From The Verge:

Animator Kenna W. decided to try her hand at modding the original 1986 NES title. In a blog post she lays out the whole process, which (in its earliest incarnation, at least) didn't take a whole lot more than re-drawing the handful of tiles needed to animate the game's hero, Link. The most difficult part seems to have been figuring out what to do with him after making Zelda the heroine. "When you take away the sword, who is he?" asks Kenna. "Just some guy that can't get out of a room?"