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I guess it’s a week for odd tidbits from Nintendo’s history! First we had an alternate design for Princess Peach, and now we’ve learned of a new name for Link!

All the way back in 1992, a novelization of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past was released in Japan. This novel, written by Katsuyuki Ozaki was part of the Futabasha Fantasy Novel Series. Apparently, Ozaki felt like taking some liberties with the source material in his adaptation.

As detailed by the History of Hyrule Twitter account, Link had a very different name in this novelization. With seemingly no rhyme or reason, Link was given the name Paul! You have to wonder why this change was made, as Link’s name was definitely cemented in Zelda lore by this point. Even crazier, why didn’t Nintendo speak up on this change?! It seems like something they’d be all over nowadays.

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Comments (3)

kingbroly

2y ago

You, Paul, are the Hero!


sinfield99

2y ago

Wow! Happy to have shared my name...would have saved a lot of time tapping it in back in the day had the games used it too 😃 ❤️

Edited 1 time

thegreatking

2y ago

Paul the hero of time, sounds about right