Zelda game with playable female?

[Truffles]

Hi, everyone! I'm just thinking... What if – at the beginning of a future Zelda game – we were given the choice of playing as a male or female Link? Not abolishing the male Link; just providing a female option.

Would this be at all detrimental?

I ask this because I'm sure that a female Link would be the choice of those female players who want to step a little more snugly into the shoes of their protagonist; and perhaps this Link could even be another positive role model for younger girls. Also, some male players may enjoy the opportunity to step into shoes even more unlike their own, adding another layer to the fantasy.

I'm interested to hear opinions and ideas; but maybe we could conduct a little poll, as well. Just for fun.

 

[snakeoiltanker]

I wodnt mind the option but not as an only oprion

 

[DARK MASTER]

I assume you mean as the main playable character? We've already gotten this experience "in the form of" BS Zelda and Zelda Wand of Gamelon. Though it would be nice to see it in a canon game.

 

[Emma]

I've said it before, It'd prefer something like how Final Fantasy XIII-2 did things. Say what you want about how good or bad that game is. That is neither here nor there. The point is how it handled the player characters explicitly and nothing else. The way they did it was you started with one character, a female and shortly into the prologue a male character joined your party. And for the rest of the game it was just the two of them, and you could switch which one you control at any time. The one you don't control is taken over by the AI and will fight by your side throughout the game. That's how I want Zelda to do a female option. With you starting out with Link as usual, then a female coming along, perhaps Zelda but it can be any female character, and then they follow you as a companion, that you can switch active, permaent control to at any time for the rest of the game. That would be ideal.

Fallout 4 is partially doing this by having the male and female options for the protagonists being seperate and distinct characters that you can independently customize and choose who you control. In Fallout 4's case, the choice is permanent. though if it follows tradition you'll be given one single chance to change your mind once you leave the prologue area. so far it looks like the character you didn't choose will not be present in the rest of the game after the prologue, so no companion situation like I described above. But who knows? Maybe Bethesda will surprise us and have the other character be a mid to late game companion.

Anyway, I suppose it wouldn't be the end of the world if a new Zelda did it Fallout 4's way. But I prefer FF XIII-2's way. I think that's much more reasonable than a "female Link" or completely replacing Link as the protagonist. Link is a signature part of Zelda, it's not Zelda without Link being a main protagonist. So I think the only viable option is to make him no longer the ONLY main progatonist, with a female companion that you can switch to. It would be very interesting and I don't think anyone can safely argue it is unreasonable. People who just want a male player character can simply use the female one as an AI companion and those that want a Female player character can have it without either side feeling excluded or ignored while also respecting the tradition of the series well enough while also reasonably evolving it in a sensible way.

 

[Moonstone]

I would love a female incarnation of Link. I think anyone who digs their heels in and say it wouldn't be a Zelda game without a male protagonist, I have to ask, why does Link's sex matter? Every Link has been a different Link with a few exceptions, why would a female be so controversial? If the game otherwise has the same feel of a Zelda game, with the puzzles and the exploration and saving of the world, I think Link's sex should be irrelevant.

 

[Polychrome]

If it were entirely Nintendo's idea and something they came up with, I could live with it. The problem with a female Link right now is it carries far too much SJW baggage, and Nintendo appears to be heavily aware of it, making it far less likely. As others have said, there's already a huge library of good female characters for Nintendo to choose from should they ever spin LoZ off to a female main character.

Link is not me, and I don't want him to be. He is not an avatar, but a role I assume while playing, like a character in a play. It's an escape from reality, in which exploring the character of who Link is this time around is as much an adventure as looking around nooks and crannies for hidden stuff. I can get "in character" to be someone I am not for a little bit, but when the console is turned off, I go back to normal life. If anything, having Link a different gender makes it easier to distance myself from the person I am not, and makes it easier to get "in character".

I already have games where I can play as myself. I don't play LoZ for that. MMOs and such allow me to be myself in a different world or setting. I play those games for different reasons than LoZ. Are they an escape? Sure. But a different kind.

I've said it before and I'll keep repeating it. If you really want a female Link, go play Kameo.

 

[Truffles]

Just in reply to Matt, that's a really interesting idea! I hadn't considered "the companion situation" before. I think it's compelling.

If Nintendo were to try it, I think they should separate the companions when they go into dungeons, though. Because having the two buds together all the time would probably dilute that isolated, Tomb Raider-y atmosphere that dungeons affect. And actually they did kinda try that for one of the dungeons in Wind Waker, didn't they! In the Wind Temple, right? Where Link and the little Korok got split-up and reunited.

