/vr/ - Retro Games

It's because deep down, Link is timid and too afraid to fight, and has to push down the urge to run away from danger. You know, the opposite of courage, which his triforce piece represents.

At least that's my reasoning, I'm sure others will have different ideas. As far as I know, there's no official explanation.

>>2447634
Honestly, I think that's actually about right. It's not that he doesn't have courage, though, he lacks bravery. Bravery is more the absence of fear, while courage is the ability to be afraid, but achieve your goals despite being on the verge of soiling yourself.

>>2447627
is the pink supposed to be blonde like his in game sprite's hair?

>>2447651
Courage and bravery mean the same thing.

Courage is doing what must be done despite your fears or apprehensions.

Not being afraid at all even when you should be is something more correctly referred to as insanity.

>>2447634
>>2447651

I had always thought that his representation as a Bunny was to show that he was peaceful and kind in contrast to Ganondorf's greedy, selfish ways that made him pig like.

In Buddhist mythology there is a story of a a monkey, an otter, a jackal, and a rabbit agreeing to do charity together, they meet an old man and they each go off to grab food for the old man, except the Rabbit decides to donate himself and jumps into the mans fire. So it could be a vague reference to selflessness.

Granted theres a lack of reference to this mythology so I don't think its a valid interpretation of the myth, unless you count the Thief who turned into a monkey and charges you 200 ruppees to get into the Dark Temple.

It seems odd that Link, who embodies courage, would actually be a coward at heart. But it does explain his inability to use weapons in that form, it also explains his Dark World counterpart in Link Between Worlds still wearing the rabbit costume and being a coward.

In the Manga Link doesn't turn into a bunny, he instead turns into a Wolf due to a great inner anger, I forget if he has the Moon Pearl but in the end hes able to overcome it himself.

>>2447627
its cause hes sexin the hoes 24/7

It emphasizes Link's peace loving nature while also emphasizing the player's inability to attack

>>2447653
Whether courage and bravery are different depends on how deep you want to get in a philosophical sense, really, and 4chan is not exactly a place for philosophy, so I figure I'll shut up about that.

>>2447668
Possibly. A lot of Japanese game designers like to sneak in Buddhist stuff. Hell, look at Capcom and Breath of Fire IV. If they crammed anymore symbolism into that game, it probably would have made your television begin to smoke.

>>2447683
Beat me to it. He really likes fucking.

>>2447668
That's funny, I don't remember Ganon being perched on a tile wall during the final battle.

>>2447627
It might be said, but that doesn't make it necessarily true. I don't think it's a coincidence that every Dark World transformation is detrimental. I always saw it as a TWISTED reflection, or cruel irony.

>>2447701
Its not philosophical, its etymological, bravery and courage have identical meanings in the dictionary, they are perfectly synonymous.

>>2447731
What about the dude who basically turns into an imp who kicks the dude who transformed into a blob? I'd hardly call that detrimental.

I'd think its more that the Dark World is trailored to people of a Dark Nature. Hence Gannon and that kid who's just an asshole getting warped, but they get warped into something thats not detrimental. Likewise, people who are good natured, get transformed into something thats detrimental to life in the dark world.

>>2447770
Most people wouldn't consider being turned into an imp or other monster a good thing. Ganon's powerful form may not be detrimental in terms of autonomy (he does wield the Triforce after all), but given the choice, I don't think he'd opt for "fat blue pig." Imp boy might have power over blob boy, but given that they're hiding in the one spot not populated by other monsters, I don't think he could hold his own over anything else. He didn't even try to engage a large bunny. Beating up on the blob is just his way of attempting to claim some sense of control (which is true of most real life bullies).

