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What name are you using in Skyward Sword? [poll]
 
Link  (35/44 votes)
 80%
My name  (7/44 votes)
 16%
A joke name (e.g. assface)  (2/44 votes)
 5%
 
I'm curious.

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11/22/11, 21:26  
 
   
 
In Four Swords Adventures there isn't even an option to change your name. Obviously, the character's name is Link. Which is why I have no problem changing it. I'd never change a Final Fantasy character's name because then I'd have no idea who people on message board would be talking about when they refer to that character.
11/24/11, 02:04   
@Shadowlink But I think Link used to be the name of the character and stopped being it in more recent games. Really it wouldn't make sense if every hero was already named Link before their adventure started.

@DrFinkelstein Cartoon isn't canon.
11/24/11, 05:21   
@Zero
Duh, it's his name.
11/24/11, 05:31   
But who is "his" there is pretty much a new hero every game. How on Earth would they all happen to be named Link? Unless you have a bunch of hopeful mothers or something.
11/24/11, 05:33   
@Zero

It's Canon enough. Plus the second game in the series is called Adventure of Link. That makes no sense if it was a placeholder name.

@Zero

Fate probably ensures that all the "heroes" get named Link. Though I'm sure Link is a common name in the Hyrule universe despite us not coming across any.
11/24/11, 05:35   
Edited: 11/24/11, 05:36
What the fuck just happened to my post? Just typed it all out on iPhone too, omg.
11/24/11, 05:43   
@DrFinkelstein

There was at *least* two Gorons named Link ;)
11/24/11, 05:47   
Edited: 11/24/11, 05:47
@Shadowlink

Right on! Thanks for the bonus evidence. Thus it's perfectly feasible within the scope of the world logic.
11/24/11, 06:00   
Nah it'd still be ridiculous. We have never heard of any other humans named Link in the world of Hyrule. It's basically everyone who is randomly named Link becomes a hero?
11/24/11, 06:04   
@Zero

This is a game where you collect gold pieces of matter which give you special powers to resurrect or destroy beings/locations/etc. You think that just because we've never come across another NPC named Link who was human that they wouldn't exist? Nintendo probably doesn't feel the need to back itself up with logic of that sort. His name is Link. It didn't start off as perhaps a set-in-stone thing but it is now Link. All propaganda, Cartoon and then some, refers to him as Link. To name him as yourself is merely to add convenience and connection to the player.

If you're so concerned with the every hero being named Link thing, what about the fact these Link's always look the exact same (stylistic quality aside). Link is a character with a distinct name and a distinct look. I don't see why this is being debated.
11/24/11, 06:09   
They look the same because they are chosen by the gods before birth to become a hero! That doesn't necessarily mean that their moms all named them Link though. The gods can only use that gimmick a few times before everyone would start to name their kids Link! Just like Jesus became a name that didn't mean anything after awhile, there is a new Jesus born every day.
11/24/11, 06:11   
@Zero

If the Gods choose a child to be born to become a hero, I'm sure they pull some cosmic strings to name him Link.

And while nobody uses the name Jesus to hopefully ensure their child will one day be the resurrected son of God, so sure it's been used enough in the mainstream. If everyone started naming their kid Link so that he'd be some great hero, and when that didn't happen, because the Zelda timespan on has so many heroes and spans way more years and generations than that... it's also logical to assume people who stop caring to try.

But now we're just in one clusterfuck of "what ifs".
11/24/11, 06:25   
Well, whatever the case, I think the real point is that the character doesn't have a set name... he is what you name him. If the game itself is calling him "Andrew", HE IS ANDREW.
11/24/11, 06:28   
@DrFinkelstein Why don't you just call him Fink instead of Link? The perfect name is right under your nose the whole time!
11/24/11, 06:33   
@Zero

So in Final Fantasy 7, if I change Cloud's name to Stephen (because you can change names in that game) suddenly the story becomes about Stephen? That character is no longer Cloud?

Technically that's true. And technically then it's Stephen's story. But when there is a default name, that is the character's name. If I read Alice in Wonderland and call Alice, Gwen. It's still Alice. I'm just calling her Gwen. You're just calling Link Andrew because the game allows it. And so sure, for your game specifically perhaps it becomes Andrew, The Hero of Time's story, but generally, it's Link and that's his actual name.

