How would you feel if in Zelda U they gave you the option to play as a female Link?

[Jotaro Kujo]

Link has always been Nintendo's posterboy for an avatar character anyway, which is why he doesn't talk and barely has any personality outside of a few universal constants (being sleepy/heroic/etc), and is kinda young and androgynous. Cause of this I don't really think it would hurt anything if we at the very least got an option to play as a female Link so people who want to have a female protagonist in a Zelda can play as a female Link, and those who don't don't have to. If they want they can change some of the personality traits (as long as it's not something cliche like her being vain or whatever) but I don't really see why they would have to, since girls can also be of the sleepy, heroid variety.

In the same vein (and has been stated before), since each Link is different, it would be cool if we got a strictly female Link cause who says the torch can't be passed to a woman? All it says is the torch has to be passed.

I would also like a Zelda game where we can actually play as Zelda. I think that would be pretty neat.

[Captain Karnage]

I really wouldn't care all that much, seeing as how nowadays when there is a player character involved the choice of gender is put right in front of you

just hope there aren't any jiggle physics

because link is supposed to be a representation of the player like how Robin is.

besides there only like 3 faces for link (not counting Toon Link)

sad, angry, shocked

Edited June 12, 2015 by Captain Karnage

[Sentacotus]

Here's another proposition. Why not make the "female Link" be his sister in a game that you play as? That way you can give her her own personality and character from the get go but still make her similar to Link in appearence.

[Captain Karnage]

Here's another proposition. Why not make the "female Link" be his sister in a game that you play as? That way you can give her her own personality and character from the get go but still make her similar to Link in appearence.

because link is supposed to be a "link" between the player and the game

then they'd have to give the Link actual dialog, and that could hurt the pacing, and she could be another Navi

as long as the choice is there from the beginning and it doesn't have a bearing on the plot I'm fine

[Sentacotus]

because link is supposed to be a "link" between the player and the game

then they'd have to give the Link actual dialog, and that could hurt the pacing, and she could be another Navi

as long as the choice is there from the beginning and it doesn't have a bearing on the plot I'm fine

That's why I'm saying just make her the protaginist of the game while giving her her own character from the get go. You would still have Link as we all know and love but you would also have a "female Link" with her own character and personality rather than just being a projection or another avatar. And while I think the original intent of Link was to link the player to the game he's grown into such an icon now that even as a silent protaginist people know who he is and he's even had various characterizations of personality throughout the games. Windwaker and Skyward Sword are the first to come to mind.

[Kon]

Here's another proposition. Why not make the "female Link" be his sister in a game that you play as? That way you can give her her own personality and character from the get go but still make her similar to Link in appearence.

Because I want to be the hero, dammit, not his crummy sister.

[Sentacotus]

Because I want to be the hero, dammit, not his crummy sister.

So just make that character the protaginist hero of the game.

[Kon]

Kind of missing the point there

Link is meant to be the player avatar, the link between the player and the game and all that jazz. If I'm forced to play as his sister or something like that just to be able to immerse myself further into the game, that just tells me that I'm not allowed to be the hero because I'm a girl. How is that fair?

And as a side note, the notion of Link having so much characterization that he is his own character is ridiculous, considering he has far less characterization than Robin, who's supposed to literally be you. :V

Edited June 12, 2015 by Kon

[Tsunami922]

Instead of Link, why not make Zelda the main character? The series is called "The Legend of ZELDA". I want to play as Zelda!

[Sentacotus]

Kind of missing the point there

Link is meant to be the player avatar, the link between the player and the game and all that jazz. If I'm forced to play as his sister or something like that just to be able to immerse myself further into the game, that just tells me that I'm not allowed to be the hero because I'm a girl. How is that fair?

And as a side note, the notion of Link having so much characterization that he is his own character is ridiculous, considering he has far less characterization than Robin, who's supposed to literally be you. :V

That's not what I'm saying at all. I'm just saying create another character who is a hero as well in their own right with their own character and everything. Look I'm sorry if you took that the wrong way in no way was I trying to say that just because you are a female that you can't be the hero or play the part of the hero. All I was suggesting was a potential solution to prevent the characters from becoming just simple projections and bland as while keeping them staple parts of Nintendo. Rather than just taking the easy way out and say lets just make Link a female which just seems kinda forced in some ways.

Bottom Line of what I'm saying: Instead of half assing it in an attempt to appease why not just make a full game with an entirely new character that you can add to Nintendo's already strong lineup of characters?

And Robin is kinda different from the aspect that he has zero background or anything aside from the appearence you create for him he is a blank slate in one game. Link usually starts the games out as a farmer or having a family or something to go off on and at this point he has been featured as a male that that has just become part of who he is recognized as. I'm not saying its right or entirely equal just the way it is.

