A Female Protagonist Was Considered for Breath of the Wild, Possible in the Future

Whelp, I supposed it was inevitable as new interviews begin to surface in regards to Breath of the Wild that Eiji Aonuma would be asked about a female protagonist, especially since most of the conversation around everything to do with the concept, from a female Link, a new leading female character, Zelda being the main character, or even Link being gender neutral all stemmed from Eiji Aonuma’s own side remarks on the matter back in 2014.

As it turns out, they did consider a female protagonist for Breath of the Wild. While they didn’t go in that direction, he did say it is possible they could in the future, though he didn’t clarify if that meant in a main line Zelda title or a side game. Either way, here is what Eiji Aonuma had to say on the matter in an interview with Eurogamer:

“Zelda fans continue to show interest in having Zelda as a playable character, and I wonder if that was something that was considered for Breath of the Wild?

Aonuma: I seem to remember three years ago when we showed the first trailer at E3, I said something along the lines of “I never said that Link would necessarily be male” or something along those lines, and that got taken out of context and turned into a rumour that took on a life of its own. Link has always been portrayed as a male character as the protagonist of the games.

After that happened actually, we did discuss in the team about whether or not we should have a female protagonist. I spoke to Mr Miyamoto about it and the whole team talked about it, but in the end, it just didn’t happen.

On Wii U of course there’s already Hyrule Warriors where Princess Zelda is a playable character, and there’s actually quite an assortment of characters including several female ones. And that title is already available of course. So looking to the future, talking about the possibility of having a playable female protagonist, I’d say yes, it’s a possibility.”

There you have it. For those still hoping for a playable female protagonist in a Zelda game, all hope in a future installment is not loss. For those that want this to never happen… well, Eiji Aonuma just won’t put the idea to rest.

Source: Eurogamer