Fi (The Legend of Zelda)

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Fi
The Legend of Zelda character
Fi Zelda.png
Fi, as she appears in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
First appearanceThe Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (2011)
Last appearanceThe Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD (2021)
Voiced byAyumi Fujimura
In-universe information
AffiliationLink

Fi (/faɪ/)[1] is a fictional character in The Legend of Zelda series. She appears in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword and its 2021 remaster The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD. Fi is a major character in the storyline and is the guide and companion to the protagonist, Link. She is a spirit that inhabits the sword that Link uses during gameplay, which eventually transforms into the Master Sword. Her main function is to provide hints and advice to the player. Fi received a mixed to negative reception from both critics and gamers who considered her repeated interjections to be annoying and excessive. Her dialogue was significantly reduced as part of various improvements to the remastered Skyward Sword HD. She also appears as a playable character in the 2014 spin-off game Hyrule Warriors and as a Spirit in the 2018 fighting game Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Concept and creation[]

Fi was first revealed at E3 2009 in concept art for The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword alongside Link.[2] Her original function was different than it is in the final game.[3] The designers created Fi to serve as a counterpart to the silent protagonist in order to provide hints, navigation and storytelling.[3] They used 1980s anime as a source of inspiration for Fi's design. In the Nintendo book titled Hyrule Historia, the designers stated, "we had imagined this a la 1980s anime, in which the main character was usually accompanied by a beautiful personal assistant". They also wanted the character to resemble the Fairy Queen character that appears in The Wind Waker.[4]

Characteristics[]

Fi is a humanoid spirit that resides within a sword called the Goddess Sword, which eventually becomes the Master Sword.[5] According to Hyrule Historia, she was designed to appear aged 13 or 14. She has a metallic appearance and her voice is robotic, which gives the impression that she displays no emotion. She wears a cape, which opens up when she spins. Her appearance is predominantly blue and purple in colour. She wears a blue gem on her chest, a purple miniskirt and leggings. Her feet are bare but she displays no toes.[6] Fi was designed to resemble the sword that she inhabits. The shape of her cloak mimics the design of the sword's crossguard, the pattern on her legs mimics the cross grid pattern on the sword's hilt and her blue and purple colour scheme also reflects the sword's prominent colours. Fi's figure is feminine in appearance but the character is officially genderless. In an interview with Nintendo Official Magazine, producer Eiji Aonuma stated that "Fi is not female".[4]

Portrayal[]

Fi is voiced in Skyward Sword and Hyrule Warriors by Ayumi Fujimura.[7]

Appearances[]

Fi appears in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword and plays an essential role in the gameplay. Like earlier characters, such as Navi, she is a companion and guide for the protagonist, Link. In the storyline, she is a spirit left by the goddess Hylia to help the chosen hero.[8] She leads him to a statue of the goddess Hylia with the intention of leading him to the Goddess Sword, which she intends him to use to defeat the villain Demise. She continues to guide him to various settings to accomplish this, where the Goddess Sword is upgraded into the Master Sword.[9] Link later has to put Fi into an eternal slumber after their adventure is at its end.[10]

Fi is one of several characters from Skyward Sword that appears as a playable character in the 2014 hack and slash game Hyrule Warriors, alongside Link, Zelda, Ghirahim and the Imprisoned.[11]

While Fi does not physically appear in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, her character is strongly alluded to in various cutscenes, being referred to as "the voice inside the Sword". Communicating through the Master Sword, Fi tells Princess Zelda to bring the injured Link to the Shrine of Resurrection to save his life.[12]

Fi appears in the Super Smash Bros. series. In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (2018), she appears as a Spirit.[13]

The release of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD in 2021 for the Nintendo Switch provided a variety of improvements to the original Wii game design. The help and advice offered by Fi throughout gameplay was reduced and accessed as an optional function.[14] Players are notified of Fi's optional hints using a symbol in the lower left corner and a pulsating glow from Link's sword.[15]

Reception[]

Since being revealed, Fi has been met with mostly mixed to negative reception. Critics and gamers considered her frequent interjections in gameplay to be annoying, comparing her unfavourably to Navi from Ocarina of Time.[16] Due to her repeated interruptions in the gameplay of Skyward Sword, she has been the subject of various internet memes.[17] She has also been recreated by fans for cosplay.[18]

