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A Link to the Past Why is Link's Hair Purple?

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BombchuPwns!

MAKE PASTA NOT WAR
Joined
Jun 27, 2011
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New Jersey
Hey guys!
I was wondering when I played A Link to the Past on my snes (for like the 90th million time) I was thinking: why is Link's hair purple??? Were these the only closest colors to dirty blonde they had on the pallete or what? I was always confused by this.

Please respond!
 

insanity76

I don't suffer from it ..
Joined
Jun 17, 2010
Location
Texas
It was probably just a design choice by Nintendo. They surely could have made him with blonde or brown hair (as there are brown & blonde maidens).
 

Tony

Stardust Crusaders
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Feb 15, 2010
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Seasons in the Abyss [Minnesota]
Links hair is technically not purple because in the actual artwork it shows Link with brown hair. So, canonically his hair is not purple. The in game sprites show Link with purple hair to make the game brighter, vibrant, and colorful. Imagine A Link to the Past without all the bright colors, wouldn't it be really boring? Here is some official artwork and an in game sprite to show the difference.
936full-the-legend-of-zelda%u00253A-a-link-to-the-past-artwork.jpg Giant_16_bit_Link_sprite_2_by_dragonpjb.jpg
See how boring Alttp would be without all the different colors.
 

blubb

Ash Gala Wonderful!
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As far as I know, it's pink because of some system limitations. The SNES can only show so many colours at once (or per sprite? I don't have all the hardware details) and that's apparently the reason for their strange colour choice.
 

Peeps1080

Not the marshmallow
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Location
Windfall Island
This may sound dumb but close up it looks like it doesn't show any of his hair, and the pink is part of his hat, and like Tony said it might be to make it more colorful. Just my idea.
 
The hair looks pink to me and it was a glitch, this is pretty well known it wasn't a design choice.
in an SNES game, any one tile/sprite can only use 16 different colors at a time (thus the term 16-bit). Normal Link and bunny Link use the same set of colors (palette), which does not include a yellow-brown for Link's hair. This is because, with the pink for the bunny included, there isn't enough room in the palette for that extra color.

The triforce, darkworld, etc. all have their own palettes, which are different from the ones used by Link which is why some do have brown/blonde hair and not Link.
 

zeldahuman

Graphic Designer
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Feb 22, 2011
Location
Akkala
The hair looks pink to me and it was a glitch, this is pretty well known it wasn't a design choice.
in an SNES game, any one tile/sprite can only use 16 different colors at a time (thus the term 16-bit). Normal Link and bunny Link use the same set of colors (palette), which does not include a yellow-brown for Link's hair. This is because, with the pink for the bunny included, there isn't enough room in the palette for that extra color.

The triforce, darkworld, etc. all have their own palettes, which are different from the ones used by Link which is why some do have brown/blonde hair and not Link.
yes, but then that leads into, why didn't they use the brown of his sleeves for his hair? it would have been better than pink hair...
 

JamesBond007

Indigo Child
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Jan 21, 2011
Location
Krosno, Poland
I can post similar question - Why is Agahnim's Robe Green?

The truth - stupid design choice by Nintendo. There's no system limitations, and everything can be changed with ROM hacking.

[video=youtube;UrB73Xo5Lis]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrB73Xo5Lis[/video]

For comparison:
The original ALttP SNES intro - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QD39Bc_I6Ok
The original ALttP GBA Intro - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DapBmwnlrSQ
 
R

RedOcto231

Guest
Red octorok looks at video clip and says WHAT THE FREAKIN CRAP?!?!?!
 
Joined
Jan 27, 2011
it's probably to keep the color pallet from going out of Nintendo's intentions, it's like how in Sonic 3 in Carnival Night Zone, the blue balloons share the same blue color pallet as Sonic himself so when he turns Super Sonic the balloons glow gold with him
 

Salem

SICK
Joined
May 18, 2013
I don't buy the SNES limitations argument.

yes, but then that leads into, why didn't they use the brown of his sleeves for his hair? it would have been better than pink hair...

There was also yellow on his belt. So they could've had his hair brown OR blonde! Why purple?!

Exactly.:)
___________________________________

Take a loot at this:
http://www.outofprintarchive.com/ar...higeru_Miyamoto_ZeldaALTTP1-SuperPlay2-1.html
(Yes, I save this link just for occasions such as these:`v`:)

This is from a magazine from the early 1990s, it showed art of Link having pink hair, now I don't know HOW official this art is, but I think it means Nintendo is at least acknowledging the pink hair thing at the time.

Like what JamesBond007 and JuiceJ said there was a lot of colours that were weird in Nintendo's SNES games, not just Link's hair and Aghahnim's clothes.

For example: The Koopalings in Super Mario World, their colours do not match the official arts at all.
 
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