The Legend of Zelda franchise is usually focused on one protagonist, Link, and his adventures across various dungeons and through a wide variety of enemies. Usually, Link is attempting to save Princess Zelda and take down a major foe, such as Ganondorf, and this formula has worked for a long time and continued to produce fantastic games in the series.
However, there are a variety of times when Link has needed assistance. Princess Zelda has sometimes gotten involved in the action herself, from leading a game to just giving a single huge assist as the various incarnations of Zelda continue to change and shift in style.
6 Hyrule Warriors
It was strange to see a Legend of Zelda game that combined the style of the hack-and-slash Dynasty Warriors games with the more traditional elements of any other entry in the Zelda franchise. Nevertheless, it worked well and even spawned a sequel, and managed to present a reasonably strong version of Princess Zelda to boot.
This version of Zelda, a strong and capable warrior, helped Link to defeat the final version of Ganon to appear with the light arrows that she gives him earlier in the game. Without these, Link would never have prevailed in the final battle and the heroes of the Triforce could never have sealed Ganon away again.
5 Zelda’s Adventure
One of the most infamous (and horrific) things that have happened in the history of The Legend of Zelda franchise are the three CD-I format games that were created by Philips after making a deal with Nintendo. While these games weren't particularly well-loved, they did a lot to showcase Zelda as her own character in a way that previous games hadn't managed.
However, one thing that the CD-I games did manage to do was actually give Princess Zelda her own game where players took control of her for the duration. In a switch-up of the classic format, this game was about Zelda gathering seven celestial signs in order to save Link, who had been stolen by Ganon. While the game was nothing short of a disaster, Zelda’s Adventure remains one of the few times when a Legend of Zelda title featured Zelda primarily over her green-clothed hero.
4 A Link Between Worlds
Though Zelda does not directly save Link from danger in A Link Between Worlds, he would never have managed to defeat Yuga and save Hyrule from his wrath without her giving him the Pendant of Courage near the beginning of the game.
While Zelda is later captured inside a painting by Yuga and has to be saved by Link, her intervention to give him one of the three pendants needed to utilize the Master Sword was pivotal in him finding a way to bring her and everyone else that was trapped by Yuga back.
3 The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
Of all the games where Zelda is actually a playable character, Spirit Tracks makes the least use of her. Still, in comparison to old-school Legend of Zelda games that barely gave her a chance to appear before being captured by Ganon, it is an upgrade. Zelda is featured as Link’s primary companion throughout Spirit Tracks, though she was in spirit form after having her body stolen.
This form allowed her to possess phantom bodies though, which helped her to save Link on a number of occasions throughout gameplay, but also in one cutscene where the hero surely would have perished without her intervention. This was a great way to keep Zelda around as a character and have her be useful, without overriding Link as the primary protagonist of the game.
2 Hyrule Warriors: Age Of Calamity
There are different game modes in Age of Calamity where players are actually able to play as different versions of Zelda, but in the main story, she manages to awaken her magical abilities in time to save Link in a particularly dangerous moment.
After Astor kills members of the Yiga Clan and manages to use them to resurrect the four Blight Ganons, these creatures converge on Link and almost manage to kill him. Fortunately, Zelda awakens to her magical sealing abilities and gets them out of a dangerous situation. It is only recently that the main Zelda franchise has started to utilize Zelda herself in more useful roles such as this.
1 Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon
Responsible for some of the worst voice acting in a video game, and some of the most nightmarishly memorable art in cutscenes to boot, Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon is another of the CD-I adventures. While Philips failed almost everywhere in making a video game with these three entries in the franchise (which are almost exclusively hidden from history whenever possible) they did get one thing right.
Instead of keeping Zelda in her traditional side character role in the franchise, which the main Legend of Zelda games has only recently begun to break away from, it put her in the leading role in two of their three entries. In this adventure, Zelda goes after Link and her father, who have both gone missing, and it turns out were kidnapped by Ganon. Zelda manages to save them both after finding the Wand of Gamelon, unfortunately, the game couldn’t be saved from being an absolute disaster.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is available for Nintendo Switch.