In a preview of Skyward Sword, Audrey Drake of IGN found her to be a "fun change of pace" compared to Navi and Midna, two other companion characters in The Legend of Zelda series. She found her emotionless manner of speech "endearing."[19] Fellow IGN contributor Richard George found her to be good comic relief due to her lack of understanding of human emotions.[20] Sebastian Haley of Venture Beat similarly enjoyed her, finding her to be the best aspect of Skyward Sword. He felt she was less annoying than previous companion characters and that her dialogue helped fill the void left by Link being a silent protagonist.[21]

Game Informer staff criticized Fi for harming the pace of Skyward Sword and criticized her for not letting players figure things out for themselves.[22] David Roberts of GamesRadar+ referred to her as the "perpetual annoyance" of Skyward Sword, while fellow GamesRadar+ contributor Anthony John Agnello noted the ability to skip Fi's tutorials would have been seen as a drastic improvement for the game.[23][24] Chris Carter of Destructoid criticized her, noting that her design and role in Skyward Sword were good, but added that he could not stand her interrupting the gameplay as much as she did. He felt that her tutorials were potentially damaging for Skyward Sword's dungeons.[25][26] Keza MacDonald of IGN expressed appreciation for how The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds lacks characters such as Fi who do not interrupt the gameplay and tell players what to do.[27] Despite finding her interruptions annoying, Chris Schilling of Vice felt that the ability to ignore some of the tutorials made it better than it seemed. He added that her leaving was one of the saddest moments in the series, a sentiment on which Griffin Vacheron of Game Revolution felt similarly.[28][29] Jess Joho of Killscreen negatively compared Fi to the character Turing from Read Only Memories, criticizing Fi as an "information dumpster" and stating that she was nearly "game-breaking" due to this.[30] John Teti of Gameological criticized Fi as part of an initiative by Nintendo to "condescend and over-explain" to players.[31] Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw of Zero Punctuation was highly critical of Fi, going as far as to say, "besides a twitchy, enraged badger that points out important quest items by breaking wind at them, I cannot imagine a worse assistant."[32]

