Nothing beats a great story. A truly good story will sweep you up; immerse you in its depths so that you experience the fullness of its twists and turns. You don’t want to leave it, because the world and events that it weaves around you are so compelling that you feel the need to stay and see what’s around that next corner; to find that next revelation, that next detail that fleshes out the fiction and brings it to life.

Among Zelda fans, people often have a preoccupation with the story. Make a thread in a forum asking why people love the series, and you’ll get at least a couple fans saying that the story is the reason (I believe that this is usually a gross oversimplification which stems from people lacking understanding of their own love for the series… but I digress). But what is a “story,” exactly? What makes it good? You could have the best plot in the world, but that doesn’t necessarily make the story as a whole a worthwhile one. Conversely, an unremarkable plot does not always make a bad story.

The best stories are character-based. A story that deals with human, believable characters is the most engrossing, griping, and emotional one. As human beings, we identify with human-like characters, and the more we identify with characters, the more we are drawn into their world and lives. A character that possesses depth, motivations, growth, and a personality is truly a work of art. It is characters like these that are the building blocks of any great story, and it is the affects that events have on characters that gives them impact and importance. When a sad event happens in any story, you feel sad because you empathize with the characters that are experiencing this sadness.

The Zelda series traditionally has strong characters. Not as detailed as in many games, and you’ll never find as much sheer dialogue as in some other genres… but from a thematic and design standpoint, they are strong, simple characters. A perfect example would be Marin, from Link’s Awakening. She only has a few pages worth of dialogue throughout the entire game, but for years I have found her to have a huge depth of character and emotion. She was simple: a girl who dreamed of a world outside her small island, who sits on the beach and sings to seagulls. Into her world comes Link, a man from the outside world she dreams of. She falls in love – not with Link, but with what he represents: freedom and the wide world out beyond the confines of her life. That is it. Simple, but that simple, elegant concept is portrayed so strongly and subtly that to this day she is easily one of the best characters of the franchise. And ever since, Zelda characters have followed that mold: strong, simple, and memorable. Just look at the way people latch onto characters like Malon or the Windmill guy and remember them forever.

Twilight Princess’ cast of supporting characters is a masterpiece. I can say with confidence that (with the possible exception of Majora’s Mask) it is the best of the series. I was blown away with how good of a job the Zelda team did at bringing these characters and their interactions to life. I will even go so far as to say that the work done on the supporting cast was the highlight of this game.

The main reason for this is that they actually involved their characters in the troubles of Hyrule. Looking back over the series, it’s almost as if Hyrule is untouched by everything. In a Link to the Past, their King is dead, they’re under the rule of Agahnim, and Ganon is ready for a full-scale invasion. Yet, with almost no exceptions, everyone goes about their lives as if nothing is happening. It is the same in Ocarina of Time. Even in the future, when Hyrule is supposedly under the iron grip of Ganondorf, only Castle Town is really affected. The Gorons? They’re imprisoned and slated to be executed as an example, but once you free them they go back to life as usual. The people living in Kakariko? None of them seem to care about what’s happening in the world around them. The same detachment can be seen in the Wind Waker. Throughout the series, you never feel any real sense of involvement from the NPCs. Nobody reacts to the troubles of the world. Prior to Twilight Princess, the only real exception to this was Majora’s Mask. This is not how it should be. When a land is invaded or endangered, people should notice. Men should be taking up arms to guard their families. Merchants should be ripping people off and selling stuff at outrageous prices. The armies of Hyrule should either be destroyed or organizing some sort of resistance. Children should be kidnapped by monsters, leaving apprehensive and despairing parents left behind to try to rescue them. Hyrule as a whole, and not just a few central characters, should bleed and need a hero to rescue her. Not gratuitously, but enough that the world you play in can become a part of the story, something more than just a simple setting.

Twilight Princess is an enormous step in the right direction, one that the Zelda series has needed to take for years. The people are involved in the story. You get Rusl telling you that the forest has grown more dangerous. Monsters actually break into supposedly safe areas and kidnap children. When you return to Ordon village and sneak around as a wolf right after the children are all kidnapped, overhearing the reactions of these villagers trying to deal with the situation… it sent shivers down my spine. The whole situation is orchestrated beautifully, and the reactions of the villagers felt authentic. I absolutely loved the way that Rusl was wounded from fighting the bokoblins, and how, when he was suspicious that they were prowling the village again, he got back up and limped around with his sword, ready to defend his village once again. That is the sort of thing that breathes life into a world. It shows that, although Link may be the hero, others are affected and willing to fight for the cause as well. It gives our characters more dimension. Kakariko village is another great example; the scene when you first arrive as a wolf and see Barnes, Renado, and the Ordon children in the sanctuary was a very cool one.

I am a huge fan of involved characters, ones who are willing to put their resources to their fullest use to achieve their own goals, rather than just simply sitting back and absentmindedly letting the hero do everything. There are a variety of reasons for this. Being a hero who saves a bunch of helpless incompetents is all well and good, but a game can have so much more. If you have a bunch of other capable characters fighting the good fight, it puts the hero’s actions into perspective. It shows that you really are that hero, really are a step above even the best of what the rest of the land has to offer. Zelda games… rarely accomplish this. They tend to have a collection of NPCs who can barely tie their shoes, let alone help you save Hyrule.

