My very first Legend of Zelda game was Ocarina of Time for the Nintendo 64. My brother got it from our neighbor at a yardsale for $8. I was about ten at the time and couldn’t beat the game no matter how hard I tried. Twelve years later, there are dozens of Legend of Zelda titles and I have beaten many of them (including Ocarina of Time!).

A lot is known about its non-titular character, Link. We know he’s the Her💙o of Time, that he has to rescue the princess Zelda and that the three of them, including Ganon, create the Triforce. But even the most die hard fan might be surprised by some of these interesting facts. Considering the game came out in 1986 and spans over nine consoles (excluding the Nintendo Switch, which I am STILL waiting on), it’s not that surprising. The Hyrulian Lore is pretty vast, and even after reading Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia, basically cover to cover, 🦂I still found myself surprised when I was getting into a bit of research. Turns out the ever silent Link has been holding out on us!

15 What’s in a Name? 🌊

Have you ever thought about why Link is called... Link? I mean half of us probably named him after ourselves or even a curse word, but the actual origins of Link’s name are pretty cool. Apparently, back in the concept phase, the Triforce was instead going to be made of electronic chips. It would still have the time travel we all know and love and the main character would be the link between them. It’s also useful when coming up with snappy titles. A Link to the Past, A Link Between Worlds, they certainly get their use out of it.

Here’s another little fun fact about names, Zelda was named after Zelda Fitzgerald! Although considඣering how that marriage went do❀wn…

14 Alternate Timelines 🀅

With so many games out there, it can get confusing as to what's taking place and when. But the creator has said that they do have a kind of show bible for the game, with how the gam♛es all fit together, as they want to keep the games focused on being good games, before worrying about how it all fits together.

The first games in the series actually take place towards the end of the timeline that we’ve seen in the past twenty years, with Skyward Sword being at the very beginning. The huge turning point, and where we get into alternate timelines, is with Ocarina of Time. That is where the timeline splits between victorious Link, who has defeated Ganon and saved the day, and the one in which Link fails and Ganon takes over. Although when you throw in Ravio from Link Between Worlds and ♐an entire dark world to worry about it, does get pretty jumbled.

13 Southpaw

Surprisingly enough, for almost every game, Link is actually left-handed! The only time they’ve changed this is for the Wii version of Twilight Princess, which is a mirrored copy of the GamCcube version, so that it matches ꦯth꧑e more popular dominant hand. So, that was due more to ease the player than the fact that more often than not, Link is left-handed.

I🌺 was thinking this probably has a lot to do with sword-fighting and how it is much harder to fight a left-handed person (I fenced for a while and as a right-handed person I dreaded fencing a leftie). But in actuality, it’s most likely because Miyamoto, th꧑e creator, is a leftie!

12 I 𝔉Do Believ🌞e in Hyrulians, I Do, I Do!

When you look at Link✅, you might think he looks surprisingly similar to a Disney character we all know and love. That’s right, Link was modeled after the Disney version of Peter Pan! Which I guess makes Navi Tinkerbell, right? Too bad Navi couldn’🌠t be more useful than just yelling, “Hey Listen!” (Protip: set that as your ringtone and watch everyone lose it).

When Miyamoto was creating Link, he wanted a character as easily recognizable and iconic as Mario. Which is why they went in the direction of the solid green, pointy hat and elven ears. Although they did diverge later when giving Link the blond hair, in the earlier versions, he had brownish-red hair, looking even more like Peter Pan. When creating an icon, I guess it makes sense to go 𝓡with the people known for their iconic characters. And hey! At least The Hero of Time doesn't look like Mickey Mouse!

11 🍎 Childhood Adventure 🧸

The Legend of Zelda series is derived from Miyamoto’s own experience as a child, so whenever you play as Link, you're kind of living his childhood. When he was young, his parents let him explore, alone, and he would often seek out adventures. Apparently, one daꦏy he found a cave and went back to ❀his house to grab a lantern. I guess it makes sense why we needed a lantern in so many Legend of Zelda games, right?

Miyamoto found a cave system. I wonder if he expected to find a magic sword? Or maybe an old man (creepy) that was holding a sword and said that ‘It’s dangerous to go alone. Take this.꧒’ Miyamoto has said that he wanted to capture that same feeling of adventure and joy he had felt that day. I’d say he succeeded in most games too, conside💟ring I get that childlike glee when I even hear about a new Zelda game coming out.