Kevin Knezevich of GameSpot welcomed the reduction of Fi's dialogue in Skyward Sword HD by commenting that this, "makes her less bothersome and improves the game's overall pacing."[33] Ben Reeves for Game Informer praised the game's improved access to Fi's guidance by noting that she, "now offers helpful advice at the press of a button to keep you from getting lost or stuck, which is something I wish I had 10 years ago."[34]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ "Poll: Zelda: Skyward Sword HD's Biggest Question - How Do You Pronounce Fi?". Nintendo Life. 2021-08-09. Retrieved 2021-11-23.
  2. ^ Lambie, Ryan (November 20, 2011). "The making of The Legend Of Zelda: Skyward Sword". Den of Geek!. Archived from the original on October 10, 2019. Retrieved October 9, 2019.
  3. ^ a b Brian (November 22, 2011). "Skyward Sword talk – Fi came before MotionPlus, cut content, thoughts about Silent Realm as a dungeon, more". Nintendo Everything. Archived from the original on October 10, 2019. Retrieved October 9, 2019.
  4. ^ a b Hewitt, Phoebe (2021-06-16). "Skyward Sword: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Fi". TheGamer. Retrieved 2021-11-24.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  5. ^ Knezevich, Kevin (18 February 2021). "Zelda: Skyward Sword's Biggest Issue Was Not Its Motion Controls". GameSpot. Retrieved 2021-11-24.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  6. ^ Hyrule Historia. Nintendo. p. 12.
  7. ^ "Fi Voices (Legend of Zelda)". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved 2021-11-23.
  8. ^ Vito Oddo, Marco (2021-06-25). "Zelda: Skyward Sword HD Trailer Analysis Reveals Changes in the Switch Remake". Collider. Retrieved 2021-11-23.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  9. ^ Zeranko, Jacob (2021-08-04). "Skyward Sword HD Ending Explained". ScreenRant. Retrieved 2021-11-26.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  10. ^ Osborne, Mary (2021-08-19). "The Ending Of Skyward Sword Explained". Looper.com. Retrieved 2021-11-26.
  11. ^ Smith, Carly (2014-07-08). "Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword's Fi Joins Hyrule Warriors". The Escapist. Retrieved 2021-11-23.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  12. ^ "Characters That Fans Want to See Return in Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2". Game Rant. 2020-04-19. Archived from the original on 2021-04-25. Retrieved 2021-04-25.
  13. ^ Green, Jake (2019-05-13). "Super Smash Bros Ultimate Spirits - Spirits List, Level Up, Best Spirits". USgamer. Retrieved 2021-11-27.
  14. ^ McWhertor, Michael (2021-07-02). "Skyward Sword HD fixes many of the Wii game's most annoying quirks". Polygon. Retrieved 2021-11-23.
  15. ^ Osborne, Mary (2021-07-19). "The Big Differences Between The Original And New Legend Of Zelda: Skyward Sword". SVG.com. Retrieved 2021-11-23.
  16. ^ Zwiezen, Zack. "Nintendo Wants To Make Skyward Sword HD Less Annoying". Kotaku. Retrieved 2021-11-24.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  17. ^ Morin, Stephen Michael (2021-06-29). "Skyward Sword: 10 Hilarious Fi Memes". TheGamer. Retrieved 2021-11-23.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  18. ^ "The Best Zelda Cosplays To Hyrule Them All". Nintendo Life. 2018-01-21. Retrieved 2021-11-24.
  19. ^ Drake, Audrey (September 30, 2011). "Skyward Sword: The Evolution of Zelda Storytelling". IGN. Archived from the original on May 30, 2019. Retrieved October 8, 2019.
  20. ^ George, Richard (November 11, 2011). "The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword Review". IGN. Archived from the original on December 29, 2019. Retrieved October 8, 2019.
  21. ^ Haley, Sebastian (November 19, 2011). "Review: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword proves Nintendo hasn't learned anything". Venture Beat. Archived from the original on May 29, 2019. Retrieved October 8, 2019.
  22. ^ "Ranking Every Game In The Legend Of Zelda Series". Game Informer. July 4, 2019. Archived from the original on August 22, 2019. Retrieved October 10, 2019.
  23. ^ Roberts, David (June 2, 2016). "8 great games that take forever to get to the fun part". GamesRadar+. Archived from the original on May 29, 2019. Retrieved October 8, 2019.
  24. ^ Agnello, Anthony John (February 22, 2017). "8 last-gen games that need PS4, Switch and Xbox One remakes". GamesRadar+. Archived from the original on May 29, 2019. Retrieved October 8, 2019.
  25. ^ Carter, Chris (July 8, 2008). "Fi revealed to be playable in Hyrule Warriors". Destructoid. Archived from the original on September 10, 2015. Retrieved October 8, 2019.
  26. ^ Carter, Chris (February 26, 2017). "The greatest Legend of Zelda dungeon is obviously Snowpeak Ruins". Destructoid. Archived from the original on April 29, 2017. Retrieved October 9, 2019.
  27. ^ MacDonald, Keza (November 14, 2013). "The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds Review". IGN. Archived from the original on May 29, 2019. Retrieved October 8, 2019.
  28. ^ Schilling, Chris (April 21, 2015). "The Greatest Moments of 'The Legend of Zelda'". Vice. Archived from the original on June 3, 2019. Retrieved October 9, 2019.
  29. ^ Vacheron, Griffin (May 17, 2017). "Has Voice Acting Become a Permanent Part of Nintendo's Repertoire?". Game Revolution. Archived from the original on May 29, 2019. Retrieved October 9, 2019.
  30. ^ Joho, Jess (November 20, 2014). "Take a trip through Neo-San Francisco in the Read Only Memories demo". Killscreen. Archived from the original on July 30, 2016. Retrieved October 10, 2019.
  31. ^ Teti, John (June 6, 2012). "Lost In Explanation". Gameological. Archived from the original on May 16, 2019. Retrieved October 10, 2019.
  32. ^ Croshaw, Yahtzee. "The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword". The Escapist. Archived from the original on 4 August 2020. Retrieved 23 August 2020.
  33. ^ Knezevich, Kevin (14 July 2021). "The Legend Of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD Review - Link To The Past". GameSpot. Retrieved 2021-11-24.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  34. ^ Reeves, Ben. "The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD Review – A Diamond Buried In The Rough". Game Informer. Retrieved 2021-11-24.
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