the next Zelda game, which led to the cartoon
styled Wind Waker! For this game, Link went from a pretty stoic
and expressionless guy, to pretty much the exact opposite. You can pause just about any frame of this
game and Link will have some kind of goofy expression. And so, rather than re-using Ocarina of Time’s
voice clips yet again, Nintendo decided to record a whole new set of voice clips for
the new game. However, instead of bringing back Fujiko Takimoto,
they decided to re-cast Link with a completely different voice actress. Why did they do this? I’m not sure, to be honest. But this actually marks the beginning of a
trend for the rest of the series: for almost every big Zelda game after this point, Nintendo
casts a new voice actor as Link rather than bringing back the current actor. My theory as to why this is, is that unlike
Mario characters who look more-or-less the same in every game, Zelda characters vary
wildly in appearance from game to game, so keeping the voices consistent isn’t really
important. So, anyway, for this new Cartoon Link, or
“Toon Link” as he’d come to be known, Nintendo actually had a good candidate for
the voice in mind. Like I said earlier, when Majora’s Mask
was being developed, Nintendo re-used Link’s voice clips from the previous game, Ocarina
of Time. However, obviously they couldn't do that with
the other characters so they hired a selection of voice actors to cover these character voices. And one actress chosen was Sachi Matsumoto. At the time, she was a fairly new voice actress,
appearing in minor roles in a smattering of different anime. But, by the time Wind Waker was in development,
Matsumoto had appeared in some really well known shows, like Hamtaro, and Gundam SEED. And so, Nintendo decided to call her back
after Majora’s Mask, but this time she would play the main character Link. To match Wind Waker’s more expressive Link,
she adopted a pretty expressive range of sounds! Oh, and interestingly, she was asked to provide
one English voice line for the game: the phrase “come on!” “Come on!” So, Sachi Matsumoto’s voice clips appeared
in quite a few games released around this time, like Four Swords Adventure and Phantom
Hourglass. Plus, much like Fujiko Takimoto, her voice
clips appear in the Super Smash series to this day as the character Toon Link, plus
they’re also in the first Hyrule Warriors game. So, for a while during the mid 2000s, it seemed
like this was the one voice that Link was gonna have forever. But then, in 2006, everything changed. So, somewhat in response to the mixed feedback
towards Wind Waker’s cartoon style, the Zelda team decided to pull a 180 with their
next game, and go full dark, brooding realism. Ok, well it’s not like Call of Duty, but
compared to what came before, this new game called Twilight Princess was about as dark
and serious as Zelda got. The new design for Link was tall and manly
(ahhh) and so Sachi Matsumoto’s voice clips just wouldn’t fit. I mean, just picture these sounds - "hah,
uh, hah!" - coming from this guy -"Come on"! So, Nintendo decided to hire a new Link. And the voice actor chosen was a guy named
Akira Sasunuma. Like Link's last voice actor, he had also
appeared in Gundam SEED - in fact it was probably his biggest role at the time. However, as for Link, well Sasanuma really
struggled with this role. He was asked in an interview which character
of all he’d found the hardest to play, and his answer was Link. He said “The hardship was that there are
no real lines with Link. You have to do all the acting by breathing
and making odd sounds to make people understand what Link wants to express. Until that came through they asked me to keep
on trying again and again, so it was a really hard job.” He and a fellow voice actress were asked which
character they had most enjoyed playing. Sasanuma said essentially that he liked all
of his characters, but then this happened... “Don’t pretend!” “Among all my characters, Link from Zelda
didn’t have any lines!” “So, I enjoy characters that actually talk!” Still, Sasanuma gave the role his all, and
after hours and hours in the recording booth, the voice clips were finally completed! Take
a listen. Now, after Twilight Princess was released,
Akira Sasanuma appeared in just a couple more games. The much loved, and much revered (I’m kidding)
Link’s Crossbow Training for the Wii, and then also in Smash Bros Brawl and again in
Wii U and 3DS. But, as for any other big Zelda games, no
- Akira Sasanuma never appeared as Link again. So, who did? Who was Link’s next voice? Well, for this, we need to move back to the
DS, because we’ve got another game featuring Toon Link - this time the game is Spirit Tracks. And curiously enough, Nintendo decided NOT
to use the classic Toon Link voice, provided by Sachi Matsumoto. Instead, they hired a new voice actress called
Yuuki Kodaira. Kodaira had never worked with the Zelda series
before, and in fact she was almost a complete rookie at the time. Why Nintendo picked her to temporarily take
over the role of Toon Link for ONE GAME is a bit of a mystery, but she did a good job
nonetheless! Check it out. Now like I said, this was just a temporary
one-off thing - Kodaira never returned to the series. HOWEVER, if you’ve played Mario Odyssey,
then you have heard her voice, even if you didn’t know it. And that’s because almost a decade later,
Nintendo hired Yuki Kodaira once more to play various roles in Super Mario Odyssey: Harriet,
Madame Broode, Tiara, and Cookatiel. All of those voices were provided by her! Right, so new we return to the home console
games. After releasing the dark and serious Twilight
Princess, the Zelda team decided to lighten things up a bit with a more whimsical and
lighthearted game, which ended up taking the form of Skyward Sword. All of a sudden, Akira Sasanuma’s voice
clips from Twilight Princess didn’t seem to fit the mood at all, so Nintendo decided
to find someone who could deliver a lighter, and more anime-inspired performance. Now, while this was all going on, another
team at Nintendo were porting the retro space shooter Star Fox 64 onto the 3DS. Since the voice clips from the original game
