Fi (The Legend of Zelda)

Fi is a spirit that resides within a sword called the Goddess Sword, which eventually became the Master Sword. She was first seen in promotional art for The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword alongside Link.[1] Her function originally was different than it was in the final game.[2] The designers created Fi to serve as a counterpart to a silent protagonist in order to provide hints, navigate, and storytelling.[2]

Fi appears in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. She leads protagonist Link to a statue of the goddess Hylia with the intention of leading him to the Goddess Sword, which she intends him to use it 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. It is revealed that Fi was created to assist the chosen hero, and Link later has to put Fi into an eternal slumber in order to get the fully powered Master Sword.

While Fi does not appear in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, her character is strongly alluded to in various cutscenes, including playing the sound effect that plays when she speaks, although it is not confirmed if they intentionally refer to Fi or not.

Since being revealed, Fi has been met with mostly mixed to negative reception. 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."[3] Fellow IGN contributor Richard George found her to be good comic relief due to her lack of understanding of human emotions.[4] 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.[5] Game Informer staff criticized Fi for harming the pace of Skyward Sword and criticized her for not letting players figure things out for themselves.[6] 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.[7][8] 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.[9][10] 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.[11] 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.[12][13] 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.[14] John Teti of Gameological criticized Fi as part of an initiative by Nintendo to "condescend and over-explain" to players.[15]