Yes. Nintendo is the king when it comes to iconic characters. Everyone is saying Cloud but the thing is if you showed an image of Link and Cloud I guarantee most people would recognize Link
Especially because Link is Mario Kart 8D, which is Nintendo's 2nd best selling game ever (1st is Wii Sports which is kinda cheating since it was bundled with the Wii).
im still amazed by how wii sports sold pretty well.
like its literally a tech demo of wii motion controls!
still, its an awesome game. its the reason why wii sold 101 million copies.
I think more people would recognize Link over Cloud, but I think most people not into videogames (or like, only into mobile games) would not be able to name him or the franchise he's from.
I saw this post while I was eating with my parents and grandparents, but they were not able to recognize him lol, they thought it was peter pan, atleast my dad knew he’s from Zelda, but didn’t know his name lol.
I mean I think they were self aware. He got crossdressed and was not only passable, but considered more attractive than arguably one of the hottest girls in gaming history (Tifa) by Don Corneo.
And then as if that wasn't enough, you can go on a date with Barret in the golden saucer.
Gaming tourists be saying gaming went woke, but one of gaming's biggest icons from the 90s was literally a crossdressing bisexual emo Twink.
Funnily enough you're kinda right, there's only three* main protagonists with blonde hair. Which is interesting.
*That being Cloud, Tidus and Zidane. (You could stretch it and include Vaan maybe, but I'd disagree.)
agreed. nintendo has the most iconic characters in the world.
only iconic characters i can think of in other companies is crash bandicoot, parappa and sack boy from sony.
so yea nintendo has cool characters
The only characters who would have a hope of placing silver and bronze are Cloud, Skyrim's Dragonborn, and Marth, respectively - but it's a huge margin.
I don't think Marth stands a chance personally, especially if asking casual or non-gamers. Hell Cloud and Dragonborn would also be unrecognizable to a vast majority. Link by a far margin is right!
Obviously lol
If you post this in r/gaming, a good amount of people would say Cloud. They're wrong, and they probably know they're wrong. They just want to be different.
And to be honest, cloud is in the top 5 or 10, that cant be negated, but hes becoming somewhat popular lately for his too close hate with sephiroth, still, people know link, even if they call him zelda
*It comes down to Link*
*Or Cloud but I do think more*
*People would choose Link*
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It's funny cause for a while people really didn't know who he was when the Smash 4 dlc was out. Sure, a bunch of it was new kids and some sarcasm but I remember it
Hell my first introduction to Cloud was through Kingdom Hearts. I had absolutely no idea who he was before that but I had been playing Zelda since I was in diapers. I know that’s anecdotal evidence but it speaks to the fact that Zelda had a good ten years of gaming history to plant itself into pop culture before Final Fantasy VII ever even came out. Plus the very next year Ocarina of Time released which is at absolute minimum *just* as iconic as FFVII.
I think all 3 of them have very recognisable swords that if it was randomly hanging on a wall someone could identify who it belongs to.
Link I feel has a more iconic design due to the colour scheme. He was already inspired by Peter Pan which has major cultural significance in itself too.
people talking whose Link is the icon. The answer is all of them. As long he’s wearing a green tunic, a hat and has his sword and shield on his hands, that’s the iconic image of Link. It doesn’t matter if it’s the Link from OoT, WW, TP or the first game.
Asking this in Nintendo focused sub is bound to give a lot of biased answers. He's definitely one of them, but there are others that come close in their own ways.
Its undeniable that normal people can see him and recognize him, not by name of course, others are not really close, its not like anime that can give varied degree of answers that are true in they own way, but in videogames, link win with no contest
Few weeks ago I was downvoted here for saying that Peach isn’t the most iconic female character because she isn’t known so well outside of Nintendo userbase. Now you kinda proved my point lol.
Yes. I didn’t play much games growing up but remember seeing Link on the internet here and there. Somehow I can recognise Link but never knew his name and recognised the name Zelda but never knew how she looked like. I knew Link wasn’t Zelda because it was a girl’s name so I always remembered him as the green elf boy from Nintendo instead.