>>2447731
>cruel irony
>Ganondorf is a Gerudo
>Gerudo are basically Muslims
>Ganondorf is turned into a pig

DEEPEST LORE

>>2447627
cuz he fucks like a rabbit

the dark world brings your inner qualities to the surface.

the blob guy turned into a ball because he couldn't make up his mind. he gets kicked around and doesn't really care because he has no willpower. he has no arms and is helpless to act on his own; he can only roll with whatever life throws his way.

the goblin guy is a straight up dick. he was a thief, probably like a mugger. he is violent and ugly and barely looks human anymore because of all his inhuman actions. also he looks like a mountain oni. despite that, he doesn't leave the area right around where he warped into the dark world. maybe he's a coward, or maybe he just doesn't know what to do. after all, you can't leave the mountains from the dark world, and he can't find his way back. those two guys are in purgatory.

link isn't trapped in their limbo because he has the mirror, and later the moon pearl. he turns into a rabbit because he is peaceful and good at heart. heroics were thrust on him. he doesn't want to hurt anyone but he can't sit by idly and do nothing while desperate people are asking him to help. he can't fight as a rabbit, but he can run around and explore until he finds a way. he refuses to be helpless. this is to show that even a meek, peaceful person can be courageous and perform significant acts, in link's case probably things no one else could do

>>2447627
miyamoto explained something similar for zelda 1 once in a documentary i saw. he talked about how in this game you start alone and weak and there are monsters that are too strong that you are afraid of. as you grow stronget by killing bosses and collecting hearts you can kill those tough enemies after a while, allowing the player to feel that he once was too weak to fight them, but not anymore thus not being scared anymore.

similarly i think link to thr past shares the same philosophy of overcoming fear. while link is scared he still becomes a hero anyway.

I thought the rabbit was supposed to represent innocense. After all "Link" is still a link to the player, who playing it back in the day would have likely been a child at the time.

>gamegrumps

>>2447627
Because it's ironic and funny.
But the other responses in this thread are way better than mine.

>>2448596
>the only reason to talk about a game is if it gets played on youtube
sure thing, champ

Are all of the monsters in the Dark World mutated Light Worlders? Does the Light World have a transformative effect on native Dark Worlders? Blind apparently once lived in the Light World, so presumably he has a Light World form (though we don't really know - the Light World obviously isn't devoid of monsters). Agahnim is apparently a Light Worlder (though I am a bit unsure if Agahnim is an independent living being or just a husk inhabited by Ganon - I understand that he refers to Agahnim as his alter-ego, but even then that definition can mean he is a form of Ganon or one of Ganon's close associates) but seems to be able to go between realms without transforming.

>>2447627
i'm playing this right now. i got the third pendant and master sword and beat agniham, now i'm a bunny on a pyramid structure.
it told me to go back to the ganon tower and get the moon pearl so I'm trying to do that.

It symbolizes Link is a faggot and so are people who like Zelda games.

>>2448753
Its 4 in the morning and I'm bored too.

>>2448753
I got banned for making a Zelda thread once. What the shit?

there's something really neutral and slightly comical about a rabbit. A lion a wolf, a bear, these would have been too fierce. A bunny is just... a bunny.

Why is he pink?
Link has brown hair. Rabbits are brown. He should be a brown rabbit.

>>2448790
It was the early 90s, pink hair was in.

this thread started out so well
and yet due to extreme retardation
"Murica Link is feminine hurr durr fanboys hurr durr"
it went to shit.
Also sage.
Also comics look like shit, with vomit.

>>2448790
cause pink is kawaii desu ne

>>2447627
I always thought he looked like a pig.

>>2448881
cant unsee

>>2448790
Why does he have pink hair anyway?

Everywhere on Google says it's because of SNES colour palette limitations, but that's nuts, right? Even the yellow on his belt would have made a decent hair colour, and it's crazy to think they couldn't spare a separate palette entry for his hair.

Is it something to do with the bunny? Did they have to share the same palette or something? That still wouldn't explain why his hair isn't the same colour as his belt.

>>2448925
From what I've heard it was limitations.
Then some fanwank says because "if it was brown it wouldn't look right on the brown mountain" which is ridiculous

>>2448925
It was a conscious design choice, it wasn't "limitations." It started out as pink as a placeholder colour and then when they replaced it later on with different colours they didn't like the results and reverted back to pink.