And Tsunami I wouldn't actually mind a GOOD game with Zelda as the protaginist even if for just part of the game.

Edited June 12, 2015 by LordTaco42

[Captain Karnage]

Instead of Link, why not make Zelda the main character? The series is called "The Legend of ZELDA". I want to play as Zelda!

That would make Miyamoto's head explode

anyways isn't she the only reoccurring character that actually gets some development

[Kon]

Just because Link has been a male up for all of his appearances so far does not mean he can only be a male for now and ever. Just like having exclusively white protagonists in Pokémon until X and Y came out.

Robin has a very distinct written personality in his game, so despite being meant to be a blank slate they are anything but.

Link on the other hand is actually a blank slate. He was literally made to be an avatar for players to project themselves onto, as stated by Shigeru Miyamoto himself. The only "personality" he has is that he is supposedly nice and likes to help others, and none of that necessitates him being a male. A female Link would be just as nice and helpful as her male counterpart, and literally nothing about her relationships would change either, except in the case of like Zelda or something.

[Sentacotus]

I don't know Robin seemed to be a very Mary Sue almighty selfless type character that just said the right thing everytime to me. Granted I wish I had half his pickup lines. But to each their own.

Either way like I stated as long as they make a quality Zelda game thats all that matters in the end I just think there are better ways to do it. Because if Nintendo takes their strongest asset (their IPs and characters) and decides to just make them all avatars and blank slates then they have nothing to really distinguish them or make them unique. Their games become choose your flavor of avatar and I could see it becoming very abused and overused. Maybe I'm overthinking it or trying to be too creative for my own good but those are just potential long term problems I see with this.

On that note why not expand on some of the already existing female characters like Impa, Shiek, or Midna (who was a lead character). Whatever happened to them? Why do they have to become useless to the story or not be used? Kinda like how Dragonball Z made every one whos not Goku not matter towards the end.

Edited June 12, 2015 by LordTaco42

[Kon]

That's still far more characterization than what Link has ever had. There's also the fact that, y'know, Link doesn't even speak.

All of the Pokémon protagonists are still fairly unique despite never having any characterization in any of their games aside from Wes (Colosseum protag). And there's a lot of them.

There's nothing wrong with Nintendo having a lot of games with avatars in them. Some of their most successful series have them (Pokémon, Animal Crossing, LoZ. etc) and no one has ever complained about there being too many avatars, so your making mountains out of molehills here ~o3o~

[Sentacotus]

That's still far more characterization than what Link has ever had. There's also the fact that, y'know, Link doesn't even speak.

All of the Pokémon protagonists are still fairly unique despite never having any characterization in any of their games aside from Wes (Colosseum protag). And there's a lot of them.

There's nothing wrong with Nintendo having a lot of games with avatars in them. Some of their most successful series have them (Pokémon, Animal Crossing, LoZ. etc) and no one has ever complained about there being too many avatars, so your making mountains out of molehills here ~o3o~

The advantage a game like pokemon has though is that its recognizable through its pokemon as the characters and less so the trainers. As far as I'm concerned the pokemon trainers unless you count Ash from the TV show are either a guy or girl with no name wearing the same kind of clothing and looking relatively the same generation to generation. Animal Crossing is more or less Nintendo's version of the Sims where the character has never had any slate or anything to go off on or been associated with anything and the "people" in the game are just refered to as generic Villagers.

Then there is the Zelda question which we have beat to death in this thread. It would be like instead of having Link and Zelda be the recognizable characters that help make the series what it is you would simply have generic avatar hero number 907 and princess. There would be little to associate LoZ with in terms of characters alot of which is due to the fact that Link from the begining of the series has been characterized as a dude and despite little being done to expand on that outside of a few instances thats how people have come to associate LoZ with for better or worse.

Edited June 12, 2015 by LordTaco42

[Kon]

Imagine this

Link

But with boobs

That's literally all a female Link would be

There's no need to drastically change Link's appearance to make him a girl, and it wouldn't somehow make Loz the most generic shit ever. Seriously you act as if making Link a girl as an option is the worst thing ever that would ruin the series when all it does is finally give players more of a choice of what gender they want to play as.

[Sentacotus]

Imagine this

Link

But with boobs

That's literally all a female Link would be

There's no need to drastically change Link's appearance to make him a girl, and it wouldn't somehow make Loz the most generic shit ever. Seriously you act as if making Link a girl as an option is the worst thing ever that would ruin the series when all it does is finally give players more of a choice of what gender they want to play as.

