Nintendo wins. Realistic Zelda + NDS is better then you ever imagined

[Dark Jaguar]

To quote the instruction booklet for Zelda 2:

"One day, a strange mark, exactly like the crest of the kingdom, appeared on the back of Link's hand as he approached his 16th birthday."

Also, those pics show what I'm talking about. It's not his elbows and knees. Compare him to the sprites of townspeople and then to children. He is as tall as any adult, and twice the height of all children. Compare him to all the adults and then to the children, and there are plenty there to compare to, and you'll see he is easily adult size, and looks like an adult. He's just a bit taller than a number of the townspeople too. Finally, everyone TREATS him like an adult in the game. There is another quote here for you. This from a scroll Link was given when the crest appeared.

"I have decided to cast a spell on all of Hyrule. A crest will appear on a young man with that character who has been brought up correctly, has gained many kinds of experiences and has reached a certain age.

My point here is that the crest was only to appear when he had become old enough.

Another note, in OOT we have no idea how old Link was as an adult. It's never stated that he's 11 at the start of the game, so we couldn't know if he's 18 or not. Considering the whole 18 thing is just our world's deal, I would suspect it could be a couple years younger, maybe older but then his young form wouldn't be that young. All things considering, I'd wager 8-10.

As for LTTP and LA, well the instruction booklet pictures would lead me to believe he's an adult there too. That's obviously drawn in Japan in all the booklets, so it's not just American mistranslation. Of course, I suppose it could be ignored and he could have just been 13 or so. Anyway, my point is that Link was most certainly almost 16 in Zelda 2. That makes him an adult, by most standards of the times this world was sorta modelled after. He's been an adult before OOT, and Zelda 2 was definitly it. Young Link in Zelda 1, adult Link in Zelda 2. Worked out well. Also the booklet for Zelda 2 makes it very clear that the Link in Zelda 2 IS the Link from Zelda 1, only grown up. It's stated in terms that can't be taken any other way.

Here's the thing, Miyamoto has been quoted to say a LOT of conflicting things about Zelda, but in the end I must suffice it all to be a result of bad translation. I can see how a few grammar steps here or there could easily be taken the wrong way by a not so good translator. Anyway, in those first Zelda games, the booklets told much of the story, and while they could be bad translations themselves the illustrations fit it, and they are obviuosly Japanese pictures, because at the time whenever a company decided to change illustrations when translating a game, we'd get something like the Megaman 1 cart art.