Zelda is the Princess of Hyrule (most of the time) that typically needs saving. However, not all of her incarnations are all helpless.

I’ve gone through and analyzed all the various Zeldas out of each one of the primary titles (when existing ) along with a couple of spin-off matches (i.e. Hyrule Warriors and the CD-i games). There are two or three instances in which one variant of Zelda shows up in many games and there are some games that don’t feature her whatsoever.

Each Zelda has been rated on one of three facets: agency, characterization, and presence. Did she spend the majority of the game unconscious or was running around and kicking ass? In regards into characterization, I looked at how strong her personality was. Now, this does not refer to the way emotionally or physically powerful she is. It’s more to do with the amount of strengths and weaknesses. Does she really have a character? Finally, I looked at just how current she was in the game itself. Can she spend the majority of the game locked in a tower or does one actually play her? If you can’t play with her, how often does she look on display?Join Us phantom hourglass ds rom website

Also, keep in mind I did not factor the standard of the game into my analysis. Have a look at our Zelda games standing in the event you wish to know which is the best.

What Character?

Now, there really is a gap between in storyline Four Swords and Four Swords Adventure. Fundamentally, Ganon is at Adventure and is supporting everything. In the initial Four Swords Vaati is just a monumental jerk because he can be. Zelda also has a slightly larger role in this game also. Zelda and six other maidens unlock the Sanctuary first and Vaati breaks loose and kidnaps all. Progress!

Okay, the actual improvement on this Zelda is she actually assists Link in the last fight. She generates a chunk of light whilst Link distracts him. Once full, the ball of light defeats against the day will be stored. Her ability to be something apart from a pretty face is just marginally greater in Four Swords Adventures along with her presence lasts a few seconds more. Nevertheless, she is still basically a cardboard cutout of a character. I have fulfilled sacks of potatoes with more personality than her.

Even at number 12 on this listing, the first Zelda, in the very first Zelda title, The Legend of Zelda, is just slightly better than the prior ones. Her character is totally non-existent. You do not even see her in the beginning of the game! Whatever you get is a wall of text that informs you she’s been kidnapped and you want to save . When you finally do rescue her, then she has one line that’s utilised to thank you for rescuing her. Honestly, I wanted to put her on the bottom of this list for just how little a presence she is in her game.

After that, she purchased her nursemaid Impa to find somebody who might defeat Ganon. Although these events do not unfold from the sport itself and we just know about it through the scrolling text at the beginning, it’s more than I could say about any of the other Zeldas on this list so far.

The Disney Princess: The Minish Cap

The game starts with her sneaking from the castle to wake Join so that they can go to the Picori festival collectively. She contributes Link into the festival then proceeds to haul him in her newfound enthusiasm. Zelda ends up winning a lottery competition and can be presented with three options: a heart, a gem, or a defense. She chooses the defense. Although the shopkeeper attempts to talk her from this shield, she insists on carrying it and gives it to Connect as a present. Naturally, Vaati attacks at the conclusion of the festival and turns her to stone for the remaining part of the game. To add insult to injury, he kidnaps the stone Zelda. Not only does she want to get rescued, Link also must break the curse on her. Eventually, Link does rescue her and Zelda employs the Mage’s Cap to revive the ruined Hyrule and its citizens.

This Zelda nevertheless has fairly low agency and a rather low presence in the game as well. But she gets a few points because of her excitable and stubborn character. It is not much, but it’s sufficient to put her at number 11.

Three Games, Totally Wasted: A Link To The Past/Oracle Saga

This Zelda was showcased in not one, but three games. She has a small part in both The Oracle of Ages and the Oracle of Seasons. But, Zelda just shows up in these 2 games if you have the connected version of this Oracle Saga.

This Zelda also begins off a Link to the Past sport in captivity, however, she is far more educated about her saving. Agahnim is utilizing them as sacrifices to break the shield between Hyrule and the Dark globe to be able to reestablish Ganon. From the Oracle Saga, her entire job is to be kidnapped by Twinrova to ensure Link could save .

Zelda’s personality in these types of matches is generic. She’s nice and worries about the others. However, she does call out to Link and, once he saves her first time, she directs him through a secret passage in the castle. Following Link saves her another time, she along with the other maidens combine their capability to break the seal on Ganon’s tower Link can defeat him. She’s basically a non-entity in the Oracle Saga. This Zelda is okay up to Zeldas go.

She Did Something!

