In almost four decades, no Legend of Zelda game
has sold faster than Nintendo's latest release, Tears of the Kingdom.
You can make the argument that the Legend of Zelda series
might be the most important video game series in the medium.
Zelda players expect each
new game to have brilliant gameplay and beautiful graphics.
But Zelda's success also lies in a surprising aspect of the game's design.
Zelda is a world of progressive gender representation.
Gene Park, a video game reporter for The Washington Post, explains why
Nintendo, to its credit, has always been really about appealing
to all kinds of ages and all, all gender types, Right.
there's many 60 year old women who remember
playing the game back in the eighties.
The Zelda franchise spans 29 games and has made Nintendo over $3.4 billion.
All the while, it's avoided traditional gender stereotypes common in video game
media Games that are typically designed to appeal to young men.
Young men are gaming's, most active and largest demographic.
Zelda is different in that
first of all, you just have to start with the fact
that Link is supposed to be gender neutral.
That's video game reporter Ash Parrish from the Verge.
Link's gender neutral appearance is on purpose.
According to longtime Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma.
Aonuma said in a 2016 interview with Time magazine.
That Link is meant to be a blank slate for the player.
because he's kind of the silent protagonist.
And the idea for him is you're supposed to project your own feelings onto him
Parrish says this resonates with the LGBTQ+ gamer community.
Link is very much a transgender icon.
Like there's a notion in the transgender community of egg cracking
where you see little things that kind of make you realize things
about yourself and make you see yourself in this different light
and you realize things that you maybe didn't realize about yourself
before in relationships to your gender.
And Link has kind of become that kind of avatar for players,
and There's also the the massive confusion.
The game is called Legend of Zelda, but the main character's name is Link.
So a lot of people confuse, you know, Link for Zelda.
So there's that.
And I think that's something that Nintendo embraces that encouraged us to.
Zelda games break down gender stereotypes,
not just through character development, but also through storytelling.
Link is often tasked with saving the Princess Zelda, going on
quests to restore the kingdom she rules over.
But Zelda's character is more complicated than a stereotypical damsel in distress.
in times in her past, whether it be Wind Waker, when she was the Pirate Tetra
or in Ocarina of Time, when she dons like a ninja mask and walks around,
is this male persona Sheik, this ninja character.
She also has a bit of, gender fluidity about her
that people can recognize and see themselves in.
Parrish says Zelda's formula for representation goes beyond gender.
having this kind of huge game that touches a lot of people,
that is taking this stance with how it portrays its main characters
in this kind of gender neutral kind of way.
Well, having on top of that, other characters that run
the gamut of size and, you know, representation
of people of color really, really neat to see that, they're giving
these millions of players opportunities to see themselves in big and small ways.
It's this mutual recognition between the game developers and players
that invigorates longtime fans while courting new ones.
Park with The Washington Post says that's why Zelda games
feel fresh with each iteration But the thing about a Zelda game
that really gives you the agency to be able to make your own decisions
and solve puzzles your own way or kind of create your own story
that kind of experience really weaves into your memory.
It becomes not just a
not just a game that you play, but it becomes an actual memory in your life.
And that's what's most fascinating about these games.
A memory I have too.
When I was a kid, I played the original 1987 Zelda game with my mom,
and it still holds up decades later, at least in our memories.
for the PBS NewsHour.
I'm Casey Kuhn.