Link was my personal favorite character in Soul Calibur II on the Nintendo GameCube. Technically, this was the only platform he was available on, as, like Heihachi and Spawn, he was not in the arcade original. It was clear that he was the Nintendo-exclusive fighter. At the time, they based him on Link from Ocarina of Time since The Wind Waker did not have a character suited for Soul Calibur, and Twilight Princess would not be released for quite a few more years.

With the Hylian Shield and Master Sword, he truly felt like one of the cast. With all the Legend of Zelda elements they included alongside him, it was an incredible addition. A special Hylian treat for everyone fortunate enough to own the GameCube version.

Personally, I think he’s one of the best fighting characters in the game. He’s an all-around solid fighter like Mitsurugi, though perhaps a little faster.

I also liked how there were multiple weapons for him to use rather than just the Master Sword. He even had a few silly ones, but the best by far was the Great Fairy’s Sword.

The funny thing is that Namco eventually remastered the game for PlayStation and Xbox, and because they refused to make one for a Nintendo platform, it meant they came close to having all three special characters on a single system. However, Namco definitely didn’t have the rights to include Link on a non-Nintendo console.