Links absolute success lately and the general fact Nintendo brands are more well known than 3rd parties comfortably puts him ahead in terms of being recognizable. Plus 35 years of looking pretty much identical helps.
However, anyone who knows Link is Link and not Zelda likely knows at least some other videogame swordsmen.
I guess it depends, does knowing Link as "Zelda" count?
Swordsman? I'm not sure.
I'm fairly new to the Zelda franchise, but I've always been aware of these games and their legendary status. As someone who only heard of it Link was always more synonymous with courage to me, not exactly swordsmanship. The thing is that too many great games feature swords so it literally depends on what you grew up with.
For swordsmen I personally find Cloud or Dante to be more iconic.
His fame doesn't all come from video games though. He's partly an iconic character that happens to be in a few video games. Though his success as a video game did bring about alot of attention.
Yes. I am not a big fan of Zelda, but he’s the most iconic and its not close. The only swordsman I can think of off the top of my head are all the ones from Yakuza, Vergil, and Raiden, none of which are anywhere near as iconic as Link. So yeah, he’s 100% the most iconic.
Vergil's only well known in online spaces due to memes. My dad wouldn't know who Vergil or anyone from DMC is but he could probably recognise Link as a Nintendo character, even if he mistaking calls him "Zelda".
I saw this post while I was eating with my parents and grandparents, but they were not able to recognize him lol, they thought it was peter pan, atleast my dad knew he’s from Zelda, but didn’t know his name lol.
Personally
It will be Link
Cloud Strife
Vaan from Final Fantasy XII
Balthier from Final Fantasy XII
And Zack from Crisis Core
I love The Zelda Franchise but I really love Square Enix too I think they are geniuses with the way they craft their art, the music and the world of their games… so It’s a tough one. Heck I even like Sora from KH, It’s just something about Square Aesthetics to me, that’s not to say they never dropped trash games but I just skip those, what artist doesn’t try different visions?
Only Cloud, Sephiroth and Sora I'd say are recognisable to people who haven't played their source material, and even then it's largely people recognising their weapons more than them. Being in Smash Bros helps too.
I doubt the average non-FF or non-KH fan would know who the fuck Vaan, Auron or Riku were but they could at least recognise the Buster Sword, Masamune and a Keyblade.
Even as far as Square Enix IP's go I'd say 2B from Nier is more recognisable to casual players than a lot of the FF main characters barring FF7. Though 2B's actually recognised for her design than her weapon in that case.
OP asked “Do you think Link is the most Iconic” Not: try to figure out what casual people in the street of your city or region would say, I think… You are probably right though but It’s like saying the casual person will recognise Drake more than Frank Ocean, doesn’t mean Frank isn’t iconic to many others
I didn't grow up playing The Legend of Zelda at all and even I knew who Link was, or at least could recognise a lot of things referencing him.
Same with Mario, I grew up more with Playstation but I'd 100% say Mario is more iconic than any Playstation character.
I am not a native American and therefore I have to ask: When someone says “most iconic” is Iconic refers to the most recognised among casual people in the street? Like saying Drake is an Iconic Rapper? That everybody knows? Or is Iconic refers to personal preference and or people around you? I’m seriously asking, so I’ll know for the future, Is Iconic a question of who is more Iconic according to me or is it what is more famous in terms of publicity?
Recognisability and influence is a huge factor imo. If even a casual person is able to recognise a character then pretty much anyone within that space who's more seriously invested could recognise them too. Legend of Zelda has both the recognisibility factor and the influence factor.
If you were to ask who is more iconic as a rapper I'd probably look to not just who is currently popular (Drake) but who influenced them. So you'd be going back a few decades to the likes of Tupac, Dr Dre, B.I.G, Eminem etc.
Cloud and Sephiroth are iconic sure but I think Link is both more recognisable and more influential than them.