There were plenty of hacks that changed his hair to blonde and surprise! It looks like shit.

>>2448881
That's just a pink Cerebus.

>>2449012
>judging a boy on his looks
Are you gay? What does his hair color matter, Dobson?

>>2449017
Are you sure you're replying to the right post? I'm defending the decision to keep it pink, you prong.

as soon as i saw that image this pop into my head

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOb0CcSA04c

>>2447627
cause, he a gay bunny

>>2448925
>>2448931
>>2449012
is this a meme? we've been over this countless times already, and it is no color palette limitation. if you really think nintendo did that because of "palette limitations", when even an amateur hacker can change a couple pieces of code without breaking, you're stupid.

>>2448925
>>2448931
>>2449012
oh look, there's shiggy being interviewed... and with with couple link haired link figures?! guess that really was a "palette limitation" and not a "design choice".

>>2449074
>we've been over this countless times already
My apologies for not reading every thread on /vr/.

>>2449083
Nah, the figures came after because of the palette limitations.

>>2447627
OH. MY. GOD. Ravio suddenly makes sense to me.

The Super Nintendo doesn't have "palette limitations" to the point where you can make his hair brown. That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

>>2447973
nicely done.

>>2447652
Yes. In later games they made the bunnies yellow like they were supposed to be.

>>2447668
>In Buddhist mythology there is a story of a a monkey, an otter, a jackal, and a rabbit agreeing to do charity together, they meet an old man and they each go off to grab food for the old man, except the Rabbit decides to donate himself and jumps into the mans fire. So it could be a vague reference to selflessness.
>Granted theres a lack of reference to this mythology
Actually, you're leaving out the most important part of the myth. Afterward, the priest rewarded the rabbit by drawing it on the moon.

When you first visit Death Mountain, you need to assist an old man, who rewards you with the mirror. Later on, the Moon Pearl item is the one that stops you from becoming the bunny.

>>2448925
More drastic colour contrasts help distinguish the sprite more.

>>2449074
THATS EXACTLY WHAT I FUCKING SAID YOU COMPLETE DIPSHIT STOP QUOTING MY POST IF NONE OF YOU FUCKS CAN READ THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WAS AND WASN'T

>>2448925
>Is it something to do with the bunny? Did they have to share the same palette or something?

Yes, they did. I don't remember if turning into a bunny with blue or red mail would make the bunny wear a blue or red tunic as well, but since those feature yellow gloves and part of the bunny's fur is made from Link's ungloved hand palette, I would guess not (I'm not entirely sure, but I believe the blue/red mail sprites are placed on top of the green Link sprites). Playing around with the palette, I wonder if the bunny influenced the choice of pink for Link's hair, as it's a bit difficult to come up with a decent looking bunny using other colors from Link's palette.

>>2449074
Personally I think pic related would've been a good choice, but obviously it's just a matter of opinion.

>>2449012
> It started out as pink as a placeholder colour and then when they replaced it later on with different colours they didn't like the results and reverted back to pink.

If you could cite the source of this claim, you could really help put this issue to rest.

>>2449460
It was an interview I read in physical media that I have yet to find a scan of with members of the art team. This was 20 years ago and I've always been curious as to why everyone seems to think the hair was ever not designed to be pink intentionally when there's no evidence to support "palette limitations" or any of that bullshit.

>>2449470
Probably because pink hair is at odds with every prior depiction of Link--most importantly, the artwork produced for ALttP--to the point where it comes across as an odd willful choice. That, and apparently no one else has seen this art team interview from 20 years ago. Was it in English? Can you attempt to narrow it down from "physical media?"

>>2449454
>THATS EXACTLY WHAT I FUCKING SAID
actually it's not, you massive crybaby. what's wrong, your autism acting up? gonna strap a bomb to your chest and kill a bunch of r/a/ndoms? gonna grab a gun and kill some children? you autistic psycho.