10 💖 Hyrule Fantasy: Th👍e Legend of Zelda

The biggest question I get when I’m talking about one of my favorite game franchises is, “Oh Zelda? Yeah, I’ve seen the game. Although, isn’t Zelda a girl’s name? Why would the guy be named Zelda?” It’s a pretty reasonable mistake when you consider the fact that the games aren’t called “Legend of Link” and that Link is the main character. The confusion absolutely makes sense. But why would Nintendo set us up for that confusion in the first place? It turns out, when the first game came out in Japan, it was titled Hyrule Fantasy: The Legend of Zelda. As a title, Hyrule Fantasy makes a lot more sense. But for the American release, they dropped the main title and stuck with just the subtitle, The Legend of Zelda. It♍ sounds pretty epic and mysterious, but the name stu♕ck.

9 🤡 It’෴s Dangerous to Go Alone!

“It’s dangerous to go alone! Take this!” is probably one of the most iconic video game quotes of all time. You can get it on all kinds of stuff from backpacks to key-chains. But that iconic moment almost didn’t make it into the game at all. When they were play-testing it, players said that the game was too confusing. Miyamoto’s solution? Make it more confusing! Originally the game began with Link, sword in hand. To make it tougher, he made the𓆉 gamer start weaponless and you would need to find the sword.

He wanted kids to talk and share their experiences and secrets, creating a camaraderie when playing it. Before Googling was even a thing, Miyamoto had kids talking about the game and helping each other. When I was first playing Ocarina of Time, we had that one kid who lived in our neighborhood that could beat the Water Temple, and only him. Before the internet, you actually had to talk to people for help! Imagine. Now I just use a walk through for the W🍬ater Temple.

8 The Wand of Game𒆙lon

Many of The Legend of Zelda games are absolutely amazing (I’m not going to get into Skyward Sword), but there is one game that has been lost to time. I only recently learned of it thank𒆙s to the YouTube GameGrumps chan♏nel. It is also one of the only times we see Link speak! His first words were “I’m so hungry I could eat an Octorock!” Would that be like an Octopus you think?

Anyway, the game was made for the Philips CD-i, after Nintendo had cut ties with Sony and Sony made their own system (the PlayStation). It’s a pretty terrible game with controls that don’t make any sense and it was relatively a very low bud♌get game. There are talking cutscenes that were animated by four guys that were flown in from Russia. It’s pretty hilarious and I’d suggest you look at these cutscene . If that’s not enough and you want to see thi🅺s hilarity in action, the GameGrumps has a pretty good run-throu✨gh . They don’t beat the game but instead have🤪 an intense rage quit.

7 Grog

This is a little easter egg in Ocarina of Time that really shows how much depth and time went into this game. We first see Grog as the child version of Link, as this punk looking guy in Kakariko under the tree. We find out he’s the carpenter’s ‘lazy’ son and he’s the Cucco lady’s brother. In the future, we find him in the Lost Woods and later he disappears from there too. One of the Kokiri, Fado, is there instead and that is when we learn of the origin of Stalfos. Grog became lost in the woods and has become an enemy Link must defeat later. I kind of wonder which one he is. Do you think the Hero’s Shade met up with Stalfos Grog? Then again, he’s in Majora’s Mask, so you have to wonder how much of what Fa🌞do is saying is tru💝e?

6 😼 Please Speak into the Microꦐphone

In the first Legend of Zelda game, the manual said that the Pols Voice creatures were affected by sound. Now most U.S. gamers though this meant the whistle or any other form of sound in the game. Nope, it actually had to do with𓂃 the fact that in Japan, the Famicon controllers had microphones built into them. And we 🍸didn’t even get that in North America until the DS came out! Apparently if you yelled into the microphone, you could defeat the Pols Voice. Apparently it was lost in translation because no one thought to take that tidbit out of the instruction manual. My question is, why did Japan get the cool gadgets so much sooner than America? The feature does pop back up in Phantom Hourglass for the DS, but let me tell you, it’s really awkward being a sixteen year-old girl yelling at your DS and having your mom say, “What?”