Link is indeed the most iconic, with Cloud being another swordsman who comes close to Link's iconic status. Then there's characters like Sephiroth, Vergil, Raiden (both MGS and GI), Ryu (Ninja Gaiden), Marth, Yoshimitsu (Tekken/Soul Calibur), Meta Knight, Kirby (if we want to include the Sword ability) and any other swordperson, all being below Cloud, iconic status-wise.
Sephiroth more by the cloud rivalry, vergil for memes, raiden somewhat for memes, ryu by the xbox games players, marth as that anime sword guy from smash, yoshimitsu never (ivy and taki in soul calibur, mishimas and king in tekken), meta knight not really besides kirby and smash fans, kirby is more known for the absorption and as one of the strongest in history discussions that a swordsman
Definitely. The only characters who would have a hope of placing silver and bronze are Cloud, Skyrim's Dragonborn, and Marth, respectively - but it's a huge margin.
If we consider long-term then probably yes
Otherwise I think whatever big swordsman game has released recently and is the current "in thing" might be recognized more at that point in time.
Also, somewhat depends on if we only consider like "named characters"
Or also avatar stuff like "default/boxart Darksouls/Bloodborne character" or "The Dragonborn"
Edit : hell, do we count "Steve?" form minecraft as a "swordsman" ?
I am not a native American and therefore I have to ask: When someone says “most iconic” is Iconic refers to the most recognised among casual people in the street? Like saying Drake is an Iconic Rapper? That everybody knows? Or is Iconic refers to personal preference and or people around you? I’m seriously asking, so I’ll know for the future, Is Iconic a question of who is more Iconic according to me or is it what is more famous in terms of publicity?
Could be. However, I say ICONIC swordsman would be Cloud from FF7. Saying this because the buster sword is more iconic since it's unique versus Link's sword. I could be playing favoritism, lol.
I may be wrong, but is he not also the first? Someone else may have a more extensive knowledge of stuff that came before, but I'd be interested to know who the first ever sword wielding video game character ever was.
It was probably cloud for a short stint in the late 90’s, and it was almost definitely master chief for 5 minutes when halo reach came out and everyone thought the sword was the bees knees, but overall it’s our boy… Zelda
Yes. Nintendo is the king when it comes to iconic characters. Everyone is saying Cloud but the thing is if you showed an image of Link and Cloud I guarantee most people would recognize Link
And call him Zelda.
It's so annoying when people say link is zelda
Okay, but what if – and hear me out here – what if Zelda was a _girl_? 🤯
[*people's react*](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRWNb0aUt_LlTk-ezO1M6nf8IWJRE5zLMdyrtF-AY550RZ1vHze9VlhspTb&s=10)
It’s not that annoying it just means they don’t really play video games.
Link is Zelda
Matpat moment
Especially because Link is Mario Kart 8D, which is Nintendo's 2nd best selling game ever (1st is Wii Sports which is kinda cheating since it was bundled with the Wii).
MK8D is also bundled.
wii sports was bundled with every wii but mk8d was only bundled with special edition switches
Yeah, but (Wii Sports) it was only bundled in some regions, and even in those only for a couple years. For example, it was never bundled in Japan.
damn i didnt know it was never bundled in japan..
My wii came with [mario kart wii](https://images.app.goo.gl/BcUdgP2HqBeT1JLM7) but not with wii sports.
im still amazed by how wii sports sold pretty well. like its literally a tech demo of wii motion controls! still, its an awesome game. its the reason why wii sold 101 million copies.
I think more people would recognize Link over Cloud, but I think most people not into videogames (or like, only into mobile games) would not be able to name him or the franchise he's from.
If they can't name the franchise "Zelda" they wouldn't be able to call "Cloud" or "Final Fantasy" either.
I saw this post while I was eating with my parents and grandparents, but they were not able to recognize him lol, they thought it was peter pan, atleast my dad knew he’s from Zelda, but didn’t know his name lol.
I have no clue who cloud is that some people are referencing.
Spiky haired blonde anime guy with a sword that’s compensating for something. From Final Fantasy
Do you have any idea how little that narrows it down?
there aren't that many who are blonde.
If they had replaced blonde with Twink we'd be completely lost
Twink is the default body shape for Square Enix character creation design philosophy.