>>2449460
Being that the only time you can turn into bunny link is before you collect either suit, I doubt that had anything to do with it.

Besides which the color pink used in his hair does not match either of the colors used in his bunny suit. And, no matter how many times you change the colors in his tunic, he's never going to use more than the number of colors his standard sprite uses in any combination. The only thing you'd be doing is changing three colors to three other colors.

>no shields
>no boots
>no gloves
>no hat
>no sword
9 colors vs 12+ colors

>>2449628
Dark World dungeons had enemies that could temporarily turn you into a bunny. But you're right about the colors not matching; I was looking at a bad sprite rip.

With the bunny out of the equation, I'm only further mystified as to why they chose what they chose. They could've easily made sprites that matched his artwork colors.

>>2449628
Dark World dungeons had enemies that could temporarily turn you into a bunny. But you're right about the colors not matching; I was looking at a bad sprite rip.

With the bunny out of the equation, I'm only further mystified as to why they chose what they chose. They could've easily made sprites that matched his artwork colors.

>>2449628
Dark World dungeons had enemies that could temporarily turn you into a bunny. But you're right about the colors not matching; I was looking at a bad sprite rip.

With the bunny out of the equation, I'm only further mystified as to why they chose what they chose. They could've easily made sprites that matched his artwork colors.

>>2449474
An old gaming magazine, in English, which doesn't exist anymore so I guess good luck to anyone trying to find it. I threw it away decades ago not realizing the entire internet would throw fits about Link's hair 20 years into the future when someone said "Because palette limitations."

So yes, I understand the skepticism, but the counter-argument is false and can be proven so.

Like, how has this even continued as an excuse when physical proof that the game supports Link having whatever hair colour you want exists? Knowing now that the devs could have made his hair ANY colour they wanted, obviously the pink was a choice, not a compromise - they liked how it looked, and ran with it.

>>2450048
>Like, how has this even continued as an excuse when physical proof that the game supports Link having whatever hair colour you want exists?

Because as far as we know, it doesn't. You even said yourself it "doesn't exist anymore." You're the only person I'm aware of to claim to have ever read it. I could claim that a televised interview the the entire game staff featured a detailed explanation on their color choices, but unless I produce it, or at least others corroborate it, it doesn't put anything to rest. You can't prove something wrong if you don't actually have the proof.

You seem to be pretty upset that we dare to discuss it (not everyone is pushing the palette limitation theory either). Yes, it's evidently a choice--but we can wonder and speculate about WHY that choice was made. If you're going to get frustrated over it, you don't have to participate.

>>2449012
>>2449470
>>2450048
Yeah, this seems like the most plausible explanation. Even if it was a palette issue or some colour design issue (like Link not looking right on the mountain >>2448931,) with Link probably being the most important sprite, they could have changed the colour of literally anything else in the game (like the mountain) to make it work.

I guess it's a case of the devs getting too attached to the placeholder artwork. They needed someone from outside to tell them that the pink hair looked weird. These sprites >>2449647 actually look a lot better.

Childhood me was pretty disappointed that the character in the game didn't look like the promo artwork. That, and I was always wondering whether the pink was his hair or part of his clothes, since neither seemed to make sense. To be honest, I think that makes Link's sprite kind of badly done.

>>2447668
In the Nintendo Power comic (Shotaro Ishinomori) he briefly turns into a wolfman after defeating Agahnim and is sent to the Dark World. He quickly controls his emotions and regains his original shape. The Moon Pearl isn't featured, but earlier, on the way up Death Mountain, his arm is transformed when Link sees a vision of his parents past the field of a portal and he tried to go to them. His arm is healed after he gets the Pendant of Wisdom.

In the Akira Himekawa manga, Link doesn't transform at all, and the Moon Pearl isn't featured at all. Link's companion Ganty, was turned into a Fox (or a wolf, never could tell) but could become human again at will.

I don't know about the Ataru Cagiva manga.