Again I'm sorry if you're taking this all the wrong way I'm just trying to have a thoughtful disscussion and raise some points to think about. Like I've stated numerous times now regardless of what would happen the quality of the game is what matters. Do I think they could do it in better ways and that there are issues that would need to be addressed before diving headlong into it. Yes. Does that mean I'm entirely opposed to the option and that I'm a woman hater. No. Quite the contrary I think it would be great if Nintendo had more female leads it would be something new and fresh and allow them to further develop their IPs. I just think there are some things to consider and have been playing devils advocate in this disscussion.

I'm just trying to have a civil disscussion about it and have enjoyed doing so as its forced me to think about things I might not have otherwise but if I have offended you or anyone in doing so I apologize that was not my intent.

[Kon]

There was no need to play devil's advocate though? And even if there were it would have helped your point if you actually pointed out that that was your intention in the first place, methinks.

I don't think I've been uncivil in this discussion, though if I came off that way I apologize since it wasn't my intention. Although I'm pretty sure I never insinuated that you were a misogynist or anything like that.

While I agree that having more female leads is always a good thing, it's not something I'm specifically looking for in LoZ. I'm meant to be the hero, and by extension Link, and making Link a girl so I can better immerse myself in the game does not eliminate what little character Link has, it only gives the player one more option beyond a name.

You haven't offended me or anything of the sort, though I admit that I don't enjoy debating, especially not with a devil's advocate. I personally find debating to be a tiring and irritating task that I really don't care for, though often I'm too stubborn to leave even when I would much rather be doing something else. Not that it's anyone's fault, of course.

[Sentacotus]

Then perhaps we should just leave it at that. I don't think you were being uncivil in any manner although with the Internet being what it is and people being able to interpret written text in a multitude of different ways I just felt the need to clarify some things so people coming across this topic would not misunderstand or overblow what I was trying to say or risk getting the thread locked. And I agree I probably should have mentioned beforehand that I was arguing from that perspective sooner rather than later. Lesson learned.

Edited June 12, 2015 by LordTaco42

[deleted35362]

I'd like it. I'd rather play as Zelda, though.

this reminds me....what if they had zelda save link like one of the zelda CD-I games? <w<

it seems silly to follow a cd-i game's example but it might be better received probably. though, if it was like half the game's story people might hate the zelda parts and complain about it, and if they take place at the same time or something like parallel story, people would probably argue about canon(like FE). i'm not a game designer =v

[DeadGame]

That's like making Paper Mario female. It wouldn't make sense.

As much as there can't be a male Zelda, there can't be a female Link, they're both reincarnations of the first Hero and Zelda and gender-tied.

And don't come at me with Link being "linked to the player" and an "avatar" or something, Link is an established character, eventhough he doesn't have an influence on the story in dialogues.

Merely how you interprete his character is up to the player, which is why he's mute in all games.

If anything, they should do it like the Witcher 3 did with Ciri, creating an entirely new character like for example Link's sister, which could lead to some interesting co-op gameplay.

But you can't change the rules for the sake of calming some SJWs or something.

[Florete]

As much as there can't be a male Zelda, there can't be a female Link, they're both reincarnations of the first Hero and Zelda and gender-tied.

How is that gender-tied? Plenty of stories with similar reincarnation ideas use different genders from time to time, such as the Avatar series, as someone brought up earlier. Nothing about the idea necessitates the gender staying the same from one reincarnation to the next.

And don't come at me with Link being "linked to the player" and an "avatar" or something, Link is an established character, eventhough he doesn't have an influence on the story in dialogues.

This doesn't matter because every Link is a different person. You know, the reincarnation thing.

[Refa]

Sure, why not?

[Shrouded In Myth]

Link is so androgynous Nintendo can make a female Link in the next game and no one would notice until a female pronoun is used.

[Irony]

What you could do is:

1) At the beginning of the game, choose between a male protagonist (who looks like Link) and a female protagonist (who looks like a blonde Zelda) Both characters have shared and unique abilities (e.g. Both can use swords, but the Link-protagonist can also use crossbows, as he comes from an area of Hyrule that is renowned for marking crossbows, whereas Zelda-protagonist can use magic, as she was educated in magic from when she was little.). The puzzles in the game will accomindate both protagonist's playstyles, but there will be some unique items and bosses depending on which protagonist you chose.

2) The one you pick will be a silent protagonist, with little to no personality- so that you can immerse yourself into the role. There could also be choices that the player can make throughout the game (e.g. Do you want to go on the left bridge or the right bridge? I lack imagination here...) and those choices will affect some of the plot and some of the side quests that are available.

3) The protagonist you don't pick will play an important role in the story, and will have a fleshed out personality. Zelda might be a calm, determined and book smart woman who plans everything well in advanced and is a serious BAMF. Meanwhile, Link could be hot-headed, street smart and determined who improvises his plans, but is also a BAMF. :)