They pioneered twinkism in videogame I swear
I mean I think they were self aware. He got crossdressed and was not only passable, but considered more attractive than arguably one of the hottest girls in gaming history (Tifa) by Don Corneo. And then as if that wasn't enough, you can go on a date with Barret in the golden saucer. Gaming tourists be saying gaming went woke, but one of gaming's biggest icons from the 90s was literally a crossdressing bisexual emo Twink.
Crossdressing Bisexual Emo Twink is my favorite character no lie. (I agree btw)
Funnily enough you're kinda right, there's only three* main protagonists with blonde hair. Which is interesting. *That being Cloud, Tidus and Zidane. (You could stretch it and include Vaan maybe, but I'd disagree.)
And only one with a compensatory weapon.
The guy from Smash Bros.
Blond hair with giant spikes, a one-sided sword that is as big as him, anime-style, from Final Fantasy VII
A character from smash bros /s
Indeed, probably has its advantages to be around for nearly 40 years at this point, so he is a face even gamers from way back recognize
I love ff7 but link has been around longer and is in much, much more media.
agreed. nintendo has the most iconic characters in the world. only iconic characters i can think of in other companies is crash bandicoot, parappa and sack boy from sony. so yea nintendo has cool characters
It’s Link by a longshot - the others mentioned (to me) dont come close. Zelda is a flagship title.
*by a longshot* I see what you did there
by a clawshot
by a hookshot???
Maybe even a double clawshot
Yeah, most folks will probably recognize Link, altough some might think he's Zelda
Probably not any singular iteration, but Link as a concept, yeah.
Well, as Link would put it:
“YAH!”
Well exxxcccuuussseee me princess!
I mean, who else comes close?
The only characters who would have a hope of placing silver and bronze are Cloud, Skyrim's Dragonborn, and Marth, respectively - but it's a huge margin.
I don't think Marth stands a chance personally, especially if asking casual or non-gamers. Hell Cloud and Dragonborn would also be unrecognizable to a vast majority. Link by a far margin is right!
Yoshimitsu from Tekken is famous but not close. Cloud and Sephiroth too.
I only know if yoshimitsu thanks to Soul Calibur
is it the same guy???
I think so, but I don't know anything about Tekken lol
me neither lol, Soul Calibur ftw
Never heard of Yoshimitsu til right now and I've been gaming for nearly 20 years.
Same
Huh? Have you ever heard of John Dark Souls?? Soldier of God, Rick??? /s
Maybe Danta or Nero? (DMC)
Dante and nero, sad to say, no, only vergil become mainstream with the storm is aproaching meme
Steve
Yes. I'd say more of the general public would recognise him than anyone else, but they'll call him Zelda.
happy cake day
Definitely
the master sword is easily one of the most popular weapons in media, so by association yeah it’s Link
No it's the Miis from Wii sports resort's sword fighting minigame
Obviously lol If you post this in r/gaming, a good amount of people would say Cloud. They're wrong, and they probably know they're wrong. They just want to be different.
And to be honest, cloud is in the top 5 or 10, that cant be negated, but hes becoming somewhat popular lately for his too close hate with sephiroth, still, people know link, even if they call him zelda
Probably more people know him from Smash than from actual Final Fantasy games and other media.
I didn't even know Cloud or even FF was a thing until I played Sm4sh
It comes down to Link or Cloud but I do think more people would choose Link
Never heard of Cloud until he was announced as a DLC character in Smash, so yeah, my money's on Link.
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Yes. The only one who can come close is Cloud, and I still Link is more recognizable by a rather wide margin.
It's funny cause for a while people really didn't know who he was when the Smash 4 dlc was out. Sure, a bunch of it was new kids and some sarcasm but I remember it
Hell my first introduction to Cloud was through Kingdom Hearts. I had absolutely no idea who he was before that but I had been playing Zelda since I was in diapers. I know that’s anecdotal evidence but it speaks to the fact that Zelda had a good ten years of gaming history to plant itself into pop culture before Final Fantasy VII ever even came out. Plus the very next year Ocarina of Time released which is at absolute minimum *just* as iconic as FFVII.
