The Triforce Wielders Recurring: Goddesses and Allies, Villains and Enemies, Races Main Series: The Legend of Zelda, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, A Link to the Past, Link's Awakening, Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Oracle games, Four Swords, The Wind Waker, Four Swords Adventures, The Minish Cap, Twilight Princess, Phantom Hourglass, Spirit Tracks, Skyward Sword, A Link Between Worlds, Tri Force Heroes, Breath of the Wild & Tears of the Kingdom Spin-Offs: Philips CD-i Games, Hyrule Warriors, Cadence of Hyrule, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity
The Heroes
The main character and hero of the game. The catch is that you play as four Links in this game, but his/their destiny is the same as always. With the Four Sword/s in hand/s, he/they set out to Save the Princess and defeat the Evil Sorcerer Vaati.
- Always Save the Girl: Princess Zelda, of course.
- Back-to-Back Badasses: When the four Links fight alongside each other.
- Bash Brothers: The fact that the Link who collects the most rupees gets a special reward at the end of each level encourages this.
- Heroism Incentive: The Links have to prove their worth as heroes to the Great Fairies... by collecting lots of money for them.
Princess Zelda is Link's childhood friend. At the beginning of the game, she explains the Four Sword´s backstory to Link. She is worried that the seal on Vaati might be weakening and goes to check on it, which promptly gets her kidnapped by Vaati.
- Damsel in Distress: Kidnapped before the end of the opening cinematic, again! That's got to be a record.
- Designated Victim: No surprise here.
- Early Installment Character-Design Difference: Four Swords was the first game to introduce the "Toon" artstyle that would later be featured in The Wind Waker, Spirit Tracks, and The Minish Cap, to name a few. Notably, though Link's design has remained identical in all games using this style, this Zelda dresses and looks quite different from her counterparts in said games. This outfit makes a single return as the design for Zelda in Four Swords Adventures, albeit only in sprite form as no artwork was created for her.
Three Great Fairies that hold the keys that are needed to advance further and eventually reach Vaati. However, they won't give them to the Links for free. They first have to prove themselves to them by collecting many rupees.
- Big Good: They're essentially this for the game.
- Cloudcuckoolander: They first grant the Links the heroic titles of "little eggs".
The Villains
Vaati is a powerful Evil Sorcerer in Four Swords. No longer remembering his past as a Picori, his motivation is entirely based on his lust.
- Big Bad: Vaati kickstarts the plot by kidnapping Zelda to force her to marry him, with Link setting out to save her afterward.
- Blow You Away: Did his title of "wind mage" not tip you off?!
- Dirty Old Man: He's several hundred years old, yet he kidnaps Zelda (who is around twelve) to be his bride.
- Dub Name Change: Vaati is named "Gufū" in the Japanese version.
- I Have You Now, My Pretty: His entire motivation for this game is kidnapping Zelda and making her his bride.
- Interim Villain: More of a meta-example.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia:
Word of God stated that this is the reason why he seems different from his Minish Cap interpretation. Apparently, Link gave him amnesia with the first defeat. - Meaningful Name: In the Japanese version, he's called "Gufū", which literally means "tornado".
- Motive Decay: Chronologically. After the events of The Minish Cap, Vaati lost his memory of being a Picori, and no longer desires the Light Force: all he wants is a bride. It could be that his memories being lost from his initial defeat slowly warped from wanting Zelda's Light Force and a lust for power into lust overall.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: He starts out sealed in the Four Sword.