This version of Zelda appears in 2 complete cutscenes until she has captured in A Link Between Worlds! Normally they’re just snatched right out of the gate before the match even starts. Yuga pops up and begins turning people into paintings early in the game. Link goes into Zelda where she gives him a distinctive charm to shield him before sending him to Kakariko Village. It is just after Link gets back that Zelda is kidnapped by Yuga and become a painting. Link follows Yuga to Lorule and finally rescues her along with all the kidnapped sages.

In all honesty, A Link Between Worlds isn’t Zelda’s match, but it’s Hilda’s. So Zelda’s existence in this sport is quite low and she is not given a lot of character outside of becoming a standard, nice princess. Zelda does play a larger role at the finale and helps Link to reestablish Lorule’s Triforce. But at the close of the day, that’s not actually a great deal.

Getting There: Twilight Princess

Twilight Princess is among the greater Zelda games, so it is unfortunate that it’s certain iteration of Zelda is very midst of the road. She is not horrible. Yes, she is in captivity until the match begins, but it’s not kidnapping. Zant gave her two options: observe her people die in a horrible war as her realm is burned to the ground, or kill kingdom and herself. She decided to surrender and Hyrule to become enveloped in Twilight. If you meet her the first time, she functions as a exposition mouthpiece. However, the next time you visit her she saves Midna’s own life in exchange for the physical form. Ganon uses her spiritless body as a puppet through the last battle. Once she is restored to her entire body, she helps Link conquer Ganon by shooting him with light arrows. This specific Zelda is brave and selfless. She puts others ahead of herself and does what she can to secure her people. She doesn’t have a great deal of presence and spends the majority of the game in a tower or incorporeal. However, it is a step in the ideal direction.

A Real Character: Skyward Sword

Skyward Sword’s Zelda comes with a real, real personality. She’s lively and spontaneous. Her friendship with Link is evident from the beginning. Zelda calls Link’Sleepyhead’ on a couple of occasions and literally pushes him off a couple of precipices. She’s confidence in spades but is not so large on her loftwing she does not fret about others. In addition to all that, she’s jealous of Link’s connection with his loftwing. This Zelda is an actual character! While she is not a huge presence in the game, she isn’t completely absent from it . She is a significant participant in the beginning of the game also shows up a few times throughout. There is one quite heart-wrenching scene between her and Connect about halfway through the game which showcased their relationship perfectly. It is only too bad she doesn’t have that agency.

Zelda doesn’t just get intimidated, she gets kidnapped three times. Every moment, she needs to be rescued by Impa or Link. Impa takes her from one place to another, leading her through the actions she has to perform. She does make a few choices for himself, but she is not the driving force behind a good part of her actions. It’s a shame, really.

The Ocarina of Time Zelda gets a great deal of props from me personally, especially with how crazy it can get. This Zelda is a young kid for at least half the game. However, she was able to recognize the evil in Ganondorf and immediately jumped into action. Zelda, being a kid, did the wise thing and cautioned her father. When he didn’t believe her, she decided to quit Ganondorf herself. Zelda followed her prophetic dreams and delivered Connect on the job to saving Hyrule. She helped him as best she could from the sidelines while trying to protect the Ocarina of Time. If it became clear that she couldn’t shield the ocarina, she opted to provide it to Connect. Since Sheik, she used her ninja abilities to keep to assist Link. Zelda was constantly scheming and adapting her plans as the situations changed. Granted, not all her ideas are extremely good and she’s singlehandedly responsible for breaking up the deadline. But, Zelda is strong. She is also the Seventh Sage and leader of the Sages. It’s only unfortunate that her personality isn’t explored very nicely and she only appears sporadically during the game. She managed to get kidnapped shortly after showing herself to Connect and could not break out regardless of her ability and abilities.

Lost Possible: Ground Waker/Phantom Hourglass

I can not even start to describe how badly I wanted Tetra to be higher on this listing. She doesn’t bother with useless people and does not let anybody walk . What’s more, she gets a real character arc where she learns to become kinder and to take responsibility as the princess of Hyrule. In addition to that, she saves Link just as many times as he saves her. It is only a whole shame that her service is stripped out of her at the latter half of this game. Once she learns she’s Princess Zelda, she goes into hiding before Ganondorf kidnaps her. Zelda also spends the final battle unconscious. However, she does help Link combat in the second half and they conquer Ganondorf together.

