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Voice acting

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See also: List of Voice Actors

As in the grand majority of video games, voice acting is an integral part of the plot, providing a human-like interface and relatable sound to in-game characters and beings. The Legend of Zelda series, unlike most other Nintendo franchises, is known for its overall lack of voice acting, with the exception of Breath of the Wild and its sequel. However, small voice clips recorded by Japanese voice actors and actresses are used for main and non-player characters since Ocarina of Time for the Nintendo 64. Since these voice clips contain few legitimate words, most of them are kept for all language releases. Non-canon media occasionally contains full voice acting, which is dubbed over for different language releases. The earliest games prior to Ocarina of Time, due to hardware limitations, have certain characters only possibly heard by taking damage or laughing, which used generic sound effects.

Link[]

The main protagonist, Link, is perhaps the most famous in the franchise in terms of voice acting. For the most part, Link himself does not speak, but rather grunts, exclaims, and makes other throttal sounds during different situations, whether it be in battle or in conversation, similar to certain other central Nintendo protagonists in various franchises such as Mario, Samus, Red, and few others. Since the debut of the series in 1986 with The Legend of Zelda on the Nintendo Entertainment System, Link has yet to receive proper voice acting, as he does not talk even in the most recent installments. However, the exclamations Link provides during combat are in fact real human voices.

Damage sounds of Link before Ocarina of Time:[]

Fujiko Takimoto

Fujiko Takimoto, the voice actress of the young Hero of Time

Fujiko Takimoto is the original voice actress that voiced Young Link, Deku Link and Zora Link in Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Super Smash Bros. Melee, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and Hyrule Warriors, as well as later young incarnations of Link from Four Swords, The Minish Cap and the Game Boy Advance remake of A Link to the Past (due to her voice clips from Ocarina of Time being reused). She also voiced Taki in the SoulCalibur II for the Japanese language.

Nobuyuki Hiyama

Nobuyuki Hiyama, the voice actor of the adult Hero of Time

Nobuyuki Hiyama is the original voice actor that voiced Adult Link and Dark Link in Ocarina of Time, Super Smash Bros., Super Smash Bros. Melee, and SoulCalibur II. He is also credited in voicing Fierce Deity Link in Majora's Mask, as well as Nightmare/Siegfried Schtauffen and Yoshimitsu in the Soulcalibur series for the Japanese language. Because Link in Ocarina of Time required different speech registers given two time periods unlike other games in the franchise, a unique voice actor was used for each era of the Hero of Time's life in the Nintendo 64 title, with Takimoto and Hiyama, respectively.

P9741-6

Sachi Matsumoto, the voice actress of the Hero of Winds

Link was given much more expression in The Wind Waker, given the art style and the storyline, and hence was given a new voice than that of Ocarina of Time. Sachi Matsumoto is the voice actress who voiced Link in The Wind Waker, him and Shadow Link in Four Swords Adventures, Phantom Hourglass, and Toon Link in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. She also voiced the Skull Kid in Majora's Mask as well as Aryll in The Wind Waker.

P7666-5

Akira Sasanuma, the voice actor of the Hero of Twilight

Twilight Princess is a title that received yet another voice actor by the name of Akira Sasanuma to portray Link, also in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Takashi Ōhara voiced Link in Skyward Sword. Mitsuki Saiga voiced Link (as well as Ravio, due to his parallel relationship to Link) in A Link Between Worlds.

In non-canon media, Jonathan Potts is the voice actor that portrays Link in The Legend of Zelda TV series, while Jeffrey Rath provides actual speech to the young hero during the infamous cutscenes of the unsuccessful Philips CD-i titles, The Faces of Evil and The Wand of Gamelon. In Hyrule Warriors, the adult Link was voiced by Yūki Kaji.

Princess Zelda[]

Jun Mizusawa

Jun Mizusawa, the original voice actress of Princess Zelda

In terms of Princess Zelda, the list of voice actors is much smaller, mainly because Jun Mizusawa provided voice acting for the princess not only in Ocarina of Time, but Twilight Princess, Super Smash Bros. Melee, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Mizusawa is also credited with the voicing of Sheik and Malon in Ocarina of Time.

The Wind Waker changes to Hikari Tachibana as the voice of Princess Zelda/Tetra.

Yu Shimamura voiced Zelda in Skyward Sword, and reprises the role in the Japanese version of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, this time speaking actual words. In other versions of Breath of the Wild, Zelda has been dubbed by Patricia Summersett (English), Jessica Ángeles (Mexican Spanish), Nerea Alfonso (European Spanish), Adeline Chetail (French), and Julia Casper (German).

Ayumi Fujimura gives her voice in A Link Between Worlds.

