Child Link Vs. Adult Link

[Xixor]

Hey, guys!

I just want to know if you like the distinction between child Link games and adult Link games. This has gotten to the point where you can predict which game comes next: child game released, adult game released, child game released, adult game released. This is the main pattern. I think this is why we (or at least many) are expecting an adult Link game next for the Wii. Do you like being able to predict? Or do you prefer the old games where you could hardly tell?

I predict that in the future, the difference will become so great that child Link games and adult Link games will move to totally different game teams in Nintendo (it really already has for the most part.)

 

[ChargewithSword]

You know, you may be on something. Most of the games where you play as child Link do seem to have differences than when you play as adult Link. Though I believe it is the feel of the game that is getting to you. The enemies as a child seem much bigger than you and so are the challenges so often times they intimidate you a little more. An adult game however usually has enemies that are your size but are grittier and stronger because they are fighting an adult. (Of course, that at least would be a nice explanation to why TP was only slightly harder than WW.)

Anyways, I'm not against this as we could still tell Link was a child way back when. All the artwork in every Zelda game before OOT had Link as either a child or budding teenager.

 

[The Castellan]

I always wondered....in the Legend of Zelda and Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link, is Link a kid or is he grown up in those?

 

[Xinnamin]

Link is 16 in AoL and a few years younger in the original LoZ.

Anyways, I've never actually noticed the switching between Child and Adult games in recent releases. The more prominent pattern I see in the more recent games is that all the Child Links now seem to be Toon Links while all the Adult Links are rendered realistically. It does almost seem as if Nintendo is trying to establish that fact in future games since, if the art on the Zelda Wii poster is accurate, Zelda Wii's Link will be an Adult rendered in realistic graphics. I think that really says something about Nintendo's goal audiences: toon style to attract younger players and a Child protagonist to connect with, realistic style to please older anti-cartoon-style gamers with an Adult protagonist to connect with.

I don't mind the differences and alternating between Child and Adult Link games, it's probably just Nintendo's marketing strategy or something, though I doubt it would hurt for them to try and combine the two again in a future game. Who knows, maybe Zelda Wii will surprise us in this regard.

 

[Xixor]

Good point Xinnamin.

I also thought there was an upside to the child (cartoon) Link and adult (realistic) Link games moving to different devisions of Nintendo: More games!

 

[Zeruda]

(Actually, Link is almost 16 in AoL, so he's still 15 XP )

But the whole child/adult/child/adult pattern only just started, really. He's always been "young" regardless of being around 10 or around 17. I never really noticed a pattern since we've only seen an older Link 3 times if you count AoL as being "older". He's almost always a kid. The only pattern I've started to notice is that they've been sticking less mature Links with cel-shaded artwork and more mature Links with artwork that leans more towards a realism-anime hybrid.

I don't think Nintendo actually planned this. I think that they kind of just went along with which games pleased which crowds. The majority of people who enjoyed cel-shaded games were young and/or less experienced/casual gamers whereas the majority of people who enjoyed the anime-realism hybrid (because it is NOT realistic) are old and/or more experienced gamers. The cel-shading does better financially on the DS because they don't have to put as much resources and time into the games as they would be expected to if they put them on a main console. TWW may have done extremely well in Japan, but not so much with western gamers. On the other hand, TP did great with western gamers and not-so-great in Japan. But I'm getting off subject.... financially, the cel-shaded games fare better on handhelds and the anime-realism hybrid styled games fare better on the main consoles.

So yeah, that pattern will probably continue because it worked out for Nintendo. The console games take longer to complete, so there will probably be one or two handheld Zeldas that feature a younger Link between "Main Zelda" releases that will feature an older one.