>>2449647
No matter what tunic you had, those enemies always turned Link into a green tunic wearing Bunny.
The GBA version fixed that by having the bunny wear whatever tunic you actually had.

>>2448925
>Did they have to share the same palette or something?
Nah.

>>2449628
>>no shields
>>no boots
>>no gloves
>>no hat
>>no sword
>9 colors vs 12+ colors
There's this thing called sprite layering y'know. The shields and swords were seperate sprites altogether, with their own colors, and I'm pretty sure the glove changes were just a color change made by the engine, because you can legitimately get all the combinations in pic related.

>>2452037
>gloves affect Link's sprites

Is this true in LttP too? Never noticed that before... neat

>>2447634
That actually is the official explanation as per the official game guide.

>>2447683
This. The bunny is a symbol of fertility and sexual vigor in many cultures. Link being transformed into a bunny in the Dark World hints at his true reason for fighting Ganon: He expects a sexual reward for saving Zelda.

>>2452037
I think the correct term is overlaying but yes you're correct

>>2447627
I'm sure that the Japanese version of Link to the Past said that its a reflection of what is within that persons soul, not heart. Also, the Swamp of Evil was originally called "Devil Swamp." Furthermore, in the Original release, the prologue says that The wizard Agahim Killed the king, not "eliminated him" Fucking NOA being thin-skinned white knight assholes.. They should have been sued by either Square, Activision, or Capcom, and went to court with them on counts of unjust restrictions freedom of expression in their games.

>>2454005
The US guide? Lore-wise, I'd take anything published by Nintendo Power with a pound of salt.

>>2454169

Anon, you just went from interesting trivia about LttP to full pants on head retarded. And for the record, "eliminated" means the same and sounds better.

>>2452037
are you normally this stupid, or are you just trolling? anyone with a functional brain can tell that I'm saying that none of those sprite 'changes' exist for the bunny suit. thus the bunny suit used less colors in any configuration or frame of animation. and you can stop trying to sound smart, by pointing out that the shield & sword were entirely separate 'objects'. we're all aware nintendo cut corners, to fit within the cartridges limitations. it's not a 'coincidence' that left & right animations are simply mirrored to save space. congratulations, you are a fucking retard.

>>2454649
>you can stop trying to sound smart

It's pretty obvious you're trying to save face, but this projection makes it unmistakable.

Why does the dwarf blacksmith turn into a frog when he is in the Dark World? Are frogs good at tempering swords?

>>2448703
>Are all of the monsters in the Dark World mutated Light Worlders?
It's been a while since I played, but I remember there were some equivalents, like the pig soldiers and the monster crows.
I don't remember any sort of equivalent for the bomb-throwing cyclops or the plant monsters, however.

>>2448790
wow, Dobson is autistic.

>>2455198
In other news, shocking development: grass is green.

They wanted to do a wolf but hardware limitations wouldn't catch up for another 15 years.

>>2455198
>>2448790
Holy fuck I've seen less autism in cringe threads.

It's a fucking COLOR.

Rabbits/hares are shown as benevolent creatures a few times throughout japanese myth.

That's all there is to it.

>>2454687
He's lost and wants to return home. The Japanese word for "return" (帰る) has the same reading as the word for "frog" (蛙). Him wanting to come back but being stuck as a frog is a wordplay. Same thing with Frog from Chrono Trigger, too, only he wants to return to his human self.

>>2454649

>>2449438
I guess that answers that then.

>>2448769
I am surprised, too; this board is normally over-moderated to the extent that discussion is difficult when mod(s) agree with Opinion A and so everybody with Opinion B has their comments removed, even though they didn't break any board rules.

>>2454169
So was the king's appearance at the end of the game only in the American version? Or are we to believe that he was resurrected with the Triforce?

>>2460132
Your uncle does and is revived by the triforce too.
It can do things like that.

>>2447668

Also in skyward sword climbing the spider web out of the lower level of the ancient cistern is based on a Buddhist legend.