In terms of non-canon media, Cyndy Preston provides Zelda with legitimate words in The Legend of Zelda TV series, as does Bonnie Jean Wilbur in the Philips CD-i titles, Link: The Faces of Evil and Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon. In Hyrule Warriors, she is voiced by Saori Seto.

Ganon/Ganondorf[]

Takashi Nagasako

Takashi Nagasako, the original voice actor of Ganondorf

The voice acting for Ganon is even more slim than Princess Zelda, given his narrow span of screen time in every Zelda title to date and most games have the main antagonist simply roar or laugh. As his human form, Ganondorf, for the most part, Takashi Nagasako provided the voice of the Gerudo warlock in Ocarina of Time, The Wind Waker, Super Smash Bros. Melee, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Nagasako also provides the voice of the infamous Iron Knuckle and indirectly the Poe and Garo Master enemies in Nintendo 64 Zelda games (the latter two has their laugh being a sped up version of Ganondorf's). In Twilight Princess and Super Smash Bros. Brawl, he was played by Hironori Miyata, and Len Carlson takes over the voice of the Evil King in the TV series. Matthew Mercer takes on the role of Ganondorf in Tears of the Kingdom (English).

Ganon's laughs before Ocarina of Time:[]

Midna[]

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Akiko Koumoto, the voice actress of Minda

Akiko Koumoto is the Japanese voice actress who voiced the imp-like Twilight Princess character Midna. Strangely, Midna herself only speaks gibberish. Some have been able to make words out of Midna's gibberish, although these are strings of words without any meaning. It has been speculated by fans that Midna's in-game speech is indeed English, but with all the words mixed and reformatted to make it sound like gibberish.

Non-Canon Media[]

Other Voices in the TV Series[]

Because The Legend of Zelda TV series enabled voice acting across the board, characters like Link, Zelda, and even objects like the Triforce of Power and Wisdom are given speech where they otherwise would not, had it been a video game. Elizabeth Hanna and Allan Stewart Coates are the actors who give words to the Triforce of Power and Wisdom, respectively, and Colin Fox is the man providing the voice to King Harkinian.

Other Voices in the Philips CD-i Titles[]

Other voice actors credited with contributing their words to characters from Link: The Faces of Evil and Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon are Jeffrey Nelson, Mark Berry, Natalie Brown, Karen Grace, Josie McElroy, Marguerite Scott and Paul Wann.

Character in-game voice clip samples[]

Link[]

Fujiko Takimoto[]

Nobuyuki Hiyama[]

Sachi Matsumoto[]

Akira Sasanuma[]

Princess Zelda[]

TPHD Zelda Artwork

Jun Mizusawa[]

Ganondorf (Ganon)[]

HW Ganondorf Era of the Hero of Time Armor Render

Takashi Nagasako[]

Hironori Miyata[]

Other[]

Trivia[]

  • Among The Legend of Zelda series' community, although every voice actor/actress in the core series are widely praised, the performances of Fujiko Takimoto and Nobuyuki Hiyama for Link, Jun Mizusawa for Princess Zelda, and Takashi Nagasako for Ganon are seen as the most iconic in the franchise and other media.
  • Alongside playing Taki from the Soul series, Fujiko Takimoto is also the Japanese voice actress of Badtz-Maru and Cherry (Lloromannic) from Sanrio's Hello Kitty series. In addition, she also voiced young Mewtwo from the Pokémon franchise, Suguru Misato from Mahoromatic, young Asuma Sarutobi from the Naruto series, and more.
  • Nobuyuki Hiyama, due to his famous roles as heroic protagonists in his career, is not only widely recognized as the voice of Adult Link in the Nintendo 64 Zelda games, but also his portrayal of Hiei from the YuYu Hakusho series, Gai Shishioh from King of Braves GaoGaiGar, and more.
  • In addition to Ganondorf, Takashi Nagasako is also a longtime former voice actor of Donkey Kong from the Mario franchise as well as the Japanese voice of Big the Cat from Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog series.
  • The Wind Waker is widely believed by the fandom that it is the first mainline game to have Link speak words in any form. On the contrary, in Ocarina of Time, when the Hero of Time is defeated and the player receives a Game Over, the main protagonist can actually be heard saying "Yuck!" as he collapses, predating the Nintendo GameCube title. In addition, when he takes fall damage as an adult, he also appears to be stammering in both anger and pain.
  • There is a speculation by fans that Sachi Matsumoto voices the Gerudo in Majora's Mask. For example, when they are heard screaming when they're chased by Giant Bees or sucked by the dragon cloud at Great Bay Temple, they sound very similar to Link the Hero of Winds. This is however not confirmed by Nintendo.
  • The majority of voice clips of Link's transformations (except Goron Link) and his evil shadow Dark Link in the N64 titles were reused by Fujiko Takimoto and Nobuyuki Hiyama for the hero himself but are altered to fit the characters.
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