I used to put my own name in but it felt kinda weird given how much I saw Link solidified as the proper name in Smash Bros. After BOTW I wonder if they’ll ever bother to go back.
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I hate that Zelda games have created this whole canon around Link as a character. And because Link feels like a character, with a backstory, and with very specific features, it always felt wrong to name Link anything -but- Link. So while Breath of the Wild correctly identified that the Name Entry feature is a weird vestige when Zelda games are much less interested in Link as solely a player avatar, I wish that instead of them canning the Name Entry they’d just rethink Zelda to be less about the Legend of Link and more about a Hyrule Fantasy for the player.
I don’t want a robust character creator or anything, (though, yknow, i’d love to have gender and skin options) I just want something to make the experience more yours. Making Link into more of a character in Breath of the Wild honestly made me like him less. I super don’t care about Link and Zelda’s relationship!
I want to -feel- like a Luke Skywalker, not play a game -about- a Luke Skywalker character. Does this make sense? I want to feel like a dumb kid being thrown into a fantastic world that’s revealed to be way bigger than myself. I don’t want to play a game about a fictional dumb kid going through that.
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But the fanfic.
What you’re getting at reminds me of the cancelled Sheik game by Retro. I feel like there could’ve been some scope for a Link-less story in that world that let you get away from the weird nameless PC who is also a character.
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Story would be:
nameless hero is dropped by princess because it doesn’t work out, Sheik has to clean up his mess because he doesn’t do his hero things anymore, until his wounds and lovey dovey heart slowly starts to heal (awwwwwwwwwww)
It’d have been called
Broken Link: Sheik the Date Doctor
and have starred Tingle as a faux Link in distress.
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god this would be so dope, BotW would be my skyrim at that point. my forever game.
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If I remember correctly, I named Link “Dog” in A Link to the Past. It’s been decades, though.
Recently, I found myself thinking about how I used to always rename characters when given the choice but that I rarely do anymore. My first thought was that this was somehow sad and I’ve become less creative. But I think it’s just as much about the elimination of “blank slate” characters. Like Ymer said, when your character has a defined personality and talks a lot it doesn’t make as much sense to change the name (as opposed to just the save file slot). Why customize a character if you don’t get to make up (or fill in the gaps in) the character’s story?
I did the same thing when I finally registered at IC so that I could see the hidden forums. This was simply what I had named Squall in Final Fantasy 8. I think that was the last time I used an alternate name in a Final Fantasy game, maybe in any RPG.
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I will always use 100% of the customization options available, I never want to use a default anything if I can help it. It’s another point of interactivity, why not use it
Baystard was a good one
When I played Earthbound in 3rd grade I gave all the characters their official names, except I named the dog after my dog Buster. I also manually entered steak in as my favorite food, not knowing that it was also the default.
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i have cycled from renaming everything to keeping all default names and back again every few years since i was born
when i played the psx final fantasys the last few months i kept default names, except for cloud and squall and zidane obviously were all named bib
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whatever dumb garbage is funny to me but I consistently name wind waker link Baitboy
example of dumb garbage
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