The second major reason why I like involved NPCs is that they tend to be cooler, more authentic characters. Examples of involved NPCs in past Zelda games are characters like Sheik, Tetra, Darunia, Impa, Quill, Mido, Link of the Gorons, Malon, Ralph, and practically every character from Majora’s Mask. These are all characters that did their best based on what they were capable of, however little that might have been. They didn’t just stay in one spot and say the same thing over and over again whenever you talked to them. Of course, all of these characters actually played specific and relatively important roles in the main stories of their games. They’re not just random NPCs.

But that is the beauty of the NPCs of Twilight Princess; they’re not just random NPCs anymore, they’re characters in their own right. Like Majora’s Mask, actually. The developers managed to give a huge number of even minor NPCs some role in the story, even if it was only as victim. And they responded in kind; as victims, rather than just relocating to Kakariko Village and pretending nothing happened. In Ocarina of Time, the Castle Town refugees in Kakariko don’t act like anything happened; they don’t act like their home was destroyed and infested with the undead. But when all the children of Ordon village are kidnapped, not only does the entire village feel that blow, but many of the characters actively work to get the children back and prevent it from happening again. Remember Beth’s father? The lazy, no-good one who whines about his wife bossing him around at the beginning of the game, and who seems incapable of accomplishing anything? When you come back to Ordon as a wolf after the children are kidnapped, he starts summoning hawks and attacking you with them. It was a minor touch, but the way he talks when he does so shows a bit of depth and growth. Here was a minor character that was actually affected by the events of the story, whose attitude and actions reflect the changes in the world around him. The game abounds with minor details like that, at least during the first half. I was very impressed.

Not only does the home village of these children react accordingly to their loss, but when they arrive at Kakariko Village, the residents of that village respond to their arrival. They got involved, however briefly, with the events happening in their world. I’ll say it now; I wasn’t too happy with what the development team did to the atmosphere of Kakariko Village in TP. But I quickly looked past that, because its chief resident, Renado, was such a strong character.

These involved characters can be seen throughout the entire cast of Twilight Princess. Telma? She was a great NPC. She didn’t show much growth, but she had personality, heh. And she was a fighter; she sees Link as the swordsman he is, she got involved with Ilia’s memory problems, and her bar is the headquarters of a party of warriors that I loved. As I said earlier, a hero who has capable followers and admirers is more impressive than one who doesn’t, and the group that meets at Telma’s bar definitely gives Link a boost in that area. There is something about small groups of vigilante freedom fighters that attracts people. Robin Hood is a classic example. It has that whole roguish romantic hero thing going on.

So yes. The group that fights for Hyrule - Aura, Chad, and Ashei - was a nice touch to the game. The fact that Rusl turned out to be the fourth member was even better, further creating an interconnected web of characters. It showed that these NPCs are part of a wider world, rather than just remaining isolated in their corner of the game. Knowing that there were several other people fighting for the future of Hyrule, and actually moving around the world to accomplish their goals, definitely helped create that feeling of a cohesive world. I was very happy when they showed up in the final dungeon to save Link’s ass, too. Even a hero needs to be rescued very now and then, and I like it when developers remember that. It was disappointing that they didn’t show up again; that part of their involvement seemed like an obvious loose-end, something that deserved – needed – a conclusion.

I did think it was extremely cruel of Link and Midna to exclude Chad from the whole Sky Palace thing. The guy had spent his life researching it, and so had his father; the least they could have done with let him in on it. Bad Link, bad. Share the fun of seeing and doing everything with your poor little allies.

The epitomes of these involved characters are the children of Ordon Village. You all know who I’m talking about; Malo, Talo, Beth, and of course Colin. They are there from the very beginning, Links’ friends and admirers. They are also the most involved characters in the game. We get to witness the way their personality develops and gains depth through all the events that happen to them. At the very beginning of the game, they are normal children; they tease and bully, play, and look up to their hero: Link. They are simple, but strong and authentic. As stand alone characters, they are relatively boring, but when they are put together and begin to interact with each other and others, they shine. We get to see Malo and Talo picking on Colin, their excitement over Link’s new slingshot, their eagerness to beat monkeys to death… They all undergo a bit of growth after they are kidnapped. Not the usual lose-your-childhood traumatic sort of growth, but they mature a bit while retaining that childhood (Except Malo. He’s just bizarre, and awesome in a quirky sort of way.) An example of this would be the way that after Colin gets kidnapped a second time by the Moblin lord, Talo decides to do his part by standing watch up in that tower. It’s the sort of thing a kid would do, but it’s still a far cry from the way he bullied Colin at the beginning of the game.

Colin is interesting because of the way he idolizes Link. Talo looks up to Link in the sense that he thinks Link is cool, but Colin actually looks up to him on a deeper level as a person, too. One of the best parts of the kids is that they actively look up to Link; this is the first time Link really gets credit for his actions, the first time he gets any real admiration for what he does. This also helps give us a glimpse into the character of Link himself – more on that later.

Another thing I enjoyed about the kids was the way that their presence affected other characters around them. In Ordon, they are obviously the heart of the village, the hope of its future. When they are torn from their home, Ordon and its residents noticeably feel that wound. In Kakariko they made a difference, too. People act differently around children; they speak differently, they might act in a nurturing/reassuring manner. Having children around gives any writer an option to show us more sides of a person’s character. We see this with Renado and Barnes – having the children around gives us a better glimpse into Renado’s character. It’s also obvious that Barnes doesn’t know the first thing about kids – another part of his character that we wouldn’t know if the children weren’t there to reveal it. Telma taking care of Ilia and her lost memory gives us the opportunity to meet the true side of the barkeep. Children are a powerful story-telling tool, and I am glad to see the Zelda team using them.