@PogueSquadron

Brilliant!
11/24/11, 06:35   
Edited: 11/24/11, 06:36
If his name isn't Link, then he'd be called "HERO" in Smash Bros.

Link is the character's name. They just let you rename him to personalize the game and (likely more importantly) differentiate your file name. I mean, you don't look at official art Ocarina of Time and go "Oh wow, there's Andrew fighting Ganondorf."

He'd be Andrew in your game, and the player can imagine it's them...but in the grand scheme of things, you're not giving a blank slate the name Andrew...you're giving Link the name Andrew.
11/24/11, 06:42   
@DrFinkelstein I don't think that is the same though, because there is only one Cloud, whereas "Link" is just the name given to a bunch of heroes of Hyrule. If every Zelda game was about the same guy named Link, sure, but it seems pretty clear that Nintendo wants a bunch of different heroes with the name Link only being representative. Whenever people talk about past heroes in the games, for instance, they never say "Link" they say something like "the hero of Time" or whatever.
11/24/11, 06:53   
Edited: 11/24/11, 06:54
Zero said:
But who is "his" there is pretty much a new hero every game. How on Earth would they all happen to be named Link? Unless you have a bunch of hopeful mothers or something.

For some reason the whole Zelda timeline thing has always bothered me a little. Once Nintendo realized they had a success on their hands with the Zelda franchise, they really should have made the games really connect. I mean, alot of it is just guess work and from what I have seen and read across many sites there is a few different ways one can go about 'linking' all these games together.

I don't mind there being many years between games, even say 100, which I think Wind Waker is supposed to be far into the future. I know this probably isn't the thread for this post, and honestly its not like I am losing sleep over this. I just wished that Nintendo would have really tied all these games together.

Anyways, I need to check the timeline thread here on NW. I really have not looked it over much. So, back on topic....

What gives Zero and Fink? I think its funny cause you guys are almost acting like Link is real or something. You guys are making me laugh. Of course he is Link. I think Nintendo gives us the option to change the name, so the person playing feels like he is the hero. I always thought it a little bizarre when companies do this. The Final Fantasy series comes to mind, which makes sense cause those are rpgs and in a way Zelda games have been sortof classified as rpgs in a way.

Zero said:

I don't think that is the same though, because there is only one Cloud, whereas "Link" is just the name given to a bunch of heroes of Hyrule

Question: All the characters in SS, like Link, Zelda, her dad, ect, ect...all of them live in Skyloft. From what I have read about the game, which isn't much, and from the 10-15 reviews I have read, no one really mentions that this game is set in Hyrule. Im really not caring about spoilers here, but since it seems this game takes place before all the others, like telling the origin of the master sword, ect.......Am I assuming correctly that there is no Hyrule in this game? Or maybe the earth below Skyloft is where the Hyrule of the future ends up being? I still am hoping that by the end of the game, we are told what happens to Skyloft. I mean, there is no land or continent in the sky in future Zeldas like OoT. Now in TP there is that one level that takes place in the sky.

Even though I know its just a game, stuff like this bothers me just a tad. I mean, floating land, continents, they just are not possible. Where the hell does the river come from. Like, out of no where?!
11/24/11, 07:02   
Edited: 11/24/11, 07:19
But they refer to him as Link in all the instruction manuals don't they?

There's probably enough supplementary material for each game to deduce that they're all called Link. Official mangas, instruction manuals, etc.

Or, in Smash Bros. Brawl for instance, if you look at Toon Link's trophy, it says:

Brawl (via Super Smash Bros. Wikia) said:
"Link as he appeared in The Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass, with big eyes and an expressive face. He lived peacefully on Outset Island until a bird captured his little sister, and he came to her rescue. In The Wind Waker, he had to crawl, press up to walls, and the like. His green clothes were worn on his 12th birthday and are the lucky outfit of the hero of legend."

When I read "Link as he appeared in The Wind Waker," that tells me that they consider him a character that spans many different games. If this is Link as he appeared in Wind Waker, doesn't that mean that Link has also appeared in many other games?
11/24/11, 07:14   
@PogueSquadron But that makes even less sense. Then it's more like he is an actor who can play various roles or something. Anyway, of course they will call him something but I still get the sense that Nintendo views it now as Link just being a link to the player.

Mind you, this is Nintendo, who does not and never will have an official answer to this question. They just don't care.
11/24/11, 07:16   
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