were old and compressed, the team decided to hire a completely new cast and record the
voices from scratch. For the main role of Fox McCloud, they picked
voice actor Takashi Oohara. Fun fact - you can hear Oohara as Fox in Smash
Ultimate, so listen out for that next time you’re playing. Anyway, the team working on Skyward Sword
must’ve heard his performance in Star Fox for the 3DS and taken a liking to the guy,
because they decided that as well as Fox, he would be perfect for their new iteration
of Link. Unlike Noboyuki Hiyama all the way back with
Ocarina of Time, it seems that Takashi Oohara was NOT told not to sound Japanese, because
this performance sounds extremely anime-inspired, as many listeners have noted. Some people aren’t keen on Takashi Oohara’s
Link, but I really like it, personally - I think it's fun! Sadly though, this iteration of the voice
never got a chance to appear in any of the Smash Bros games, BUT it can be heard in Mario
Kart 8 and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Before we move on, I figured I should quickly
address the elephant in the room. If Nintendo are hiring all of this acclaimed
voice acting talent, then WHY aren’t they having Link speak, at all? Well, here’s what Zelda composer Koji Kondo
has to say: “The most important thing about the Zelda series is that the player becomes
Link. One of the challenges with full voice is that
if we’re trying to convey the player’s emotion through Link, but you hear Link talking
in somebody else’s voice, that creates a disconnect between you and the role that you’re
taking on”. Now that is true to an extent, I’m sure,
but according to producer Eiji Aonuma, there are other, more practical reasons too: “Everyone
would be speaking Hylian, so even if you heard them speak, you wouldn’t understand them”. Just you wait a few years, Eiji Aonuma, you'll
change your mind on that one! Ok, so moving on, we’re getting really close
to Link’s current voice! But first we need to take a quick pit stop
back in the land of the handheld. Early in the 3DS’s life, Nintendo decided
to make a half remake, half sequel to A Link to the Past. They obviously couldn’t keep using the old
beeps and boops from the original game though - they would feel very out of place on the
3DS. So rather than 16 bit sound effects, Link
was given some new voice clips. Rather than one of the previous actors, Nintendo
opted to hire a woman called Mitsuki Saiga. Now, Saiga is a really prolific voice actress,
well known for her extremely low voice, which allows her to play both male and female characters
- perfect for Link, who is male. Here’s what her voice sounds like in the
game. She also, by the way, voices Ravio. "HEY!" Next up is a really interesting one. For the game Hyrule Warriors, which was developed
not by Nintendo but instead by Koei Tecmo, Link was given a completely unique voice. I’m not sure if the reason is because the
game wasn’t developed by Nintendo, but for whatever reason, Koei Techmo hired a REALLY
famous voice actor to record some new clips of Link. The actor's name is Yuki Kaji. Check out just how many projects he’s been
in, scrolling through his Wikipedia. Or, here’s a piece of anecdotal evidence. The website BehindTheVoiceActors has a list
of which actors were searched for the most in any given week. And the week I’m writing this script, he’s
number 3. Out of everyone on the website! Now, this was a complete one off, Yuki Kaji
didn’t return for the game’s sequel, he’s never been in any other Zelda games either. But for just this single game in 2014, Link
was voiced by voice acting royalty. Take a listen. Alright, so before we get to the big final
one, Breath of the Wild, we’ve actually got an interesting curiosity to cover: Tri-Force
Heroes. It was a 3 player Zelda multiplayer game for
the 3DS. Each of the 3 players are Link, only, they
wear different coloured outfits. That works well visually to tell them apart,
but what about auditorily? How would the players tell the 3 voices apart? Well, the developers came up with a really
clever answer: when you begin a new game, your Link character is randomly assigned one
of 4 different previous Link voices! You can get Fujiko Takimoto’s Young Link
from Ocarina of Time, Sachi Matsumoto’s Toon Link, Yuki Kodaira’s Link from Spirit
Tracks, or Mitsuki Saiga’s Link from A Link Between Worlds. It's a very clever system! Ok, finally back to console games. So, after the release of Skyward Sword in
2011, developers at Nintendo began experimenting with what exactly the next Zelda game should
be, where the series as a whole should go. It took years and years of iteration, but
eventually they ended up with the critically acclaimed and best selling Breath of the Wild. In just about every way, this game drew a
clear line between itself and the games that came before it. And so, it’s no surprise that Nintendo decided
to recast Link for the game. And the person they chose was, to be frank,
a no-name. Well, he has a name, Kengo Takanashi, and
since Breath of the Wild he’s been in some quite well known shows. But back in 2016, he had played only background
characters in 10 or 11 shows. He was not a well established voice actor. But, Nintendo took a chance on him. Evidently, they were impressed by his audition
for the role, because shortly afterwards, he was brought into the recording studio,
where he recorded all 244 noises that Link makes. And, they some good noises... Take a listen. Which brings us to the current day. Kengo Takanashi is the current voice for Link,
appearing in not only Breath of the Wild, but also the spinoff game Hyrule Warriors
Age of Calamity, along with Smash Brothers Ultimate. Plus, I would assume that his voice will be
the one heard in Breath of the Wild 2, when that game eventually comes out. Although knowing Nintendo, there’s always
a chance they recast. You just never know. Hey, thanks for sticking with me for all 20
minutes of this video! Wow, I didn't plan it to be that long... I've got more videos like this coming next
week, so you can subscribe to see them as soon as they come out. Thanks for sticking with me! Bye!
