For a series named after her, Zelda doesn’t always get much time in the spotlight. Sometimes she’s a pirate, a sage, or even a sidekick, but in some games, she doesn’t really show up at all!
I went through every mainline Zelda title to figure out just how much screentime the princess actually gets. That means counting cutscenes, playable moments, and even those blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameos. Of course, this varies from player to player, so I’ve made my best estimates. Here’s how every Zelda game ranks based on the amount of screentime she actually gets.
Zelda is completely absent from Tri Force Heroes, making this the rare Zelda game where she doesn’t show up at all.
The focus is onmultiplayer actionand puzzle-solving with Link and friends, so don’t expect any royal cameos here.
Zelda’s name might be on the box, but she doesn’t appear in this dreamyGame Boy adventureat all. Marin fills the “Zelda-shaped” role, and the game makes a point of saying she looks like Zelda (just in case you were confused).
This is Link’s story through and through, and Zelda is nowhere to be found.
Zelda appears in a singular flashback at the very beginning. If you blink, you might miss it! This is Termina’s weird, wonderful, and Zelda-less world.
Her short appearance is more symbolic than anything else. It reminds us (and Link) what he’s fighting for before things start getting strange.
Technically, Zelda does appear, but only in the Linked Game ending (after you’ve beaten both titles and entered a password). Even then, her role is very small. She’s captured and saved, all in a few cutscenes.
If you don’t link the gams, you could very well never know she’s there at all.
Zelda shows up very briefly at the beginning and end of the game, mostly to get the quest moving along.
The game’s main focus is on Link’s journey to awaken her, but she is absent from practically all of the gameplay.
The original Zelda game really doesn’t show Zelda at all, except at the very end when Link rescues her from Ganon’s castle.
Beyond that, she’s mostly an unseen goal rather than an actual character, and her screentime is very limited.
Four Links, a plot that barely exists, and barely Zelda in sight. She gets captured early and pops back in for the ending, but that’s about it.
The game focuses more onmultiplayer mayhemthan on any real story. She’s technically important, but only on paper.
This one does give Zelda a little bit more screen time. But that’s mainly through cutscenes where she gets magically sealed away.
Still, she’s not much of a presence, and the game doesn’t build any emotional connection to her. It’s better than the other Four Swords, but only barely.
Zelda kicks things off in a prison cell and appears in a few key scenes, but she quickly fades into the background as Link rescues six other maidens.
By the time you reach the end, it’s easy to forget that she’s the one who started the whole thing.
Zelda has a big opening, and then is immediately turned into stone. She reappears briefly in visions and cutscenes, and gets another short moment at the end.
It’s a classic “save the princess game,” which leads to very little actual screentime for the princess.
