Fan Animation Explores Why Breath of the Wild’s Zelda Isn’t Playable in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Ever wonder why Masahiro Sakurai added Breath of The Wild’s Link to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate but not Princess Zelda’s new iteration?

YouTube channel Video Game Story Time dives deep into the topic in this new animation, explaining how Sakurai played an early build of Breath of The Wild only to come to the conclusion that Zelda’s scholarly incarnation wasn’t fit for a fighting game. But what’s that, I hear you ask? If Breath of The Wild’s Zelda isn’t fit for a fighting game, how did she end up in Koei Tecmo’s Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity?

As described in the video, Age of Calamity’s director Ryuota Matsushita felt Princess Zelda was the hardest character to translate to a Musou game, and the team labored long and hard whilst designing her role in both the mission gameplay and overall story. With Link as a mute protagonist, they were forced to include Zelda for any story scenes that required significant dialogue, and maintaining her sense of royal delicacy whilst using her as a warrior on the battlefield was a tricky balance to strike.

As Video Game Story Time discuss, Koei Tecmo saw Zelda as ‘the most important representation of the Zelda series’ as a whole, and so the team had to get the character just right. Ultimately, they decided to assign her to the traditional Musou wizard archetype, using the Sheikah Slate and its associated Runes as a basis for her moveset. Link, then, could function as an orthodox swordsman, alongside a “spellcasting” Zelda.

Age of Calamity’s Zelda uses Magnesis to dispatch of a horde of enemies

Of course, in the memories shown in Breath of The Wild, Link is often seen escorting Zelda across Hyrule in order to protect her from the dark forces of the Yiga Clan and various other threats. Whichever way you look at it, turning Breath of The Wild’s Zelda into a capable fighter is something of deviation from her role as a vulnerable princess.

Breath of The Wild did so much to evolve the world and characters of the Zelda franchise on the whole, but one aspect the developers seemed to struggle with was Princess Zelda’s role in the “present day” plot. Whilst her tortured attempts to unlock her innate powers make for a tragic and rounded representation of her character in Link’s memories, the actual role she takes on in the course of the game is minimal, to say the least.

Now that Zelda seems to have been paired up with Link on the ground in Breath of The Wild’s sequel, there’s a much greater scope for seeing her take on some foes one on one. As shown in the game’s first trailer, she is now donned in a practical Hylian Cloak and sporting a shorter haircut better suited to exploration. Some theorists have suggested that her new character model would allow her to equip different armor sets without hair clipping, and after so many iterations of Zelda as a damsel in distress, I personally would love to see her take on a more active role.

Nintendo are staunchly traditional with their key properties, but they’ve shown they’re willing to adapt and change even core aspects of the Zelda franchise. Perhaps with the next game in the series they’ll finally give Princess Zelda the legend she deserves. Who knows, maybe by the time the next Smash Bros. game releases, she’ll be ready to take on Ganondorf solo.

Would you like to see Zelda using her Runes to do battle in Breath of The Wild’s sequel? And could you see her new iteration appearing in future Smash Bros. installments? Let us know in the comments below.