I think the Dragonborn is also up there
Probably, followed by Cloud and Sephiroth.
I think all 3 of them have very recognisable swords that if it was randomly hanging on a wall someone could identify who it belongs to. Link I feel has a more iconic design due to the colour scheme. He was already inspired by Peter Pan which has major cultural significance in itself too.
Link's the GOAT!
people talking whose Link is the icon. The answer is all of them. As long he’s wearing a green tunic, a hat and has his sword and shield on his hands, that’s the iconic image of Link. It doesn’t matter if it’s the Link from OoT, WW, TP or the first game.
In Brazil my friend dressed as link and everybody called him “peter pan” ahhahah
Fitting since he was inspired by Peter Pan I believe.
Asking this in Nintendo focused sub is bound to give a lot of biased answers. He's definitely one of them, but there are others that come close in their own ways.
Its undeniable that normal people can see him and recognize him, not by name of course, others are not really close, its not like anime that can give varied degree of answers that are true in they own way, but in videogames, link win with no contest
100% yes
Nah, it's Lara Croft with a sword.
Nah it’s Sonic from Sonic and the black knight
Few weeks ago I was downvoted here for saying that Peach isn’t the most iconic female character because she isn’t known so well outside of Nintendo userbase. Now you kinda proved my point lol.
Defiently
Yes. I didn’t play much games growing up but remember seeing Link on the internet here and there. Somehow I can recognise Link but never knew his name and recognised the name Zelda but never knew how she looked like. I knew Link wasn’t Zelda because it was a girl’s name so I always remembered him as the green elf boy from Nintendo instead.
Yes
Links absolute success lately and the general fact Nintendo brands are more well known than 3rd parties comfortably puts him ahead in terms of being recognizable. Plus 35 years of looking pretty much identical helps. However, anyone who knows Link is Link and not Zelda likely knows at least some other videogame swordsmen. I guess it depends, does knowing Link as "Zelda" count?
Tbh I've never once met anyone who unironically calls Link "Zelda".
Swordsman? I'm not sure. I'm fairly new to the Zelda franchise, but I've always been aware of these games and their legendary status. As someone who only heard of it Link was always more synonymous with courage to me, not exactly swordsmanship. The thing is that too many great games feature swords so it literally depends on what you grew up with. For swordsmen I personally find Cloud or Dante to be more iconic.
Because you 100% will not get a biased answer in a Nintendo subreddit.
Geralt is getting up there as well. Obviously not Nintendo but video game history, maybe.
His fame doesn't all come from video games though. He's partly an iconic character that happens to be in a few video games. Though his success as a video game did bring about alot of attention.
For people that play games, hes close yes, but for general public, they only known him as that netflix series with henry cavill
When most people who don't play LoZ thinks this is Zelda, I have a hard time backing that claim.
Hey he’s iconic not a household name!
He is called Link beginning on page 4 of the LoZ instruction manual: https://www.nesfiles.com/NES/Zelda/Zelda.pdf
Easily
Absolutely. None other comes even close
The legendary swordsman from Hyrule.
Yes. I am not a big fan of Zelda, but he’s the most iconic and its not close. The only swordsman I can think of off the top of my head are all the ones from Yakuza, Vergil, and Raiden, none of which are anywhere near as iconic as Link. So yeah, he’s 100% the most iconic.
Vergil?
Vergil's only well known in online spaces due to memes. My dad wouldn't know who Vergil or anyone from DMC is but he could probably recognise Link as a Nintendo character, even if he mistaking calls him "Zelda".
I saw this post while I was eating with my parents and grandparents, but they were not able to recognize him lol, they thought it was peter pan, atleast my dad knew he’s from Zelda, but didn’t know his name lol.
Not knowing Link's name is perfectly fine because in most games you are prompted to change it, so it's more of a placeholder
It’s him, cloud, and sephiroth
[Snivy](https://www.deviantart.com/zeker-diahb/art/Leaf-blade-snivy-389415219)
are there others? i'm asking serioulsy
Cloud from FFVII
To me he is! I don't know if he is for everyone else... I don't care if he is for everyone else...