But maybe sometimes the companion can just wait outside to look after the horses. ^^

[This was a bit of a side-track, I suppose. But such a thought-provoking idea! I might even go and pop in my (long-neglected) copy of ffxiii-2...]

 

[DJ Twitch]

I think Nintendo is trying to gradually warm up to this idea. It would be a fun thing to experiment with, seeing as it shouldn't have any bearing on how good a game is. We all know people are going to throw a tantrum "cuz its not Zelda" or something like that, but the question is what are people going to think after a year since release, once the shock has worn off.

Since the internet is known to blow things way out of proportion, it is possible that this could go catastrophically wrong. So it's best we see this on an inconsequential spinoff game first.

 

[Dio]

No it should not have a female Link. If there is going to be a playable female character it should be someone who is part of the story as well as Link who is a male. This way no matter who you choose to play as the game is completely canon, with both characters actually existing and playing their parts in the story.

 

[Truffles]

No it should not have a female Link. If there is going to be a playable female character it should be someone who is part of the story as well as Link who is a male. This way no matter who you choose to play as the game is completely canon, with both characters actually existing and playing their parts in the story.

Hey, just wondering, what do you mean by "canon"?

 

[Dio]

Hey, just wondering, what do you mean by "canon"?

By the official timelines and by events taking place across the series which are accepted by the creators of Zelda to have actually happened, for instance. In the Wind Waker there is a big statue of Link: the hero of time, inside Hyrule Castle which blocks the secret entrance. That statue is male because Link is male in OOT. If there had been the option of playing as a female link in OOT as well as the male link then things like that would cease to make sense because those who played OOT as a female would have been confused as to why the hero of time statue is male.

Hyrule Warriors is an example of a non canon title. The events in that game have no effect on the main series or any of the timelines. Had players had the option to play as a boy version of Link or a girl version of Link in that it would make no impact on the true events of the series.

If there is a female link then there should only be an option of a female link because having both options messes things up. Link has been a male since the series's inception. It's like making Lara croft a man or James Bond a woman. However I understand girls might want to play as girls so I would suggest if there is going to be an option of choosing a female that she is not Link but a new female heroine character that is part of the game alongside Link whether you choose to control her or not. That way if any future title wants to go into hyrules history it can speak of Link and this female character rather than depicting a version of link that half the players did not choose to play as.

 

[Truffles]

Ah. The old statue and stained glass dilemma, eh? Makes sense!

And now I see about canon. Thanks!

Just to play devil's advocate, let's look at the flip side. I guess there are many people who don't place any importance on timelines in the world of Zelda. It does seem to be a concept that was shoe-horned in, like twenty years after the first game. Another thing is, as long as the statues and stained glass depicted a "hero of time" in green clothing and cap, the sex wouldn't matter, would it? Players would know who it was and understand that a present day female Link could have easily been born a male in past ages. I mean, if Nintendo got concerned (while making a follow-up to this hypothetical boy-or-girl Link game), they could pretty much just continue to illustrate one set of historical artwork – keeping Link's appearance just as androgenous as it's ever been – and make sure not to refer to the previous, historical Link as a boy or girl; the in-game historians only talking about a young hero. But they'd be free to say that Link was a boy at the time of Ocarina, etc, because those games have already been made, and he clearly was.

Maybe that could work? But I'm just coming up with ideas, here. It's kinda fun.

 

[AncientPoe]

Or you could also make something to detect previous save files, but in order for that to work you'd have to have more than one Zelda game on the console (which they can't always seem to manage). That certainly isn't going to happen with the Wii U.

 

[ZeldafreakCJM]

Only if it's not Link, I don't want the option and I don't want a female incarnation, you don't just change an iconic character after thirty years because of typical sjw nonsense.

 

[Farore's Chosen]

No female Link. That's just a big no-no. I want to step into a riveting spin off of Zelda being a kick ass Sheikah! Or even just a kick ass playable Zelda. But why are some people so obnoxiously hell bent on changing an iconic character under a false sense of progression? Especially when there is Zelda, Impa and others? Batman and Batgirl are there own separate characters. Mario and Peach are there own separate characters. Why can't it be Link and Zelda or Link and Sheik ? Why does it hafta be Link and Linka? That's lazy, dumb and a slap to the face.