The Legend of Zelda games have been out for a long time, but some characters have been in more than one game.
The Legend of Zelda is one of the most famous series from Nintendo, even though each new game has a completely different story. But a lot of the figures from the Zelda series come back, sometimes in every single game. Others have stayed the same because they are Easter Eggs, fans like them, or they serve a different purpose in the world of Hyrule.
With the release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, many fans will be looking to see if any of their favourite Zelda characters return. Some are almost certain to come back, while others might please longtime fans of the series. These characters have shown up more than most in the history of the series.
Link
Link is by far the most common character in The Legend of Zelda. He is the main character in most of the games and is the major focus of the story. Even though his appearance changes, he usually wears a green shirt, the Master Sword, and blonde hair. In different games, though, his style has changed from cartoony to darker and more realistic.
Link has only missed out on a few Zelda games, like Freshly-Picked Tingle’s Rosy Rupeeland, which are spin-offs. But even in less well-known spin-off games like the Zelda games for the CD-i and the music game Cadence of Hyrule, Link plays a big part. Let’s just say that Link is important to The Legend of Zelda.
Zelda
Surprisingly, Zelda herself is the second most common figure in the Zelda games. The only games the character hasn’t been in are Link’s Awakening, Majora’s Mask, and Tri Force Heroes. But most of the time, she is just a side character or a damsel in trouble that Link has to save from the bad guys who attack Hyrule.
Only a few of the titles have Zelda that can be played. Some of these are the two Hyrule Warriors games, the Super Smash Bros. series, and Cadence of Hyrule. In other games, like Spirit Tracks, a ghost of Zelda lives in the armour of a Phantom Guardian, which Link can use to solve tasks.
Ganon
Ganon, who sometimes shows up as Ganondorf, his human form, is by far the most well-known bad guy from The Legend of Zelda. Ganon seems to be the same character in every game, unlike Link and Zelda, who change in many of the games. Instead, Ganon seems to be reborn over and over again, just like Link and Zelda.
But there are many games in the series where neither Ganon nor Ganondorf show up. Some of these games are Majora’s Mask, Four Swords, Spirit Tracks, and Skyward Sword. However, Ganon’s original form, Demise, only appears in Skyward Sword, where Link defeats him for the first time. This starts the loop that will eventually trap Ganon.
Impa
Impa has the most different looks of all the characters who show up in more than one Zelda game. The name “Old Woman” was first used to describe the character in the guidebook for the first NES game. Later, in the Nintendo 64 game “Ocarina of Time,” she had a bigger role. There, a younger Impa acted as Zelda’s guardian.
In later episodes of the series, Impa’s young fighting skills and old knowledge have been shown in more detail. Skyward Sword and Breath of the Wild show the character in both forms in a big way. Impa also shows up in the portable games A Link Between Worlds and Oracles of Ages and Seasons, which are both part of the series.
Tingle
Tingle first appeared in Majora’s Mask, where he was one of the strangest people in the land of Termina. For Rupees, he sold maps of the land to Link. The character’s mapmaking skills are later used in Oracle of Ages and The Wind Waker. In The Wind Waker, players must free the character from jail before they can use his mapmaking skills.
Tingle has small roles in other Zelda games, but his major fame comes from the games he makes on his own. Tingle takes the lead in his own adventures in spin-off games like Freshly-Picked Tingle’s Rosy Rupeeland and Ripened Tingle’s Balloon Trip of Love. He is the only character in the series who isn’t Link to lead his own game on his own.
Dampe
Dampe, the goofy gravedigger of Hyrule, is one of the most surprising Zelda figures who shows up over and over again in the series. The character first showed up in Ocarina of Time. He died during the seven-year time jump, but he came back as a ghost to race Link and give him the Hookshot as a prize. But Dampe is still very much alive in other ways.
Dampe later shows up in Majora’s Mask, Four Swords Adventures, The Minish Cap, and A Link Between Worlds as a gravedigger. The character was also added to the Nintendo Switch version of Link’s Awakening. In his shack, which replaced the Photographer’s in the original game, he helps Link make his own Chamber Dungeons.
Beedle
Beedle is a relatively new character in the Zelda series. He first showed up in The Wind Waker as a trader who was on the sea. He keeps showing up in Zelda games with similar art styles, like Skyward Sword and Breath of the Wild. In both of these games, he works as a salesman for different things all over Hyrule.
Beedle has also been in The Minish Cap, where players can buy different things as they move through the game, and in Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks for the Nintendo DS. He’s also one of the few characters in the series who isn’t Link or Navi whose voice is used more than once. This means that Nintendo has thought of him as special for a long time.
Skull Kid
Most fans of Zelda know Skull Kid as the main bad guy in Majora’s Mask. He is an orphaned forest boy who is taken over by the evil mask of the same name. But Skull Kid first showed up in Penalty Kick Online game before this one, Ocarina of Time. He plays a flute in the Lost Woods and will give Link Heart Pieces if he plays a song with them.
The Skull Kid didn’t show up in the Zelda games for a long time. In Twilight Princess, he helped Link find the Master Sword by leading him through the Sacred Grove. Skull Kid was also a playable character in Hyrule Warriors, where he looked like he did in Majora’s Mask. He is also a playable character in Cadence of Hyrule.
King Of Hyrule
The King of Hyrule has had many different forms, but not many of them have been seen on-screen or played a big role in the Zelda games. Most of the time, Princess Zelda is the only member of the Hylian Royal Family that players get to meet. However, the King of Hyrule has filled that role a few times.
The most important Kings of Hyrule in the series show up in The Wind Waker and Breath of the Wild. They both have a big white beard and look alike. The Minish Cap and the popular Zelda spin-off games on the CD-i also have Hylian Kings. The King of Hyrule also shows up in A Link to the Past’s ending scene.
Epona
The Legend of Zelda didn’t have horseback riding until Ocarina of Time. It was added so that Link could get around the huge world of Hyrule. Epona showed up in that game as an adult horse that Link had to train. Even though none of the horses Link rides after Epona have anything to do with each other, they are often given the name Epona.
Epona was also in Majora’s Mask and Twilight Princess, and now she can be found in Breath of the Wild. Link can tame almost any horse he finds in the wild, but the only way to find a horse that looks like Epona is to scan the right Amiibo figure. Still, there’s nothing like riding Epona through the open world of the Switch game.
