Link, the Cowboy

In the Legend of Zelda series, the player acts through a character known as Link- the mute protagonist with an affinity for smashing jars. In the most recent installment for the Nintendo Switch, Breath of the Wild, Link wakes up in an unknown "frontier" that is overrun by evil.

The region that he wakes up in is known as The Great Plateau, where he meets a mysterious man who explains that he's been in stasis for 100 years, however Link has no memory of his purpose, and now he has to form a new identity, starting in the Great Plateau. This is fairly reminiscent of cowboys fleeing where they're from to forget their past, and start anew. The Great Plateau might as well be the Wild West. This is the first game in the series to be Open World- that is, a game where the player can decide when they wish the story to progress, and can explore the different regions/frontiers. In this game, Link has to acquire resources, clear out enemies to make things safer for the people that still live in Hyrule, and he even gets weapons and can ride a horse. Cowboys are known to bring order to a lawless land, which in his absence, Hyrule has become. The enemies may as well be the same "foreign invaders" that cowboys defend against, as well as the corruption- Calamity Ganon- that has taken the castle, and left Hyrule with no true leaders which . Civilization as Link knew before he went into stasis has been erased, and all that's left is small towns and groups that are incredibly spaced out and affected differently by what is going on, which is representative of the towns on the frontier. Link has to move through the frontiers and bring order and law back, has weapons and resources that he collects through his journey, and protects against external and internal threats to the land- Link is an elven cowboy!