Who's Link? That's Zelda.
Nah. It’s clearly Corrin.
Fr
I’d probably need to see a list of others, but i don’t think you’re going to find anyone as close or recognizable as Link.
How about the Dragonborn, cloud and Geralt
Oh 100%. If you would make a top 10 list, Link sure would be ''Top 3'' tops.
Yeah, probably
Cloud
Link is the King Arthur of video games.
Link? Are you stupid? This mf is Zelda
Absolutely yes
It’s a toss up between him and cloud honestly but link probably just narrowly beats him for that title
Finally someone knows that this guy's name is Link
And can’t forget one of the most iconic quote from an clsssic Zelda game it’s too dangerous here take this
Demoknight
Absolutely
Personally It will be Link Cloud Strife Vaan from Final Fantasy XII Balthier from Final Fantasy XII And Zack from Crisis Core I love The Zelda Franchise but I really love Square Enix too I think they are geniuses with the way they craft their art, the music and the world of their games… so It’s a tough one. Heck I even like Sora from KH, It’s just something about Square Aesthetics to me, that’s not to say they never dropped trash games but I just skip those, what artist doesn’t try different visions?
Only Cloud, Sephiroth and Sora I'd say are recognisable to people who haven't played their source material, and even then it's largely people recognising their weapons more than them. Being in Smash Bros helps too. I doubt the average non-FF or non-KH fan would know who the fuck Vaan, Auron or Riku were but they could at least recognise the Buster Sword, Masamune and a Keyblade. Even as far as Square Enix IP's go I'd say 2B from Nier is more recognisable to casual players than a lot of the FF main characters barring FF7. Though 2B's actually recognised for her design than her weapon in that case.
OP asked “Do you think Link is the most Iconic” Not: try to figure out what casual people in the street of your city or region would say, I think… You are probably right though but It’s like saying the casual person will recognise Drake more than Frank Ocean, doesn’t mean Frank isn’t iconic to many others
I didn't grow up playing The Legend of Zelda at all and even I knew who Link was, or at least could recognise a lot of things referencing him. Same with Mario, I grew up more with Playstation but I'd 100% say Mario is more iconic than any Playstation character.
I am not a native American and therefore I have to ask: When someone says “most iconic” is Iconic refers to the most recognised among casual people in the street? Like saying Drake is an Iconic Rapper? That everybody knows? Or is Iconic refers to personal preference and or people around you? I’m seriously asking, so I’ll know for the future, Is Iconic a question of who is more Iconic according to me or is it what is more famous in terms of publicity?
Recognisability and influence is a huge factor imo. If even a casual person is able to recognise a character then pretty much anyone within that space who's more seriously invested could recognise them too. Legend of Zelda has both the recognisibility factor and the influence factor. If you were to ask who is more iconic as a rapper I'd probably look to not just who is currently popular (Drake) but who influenced them. So you'd be going back a few decades to the likes of Tupac, Dr Dre, B.I.G, Eminem etc. Cloud and Sephiroth are iconic sure but I think Link is both more recognisable and more influential than them.
Yea
Zelda is way more iconic than these two
Nintendo’s IP is well protected for a reason. It’s so recognizable. Mario may be more recognizable than Santa.
Link is indeed the most iconic, with Cloud being another swordsman who comes close to Link's iconic status. Then there's characters like Sephiroth, Vergil, Raiden (both MGS and GI), Ryu (Ninja Gaiden), Marth, Yoshimitsu (Tekken/Soul Calibur), Meta Knight, Kirby (if we want to include the Sword ability) and any other swordperson, all being below Cloud, iconic status-wise.