Tetra’s actual catastrophe, and also the main reason why she’s really low on this record, is because of Phantom Hourglass. All her service gets stripped away from her. Link gets all the credit for defeating Ganondorf. Tetra’s brain goes on permanent hiatus and she manages to make herself kidnapped due for her own stupidity. She has turned to rock and about two seconds following Link breaks the curse, and she has kidnapped again. Her low reputation is completely this game’s error.

This hurts. This hurts. The CD-i Zelda games are so poor that many Zelda fans refuse to acknowledge their presence. The CD-i Zelda games are terrible and easily the worst of all the Zelda games. They aren’t even canon. The only good thing about them is that they are so easy to mock. Unfortunately, this list isn’t about the games, it’s all about the characters. I shall totally acknowledge that Zelda’s personality is actually bad from the first CD-i game. Zelda in Link: The Faces of Evil is all about as dumb as dumb is. Not only does she get intimidated, but she’s the entire game unconscious. When Link conserves her she wakes up and asks what happened. Connect informs her that he rescued her from Ganon and her instant response is:”You did not.”

The main reason why she is really high on this list is because of Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon and Zelda’s Adventure. Though it can be argued that the Zelda in Zelda’s Adventure game is a different Zelda, the fact remains she scored ridiculously large because of her agency and presence in the sport. The last two CD-i titles exclusively feature her as the primary, playable personality at which Link gets kidnapped and that she saves him. She has a lot of spunk and is fearless in conflict. Just like Tetra, she doesn’t let anyone push her around. In both matches, she’s the hero.

Hyrule Warriors is another non-canon Zelda name, but it could be a disservice for this listing if we dismissed it. 1 look at Princess Zelda at Hyrule Warriors is all it takes to determine why she would make it in the 3rd spot. Zelda is plagued by nightmares and their potential loopholes her. She begins to look for a warrior who may help to protect her kingdom, but an army strikes before she can make a choice. So, instead, she orders the troops to battle and marches with them into the fray. Zelda goes missing during the struggle, but it is not because she had been kidnapped. Instead she transforms into Sheik and struggles alongside Link and Impa to safeguard her people. Zelda totally kicks butt in Hyrule Warriors. Contrary to her Ocarina of Time counterpart, she does not get kidnapped right after showing herself. She proceeds to fight through the game and is a major presence in the story and gameplay. The only disadvantage is that she isn’t well researched as a personality. A lot of emphasis is placed on her as a mystery and not as a character.

It honestly took some time and contemplation for me to put the Breath of this Wild Zelda with this list, especially this elevated. Zelda isalso on the outside, not actually that interesting. She is not a fighter at precisely the same way the Hyrule Warriors Zelda is and her personality isn’t as clear as a few of the others. It also seems like she doesn’t actually do much. However, I put her high for a reason.

Zelda knew about her fate by a young age and committed her every waking moment to unlocking the power she had to defeat Ganon. She is the person who commanded where they moved and when they did it. When Ganon eventually did attack, she stored Link and then proceeded to kidnap Ganon. Okay, she trapped him for 100 years, but it is basically the exact same thing. Breath of the Wild’s Zelda has arguably the maximum agency out of all the Zeldas. Her personality is not as bombastic as the others, however, it is still there. She isn’t as emotionally powerful as others, but she’s serious and intelligent. Her rage towards Link from the flashbacks is diverted frustration in her own helpless condition. Zelda works herself to the point of exhaustion because she is acutely conscious of the huge burden on her shoulders. The one thing that keeps her from this number one place is her presence. While she has plenty of cutscenes, she’s somewhat absent in a game which could easily run within 100 hours.

Perfect: Spirit Tracks

The Zelda at Spirit Tracks is among those very few incarnations of Zeldas which is truly playable. Her character, while emotionally weak, is the strongest in the series. She’s easily bullied from the Chancellor and doesn’t have a lot of spine at all. Zelda is a bit foolhardy but not entirely innocent. She understands the Chancellor is up to something and recruits Link to help her sneak out of the castle to be able to figure it out. If her body has been taken from her, her soul remains. In fact, she essentially threatens Link. In addition, her reaction to when she sees that Ganon will use her body for a meat suit is priceless! But over the course of the game she becomes braver and moves via a real character arc.

The two biggest things that spirited this particular Zelda into first place is that she is present during the whole game and struggles alongside Connect as an equal. Zelda learns to treat Phantoms and they work together to conquer challenges and defeat their opponents. If she is not fighting, she gives Connect pointers and assists him where he needs to go. She is also notable for being the sole version of Zelda who is shown to really do the work of a ruler! The game ends with her filling out paperwork.