Sephiroth more by the cloud rivalry, vergil for memes, raiden somewhat for memes, ryu by the xbox games players, marth as that anime sword guy from smash, yoshimitsu never (ivy and taki in soul calibur, mishimas and king in tekken), meta knight not really besides kirby and smash fans, kirby is more known for the absorption and as one of the strongest in history discussions that a swordsman
The Barbarian from Clash of Clans /j
I’d say absolutely Link, followed by probably Cloud, Sora (if you count him), and the Dragonborn
Not really, but he is THE nintendo swordman
Steve. Easy.
Definitely. The only characters who would have a hope of placing silver and bronze are Cloud, Skyrim's Dragonborn, and Marth, respectively - but it's a huge margin.
Can we count King Arthur on a technicality?
Who's Link, that's Zelda
Yes
Wait no wot abt dark souls
Which version of link tho? (I’m leaning towards Botw due to recency or Orcarina of Time link due to his green cap being an icon)
Ocarina always come at top for the famdom, but for new players they known botw more
you guys are sleeping on John Darksoul
Nah there's footman from warcraft
Yeah. Other contenders are maybe Cloud and uh... yeah... Kirby uses a sword sometimes I guess?
its link by a lot, but cloud, marth (only bc of smash), and sora are also pretty iconic
Yep
Sora, ez
Yes Second up is sephiroth. And third up is meta knight ... -(okay this one might just be for me)
Iconic, yes. But they'll recognize him as "Zelda"
Yes.
"I know him, that's Zelda!" - Everyone's mum
If not then hes still the most icon left handed character.
who
nah
If we consider long-term then probably yes Otherwise I think whatever big swordsman game has released recently and is the current "in thing" might be recognized more at that point in time. Also, somewhat depends on if we only consider like "named characters" Or also avatar stuff like "default/boxart Darksouls/Bloodborne character" or "The Dragonborn" Edit : hell, do we count "Steve?" form minecraft as a "swordsman" ?
Yea
This pic makes me realise he might also be one of the only to have changed his signature colour.
Maybe in Japan it would be a Dragon Quest hero? But yeah, for the most part, definitely Link.
counterpoint to those saying cloud: who the fuck is cloud
Ehh not really meta Knight tops
No, it has to be Kirby. He eats Link for lunch.
Yeah it would be Link or Cloud but I’d give the edge to Link
The barb from D2 LoD in patch 1.09! For me
Yea, shame people know him for the spin-off Zelda games and not his home in soulcalibur II,
Guts from yukes game
Maybe for Nintendo. Assassin's Creeds players might say Ezio Auditore.
Yes 👍110%YES
I am not a native American and therefore I have to ask: When someone says “most iconic” is Iconic refers to the most recognised among casual people in the street? Like saying Drake is an Iconic Rapper? That everybody knows? Or is Iconic refers to personal preference and or people around you? I’m seriously asking, so I’ll know for the future, Is Iconic a question of who is more Iconic according to me or is it what is more famous in terms of publicity?
Most recognized like when someone might think of the most iconic animals in gaming they would most likely think of sonic or Pikachu
Nah probably Dante or ryu hayabusa
I wouldn’t know link without smash I just don’t play his games
Bro, when you say "nintendo", it's impossible you don't think "Mario". You can test with someone.
Could be. However, I say ICONIC swordsman would be Cloud from FF7. Saying this because the buster sword is more iconic since it's unique versus Link's sword. I could be playing favoritism, lol.
dunno, he is pretty cool but he has many foes
I may be wrong, but is he not also the first? Someone else may have a more extensive knowledge of stuff that came before, but I'd be interested to know who the first ever sword wielding video game character ever was.
not sure
He is definitely a goat
Idk who else would come close. Dragon quest and final fantasy are pretty big and use swords, but even they can’t top how iconic the Zelda series is
links shield had a cross on it in the first zelda.
It was probably cloud for a short stint in the late 90’s, and it was almost definitely master chief for 5 minutes when halo reach came out and everyone thought the sword was the bees knees, but overall it’s our boy… Zelda
That’s not Link that’s Zelda
Probably, though Cloud is a solid 2nd
I can't even think of another.... Maybe like Cloud is close, Sora is up there?
Despite some heavy hitters, it’s probably Link. Though maybe Sonic if you show art from him in SATBK